Music in Film: What is Important?

A Conversation with Stephen B. Ward

In addition to over 30 years as an educator in Music Technology, Stephen B. Ward is a composer and an active performer, playing keyboards and singing with several musical artists, including Uncle Izzy, The Beeps, Mimi Maura and Tundra Ghosts. Film scoring credits include Murder Too Sweet (1994), Eternal Memory: Voices from the Great Terror (1997), original score for Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend (1906, score 2000), Frontline: Juvenile Justice (2001), and Some Jobs Are Simple (2009). He is currently Associate Professor and Program Director of Music Production & Recording Arts at Mercy College.

How have you seen music technologies change and evolve over the years?

Stephen B. Ward: As a musician, I’ve been recording and working professionally with audio technology since the late 1970s. Over that career, I’ve seen first-hand how the music industry moved from analog 24-track tape recorders, to digital recorders, to software-based recording on the computer. Over that same period, I’ve seen film soundtracks move from sprocketed “mag” tape, physically synchronized to the film stock on a Moviola editing bed, to multitrack tape decks synchronized to video via SMPTE time code, to hard disk nonlinear-editing systems like Final Cut. That’s all be spurred by two innovations, a move to digital audio and video media and the personal computer.

At the high end of the budget spectrum, there will always be a place for shooting on film stock or recording on analog tape, but I think the ease and flexibility of computer-based systems make the old ways of working obsolete, or at best, a luxury. On the plus side, the low cost of computer-based systems has greatly democratized the process of making films and of scoring for films. As a result, we are hearing and seeing great work from traditionally underrepresented directors and composers.