14: A Month in the Life…

When I returned to the composition of Lightfall in mid-December 2008 I had a clear few months ahead of me. Apart from a couple of predicted minor interruptions there would be nothing to distract my focus. I was behind on the delivery date but I just needed to hide from the world for a while and get writing.

That was the forecast but, as they say, it never rains but it pours. For a few weeks I was getting back into the swing of things, more or less and came up with the three sketches plus some other bits and pieces. Then in mid-February the storm came in the form of a number of different projects that I was already committed to.

Meet the Music
On 14 February Richard Gill gave a seminar for music staff and students about the year’s Meet the Music program. He invited Robert Johnson and me to come along in the morning and talk about Lightfall. We decided to play through Sketches 1 (which you can watch and listen to, here). This photo was taken that morning:

Richard Gill, Robert Johnson & Christopher Gordon

Daybreakers
That afternoon I received the new pictures for the end of Daybreakers. Although it was almost a year since I had done the score and the film was finished, the filmmakers decided to add an extra shot at the end. This meant that they needed new music, not just for this shot but for the minute leading into it and the couple of minutes leading out from it during the end credits; three or four minutes in all. The process requires that I not just compose the new music but that I record a demo on synthesizers, get it professionally mixed by my engineer, Christo Curtis, then sent to the directors in Queensland and the producers in Los Angeles. They had some comments which meant rewriting a bit, then making a new demo of the whole thing, mixing that and sending it off for approval. Then the music had to be recorded properly with an orchestra (1 March), the setting up of which involves quite a few phone calls and emails, then edited and mixed and finally delivered to the film people. It was certainly worth the effort as it is a very exciting ending.

Daybreakers poster

Night Is What Remains
I realised that there was an opportunity after the Daybreakers recording session to have the strings stay on and record Night Is What Remains which had been lying around since 2005. Since I had created the parts at the time of composition there was no preparation for me to do. I only had to send the pdfs to my copyist, Jessica Wells, for printing. Once recorded it could sit on a shelf until I had time to edit and mix it (that happened in June 2009).

Night Is What Remains

Lightfall
If we got through Night Is What Remains in time then we could squeeze in Sketch 2 at the end of the session. That meant orchestrating the sketch and, because of the unconventional free-time notation, formatting the parts myself. There was just enough to time to run through it twice without rehearsal. You can listen to it here.

Wee Dreaming
She-who-must-be-obeyed had been making a short film in the preceding months and now had a deadline. It would have been a fate worse than death to knock back this project, so, in the midst of working on the new Daybreakers material, I composed the score to Wee Dreaming. I had no sooner finished (to the hour) than the film’s deadline was pushed back. Such is filmmaking. At least the score was ready to go when the recording session eventually happened on 24 March.

Wee Dreaming Recording Session

Soundtrack Albums
The day after delivering the new Daybreakers material we returned to the soundtrack album to include the new music. This involved restructuring and a new mix of the last two tracks. At the time we thought the film’s release was in June 2009, so it was important to get this done as soon as possible.
With my schedule entirely disrupted by now I decided it would be best to spend the rest of that week on the soundtrack album of Mao’s Last Dancer. It would be required sooner or later.

Christo Curtis and CG

Mao’s Last Dancer Suite
The Queensland Orchestra would be putting on a concert of movie music with Bruce Beresford presenting on 1 May and contacted me to see if they could perform any of Mao’s Last Dancer. I made up an audio guide of an 18-minute suite and sent it to them to see if it was suitable and not too long. They liked it, so through March I would steal a few hours here and there to create the full score. Some of it was a straight copy and paste from the film score but a couple of movements required a good deal of thought to substitute lines for Chinese ethnic instruments with western orchestral instruments.

Bruce Beresford on the set of Mao's Last Dancer

Country Life
I have always had a strange relationship with the country. We have a place, two hours drive north of Sydney hidden in the hills that is very peaceful and ideal for concentration and demanding creative work. The trouble is as soon as I get there I want to come home. I am a city person at heart. But I was utterly desperate by mid-March; after so many distractions I needed to make all the strands of Lightfall come together. So I went up four times, staying two or three nights, then returning to Sydney for a couple of days. Scurrying up and down the F3 with all the purpose of a headless chook. But it was on the final day of these country trips that I finally had the breakthrough.

Here is a calendar of the above events:
15 December 2008: Mao’s Last Dancer, wrap lunch for post-production personnel
?? January 2009: Lightfall compose Sketches 1, 2 and 3 amongst others
29 January: Play sketches on the piano to Robert Johnson
9 February: Rehearse sketches with Robert Johnson
14 February: Meet the Music Seminar
14 February: Begin new material for Daybreakers
17 February: Mix and send Daybreakers demo
20 February: Receive notes on Daybreakers demo
20-21 February: Compose Wee Dreaming
22 February: Amend the largest cue to a new cut of Wee Dreaming
22 February: Make amendments to Daybreakers demo
23 February: Mix and send the revised Daybreakers demo
25-27 February: Contacted by The Queensland Orchestra about Mao’s Last Dancer music in concert. Make audio guide of suite and send to orchestra
27 February: Orchestrate Lightfall Sketch 2 and create parts
1 March: 2pm Daybreakers recording session followed by Night Is What Remains and Lightfall Sketch 2 recording session
2 March: Edit, mix and deliver master recording of new Daybreakers music
3 March: Edit and mix Daybreakers soundtrack album to include new material
4 March: Prepare for Mao’s Last Dancer album edit and mix
5-7 March: Edit and mix Mao’s Last Dancer soundtrack album
8 March: Create structure of Mao’s Last Dancer Suite in full score
9-12 March: Escape to country to work on Lightfall - Canons 7:1, 7:3, 7:5. (related to sketches 1 and 3)
12-13 March: Work on Mao’s Last Dancer Suite
13 March: Screening of Mao’s Last Dancer film for key crew
15-18 March: Escape to country to work on Lightfall
20-22 March: Escape to country to work on Lightfall
23 March: Finish Mao’s Last Dancer Suite
24 March: Create parts for Wee Dreaming, recording session at 5pm, edit and mix into the evening
27 March: Deliver Mao’s Last Dancer Suite score to The Queensland Orchestra
27-29 March: Escape to country to work on Lightfall
29 March: Lightfall breakthrough
31 March: Film mix of Wee Dreaming