Makoto Shinkai English Fan Forum and Site

man.exe · Tracer Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

So, for those who don't know what this is about:

I'm from Sydney Australia, and a great fan of Mr Shinkai. I love all of his work especially Byosoku 5cm and She and her cat.

I study music, and while I am not head-over-heels crazy over Tenmon's music, I do enjoy his contribution to Shinkai's pieces.

I am planning to compose an original score/soundtrack for the short film She and Her Cat. This work will be purely fan-based and for educational purposes. I will be producing a complete new soundtrack of the short 5 minute work and the work will be performed live later in October this year.

So, watch this space as I will blog through each step of my progress.

Menasha · vc_bios_b960909 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 822

Cool stuff, ill be keeping an eye on this.
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Nick · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:02 am Post subject:

So what's this for and what's it getting performed at? (what kind of performance not the exact location - you don't have to tell me that)
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man.exe · Tracer Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

Post 1: Purpose & Pre-production

The main purpose of this Project is to showcase my composition ability, using a modern composition style. My second purpose is to have a piece that I can include in my portfolio after I graduate.

As part of my assessment in my studies at my music college, I am required to produce an original work of maximum 5 minutes. The work must be performed live during Concert Practice (a core performance subject), or pre-recorded and played back to the audience.

I am a musician from a contemporary background, majoring in Jazz. As a second instrument study, I have been studying composition. While I have been composing pieces that were strictly in Classical/Romantic and 20th Century Music style it's been a familar and refreshing change to compose a modern piece.

In planning this work, I still have not yet fully decided what instrumentation to include in this work. I am working on a list and that includes:

Piano
Solo Violin
Solo Cello
String Quartet (Violin 1 & 2, Viola, Cello)
Flute
Synthesizer

So... After a while watching all 3 different versions of the film, I have decided to use the 5 minute version, however my first challenge was the fact that the narrator, sound effects and music could not be seperated. Therefore the tough decision was made to re-dub the whole film, including narration(in English), and sound effects.

I have listed out all the sound effects from the flim. The list is very long, and I need to go and record them myself as I cannot pull them out of the flim.

The soundtrack will be seperated into 4 short pieces:

1st: 35 secs (after the title)
2nd: 45 secs (with Mimi)
3rd: 21 secs (after phone conversation)
4th: 65 secs (winter)

My next step is to decide on the dubbing process, and the draft of these 4 pieces. Stay tuned.

Nick · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:23 am Post subject:

So are you putting music in all the same places as the original? Have you thought about changing the soundscape a bit and putting music where there was none in the original, i.e. background music during a voiceover or something?

Just throwing stuff out there.
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There are certain moments where some people should just be left unknown.

man.exe · Tracer Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

Nick · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:37 am Post subject:

Cool, sounds good.
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There are certain moments where some people should just be left unknown.

Junpei · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:49 am Post subject:

This really sounds great. Deeply looking forward to it.

Laz · Laz Joined: 09 Jan 2008 Posts: 1073

This is really cool. Excellent idea.

I've been wanting to dabble in AMVs a little and have been thinking about what kinds of music would go with scenes in Shinkai's films.

Can't wait to hear your musical interpretation Smile

To All - You guys and girls never cease to amaze me with your creative ideas Smile

Laz
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man.exe · Tracer Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 9

Post 2: Pre-production pt 2

I am sorry for the lack of updates...

After a long time being busy with other work, I hope to have the draft piano samples recorded some time this week.

The soundtrack will be seperated into 4 short pieces:

1st: 35 secs (after the title) Legato, warm, melodic
2nd: 45 secs (with Mimi) cute, playful, and charming
3rd: 21 secs (after phone conversation) sad, lonely, serious
4th: 65 secs (winter) warm, however with some sadness, conclusive cadence

After thinking carefully, I concluded that piece number 1 should include many same or similar elements from piece number 4. The original version of the film has the 1st piece a short 'cut' version of the longer version at the end of the film.

Regarding the dubbing process, I will be recording myself as the narrator, with my GF being the 'she'.

I am planning to ask a fellow video specialist to edit out the title, and the Mimi scences into English. However this is not confirmed yet. If there is anyone who is interested in video editing please let me know.