Project 2: Heavy Metal

Just before the Easter Holidays, I found myself a second animation project to work it. It is a short scene from the animated movie Heavy Metal. Shortly after, my clients for the Ragtime Gals animation informed me that they will no longer be wanting music for their chase scene. As a result, I decided I would thereon experiment with the Heavy Metal project and see if I could focus the audio as much on original music as I possibly could – similar to that of an old Tom and Jerry cartoon.

I looked back at my Research and Production Post 2 and refreshed myself on the ways in which music can be used in film and animation. One idea I thought I could utilize was to use music to represent characters. Within the video that I’m working on, there is a main villain whose presence I plan to represent through a synthesized brass section a I thought this specific synth preset sounded very dark and menacing. As well as characters, I also plan to create music that represents actions and emotions similarly like music of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Music can also be used to reflect certain time-periods. This is something that I will definitely take into account as I don’t have many VST orchestral instruments at my disposal. Fortunately, I do have a lot of VST synthesizers to choose from. Heavy Metal is a product of the 80s and so I plan to make a soundtrack that reflects on that decade by taking references on instrumentation from synth pop music.