Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.14 - M5 (Part 1)

In this part of this ongoing series about my score for the short film Hero from 2017, we have a look at the fifth cue.

All the other parts of this walkthrough series are available here.

As always, we work with score reductions here. I left out instruments that were not relevant to understand the musical intention, like for instancein this case the harp.

The entire score sheet, Midi File and orchestra recording is available for download at the bottom of the post.

The sequence in the movie that we're focusing on today starts at around 8:13 

The first few seconds of the cue got cut during the final edit and were replaced with the sound effect ramp, which in retrospective was the right decision as the soft entrance into the cue didn't have the impact that the sound effect has.

Here are the spotting notes that I had for this sequence:

• 08:11:14 – brother theme sad buildup
• 08:15:13 – brother theme sad moderate size
• 08:25:05 – die down but don't stop
• 08:30:19 – serious more aggravated sounding
• 08:40:10 - angry out
• little lighter from there
• 08:50:21 little remorse

The audio for the sequence from today is available here: 

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m5-b1-25/s-hzkwZiefPAv

And the playback of the piano reduction here:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m5-b1-25-piano-reduction/s-hDjh4pB9tlk

So it was relatively clear what was needed for this scene. However, I remember that it took a while to find the right tone for that sequence. All the other cues were relatively large, full sized cues with lots of sparkling orchestrational devices or sheer size through volume while this one needed to be more on the serious side as the conflict between the brothers escalates to the point where the younger brother is being sent home.

As I've mentioned in earlier parts of this series, I try to establish the main theme of this movie as the theme that depicts the relationship between the brothers, so it was very appropriate to use that theme here when it is at its low point. A minor version of the theme opens the cue and underscores the disappointment of the younger brother.

Harmonically, this entire sections revolves around the two chords of Gm and Eb in several different hues. Even the first chords of Dsus4 could also be seen as Gsus2. I wanted to not use clear "sad minor" chord qualities too much in this cue as I felt that the emotion here is a little more complex than just "sad". It's not just sadness, but also disappointment and anger that is happening between the two. So putting a relatively definitive emotional quality of minor into the music didn't feel completely appropriate.

The first two bars (that were cut in the final version) basically just provide a soft ramp into the cue. Bar 3 states the theme in a minor version. It is placed similar on the harmony as in the major version with opening at the ninth of the chord but gets intervallically altered a bit to fit the minor tonality (the original b in bar 4 becoming bb). Also, it is rhytmically displaced in the bar and has some rhythmical extensions on a few notes. 

With such transformations, I always feel that it is important to not push it too far into "look what I can do with it" as you might run into the danger of the audience not getting the connection with their attention mainly laying on the images. So I'd say that a change as "drastic" as this one is close to the maximum you can go if you still want the audience to get the reference.

I wanted to make chord arpeggios into a relatively prominent anchor in this cue as seen for example in bar 3 and 6. But I also wanted the harmony to be a bit ambivalent and changing in hues. In bar 4 it changes towads a Gsus2/4 with the notes of a and c becoming relatively prominent in the harmony.

In spite of the slow tempo of the cue, it was necessary to hit quite a few different dramatic changes in the music as seen in the list of musical notes. After the theme statement bar 8 and 9 sustain on a rather open G tonality where the other kids make fun of the younger brother.

Bar 10-14 underscore the sequence where he becomes more aggravated but ultimately decides to leave the scene. I tried to capture his emotion with the low sustaining G in the lower strings that becomes more and more "annoying" by a small descending 16th motif that gets back to it several times. The other device is a relatively polyphonic sequence of a raising 3 tone motif in the higher strings that that portray his conflicting emotion but also raising aggression. Harmonically, the pendulum between Gm and Eb remains intact during that sequence with the low G as pedal.

Bar 15 reaches the moment where he decides to go instead of giving in on his emotion. The music relaxes to a high open fifth in the strings and transitions to the next sequence starting in bar 16 which underscores the small dialogue between the kids, so it was appropriate to relax that moment a bit compared to the more dramatic first part of the cue. Also, the focus of the group shifts away from the younger brother with the older brother stepping in with a "leave him alone" so a shift in the music was needed here.

The oboes play a short melodic phrase in thirds that gets answered immediately in the bassoons over an Ebmaj7 chord. 

Bar 20 moves back to the initial idea of the cue with the chord arpeggios that we first heard dring the argument between the brothers as the older brother picks up the gun and seems to be feeling a sense of remorse for sending his brother home, so bringing that small musical idea back felt appropriate and also gave it some consequence. Again, the harmony is kept more open and changing in hue with high woodwinds+vibraphone introducing more chord qualities into the chord in each occurance (the 11 into the Gm and the 9 into the Eb). 

In bar 24, the antangonist kid challenges the older brother and pulls him out of his thoughts. I felt that it didn't need more than that one violin note that creates enough tension to the next part of this cue.

So you see, in spite of the cue being relatively small and slow, it had to cover a lot of emotional ground and change a lot in just these few bars. As I said at the beginning, I found it quite challenging to get this all into the cue without compromising the musical integrity.

In the next part, we will have a look at the dramatic buildupand the western stand-off that is happening in the next sequences.