Score for Dutch "Tom and Thomas"

[PeterRoos]

Hey Maarten,

Today is the premiere of the Dutch film Tom and Thomas. How was your work as \"assistant composer\" for this film? Can you share some noteworthy lessons, pitfalls or fun facts with us?

I will probably go and see the film with 9 year old daughter.

Cheers,

Peter Roos

[Maarten Spruijt]

Hey Peter,

How did you know I was \"*** . composer\" for that movie? You read it on my site?

Anyway, I can tell you about it I suppose. However if it\'s interesting for you to hear I don\'t know. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

When I got involved in this project the composer, Paul van Brugge, still had to write music for half the movie, in 1 week. He wasn\'t going to make it alone.

He asked me to join him, bring my music setup (basically 2 PC\'s, sequencer & giga, and a midi keyboard) to the studio and start writing and laying down percussion, both orchestral and loops. He could then use that as a basis to work on, writing the rest of the parts. Nice thing is that this way I could \"decide\" where to put certain cues and on-screen hits with the percussion. Ofcourse I got constant feedback from Paul. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Because of the deadline, it was already clear there wasn\'t any time to record the orchestral score in Prague (which w*a*s planned!). So now it\'s a midi score, except for the harmonica parts played by Toots Tielemans.
The only thing that WAS recorded in Prague is a \"material library\" Paul wrote. This library consists of themes, phrases and various short pieces, played by the string section only. Paul then used these audio bits in the score, alone, or as an addition to the midi (or should I say \"added with the midi\" http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif ).

I mostly did percussion, but I was there when they mixed the other orchestral midi parts. They sound okay, for a kids movie, but don\'t expect anything spectacular. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Though I only did percussion (+ some less-important woodwind and piano parts) I learned a great deal, working with Paul! He has told me a lot about thing like where to start and stop music, pay attention to what a scene is really about, not giving away all your material at once... things like that.

It was a short, but really cool project for me to join.

Peter, if you like you can always contact me on ICQ. My number is 37834976.

Maarten

[PeterRoos]

Very interesting, Maarten, thanks for your story!

I\'ll wear dark sunglasses in the theater... I\'m now extra curious, knowing these compromises.

Must be indeed a great learning experience.

Peter

[Simon Ravn]

Sounds great Maarten. I wouldn\'t mind doing such a project http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Although I probably wouldnt be good enough at percussion to do THAT http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[Maarten Spruijt]

Haha I see NS filtered the << A * S * S * . >> bit in the first paragraph. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/grin.gif

Hey, that\'s as in \"assistant composer\" guys, what else do you think I assisted Paul in ?!?! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/tongue.gif