This is one of the projects I completed in my Film Scoring directed study. We were taught the basics of film scoring, and given scenes like this to compose on top of, with no reference to the original film or audio.
Project Timeline: 2 weeks
Project Timeline: 2 weeks
For this piece, I was inspired by the name of it. The name of the file I received was "Ding", which is also the end of the URL at the end of the commercial. Using this as a starting point, I made sure that everything in the piece was made up of short notes with space in between them.
I chose to make all of the instrumentation in the beginning of the piece classical to make the problems the customers are facing feel old. The commercial is advertising a new, touchless technology, so I wanted the novelty of the technology to contrast with the problems of the old way in the instrumentation. As each problem with the old payment methods are shown, a new piece of a string quartet was added in. Once the tap to pay was shown on the screen, the bass line moved from a cello into a modern electric bass, and the rest of the accompaniment was taken over with a modern electric keyboard.
With each of the lines for the classical strings, I wanted to add chaos. I wanted a feeling of stress to take over the beginning part of the ad, with relief coming at the end after the tap to pay feature was used. With each problem being shown, a new and heavily rhythmic line was introduced, layered on top of everything else that was present in the piece. The crescendo adds to this stressed and overwhelmed feeling, as everything is being pushed forward. By the time the crescendo is present, there are no rests in the overall score and no chance for the audience to breathe.
Once the tap to pay feature was used, the bassline was brought back as it was the most open musical line present in the piece. It gives the audience room to breathe, and the electric keyboard is introduced to finish the piece.
I chose to make all of the instrumentation in the beginning of the piece classical to make the problems the customers are facing feel old. The commercial is advertising a new, touchless technology, so I wanted the novelty of the technology to contrast with the problems of the old way in the instrumentation. As each problem with the old payment methods are shown, a new piece of a string quartet was added in. Once the tap to pay was shown on the screen, the bass line moved from a cello into a modern electric bass, and the rest of the accompaniment was taken over with a modern electric keyboard.
With each of the lines for the classical strings, I wanted to add chaos. I wanted a feeling of stress to take over the beginning part of the ad, with relief coming at the end after the tap to pay feature was used. With each problem being shown, a new and heavily rhythmic line was introduced, layered on top of everything else that was present in the piece. The crescendo adds to this stressed and overwhelmed feeling, as everything is being pushed forward. By the time the crescendo is present, there are no rests in the overall score and no chance for the audience to breathe.
Once the tap to pay feature was used, the bassline was brought back as it was the most open musical line present in the piece. It gives the audience room to breathe, and the electric keyboard is introduced to finish the piece.