John UM
In the first part of the series, we reviewed the important works of her animated composition work together with Yuki. Next, Zhangpu will introduce her method of making music for animation
If the animation has the original, she will read it repeatedly and master the “rhythm” of the book. In the process of repeated reading, the body will also be dyed with the rhythm of the work, even if you start to write songs without thinking, you can feel the whole rhythm as a whole, and start making
In addition, “color” is also very important. Even when you read the original, you have an impression of color, adapted into an animation, and may become another color. So, she will go to the background painting of the animation. Animations were originally created from background paintings. Many times, even if other materials are not found, there will be background paintings. She looked at the image and thought “I was originally that color, but the original animation was darker” or “I didn’t expect it to be quite bright”, adjusting the color in my cognition and engraving it in my heart
Because once you start making it, you can’t stop it. It will be very troublesome to change it later. So, before you set the overall rhythm and color in your heart, Zhangpu will not start making music. If you have any thoughts on your mind, you will also take notes, but try not to go deeper
However, this depends on the specific situation. Like “The Realm of Space”, Zhapu did not read the original work so much, and wrote the theme music. This piece of music, including the arrangement of the music, was intact and became the theme of the whole work. This is also because she and the work together
In “The Realm of the Air”, Zhapu completely combined the picture to make music, and finally understood that if you don’t have a certain degree of performance plan for the work, you can’t do background music. When she made “NOIR”, she had no such plan at all. After going through several works, she began to establish something similar in her mind. So now, she wants to make music as much as possible after mastering the overall impression of the work
And when she officially started composing, the recent animators often hope that she will hand over the music for a trailer, and she will comb the overall impression of the work into a piece for the first time. After the completion, she will judge the answer with the producer and judge whether her understanding is correct. Because it is a trailer, it will of course be accompanied by a picture. When she looks at it, she will think that “the speed of the song is too fast” or “the movement of the character is fiercer than imagined, and it can be written faster.” So, after writing a song for the trailer, before she started making positive music, she sometimes adjusted her impression of the work
Sometimes, the producer wants her to write the theme song first. This depends on the specific situation
Also, at the time of the meeting, she often came up with a melody. Because meeting is the best place to hear the idea of the producer. She chatted and talked, and there was a piece of music in her mind. “Is this feeling?” She wrote down the melody that she had unwittingly thought of, and later it became a piece of music that occupied a key position in the work. Therefore, for Zhapu, it is very important for the first time to meet with the team of the founding team headed by the supervisor and the sound supervisor
As I said before, when I read the original, Zhapu wrote down the music that I thought of based on the first impression. Although she has mastered the overall impression of the work, she sometimes erases all the previously recorded songs; but sometimes, she will find that the songs originally proposed are still very important. She believes that the intuition of the first impression is precious. If she first came into contact with the work and felt that “this kind of concert is very suitable”, it is very likely that the audience who first came into contact with the work would think “this kind of music is very suitable”. So no matter what songs I think of based on the first impression, I don’t have to use it in the future, she will always write it down
When making music, Zhapu often writes the melody first, and then arranges it with various instruments. She wonders how to use melody in different scenes
In addition, the score is often based on the demand list, she will also interpret the supervision and sound supervision for what kind of intention to write out the demand list
If it is a movie or the like that works with the screen, she can hear the lines and see the time when the screen is switched. It is easy to grasp the rhythm and it is easier to do. And TV animation doesn’t have these things, she wants to read the script out loud and imagine the emotions of the scene. Although waiting for her to see the video of the actual line, she may feel that the mood is different from her own imagination; but when she is hesitant to make a song, she still has to try to read it first and master the ups and downs of emotions..
梶浦 said that the reason why a scene should be accompanied by music must be justified. For example, if you want to change the scene, or want to convey the sadness of the characters on the scene. This is not very good to say, but the background music is better than the music itself, and it is more useful to consider. So, if you can’t understand why you need music here, it will be difficult to make. However, more important than the “understanding” that can be clearly explained in the language, it is still emotional. When she doesn’t understand why she wants to play music, she will definitely ask the producer, what kind of mission the music bears here, and what kind of feelings should be added
After understanding the feelings of the scene, she can choose the instrument with the emotions and arrange the music. Musical instruments and emotions are also related. For example, strings are suitable for deep feelings, and the piano’s monophony is suitable for very private moods. The tone of the instrument is very important. Moreover, it is not the best for real instruments, no matter what the occasion
Zhapu believes that the original soundtrack must convey the meaning of music within 3 seconds. If you are sad, you must use 3 seconds to express your grief; if you are surprised, you will use 3 seconds to express your surprise. Sometimes the time may be compressed to 1 second. Therefore, she has to think about what kind of tone is easier to provide information to the listener in a short time: whether it is the monophonic sound of the piano, the roaring string bass, or the quiet string treble. Because the different instruments are easy to hear, the sounds are very important
Although it is “background music”, music must fully dominate the scene. Unless you are interested in confusing the audience, you can’t let the audience understand the intention. Even if it is quiet music, if you don’t understand the situation when you make it, you can’t understand the situation. It’s just a quiet way to write it. Although some people may not like the music that is explained in a regular way, the original soundtrack is often the music used to explain something. Therefore, Zhapu believes that if the music is not written strictly according to this purpose, it cannot be integrated into the world of the work from the front.And if the music fits the intent of a scene, it will dissolve perfectly in the scene. So in a certain sense, background music is still a prop
Speaking of the music of Zhapu Yuji, there is a feature that cannot be ignored, that is, “vocal.” In her animated music, there are often songs that use vocals. This part is out of her personal preference: Zhapu used to be a member of the choir, and the opportunity to enjoy music is also an opera
And the more important reason is that Zhapu believes that songs can dominate people’s ears
Although people often say that Zhapu “uses vocals as musical instruments,” she does not think so. The human voice is sent to convey something to other human beings. Therefore, as long as a musical instrument joins a human voice, people will definitely listen to the song. No matter what other instruments you add, your ears will definitely go to the song
So, Zhapu believes that vocals cannot be musical instruments. No matter how much other instruments play, it still can’t resist the existence of singing. And even if the voice sings quietly, the human instinct will still go to listen to the song. Therefore, when using the song, you must take this into account and use the song as the “final weapon”. Whether it is the song of Japanese, the song of the idiom or the classical chorus is the same. If it is not the final weapon, it will be hurt if you use it easily
In addition, different supervisions are of course different for the background music that joins the vocals. Some people like it and some people are disgusted. Therefore, it is necessary to have in-depth communication with the audio supervision and production team. You can’t use it yourself
Thus, although Zhapu himself and her fans like the soundtrack of the human voice, it is a problem to use where
The string music of Zhangpu Yuji Music is also a highlight. But in fact, when she first started writing the original soundtrack, she only used the violin and cello, and she didn’t know how to write the mark. The score was very rough and was rejected by the musicians. Although Zhapu feels very embarrassed, he did not go to learn string music. Because she feels that her music is monotonous, it is estimated that she can receive three live works. Even if she tries to write a complete string, it is useless
However, when she received the commission of the game “Essays EPISODE II Beyond Good and Evil” (2004), the game producer asked her to “use large strings”, and then Pupu was panicked: “诶I haven’t written a big compilation.” At this point, she started learning. When I actually used it, she found that the large string music is very suitable for the music that I have always wanted to play. This made her regret from the heart and felt that she should go to school earlier
As the number of fans of late-night animation increases, the production budget for music has also increased, and large-scale compilations and real instruments can be used in large quantities. Zha Pu found that the string played by the orchestra can easily express the increase of feelings and can express her imagination very simply
When I was young, Zhapu saw the opera performance and was deeply touched, but always thought that I could only be the listener of that kind of music. However, the world of animation is very similar to the opera, the feelings are very exaggerated, people will die, will be very, will kill, Yangtian University, crying. There are very (few) such scenes in live-action movies, and the feelings of the characters are closer to ordinary people. Although the different animations are of course different, but the exaggeration to make her feel that “requires such exaggerated music!” The soundtrack method is more suitable for animation. This kind of video music, in fact, only animations and Hollywood movies will be there
In addition, animation is a fictitious world after all, even if there are no 1,000 people, it can also make a scene of thousands of horses and horses. Although the person painting will be very hard. With this in mind, animated music allows her to write great music that she can’t write in her work
Zhapu believes that many people like to write great world-wide music, and for these people, the world of animated music is just what it is, and it is a very happy field. Conversely, if you can’t make exaggerated emotional bullying to a certain extent, it will be difficult to respond to a wide variety of animated music
As for saying that Zhapu is not suitable for animated music, she believes that the original, the most suitable for writing the original soundtrack, is the ability to write a variety of genre music. The type of music she likes is narrow, and although she has made various attempts, she finally returned to her favorite direction. To be honest, this is not a strong point for writing the original soundtrack. Therefore, she has been artificial until now, and she has been able to receive so many works, some of which are magical. She always felt that she would be bored one day and could not get a job. So always with the mood of “I can write, thank you very much”, I fully enjoy the creation