Background

Descore features 15 specially commissioned digital shorts by Melbourne filmmakers - 7 live action directors and 8 animators. These filmmakers have been teamed with 15 composers to explore innovative approaches to composing music for film. Involving eclectic instrumentation, electronic processing and advanced studio post-production, the 15 shorts provide an audiovisual experience to audiences seeking something different in film music.

All the digital shorts are mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 - some enhanced by live score accompaniment. Descore premiered at ACMI’s large Cinema 2 with digital projection over two nights. Descore combined accessible digital filmmaking technology with bold and audacious experimentation in sound-image fusion. It was curated and produced by Philip Brophy, with funding by Arts Victoria (Music For The Future) & support from ACMI & Sound Punch Records.

Credits

Curator & mastering - Philip Brophy

2004

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne

Overview

While film music is a growing and exciting area, there is comparatively little in-depth information available on either the history of innovation in this field, the ways in which music can be inventively employed in non-mainstream/blockbuster films, and how film scores can be produced at the industrial and professional levels with these concerns. Descore provides an introduction to this field of information.

Rather than simply propose successful mainstream models – which are dictated by the broadest audience appeal, astronomical budgets, and a Hollywood version of entertainment – Descore is seeking to excite more through innovation than slick conventionalism alone. To achieve this, a range of directors and composers with arts-backgrounds have been chosen to be involved in producing innovative/experimental audiovisual works. The Descore project is then a sort of laboratory for people to explore ways in which audiovision can be produced outside of the pressures usually brought to bear by the film industry on artistic endeavours.

Further to these artistic, professional and industrial issues, Descore draws attention to a major development in the entertainment industries: surround sound (i.e. ways of mixing and presenting films and videos with encoded Dolby Surround and Digital 5.1 audio tracks). In particular, Descore pushes composers to consider composing and mixing their scores in surround formats and to be aware of spatialization during the compositional process rather than apply it at the mix stage alone. Philip has been the technical advisor for most of the music mixes for Descore working from his facility Gelatin.

Technical

Descore 1

ANYBODY HOME?
Director, Camera operator, Editor - Rosemary Dean
Technical advisor - Shimauchi Tetsuro
Composer, Guitars & drums, Score producer/engineer - Philip Brophy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy
Studio/mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Aoki Toshiya of Matsudo Museum

MEATWORKS
Director, Editor - Cassandra Tytler
Concept - Gabi Barton, Carla Yamine
Performers - The Town Bikes (Gabi Barton & Carla Yamine) with San Dell’anno
Cinematographer - Lucia Di Mauro
Gaffer - Chris Mitchell
Production designer, Art director - Gabi Barton & Cassandra Tytler
Wardrobe - Lisa Smith & Kim White
Composer, Score producer/engineer, Music mix, all instruments/vocals - Gus Franklin
Studio - Wimble Manor
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Gus Franklin & Philip Brophy
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Philip Brophy, Marieke Hardy, Isobel Knowles, Pete Lawler, Dan Luscombe, Simon Nugent, Engelbert Schmidl, Excell Butchers - Carlton, Haima Marriott, James Cecil, Isobel Knowles, Kim White, Lachlan Franklin, Ben Browning, Shags and Donza of the Ca$inos' Universe, Mark Wilson in kind, Ron for counselling and panic attack prevention.

TOOLS DOWN
Director, Cinematographer, Editor - Pasquale Battista
Composer, Samples/processing, Score producer - Finn Robertson
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Katrina Damien, J.Furphy & Sons

TWIN SHARE Director, Writer, 'The Man', Editor, Sound designer - Dominic Redfern
Cinematographer - Michael Quinlan
Location Sound - Jennifer Sochackyj
Composer, Guitars & processing, Score producer/engineer/mix - Tim Catlin
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy & Tim Catlin
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Michael Quinlan, Anna Finlayson, Andrea Maksimovic, Jo Jepsen

ONE LAST LOOK
Director, editor - Lucia Di Mauro
Camera operators - Lucia Di Mauro & Isobel Knowles
Camera Assistants - Anne Perrie & Cassandra Tytler
Performers - Karl Bartl, Anna-Cecilia Guzman, Dwight Pacquino, Connie Palermo, Engel Schmidl & Cassandra Tytler
Sound Recording - Isobel Knowles
Composer, Score producer/engineer - Isobel Knowles
Performers - Isobel Knowles, Haima Marriott, Jonathan Tjhia
Studio - Super Melody World
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Isobel Knowles & Cornel Wilczeck
Mix facility - Casa Studio
Special thanks - Jarrod Cross, Damian Gibson, Sacha Lucas, Martin Sleeman, Rachel Tropea & everyone who invited us into their bathrooms. Clare Morris, Kim White

HIDDEN LATITUDES OF TRUTH & NON-TRUTH
Director, Camera operator, Editor, Sets - Geoff Robinson
Composer, Score producer/engineer/mix - Phillip Pietruschka
Cello - Anthea Caddy
Vibraphone - Andrew Barrie
Studio - Jika Jika Community Centre
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Phillip Pietruschka
Studio/mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - P&0 Trans Australia, Laresa Kosloff, Eric Gorton, Jennifer Sochackyj, Philip Brophy, James Cecil & Haima Marriott of Super Melody World

WORDS IN MOUTH VOICE IN HEAD (ANNA)
Director, Writer, Camera operator, Editor, Voice recording - Philip Brophy
'The Girl' - Anna Anderson
Composer, Score producer/engineer - Leigh Ryan
Studio - Plutonic Lab
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy
Studio/mix facility - Gelatin
Special Thanks - Jennifer Sochackyj @ RMIT Media Arts

Descore 2

HE’S - SHE’S (MINK ENGINE)
Director - Holly-Anne Buck
Producer, Writer - Holly-Anne Buck & Adam Milburn
Stop-motion camera, Art director/costumes/props, Storyboard/digital imaging - Holly-Anne Buck
Composer - Adam Milburn
All instruments & programming, Score producer/engineer/mix - Adam Milburn
Vocals - Holly-Anne Buck & Adam Milburn
Studio - Chez Mink
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Adam Milburn
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Philip Brophy, Moira Corby, Aaron Mcloughlin, Willy Beecher

I WAS MADE FOR LOVING YOU
Director, Editor, Artwork/drawing - Ian Haig
Edit facility - Baby Fat
Composer, Samples/processing, Score producer/engineer/mix - Nat Bates
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Nat Bates
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Martine Corompt

YOUNG ADULT THINKS
Director, Writer, Editor, Location camera - Emile Zile
Performers - Natalie Kumpis, Marcus Griffin, Justine Poplin, Jane Ryan, Alister Campbell, Konstantin Zile, Jason Heller, Clare O’Connell
Composer, Samples/processing, Score producer - Pat Donlon (Spacey Space)
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy & Pat Donlon
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks RMIT Media Arts, Jennifer Sochackyj, Mandross: Destroyer Of Worlds

DEVIL EYES
Director, Producer, Writer, Storyboard, Artwork/drawing - Paul Robertson
Editor - Editor & Cornel Wilczeck
Composer, All instruments, Score engineer & producer - Cornel Wilczeck
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Cornel Wilczeck
Mix facility - Casa Studio

LOVELY LOWLIFE
Director, Editor, Artwork/drawing - Martine Corompt
Lyrics - James Cecil & Martine Corompt
Composer, Score producer/engineer/mix - James Cecil
Vocals - James Cecil & Isobel Knowles
Drums/keyboards/guitars - James Cecil
Electric odessy guitar - Cornel Wilczeck
Bass, Drum technician- Haima Marriott
Studio - Super Melody World
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - James Cecil & Cornel Wilczeck
Mix facility - Wheelchair Access
Special thanks - Pauline Tran, Cornel Wilczek, Haima Marriott, Isobel Knowles, Peter Barrett

MADE OF BROKEN GLASS
Director, Producer, Writer, Editor, Storyboard, Artwork/drawing - Ross Williams
Composer, Vocals & guitars, Score producer/engineer/mix - Sianna Lee
Drums - Joe Hammond
Score producer/engineer/mix - Sianna Lee & Thembi Soddell
Studio - Thembi’s Love Den
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy & Sianna Lee
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Love Outside Andromeda, Joel Zika, Philip Brophy, Joe Hammond, Thembi Soddell

NOW YOU KNOW
Director, Writer, Artwork/drawing - George Stajsic
Composer, Samples, keyboards, guitars, Score engineer/producer/mix - Carl Anderson (twö4k)
Studio - Infinite Lab
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Carl Anderson & Philip Brophy
Mix facility - Gelatin

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE
Director, Writer, Editor, Artwork/drawing - Phip Murray
Composer, All voices & instruments, Score engineer/producer - Philip Brophy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix - Philip Brophy
Mix facility - Gelatin
Special thanks - Todd Hunter, Joanna Piggot & Dragon, Martine Corompt, Tristian-Karl Koenig, Madeleine Griffith, Lesley Murray, Rob Murray