Scoring & Editing for "SABAK"

JOB: Cinematography, Editing, Sound design and Background score.

Whenever I watch movies, I never miss out on the musical side of them. I keenly observe how the background score affects the scene. The fight scenes typically have horns or heavy drums or a chasing scene gets intense when the background score is thrilling, or any emotional scene which makes you cry because the music blends amazingly. Since strings are used for such kinds of scene, they literally touch the emotional chords within our hearts.

So I have always wanted to try scoring background music for some project but never really got a good chance until recently. A good friend Anuj Singh, owner of Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA) Indore center, invited me to work on a short film project for Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan. I was primarily hired for Cinematography and Editing. When the director of this short film Ashok Patel (also my good friend) told me about the script and its flow, I suggested blending music in some parts in certain ways. As a result, right from the beginning of production, we began to be conscious of music at the back of our minds. So finally when we finished shooting and editing, what was left was the sound design and music. That evening when I watched two particular scenes which required music, I was nervous as to how to get it blended with the scenes. I watched them again and again to get the feel. Meanwhile, the director showed his confidence in me and asked me to work on the score as well.

What the scenes demanded

Opening Scene- Opening scene of the short film “SABAK” was very dramatic and needed a feel of tension. After watching it a few times, it was easy to identify the instruments for it and place them. So I used Horns, Orchestral Drums, and Strings with Arrpegiators for building tension. I found it fairly easy. Flash back scene- The most difficult scene turned out to be the flash back scene in which the character Raju remembers about his past with his mother and some events. This required not only the music but also sound design and that too needed to be pulled perfectly. So I used Horns, Orchestral Drums, and Strings with Arrpegiators for building tension. I found it fairly easy.

Flash back scene- The most difficult scene turned out to be the flash back scene in which the character Raju remembers about his past with his mother and some events. This required not only the music but also sound design and that too needed to be pulled perfectly. So I watched it several times. I decided that the scene should open by a small mild piece of piano and then I could intensify the music as the scene moves up. So I used piano and then with horn and chimes. Once that built up, I put a full 16-piece orchestra with it to make it more emotional and intense. The next step was to blend it with sound design which includes so many whoosh and impact effects not to mention the Foley sound also had to be present. I added echo and reverb in dialogues with the scene’s original and dubbing sound and then mixed it with many elements. This finally got us the feel we wanted.

I was still pretty nervous to show it to Ashok and Anuj but after a few suggestions and tweaks, they were finally satisfied and told me that this was exactly the feel they were looking for.

It’s always fun for me to edit but also this time I was excited to score because it was my first time. I am glad it worked all well. Looking forward for more music scoring sessions.