GAME MUSIC THAT TELLS A STORY:

How I composed the music for the Echoes of the Plum Grove game trailer.

I should start by saying... I have no idea. That's right, every time I start a creative project, I literally have no idea what to expect or how on earth my brain will think in the creative way that it needs to for any particular project. I'll be the first to tell you how daunting that feeling can be. And oftentimes this can lead to writer's block right from the get-go. In my opinion, the goal with any creative project is to lean into how daunting it may seem at first, allowing you to free up some much needed brain space for creative thinking. That might seem counter-intuitive, but just hear me out.

Acknowledging first what the end goal is, and then how much work is needed to achieve it, will enable you to compartmentalize everything that needs to get done. Allowing you to lay it all out in an organized fashion. Anyone in any creative field will be the first to tell you how important organization is. When a creative project is organized, the end goal no longer seems as daunting, allowing freedom in creativity and ultimately ridding yourself of that potential initial writer's block.

How does this apply to organizing a project like writing the music to a game trailer? First off, ask yourself... what is the end goal?

CREATING YOUR COMPOSITIONAL BLUEPRINT

STEP 1: DEFINING THE END GOAL

The end goal can look different for everyone, but for me, it's not finishing the music. It's completing the emotion of the story being told.

I know that sounds super hipster, melodramatic, and probably annoying. But for me it's true. Music is made to serve an emotion, always. At least that's my opinion on music, be it for film, tv, games, or in a band setting. When I write music for my band Among Authors or any other music project, I constantly ask myself the same question throughout the entire process... "Is the emotion coming through in the music?" If not, I re-evaluate the process and re-work the project until the answer is a definitive 'yes' to that question. It's also important to note that when talking about emotion, that word can often be misconstrued to mean one thing, sad. This is not what I mean when speaking about emotional story telling through music. Yes, sad music is lovely and something I personally indulge in, but life is full of so many other beautiful emotions, and it's your job to figure out which emotion the project is trying to convey.

For example, if you feel overwhelmed about your particular creative project and feel like everything is on fire, then your current emotional status might be one of eminent danger, but I can assure you, you've got this... I mean, just look at this fella, painting in the flames, he seems to thrive under pressure. Only, let's try to extinguish a few of those flames before we even get started, shall we?

Once you've figured out what your end goal is, then it's time to move on to the next step... eating, drinking lots of water, and sleeping. No seriously, don't forget to do all of these things, your body will thank you later. I forget all the time, and my body does not thank me. I'm willing to bet many of you are also like me once you get into the zone, but remembering to do those three key things for your body will save you many aches and pains, and end up serving you well in the creative thinking department.

Okay, onto the next official step in the process...

STEP 2: TRAILER BREAKDOWN

What is a trailer breakdown? First off, that's not some fancy industry term, it's my own simple terminology and I'm sure many people have called this crucial step many different things. However, it doesn't change how insanely important this step is for composing music to a trailer, be it film, tv, or video games. Especially for something like the Echoes of the Plum Grove Kickstarter trailer, which was essentially fully edited before I got my hands on it.

Trailers that are fully edited visually before any music is written to them, poses a massive challenge for the composer, in that you often times have very specific story beats that you're trying to hit in a matter of seconds, with no wiggle room for re-editing the video later to match the music.

This being the case for me, it was crucial that I did a thorough trailer breakdown within my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, I use PreSonus Studio One). This first step in the breakdown consisted of inserting the video into my Studio One audio project. I then watched the video within my project and added markers on a time ruler for all scene changes and story beats I felt would need various changes in the music to convey the story properly. You can see in the screenshot below some of the various markers (in grey) at the top in the time ruler. I was descriptive enough when labeling them that I was quickly able to glance at them and remind myself of which scene was coming up and what it entailed.

A bit later in this article I'll dive deeper into what all of these markers or changes in a trailer can mean for the actual music, instruments used, and decisions taken to make a cohesive composition that tells the story in an emotionally convincing way. But first, lets finish our organization, creating tracks within our session.

STEP 3: CREATING ALL TRACKS AND INSTRUMENTS

Congratulations, you are finally at the very first creative step of a long creative journey with your trailer! Here is where you outline the instruments you plan to use, the tones you think will work best, and ultimately the tracks you'll create to get it all done.

Okay, so maybe creating ALLLLL the tracks and instruments before you start writing the music is an overstatement. BUT, you should give yourself a healthy head start so you can move quickly and creatively throughout the writing and recording process.

At this stage in the game (ha, pun intended, get it, because we're talking about a game trailer) you need to try to conceptualize the audio by watching the the video, possibly multiple times over. Get familiar with the silent video and really try to put yourself into the world that's being shown.

In my case, finding the right instruments to use was made a bit easier since by this point, I had already been working on composing the entire soundtrack for the game, so I already knew most of the instruments I wanted to use for the trailer. So for me, this part of the process consisted of opening my original session with all of my soundtrack work, and creating a template that I could use for my trailer session.

That all being said, there were still plenty of new things to think about in this trailer, and plenty of tracks and instruments I needed to create from scratch.

Regardless of your situation or trailer project, in my opinion the process is the same, conceptualize what the audio will sound like tonally by using the silent video as a reference.

Pay attention to the major details, like whether a certain scene is sad, happy, fun, etc. But more importantly, pay attention to the small details that can often dictate the types of sounds and instruments you might want to use for a particular scene. For instance, whether or not a scene is outside, what type of weather is occurring, or which season it's in. Is the character in a forest, a cave, on top of a cloud? Are you inside? If so, what's the decor look like? What's the time period? What are the characters doing, how are they moving? These are all questions you should ask yourself when creating your sonic palette and blueprint for your composition.

Once you have a good amount of tracks and instruments created within your session, then it's time for the funnest part, writing the music! You can always add more tracks and instruments later, or delete some you may not end up using. Having fluidity when writing music is essential.

COMPOSING THE MUSIC

STEP 4: THE START OF SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, A MOTIF

What is that that beautiful thing you're starting you may ask? Well it's not the beginning of the trailer, it's the motif! Even in a singular piece of music that is a minute and a half long, you should always ask yourself early on if a motif can be worked in. This will allow the listener to feel familiar with the music and ultimately remember it. When it's a short piece of music, this can almost be thought of like a chorus in a pop song. But on larger projects with multiple songs, a Motif is a version of a main theme that can be altered in different ways to keep the listener familiarized with the music, yet surprised by how it evolves and changes throughout grand scope of the project.

A motif is defined in music as a short succession of notes producing a single impression; a brief melodic or rhythmic formula out of which longer passages are developed.

Let's start by watching the fully finished trailer with all the music. Then I will circle back and deep dive into all the various components of the music and why I made the decisions I did, with timestamp links to each section of the video I'm talking about.

Okay, here's the finished trailer with the music!

Now that you've watched the finished trailer with the music, notice how my motif comes in during all the outside scenes where the character is walking through the various parts of the world. The first motif section is introduced at the 00:23 second mark, and them comes in again with some new instrumentation at the 1:00 minute mark.

This would be a good time to enable your virtual instrument of choice (one of which I'm hoping you already added to your session). This instrument should be one that allows you to write fairly quickly. In my case this is a piano virtual instrument. Keep in mind you can obviously use a real instrument for this process as well. Whatever will get you thinking quick and efficiently!

Having a motif can also help set you up for composing the rest of the trailer, so dig in and see what you can create!

STEP 5: HITTING ALL YOUR MARKERS

Alright this is the big one, the step that should probably be it's own article! It's not though, soooo, keep reading...

In this step I am going to cram in all the most important markers I felt I had to hit in this trailer. I'll lay them out in bullet point style with timestamps to each marker in the video so you can reference what I'm talking about. Let's go!

• 00:00 The Beginning - When the trailer opens up at the beginning, I wanted to create a sense of awaited adventure, since the characters were boarding the boat to set sail! I also wanted to make sure I was hanging onto some notes rather than immediately jumping into a song, so that it felt like the trailer could go somewhere and get more developed later on. Side note, I like to do little things like add an instrument at a time when something pops on screen, in this case a french horn is added when the "You set off for a new life" text comes on screen. It's important to be mindful when doing things like this though, as they can actually hinder the composition if not done carefully or tastefully.
• 00:06 Tragedy Strikes - In this scene, the mood quickly shifts from eager adventurers to characters quite literally holding on for dear life as a storm hits the boat in the middle of the ocean. Tonally I was trying to achieve an open water sense of despair with sounds that feel dark but could also subconsciously make the listener think of a whale or foghorn from a boat. I knew this would be a pivotal moment in the trailer that if done correctly, could add a ton of suspense, and at the same time help setup the scene that follows it with the right amount of emotional shift. This is the start of what I mentioned earlier when I said that one of the biggest challenges will be potentially having to hit story beats every few seconds!
• 00:14 Waking Up - In this scene the girl wakes up not knowing where she is, but there is a sense of calm and a fresh start. You can almost think of this as a second start to the trailer in a sense. This is how I needed it to be interpreted in order to feel like a new beginning. I started with flutes, to give some sort of indicator as to a pleasant start to a morning. You'll notice I added another flute run right when the girl awakens and sits up. I thought this was a nice way to work a sound for the animation even though it was still part of the music.
• 00:19 Waking Up: Scene Transition - This scene is a transitional scene between the girl waking up and her getting outside to start exploring the world. It's set in a living room and believe it or not, this one was actually pretty difficult. I needed to somehow stretch out my original idea in the Wake Up scene so that it could extend through this transitional scene. That way I could prolong the eager feeling of knowing that something exciting was coming, but you haven't gotten there yet. I achieved this by adding a few more bars and introducing french horns on top of the flutes and clarinets that were already in the mix. I also made sure to write uplifting chords that could pick the listener/watcher up a bit to indicate to them that things were still to come!
• 00:23 Exploring The Outside World - Okay, here it is, the motif I mentioned in step 4! This motif acted as a tool for which I could extended more easily or shorten up depending on how I wanted the next section to transition. This gave me some crucial wiggle room to fine tune getting in and out of a few sections. When I wrote the motif, I wanted to make sure it had a bit of a bounce if you will. This was achieved with the use of an upright bass. This want came from watching the characters interact and how they walked. They all seemed to have a slight bounce in their step, and I felt like this was a fun way to tie that into the music. It also helped direct more of what the motif could sound like. I made a very important decision when writing for the outside world in this first outside world segment, in that I decided to let the motif carry on into the next two small indoor scenes. This was because I knew I needed to hit the holiday scene that follows, and it would have been way too many tiny transitions to get in and out of three different scenes in a matter of a few seconds. It would have totally broken the flow. Alright, onto easily the hardest part of the trailer... the holiday scene...
• 00:49 Holiday Party - Call me crazy, but I reallllly wanted to make sure I had a super festive sounding shift in the music to make it feel like you just jumped straight into a holiday party when this scene hits! To do that was easier said than done hahaha. But eventually I got it. I ended up shaping the music before this scene so that it would rest on four beats which would eventually be the count into the holiday scene. I needed this break as I was transition from a 4/4 count into a waltz! I made sure to add some classic sleigh bells and some other bell sounds to help achieve the festive cheer! That being said, I did want to make sure I didn't go overboard with bells, otherwise it would have felt like a massive distraction. I was trying to walk that line of an abrupt change in scenery and setting, but still make it feel fluid. The wedding scene comes right out of the holiday party scene just as soon as the holiday party is getting started, which was also a difficult transition to achieve!
• 00:52 The Wedding - So this scene used an instrumentation transition. Meaning, I used the bells from the holiday party scene (not the sleigh bells, the other bells) and brought them over into the wedding scene. I also introduced a new, more emotional sounding string sound at the tail end of the holiday party scene to bring me over into the wedding scene, at which point I carried it through the rest of the wedding scene. I needed some familiarity from the scene before it since I was also dropping the tempo and going back to 4/4. I also added a piano in this scene as it fits nicely with a wedding feel and would also help me transition into the next scene, which was the birth of a new baby!
• 00:57 A New Baby - This baby scene happens quick, such is life after a wedding... hehe...annnyways. I pulled out the bells in this scene and really just focused on piano and that emotional string sound I talked about in the wedding scene. This string sound is essential for evoking an emotional response, and it can be used in a beautiful happy way, but also in a very sad way (which I bring back in the funeral scene later). Next up,
• 01:01 Exploring The Outside World, Part 2 - This is where the motif comes back in! But this time I add some different instrumentation to spice it up! I purposely left the first iteration of the motif earlier in the trailer a bit sparse, so that when I brought it back this time I could do more with it! I add a little clarinet run which feels nice, and a french horn to pick things up before the strings come back in! I also added a nice tiny flute run that only happens when the character is in the forest so that it takes the listen/watcher into that forest, even if for a split second. That timestamp is at 01:14.
• 01:23 The Funeral - This is one of my favorite scenes, why? Because I'm dark and love beautifully sad moments in life. There's something about allowing yourself to feel that pain, so you can healthily work through it ya know? Anyways, this is not a therapy session, so onward! In the previous scene I purposely kept going up and up with the motif so that I could really drop it when the funeral hits. Once the funeral scene hits, I drop out all the instrumentation except for those really emotional strings. I obviously also switch from major to minor key. You didn't think I was going to keep the song in major through the funeral scene did you? I mean wow, I'm not that morbid. This funeral scene sets up the last scene perfectly, as I'm able to bring those strings right into the next scene!
• 01:30 The Lantern Outro - This is the outro scene! The scene that should feel as though the entire trailer has been wrapped up into one nice, pleasant, soothing feeling package. It's a slow zoom out of the village at night with multiple lanterns being lit and let off into the sky! Both the funeral scene and this lantern outro scene, utilize a slow zoom out, so strings work perfect in scenes like this just for that reason alone. They help accentuate the slow zoom out. Like I mentioned previously, this particular string sound works perfect for both sad scenes, and other not so sad, but still emotional scenes, like this lantern outro. I figured it would be nice to let the music pause for a brief second after the funeral, so that those strings could come back in but this time really just with some held notes. Again, I also added a few little parts when the Kickstart splash logo pops up, just to help bring attention to it. annnnd we're done! ..... or are we....
• 01:42 Bonus Scene: Witches! - This is just a fun little scene in which I decided music would ruin it, so instead I added an underlying synth-ish chord to help accentuate the sound fx that were already in the scene!

TO WRAP IT ALL UP

I would like to finish with this, and maybe I should have led with it instead, but oh well, it's at the bottom of the article now!

I am not classically trained, I taught myself how to play piano. In fact I hated my high school band class growing up. I also taught myself how to record and mix music. I play by ear and use life as my inspirations, as we all do. My life has been so focused on my band Among Authors. But I absolutely love games and the stories they can tell. I feel so fortunate to work on my first game soundtrack for Unwound Games and Echoes of the Plum Grove. It has been such a learning process, one of which I will also write another article about, detailing my time spent writing a 25+ song soundtrack for the game! But, for now, you just get an article about one of the trailers I worked on instead! :)

If interested, there are only a few more days left of the Kickstarter campaign so go pitch in now and get some cool gifts!

If you have a game that needs music, or sound, please reach out to me via my sound design company BleepBloop Audio! I would love to help make your games go bleep bloop!

Here's the final trailer with music one more time, in case you missed in the middle of the article:

Talk soon!

Ian Ketterer

Composer & Sound Designer at BleepBloop Audio