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Track 9A - Performance
A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: THE MIND-BRAIN DISTINCTION
Presenter(s): Brieanna Mangette
Faculty sponsor(s): Darin Kamstra
My brother thinks of a lot of interesting things, but he has a bad habit of keeping it all to himself. I asked him to write an essay on one of his ideas for us to explore today. In the essay, he toys with the idea of the mind and the brain being two separate entities using ideas such as how we see color. While he takes this opportunity to experiment with new ideas, I take the same chance to do something different with my composing. I attempt to visualize the separation between the abstract mind and the concrete brain in the movements of my mallets. The Mind-Brain Distinction is one section of a three part series called “The Thought Process” exploring this idea.
Track 9B - Oral Presentation
DESIGNING A FILM SCORE
Presenter(s): Nicholas Carozza
Faculty sponsor(s): William Aikens, Darin Kamstra
Movie soundtrack music can make the difference between a box office success and a film that leaves a lukewarm taste in your mouth. In my project, I will describe the process and inspiration for my original film score composed for The Vaxx, a film by Taylor Mahoney, a student of the WCCC Digital Filmmaking program. The influences for my soundrack are various movie scores, including the synthesizer scores of John Carpenter, various 80s and 90s horror scores, and specifically, the score for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, which was recorded by an orchestra joined by the CMU professor Tim Emmons. By synthesizing my music and studying knowledge of communication, I used facial cues of actors for musical inspiration and created a score for the film. My presentation will show the music for the film as it is related to each character and scenario, along with a description of the digital instruments used within Ableton Live to create the score. I will also describe the math involved in timing of BPM with scenes, and the collaboration process between composer and director.