Report Essay Soundtrack for Aeon Flux ‘War’

The goal of this essay is to explain how the soundtrack for animation Aeon Flux ‘War’ was developed. In addition, the ideas, influences, themes and applied production processes will be discussed in detail. After that, a critical and objective evaluation about the effectiveness of the whole soundtrack will be presented.

To begin with, the main concept of the assignment was to capture Foley effects and compose original music for the Aeon Flux ‘War’ animation. Foley is commonly known as a process of recording various sounds and manually matching them with the movement of film (ref) (ref). This process is widely applied in film post-production stage because most of the time sounds apart character dialogs are being lost while recording. In this particular assignment, most of the required Foley effects were captured and implemented. While Foley seems to be important, the actual music is more crucial in a film. With its help, the picture is able to convey moods and emotions (ref1) (ref2). This allows the viewer to feel like they are a part of the film and experience the storyline in more depth.

The influences for the soundtrack derived from various and contrasting artists. Both Hollywood type (cinematic) and contemporary electronic music genres inspired the project. The blend of these two different music worlds shaped the output of the soundtrack to become more unique and original.

The ideas for the orchestral style of music mostly came from well known film scores such as Jaws by John Williams and The Bourne Supremacy by John Powell. Identical suspense and fear motifs from Williams's Jaws were implemented into Aeon Flux's 'War' ending scene (ref) (ref). This worked effectively as the last scene of 'War' required some sort of a frighte...

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...ve them stand out and not to be masked by the composition.

To make orchestral instruments sound more natural, alterations in their dynamics were applied. For example, staccato string notes used different velocity levels in order to emphasise certain phrases. Also, such techniques as crescendo and diminuendo were implemented in some spots to add variations (Ref) (ref). Additional changes that are occurring throughout the soundtrack are tempo variations, which scale between 100 and 140 beats per minute. In addition, different time signatures of 3/8 and 4/8 were applied in some scenes. This added more interest and originality rather than using the traditional 4/4 structure (ref?). It is also important to mention that all orchestral drum patters were programmed by hand (without any loops). As a result, a more precise rhythm adaptation to the overall picture was gained.