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Ever stepped out of a movie theater, humming the music, and thought,”I could do that! That could be my music on every audience member’smind”?
Well, Richard Davis’ Complete Guide to Film Scoring won’t exactlydisabuse you of that notion, but it will give you a comprehensiveoverview of what it takes to be a film composer. Orchestrator for RobinHood, Prince of Thieves and The Last Boy Scout, as well as an associateprofessor of film scoring at Berklee College of Music, Davis covers thehistory of film music, the production process, the creation of themusic-including the technical requirements of a score, synching musicto picture and scoring animation-and the business of film scoring. Thecoup de grace: interviews with a range of working film and TV composersand orchestrators, including Danny Elfman, Elmer Bernstein, MichaelKamen, Mark Snow and David Raksin.
Unfortunately, Davis tackles enough topics to fill volumes, andtherefore he skips the specifics that might appeal to pros. Still,Complete Guide to Film Scoring is bound to be useful to music studentsdoing exploratory research on the field, or for film score fanatics whomight want a clear, quick understanding of the industry.
