DOUGLAS ROMAYNE: Expressing the Inexpressible Available At iTunes Film Music Downloads CD BABY “...Rocketboy, has a magical, Elfmanian quality. Again, thematic ideas make the music immediately engaging. Much of this particular score is best described as a cross between Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Edward Scissorhands...” — Steven A. Kennedy, Film Score Monthly Online, 6.19.07 “...Quirky humour dominates Romayne's score for Rocketboy...and the jaunty tempo of "Something Unusual" is enhanced by the use of expressive, woody vibes and chimes, while "Accountant's Dream" introduces the film's main theme on chimes, and an appropriately cheesy Ondes Martinot sample that recalls some of Danny Elfman's cheeky music for Tim Burton's early comedies...” — Mark R. Hasan, KQEK, 08.27.07

SCORE COMMENTS

One of my favorite aspects of writing music for film is the variety - variety in genre, stories, visual style and subsequently musical styles. Justin Guerrieri's ROCKETBOY offered me the chance to create a score unlike any I'd done. To Justin's credit, he didn't assume that just because I hadn't written a score like this before that I couldn't write a score like this.

The film is a quirky fairy-tale with a fine balance of character-driven humor and heart. One of the stated goals for the music was that it not sound like typical film music. This is a request I hear often. It is also the most difficult to actually define as there is more variety in sounds and approaches in film music today than at any other time in film history. Add in the different experiences we each have with music and you can easily encounter a situation in which a sound that is unique and satisfactory to one person may be old news to another. It is imperative that director and composer talk in specific detail about what terms like "typical," "traditional," "fresh," "unique" mean to them. Temp music can be very useful at times like these and Justin had put together a comprehensive collection of songs and film cues for me to listen to. That said, it is always my goal to bring my own musical sensibilities to a project and not just "rip the temp" or mimic the sound of the temp.

In those discussions of how to make this score not typical, I realized that we were not only talking about a specific sound palette, but also the role of the music in the scene. In this case, non-typical meant keeping a bit more distance emotionally from the characters. Since the perspective of the music informs the audience's emotional perspective, it was essential that the music maintain the sense that this is still a fairy-tale and therefore neither the music nor the audience needed to be as stressed or confused as the characters.

The sound palette we chose was a variety of toy or child-like instruments including a Schoenhut toy piano, acoustic piano, vibes, glock, percussion and winds. Thanks to the AFM low budget contract, the live elements include session players Chris Bleth on winds and MB Gordy on percussion, drums and zipper.