Production Music
What is Production Music?
Production (or Library) Music is music is designed to be used in conjunction with commercial films and advertising. It is not an art music. The material it accompanies can be virtually anything; for example, a series of stills (e.g. a product launch), a Corporate training / information film or an advertisement or TV programme.
Choosing music for a film typically comes down to three choices: commission new work from a composer, use a recorded concert work or select music from a Production Music library. The last choice will tend to be the most economic, a benefit if the production has run over budget.
With music composed for a pre-existing film, a very close match can be obtained between music and visuals. This differs from Production Music where pre-composed music is fitted to a pre-existing film and the match will never be quite as good. This is the reason why there are so many possible Production Music tracks, each with slightly different moods, available in music libraries.
Although the use of Production Music is a good economic choice for a film production company, it still has to be of the highest quality. Fierce competition continually forces a high standard of both material and recording quality.
What are the mood-types of Production Music?
Certain main types of tracks are used to evoke different "moods" for different purposes. When selling products, the "feelgood" factor is important - happy, lively music sells more than sad mournful music. The mood of the track must be established quickly (within seconds) and then maintained. The piece must be saturated with the target mood.
Some of the main categories are:
Entertainment
Sports
Children
Activity
Pastoral
Industrial
Business
News
Fanfares
What are the forms and lengths of Production Music?
There are some standard forms in common use. Musical works last anything between a second or two and a a couple of minutes. Some important characteristics are required and some are not; this will become clear below
The Main Track
Duration: 60 to 150 seconds. Short introduction, get quickly to the mood, maintain it with variations, finish with a strong, positive ending. Extended melodies are not useful here. The ending should be "detachable" - i.e. it can be used on its own
Shortened versions of the Main Track
A "Sting", less than five seconds, is used as a "highlighter", signals the completion of a segment of the production (e.g. a round in a game show). A sting's purpose in life is to punctuate a new audio-visual paragraph
A "Logo" or "Ident" also lasts less than five seconds but is used to identify a station or programme or a personality presenter
A "Link" lasts less than ten seconds and connects two segments of a programme. E.g., in a sports roundup, it might connects athletics to the football results
A "Bumper" lasts less than ten seconds. An "in-bumper" and an "out-bumper" pair can be used to bracket or highlight a special item (e.g. announcement of the Lotto result)
"Jingle"-length versions (e.g. of 29 and 59 seconds) are used in advertising and are simply shorter versions of the Main Track
Underscore
An Underscore is the Main Track without the theme. The Underscore's purpose in life is to suggest the atmosphere of the Main Track. An example of "less is more", since, with film, the net effect is to enhance the experience by not distracting the viewer's attention from the images
Bed
Music is often used under dialogue. An underlying music "bed" must not interfere with the audio frequency range of the human voice otherwise communication is impaired; any music bed must be created with that in mind. An example could be: a sports theme with a strong opening, quickly dropping to a variable-length "bed" section (for the speech) and then finally returning with a strong finish
Backgrounds
Backgrounds and Background Music represent "stories told with music", music of various "flavours", evoking appropriate scenes. E.g.: happy pastoral music (e.g. out-of-doors, country images), menacing (industrial accident) or ethnic geographical music (e.g. pan-pipes, music of the Andes, travelogues). Durations: up to 120 seconds. Melodic material is more appropriate here
Introductions
Music to get the viewer "hooked" straight away; expectations are raised that a big commercial song is about to start. However, instead of the song, you get the TV programme. Fanfares also included. Durations up to 60 seconds
Title Music
Theme music created for the opening and closing of a programme. In this case a melody can be used to evoke the atmosphere of the programme. E.g.: the BBC's "Last of the Summer Wine". Durations vary between 30 seconds and (editable) 90 second versions
