The Dwelling: 2 Kings 3:15

MUSICAL

Away from Romantic drama, I want my film to be a Musical. While Musicals are mainly seen in theatre, quality musical films can be found anywhere. In this genre, sound is essential, specifically the music of the film. This music, along with choreography and dialogue tells a story. Evoking emotions the characters are feeling and somehow conveying a spontaneous feeling to their dancing and (sometimes) singing, immersing the viewer into the story with captivating compositions and routines. With Musicals, what you see is not the most important factor, but what is heard affects the experience, balancing both audio and visual elements in harmony.

COMPOSING MY FILM

While films are composed, I want to use my musical knowledge to compose music for my film opening. In Musicals, the music that plays is essential to captivate the viewer and convey what the film will express. Music will be non-diegetic, as it won't be introduced as an element in the narrative word, but the dialogue and the choreography will work directly with the music that is playing, almost as if it were diegetic.

In terms of how the music will sound, I want to go for a more Latin and tropical sound. Following conventional elements of Salsa and Bolero, with a Jazz-inspired melodic composition. One of my main inspirations for composing the music for this film opening is Willie Colón and Ruben Blade's 'Siembra'.

Siembra - Ruben Blades, Willie Colón

My dad grew up with this record and one of its songs, 'Pedro Navaja' became a bonding point for us. After listening through the whole project, I knew I wanted to work on something similar, especially with pieces such as 'Plástico' and 'María Lionza'.

I will use Musescore, an app for writing sheet music to compose the sections for the music. While I want to use key modulations heavily, I want to keep the basis of the song simple, mostly percussion driven than melodic.

My project in Musescore

I want to involve friends of mine who are musicians to record this music. I know many that would be of great help.

Other albums that inspire me for this are Hector Lavoe's 'Comedia', Abe Mendoza's 'Melodías - EP', and Joe Bataan 'SalSoul'.

In terms of elements of musicals I am including in my film, there will be music and choreographies that will work to tell a story, but there will be no singing (for the most part). The dialogue will be a constant poem, that, alongside the music and dancing, mise-en-scene elements and colors will tell the intended story and will allow context to develop.

SIEMBRA

Released September 7, 1978, 'Siembra' is a salsa album by Panamanian songwriter Ruben Blades and Puerto Rican trombonist and singer Willie Colón. Combining soft Latin tones with jazzy New York melodies and even disco rhythms, 'Siembra' digs deep into society's issues in materialism and attention seeking, plus the insignificance of life in a world full of money and riches.

'Siembra' uses typical salsa percussive elements and rhythms, following common grooves and using common instruments for this genre.

SALSA GROOVE

I want to focus on 2 songs from this album that inspire my brainstorming for my film opening's score, one through its rhythm and the other through its melodic elements.

María Lionza is the 4th song on the album, it holds an andante tempo throughout, building up the composition by adding new percussive elements as the song progresses. The beginning of the song is what I want to focus on, a simple, yet effective groove that grabs your attention instantly.

This is my attempt at transcribing the percussion from the intro of 'María Lionza'. Even though this is just a simplified version of a full salsa groove, what makes it sound better is the way it is played. Almost like dragging, there's a certain swing that comes to it, especially with the cowbell. Jimmy Delgado, Adalberto Santiago, and Eddie Montalvo are the 3 responsible for this killer groove. By dragging the hits just a few milliseconds, they create a successful dragging salsa groove, then juxtaposed with the grand trombones and trumpets. I want to try and recreate something similar for the score inspired by this song, not the same groove but the same feeling that the song carries.

Buscando Guayaba is the 2nd song from 'Siembra', it is written in C major, a key with a commonly positive connotation. The song follows an I-V-V7-I-I-V-V7-I-I7-IV-iv-I-vi-ii-V-I chord progression, which might seem very complicated but it is actually not as difficult. This chord progression leaves a lot of space for dialogue and singing, which is why I want to use it as an inspiration to write a chord progression in the same key with a similar energy.