First Film cue soundtrack - give me feedback

Hi all,
I finished my first trailer soundtrack, I use the short movie Tears of Steel by Blender Foundation from The Cue Tube.
I create epic percusion, and use brass of course, but I also insert an electric guitar (the AmpleSound Vintage Cherry that I bought after seeing the review of Mikael :grin: ), some woodwinds for the texture and I use the piano of course … my favorite instrument !!

I thought of an heroic music with a hopeful ending.

Give me any feedback, as always they will be welcome!!

:grinning:

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Good job!

I just find it weird that the trailer starts in the middle of the action and finishes with no buildup to climax. It’s kind of inverted formula here.

It is nice from The Cue tube to offer those videos to score.

But keep in mind for trailer music usually it is done the other way arround.

The video editor fits the image to an existing trailer music track and cuts that music track any way he wants so it fits perfectly. He can add hits and risers or anything to even extend the track if needed or adjust to taste.

That is why most trailer music have “edit points” aka pauses between each “act” so it can be cut easily. And it usually follows a very specific formula that defines trailer music.

I am not a pro at all in this but I did took two very good courses about it:

1- the paid course “Trailer video editing” from FILM EDITING PRO. They also have a YouTube channel with great free content here: https://youtube.com/c/FilmEditingPro

2- And also I took Trailer Music Acedemy with Daniel Beijbom on sale last Christmas:

Check this screen shot below from a discussion with a master, Mark Petrie. I strongly encourage you to listen to his music on SoundCloud to get inspired.

I just made my very first trailer recently (filmmaking, images, video editing and music)
I showed it to Mark Petrie and he gave me lots of notes for the cue, haha. It is rough but he is right.
I still have lots to learn but getting there slowly. Practice makes perfect as they say…

Here is my first take on trailer music:

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Thanks for the helpful feedbacks !!!
I will definitely follow Mark Petrie, I went to see his soundcloud channel and I saw that in the description of him he already gives great advice.
I think the points in the conversation are very useful and also applicable to create corporate music for video.

I admit that I used the Cue Tube video to make Trailer music, but not with all the criteria necessary to actually be used commercially.
My composition was more for studio both composition and mixing.

Anyway, for the next trailers I will follow your directions and, as you said, I still have a lot of practice to do. :sweat_smile:

Thanks so much !!

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It is definetly a genre that looks easy but is far more difficult than it seems. While staying in a defined receipe, you gotta try to stay original at the same time.

I encourage you to join the Trailer music support group. All those big pro stars are there including Mark Petrie and Daniel Beijbom and many more.

Just make sure to read the rules because we cannot post tracks or links to libraries or products there. Tips on Trailer music only. They want to avoid cluttered posts etc. I am more a spectator reading the insiders dealing with being pro Trailer music composers. Very interesting!

I was pretty proud of my track but then he gave me great indights about it. Not easy on the ego but hey, gotta listen the mentors to grow faster. Part of the process.

Here is an extract from my personnal discussion with Mark:

Hi Roberto,

I’d suggest checking out a few recent trailers in a style you like and then finding the music from them to listen to. Identify the structure and musical devices they use to help the edit.

I mention this as when I was first looking at working in trailers I wrote several tracks which I thought were trailer tracks but they were much more in the vein of epic action cues, that were more suited to film than for a modern trailer.

I’d say your example track fits that description, it feels much more like a film cue because of the structure and tension / release points.

A good trailer track in the genre you seem to be targeting follows more of a condensed story structure, you need to create tension and excitement. The simplest way to do this is introduce an idea or hook with intrigue, then develop that idea adding drive and urgency, then finally take that idea to its peak (but try not to give it full resolution). Trailers are made as a call to action, to get someone to go and see the full picture.

I wouldn’t practice this by writing to an edit though, almost all trailers are edited to a chosen track using stems so the editor has more control.

Good luck!

Yes, you are right, this is more a film cue.
I wrongly titled the post.

The music I thought was to accompany just a short story, like the beginning of a war, the tension of waiting for the attack, the culmination of the war and ending with the hope of a new world.

Thanks anyway for your very useful information :grin:

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I changed the title which was actually wrong
Sorry
:upside_down_face: