Can somebody rate my composition/give feedback? (Rescore of chase scene from Ratatouille)

[Jofi_ 44]

 

I decided to rescore a random scene from a random movie; a lot of the music I study/listen to is John Williams, so this piece is obviously influenced by him.

 

feedback would be greatly appreciated! - my first attempt writing an action cue.

[karelm 3,013]

That was quite good and shows some nice technique.  Does the scene not have dialog?  I get you might have had to mute the existing sound with score but be cautious about overwriting and covering up dialog.  You are basically scoring the action very heavily and I'd suggest also adding more emphasis on the emotions of the characters.  For example, at 0:34, you are scoring the running but what does Ratatouille feel?  Is he scared for his life? Desperate to escape and get whatever's in his mouth to someone else?  I'd suggest you playing more to the emotion of the scene without sacrificing the action.  You can certainly keep the intensity and action elements, but it isn't really helping tell the story which the music needs to do.  I don't know exactly what's happening, but you score it as a chase and that's what I see but is that what's actually happening?   Without capturing the story, it feels like there are some missed moments and tension risers as the chase proceeds.  At around 1:07, the villain seems closest to capturing Ratatouille, shouldn't this be the moment of maximum tension in the cue?  Generally, be cautious about following the action/events of the scene too closely at the cost of the story/emotion elements.  I don't really get a sense of fear, relief, anger, hope, etc.  Just running/chasing.  With all that said, you did a very fine job, good themes, and an exciting cue.  

[JWScores 36]

On 15/08/2024 at 6:34 PM, Jofi_ said:

 

I decided to rescore a random scene from a random movie; a lot of the music I study/listen to is John Williams, so this piece is obviously influenced by him.

 

feedback would be greatly appreciated! - my first attempt writing an action cue.

 

Nice work! As a piece of music, the cue is very well written and orchestrated, and it's exciting. I would suggest to try and be more effective in emphasising in the right way certain key moments of the scene. For example: around 0:06, you start a very rhythmic section with percussion and (I think) a measured tremolo on xylophone, but the villain is still looking around. When we see Ratatouille about 3 seconds later, you emphasise the moment by introducing a fast motion in the strings, but that's a "weaker" musical element than the rhythmic one that started few seconds earlier. In my opinion, the moment when the chase starts (i.e., the sync point that should be more emphasised) is when the villain sees Ratatouille, not when he starts looking around. There are also a few other moments like this one in the whole scene, where I feel that the musical emphasis arrives a few moments too early or too late. But as I said - it's a very nice work. You're certainly very talented. 

[Jofi_ 44]

1 hour ago, karelm said:

Does the scene not have dialog?  I get you might have had to mute the existing sound with score but be cautious about overwriting and covering up dialog.  

It's generally an action scene, so no, it doesn't have any dialogue. All the audio is there (except for the original music), just turned down so the music stands out more.

1 hour ago, karelm said:

I'd suggest also adding more emphasis on the emotions of the characters.  For example, at 0:34, you are scoring the running but what does Ratatouille feel?  Is he scared for his life? Desperate to escape and get whatever's in his mouth to someone else?  I'd suggest you playing more to the emotion of the scene without sacrificing the action.  You can certainly keep the intensity and action elements, but it isn't really helping tell the story which the music needs to do.  I don't know exactly what's happening, but you score it as a chase and that's what I see but is that what's actually happening?   Without capturing the story, it feels like there are some missed moments and tension risers as the chase proceeds.  At around 1:07, the villain seems closest to capturing Ratatouille, shouldn't this be the moment of maximum tension in the cue?  Generally, be cautious about following the action/events of the scene too closely at the cost of the story/emotion elements.  I don't really get a sense of fear, relief, anger, hope, etc.  Just running/chasing.  With all that said, you did a very fine job, good themes, and an exciting cue.  

 I definitely wasn't thinking much about the story as a whole - just really practicing scoring for a general action scene - but you're right; most types of scenes will always have their points that relate to the story that the music should reflect. Thank you for the great feedback!

1 hour ago, JWScores said:

 

Nice work! As a piece of music, the cue is very well written and orchestrated, and it's exciting. I would suggest to try and be more effective in emphasising in the right way certain key moments of the scene. For example: around 0:06, you start a very rhythmic section with percussion and (I think) a measured tremolo on xylophone, but the villain is still looking around. When we see Ratatouille about 3 seconds later, you emphasise the moment by introducing a fast motion in the strings, but that's a "weaker" musical element than the rhythmic one that started few seconds earlier. In my opinion, the moment when the chase starts (i.e., the sync point that should be more emphasised) is when the villain sees Ratatouille, not when he starts looking around. There are also a few other moments like this one in the whole scene, where I feel that the musical emphasis arrives a few moments too early or too late. 

Yes, that does seem to be the general consensus that more key moments need to be emphasized; which is really good feedback - something I didn't really think about too much.

 

1 hour ago, JWScores said:

 

But as I said - it's a very nice work. You're certainly very talented. 

Thank you - that means a lot

[Luke Skywalker 1,932]

That was fun.

 

for the record, giacchinos cue is named “the paper chase”… a nod to williams scored film maybe?