Hero - Short Film Score - Walkthrough Pt.9 - M2 (Part 3)

Welcome to the next part of this composition walkthrough. The previous parts of this series are available here.

In this part we will cover the second half of the Cue M2 Let's Roll.

As usual, we will work with score reductions, the full score, Midi and Audio File of the entire score are attached at the bottom of the post.

Here's the sequence without music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aVLZMtSRw&t=211

The spotting notes that I had for the sequence we're looking at today.

• 03:47:15 – danger serious
• 03:58:00 - release tension
• 04:01:21 – adventure
• 04:09:20 – music lay low
• 04:14:09 – hit quick, no music

Here's the audio of that section:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m2-bar-17-end/s-sEr5BdlfFAY

And the same passage as Piano Playback of the reductions used below:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/hero-m2-bar17-end-piano/s-yraxwbT4UcW

Bar 17-27

These bars underscore the moment when the seemingly easy theft of the golf carts becomes dangerous. The boys discover that the car keys are not where they should be and the owner finds out and comes chasing after them. In the discussion with the filmmakers we agreed that this section should feel like real danger so the music takes a turn from the more playful quality from before to a more threatening quality.

We are coming from a more or less Gm tonality before and I decided to have this "danger moment" sit on a field of the dominant. We eventually resolve with the boys getting away before being caught, but I wanted to use that dominant tension as a vehicle to build the tension. These entire 10 bars are essentially an extended field of a D7 chord.

Essentially, what I'm using here is the fifth mode of harmonic minor on D:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/d-hm5/s-A2zepW4bxYr

If you have been following me here for a while, you should know how often I mention the scale-chord-relationship that I very often use as a driving source for my music and this is no exception. In spite of the chords that seem to change quite a bit on a microscopic level (for instance bar 22 seems to be a Gm/B) in the big picture of how we perceive that section, it doesn't really change harmonically as all these chords are more or less just different hues of the same scale of DHM5. In fact the entire section (apart from the run at the end) only uses the scale material of DHM5. The string ostinato mainly hovering over d of course helps to not lose that tonal relation of remaining on the dominant.

I use a few different devices to increase the tension over the course of that passage with the more obvious ones being a "written out crescendo" with more instruments joining plus moving up into higher octaves. Similarly if not even more effective is the change of rhythmical subdivision from a 6/8 to a 3/4 in bar 21 which subjectively speeds up by 50% without actually changing the tempo.

With the switch to bar 17 I establish a few colours that are a bit more "biting" such as stopped horns and muted trumpets to support the change of emotion happening there.

In bar 21, a descending bass line starts in the rather mid/high register of the Tuba/Contrabasses and moves its way downwards in major thirds which at least to me feels like an increase in tension. Bar 24 has the trumpets coming in adding more to the urgency of that section.

Bar 28-38

This passage is the resolution of the tension followed by the brief section of the boys enjoying their successful theft of the carts. We agreed that this should feel very victorious for them and have a considerable amount of adventure feeling, so I went for a rather straight forward adventure fanfare.

The resolution in bar 28 was supposed to feel really triumphant so we switch from the rather dark DHM5 scale from before to G lydian which has more or less the maximum brightness. The run from the bar before already foreshadows the switch to G lydian.

It was important for me to pick up some subjective speed here without really feeling much like an actual tempo switch. So what's happening here is that I take that earlier mentioned 150% subjective increase of tempo from the 6/8 to the 3/4 switch as an actual tempo switch. The tempo marking of 165bpm is almost 150% of the tempo that we started out here (dotted quarter = 118). With the switch to 3/4 we effectively changed the pulse to 177bpm. So we are a little under tempo in 28 (which was neccessary to accomodate for the hit points). In 29, I establish triplet eights which become the new eigths in the 6/8 from 31 onwards. So this was more or less the smoothest way I could come up with to manuever me into a quicker tempo without creating a noticeble break of the musical flow.

In bar 28, I leave out the bass register to save its musical impact for the actual theme in 31 which also creates a nice contrast to the preceding section. The "victory fanfare" in 28 is played by trumpets and trombones with the horns joining in with a lydian answer in 29.

Bar 31 brings us to the adventure fanfare which underscores the quick images of the boys driving around town in the golf carts. It's basically a G lydian melody which changes to C lydian in bar 35. I consciously used very prominent major7/major9th chords in 35/36 as this chord quality on the subdominant for me has this very distinct 80s/90s adventure film theme quality that we were aiming for here.

In retrospective, I would change the accompaniment pattern in the low brass/strings in 31 onwards and switch it around, having the triplets in the second half of the bar which would give it a better flow. With the concentration of rhythmical events on the downbeat I feel it turned out a bit too downbeat heavy.

The high strings and woodwinds play a chordal ostinato figure that adjusts to the underlaying harmony.

Bar 39-49

The coda of the piece moves us gradually back to a minor tonality over two fields of bitonality. Bar 39/40 alter between G and Eb and 41-44 between Gm and Ebm. So I try to gradually move the tone back to a darker quality to transition us nicely into the next cue and race sequence which starts just a few seconds after this cue ends.

Bars 39/40 are basically an alternating descending chord arpeggio which serves to "step on the brake" after the high energy passage without switching too abruptly. The decrease in rhythmical energy also happens in bar 40 by changing back to duplets and gradually losing the amount of rhythmical attacks each bar. Bar 41 already needed to foreshadow the more tensful atmosphere of the coming race so the switch to Gm (alternating with Ebm) plus again the more biting tone of stopped Horns felt appropriate here. However, I didn't want to lose the childish playfulness completely which is the reason for using a few "fun" woodwind "stabs" to not make it too dark too quickly.