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Listen to the score music along with visuals, via an excerpt from a recent film project.
Arnaud Drieu is a multi-award-winning composer based in Paris, France. Born in 1982. He writes music for films, features and shorts for directors all over the world. His music is often described as sensitive and cinematic. Arnaud sees the composition of a film music as a collaborative and deep creative exchange with the filmmaker.
"Working with Arnaud has been a real pleasure. He immediately understood the tone I was looking for and very quickly came back with soccer suggestions. The collaboration has been quick, smooth and extremely professional. The quality of his scores has definitely elevated the quality of the projects we’ve collaborated on."
Arantxa Hurtado
Film score composer based in Paris | Arnaud Drieu | Original music composition for feature films, shows, trailers, shorts, documentaries
The role of the film score composer in a film
A score composer plays an important role amongst the whole filmmaking team. They are hired to create an original music that will support the scenes. This music is often non-diegetic, as it is not heard by any characters. The score helps the audience to understand some additional levels of the film, like exposing an emotion, bringing some tension, making the story moving forward, creating a second perspective, giving clues or blurring lines. Beyond the emotional level, the score music can elaborate a stronger identity to the movie. A good score has to be recognizable, while at the same time has to serve the film at all costs. The score composer is generally in close collaboration with the director, who will give the creative instructions. This directional exchange defines the narrative needs of the score, and influences greatly its shape.
Composing for films, more than just writing the music
I am a film composer, I create score music for movies, and I take to the heart every aspect of the composition of the music itself, and how it supports the film. A music composer generally has the freedom to write in any direction. The film composer, who is hired to write the music for a movie, is commissioned to work in a direction together with the film creatives. The film score composer has to be part of the team, along with the director, the producer, the editor, the supervisors, the screenwriter, the actors, and any other member of the staff. Film composers work on the post production stage of the project. They work can start very early in process, often the composer is in touch from the pre-production. Some use to create some demo material at this early point of the film’s life, basing their perception on the script, storyboards, drawings, photographs, or any other material or explanations given by the team. To me, the earlier the better. I like to be involved soon, and love the part of developing the concept.
What is a score music, what does the film score composer do ?
A score is the music composed specifically to support a film. Most of the time, the score is original and created upon the cut, while it happens sometimes that some films will license an existing music to act as a score. The score music is created by the score composer, who is hired for this purpose. The score is one of the various sound elements of the movie, along with pre-existing music like songs or diegetic interpretations, dialogs, sound effects, foleys, ambiences. The instrumentation often calls for organic instruments, or a whole orchestra. But many are built upon synthetic instruments or a combination of both. There is no real rules in arranging a score music, as it is more a matter of tastes and perception.