Say it With a Score: Score Competition Presentation and Award Ceremony

Scoring for film is all about imagery – it not only helps to create the ambience of the film and its plot, but also to elicit the emotions of the characters. The transformative power of a score when combined with images is quite amazing. It guides emotions and can signal a change in theme or mood, a quality in a particular character or lend landscapes a certain character-like quality. As Francis Ford Coppola stated, “Music is a big factor in helping the illusion of the film come to life.” And it is most effective when it works subtly, evoking and tuning the emotional response of the audience without them being aware of it. This is the craft of the sound composer – complementing dialogues, lighting, set-design and the montage of the film with music. Three emerging composers and finalists of the Campus Score Competition have spent the past week working on their scores under the guidance of Michael Nyman. The three composers join him on stage to discuss the process of creating original music and weaving it seamlessly to moving images. At the end of the session, the winner will be presented the Score Competition Award 2011: a unique tour of the best sound studios in Los Angeles, sponsored by Dolby Laboratories.