Music as a Scripting Tool: How to get a World-Class Film Score for Very Little Money

A brief lecture on how to construct a world-class film score with very little money.

My knowledge and experience in this area has been gained through the practice of looking for music suitable for specific films and film scenes. A first time film maker with a low budget may not be able to hire a professional film composer or arranger, let alone afford to buy the rights to contemporary music he or she may like and wish to use.

It is a topic I have been involved with for over 3 decades working with Stanley Kubrick, who was a great teacher and was most particular in his choice on anything that had an impact on his films. I will hopefully convey and demonstrate with many practical examples that a fabulous film score can be constructed by a young film-maker with very little money, as great masters in this field have proven. It is essential to make good choices here and to evaluate the impact of the score, which not only lifts a scene or defines a place and time, but can or should be used as a character or even become the pivotal part of a script.

As the University continues to maintain and develop its profile as a global leader in arts research, a series of Professorial Platform lectures was launched in 2008.

The Platforms are an opportunity for University colleagues and associates, as well as invited members of the public, to learn more about the research undertaken in the University. The Platforms enable Professors to highlight their field of interest and the University, in turn, to recognise and commemorate their successes to date.

Research Profile

I lived and worked in Frankfurt, Vienna, New York and Zurich before I joined Stanley Kubrick in 1969 for his project "Napoleon". Although the film was never made, Stanley drew me into the exciting world of cinema and I stayed with Kubrick as manager of his business affairs. I became his Executive Producer in 1973 working for Warner Bros. on "BARRY LYNDON", 'THE SHINING", "FULL METAL JACKET", "EYES WIDE SHUT" and on the preparation of several projects which were never made. After Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999 I worked on "A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE" with Steven Spielberg and I made the documentary "STANLEY KUBRICK: A LIFE IN PICTURES" together with Melanie Viner Cuneo. I continued to be involved in the management of the Kubrick Estate. Together with the Film Museum in Frankfurt I initiated a large exhibition on the life and works of Stanley Kubrick, which is now touring the world. I worked with Alison Castle and TASCHEN publishers on a book on the work and archive of Stanley Kubrick. A further book on Kubrick's "NAPOLEON" is in the making and will come out in 2009. I produced short films with students at the EUROPEAN FILM COLLEGE in Denmark, a film around the Dvorak Cello Concerto with an international youth orchestra - also a number of shorts for Warner Bros., which have been added in 2008 as bonus material to the comprehensive Stanley Kubrick.

• http://issuu.com/ualresearch/docs/janhar...