YOUR SCRIPT.
OUR NOTES
Your picture looks amazing and sounds immense. Let’s give it the perfect score to match…
Every member of the Ishikawa audio team is an accomplished composer and songwriter. We are all multi-instrumentalists, and we all blend our own unique audio specialties with our writing styles. We have all written music for, or had our music placed in films, television, commercials, radio, and theatre around the world. If you require bespoke music for your production, we can provide you will multiple options, across many genres.
If you are an artist/composer with skeleton songs or compositions, we will work with you to craft a unique arrangement that will sharpen your style and make you stand out from the rest. In this case, you may find it helpful to refer to both this page and the Music Production page to get an idea of how you might work together.
THE PROCESS
The process for commissioned composition will vary for each project, but a process for one (or more) of the team members to compose music for film might go something like this:
Getting us involved with your production very early in the process is often key to a seamless integration of music into your project. As with sound design, even storyboard and script stages of a film can help inform the type of compositions and instrumental arrangements that would help bring even more life to the overall artistic vision. It is in these stages where the sonic ideas can also shine light on areas that might not have been considered from a visual point of view. Keeping your budget in mind, a realistic music pre-production plan can be created in order to write for the most suitable ensemble, prepare for the eventual recording sessions (and where, if not at our own facilities), as well as bring in any other specialist colleagues this project might require. As you are still fleshing out the pre-production of the film, your composer can be creating sonic mood boards for the various scenes that will develop as the project nears completion.
As the film moves into the editing stages, your composer can then start to flesh out the sonic mood boards that were created earlier in the process, and compose/produce pieces of music with placeholder samples and rough mixes. When composing to an edit-in-progress, there is normally more room for the music “breathe” and perhaps inspire the edit to change slightly. Music has the great ability to warp the perception of time in a film, and these “time warps” can be heightened by direct play between the music, sound design, and visuals.
Once the compositions are “set” in terms of demo productions, the full production can go ahead. This process is largely the same as what is described in the Music Production section of the website.
Of course, that is only one way a collaboration between you and and one of the team at Ishikawa might go. There are countless variables in film, theatre, installation, or any other medium, that will inform the production process of musical composition.
BRINGING IN A COMPOSER WHEN YOUR PROJECT IS NEARLY FINISHED
The later you bring a music composer into your production team, the less flexible the composition process will be. This is not to say that the compositions will feel rigid – oftentimes, composing within a strict framework can give birth to some truly unique results – but the music will invariably feel like more of a reactionary part of the project than an integral one.
With that being said, if you are in the position where you need to bring in a composer in the final stages of your project, we have the experience to ensure that the music does not feel like an afterthought.
Sound design is also a discipline which, as with composition, often benefits from being brought into the production process as early as possible, but that doesn’t mean award winning results can’t be achieved otherwise.