A big congratulation to Christopher Myczkowski for winning second prize in the 2022 Berlin International Film Scoring Competition. For his fantastic winning peice, he wins Zero-G Elements - Modern Scoring Synth. Christopher talks to us about the process and inspirations which led him to his winning piece.
I will admit, this was a challenging task. I sat down with the video multiple times before I felt I understood what was happening, which is key to scoring to media (film, game, etc).
My writing process is probably fairly different from other composers’. Part of that is because of the short length of the video and the relative lack of time pressure. I jump in head first without a template and begin a sketch. I tend not to do a piano sketch as I want to hear the piece come to life as I’m writing it. I find there’s a snowball effect where I stumble upon an idea and that idea becomes the inspiration for another idea. I also typically start with chord progressions and add the melody afterward. This is because, for me, harmonic structure provides the core of the emotional content. My goal is to be able to sit back and listen to it and feel something. If I don’t feel anything emotionally, I don’t think my listeners will.
I wanted to give a mysterious feel to the opening and have it “floaty” since we were in outer space. I wanted the landing to be pretty dramatic and the descending chords mirror the robot’s descent. Then I echoed that motif with woodwinds with the goal of having a more mysterious tone again, but definitely less powerful. I knew the black box was pivotal. I wanted to capture the robot’s interest and curiosity about this mysterious item. I wanted to give some breathing room (silence) for the “boom” when the robot is transported to heighten the suspense. When I saw the green forrest and birds, I wanted to go for a lush feel. However, when we get back to the black box, I wanted to circle back around to some mystery and tap into the robot’s hesitation/skepticism/confusion about the box. The lizard needed a motif. So I came up with something playful, but still ambiguous as we don’t know the character yet. When the robot is exploring and it gets the warning message, I wanted to revisit the descending motif and add a sense of urgency. I brought back the lizard’s theme with a slightly different melodic approach when it comes back on screen.
Something struck me about the way the lizard scratched it’s “hair”. And I felt a real innocence and kindness about the lizard. That’s when I knew I wanted a tone change beginning somewhat ambiguously, but ultimately evolving into something friendly and safe. That became the friendship theme between the robot and the lizard. I did want to inject a sense of urgency without completely disrupting the friendship theme when the robot has to make the decision to stay with its new friend and face the consequences or head back to the spaceship. When the spaceship takes off, I wanted an ascending motif similar to the descending motif that would conclude the main portion of the film. For the ending, I brought back the same descending motif (slightly modified) and landed on a major chord when we see the green plant. I brought in synth elements to increase the drama a bit.
I am very grateful to my wife, the BIFSC and its supporters, all the YouTubers whom I’ve learned a great deal from, and all of the sample/plugin companies and performing musicians that have helped my creations come to life.
Click here to find out more information about the Berlin International Film Scoring Competition
Watch Christopher's winning piece below
A big congratulation to Christopher Myczkowski for winning second prize in the 2022 Berlin International Film Scoring Competition. For his fantastic winning peice, he wins Zero-G Elements - Modern Scoring Synth. Christopher talks to us about the process and inspirations which led him to his winning piece.
I will admit, this was a challenging task. I sat down with the video multiple times before I felt I understood what was happening, which is key to scoring to media (film, game, etc).
My writing process is probably fairly different from other composers’. Part of that is because of the short length of the video and the relative lack of time pressure. I jump in head first without a template and begin a sketch. I tend not to do a piano sketch as I want to hear the piece come to life as I’m writing it. I find there’s a snowball effect where I stumble upon an idea and that idea becomes the inspiration for another idea. I also typically start with chord progressions and add the melody afterward. This is because, for me, harmonic structure provides the core of the emotional content. My goal is to be able to sit back and listen to it and feel something. If I don’t feel anything emotionally, I don’t think my listeners will.
I wanted to give a mysterious feel to the opening and have it “floaty” since we were in outer space. I wanted the landing to be pretty dramatic and the descending chords mirror the robot’s descent. Then I echoed that motif with woodwinds with the goal of having a more mysterious tone again, but definitely less powerful. I knew the black box was pivotal. I wanted to capture the robot’s interest and curiosity about this mysterious item. I wanted to give some breathing room (silence) for the “boom” when the robot is transported to heighten the suspense. When I saw the green forrest and birds, I wanted to go for a lush feel. However, when we get back to the black box, I wanted to circle back around to some mystery and tap into the robot’s hesitation/skepticism/confusion about the box. The lizard needed a motif. So I came up with something playful, but still ambiguous as we don’t know the character yet. When the robot is exploring and it gets the warning message, I wanted to revisit the descending motif and add a sense of urgency. I brought back the lizard’s theme with a slightly different melodic approach when it comes back on screen.
Something struck me about the way the lizard scratched it’s “hair”. And I felt a real innocence and kindness about the lizard. That’s when I knew I wanted a tone change beginning somewhat ambiguously, but ultimately evolving into something friendly and safe. That became the friendship theme between the robot and the lizard. I did want to inject a sense of urgency without completely disrupting the friendship theme when the robot has to make the decision to stay with its new friend and face the consequences or head back to the spaceship. When the spaceship takes off, I wanted an ascending motif similar to the descending motif that would conclude the main portion of the film. For the ending, I brought back the same descending motif (slightly modified) and landed on a major chord when we see the green plant. I brought in synth elements to increase the drama a bit.
I am very grateful to my wife, the BIFSC and its supporters, all the YouTubers whom I’ve learned a great deal from, and all of the sample/plugin companies and performing musicians that have helped my creations come to life.
Click here to find out more information about the Berlin International Film Scoring Competition
Watch Christopher's winning piece below
