Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres is a film composer and classical electronic artist. So in this Q&A session, most of the concerns were related to the mood of the picture and the mood of the music. Alexandra mentioned many times that composing for film is more about the image and the director’s needs, and that the only thing the composer can control is the quality and texture of the music.

This lecture made me think about how to balance the emotion of the picture and the emotion of the music when composing for a film.

In my understanding, the consistency between the mood of the picture and the mood of the music is what allows the viewer to enter the mood of the film more quickly. When the mood of the picture and the mood of the music do not coincide, then the music is not serving the picture but the story of the film, for example, to set the scene for the subsequent story.

In fact, when composing music for a film, the film is the main subject and the music is serve the film. How you balance the mood of the picture and the mood of the music is more based on the director. The way in which the director wants to tell the story of the film.