U of L student scores top-winning film
June 26th, 2006
Brad Ritchie
By Janene Zaccone
Call it serendipity.
On a whim last October, University of Louisville music major Brad Ritchie text-messaged Sam Day, a high school acquaintance studying film production at Ball State University, to ask him questions about film scores.
“Film music has always been my thing,” Ritchie said. “I’m a dork about it.”
In June, Ritchie was with Day and Travis Hatfield, also of Ball State, when they collected a gold medal for their short film “Perspective” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Student Academy Awards. The picture took first place in the Alternative Category at the annual competition. Ritchie wrote the score. And even though it was his first such experience, he made major contributions to the film’s success.
“He definitely deserves a lot of credit on this,” Day said. “We wouldn’t have won without his music.”
Ritchie’s wasn’t the only U of L contribution to “Perspective.” Music industry major Barry Smith wrote three songs used in the film; the University Orchestra, under director Kimcherie Lloyd, recorded Ritchie’s score, making it the only live soundtrack in the competition; and professor and mentor John La Barbera guided Ritchie through the technical side of the scoring process—which sometimes seemed to overwhelm the creative side.
There was a lot of math involved, such as charting the length of each scene and writing the music to fit the length, Ritchie noted. This meant answering such tough questions as “How do you make a complete musical thought in 20 seconds?”
The film’s format also posed challenges.
“The story [written by Andy Burt] is about Danny who is trying to restart a relationship with this ex-girlfriend,” Day said. That’s simple enough on the surface, but the audience, via split screens, can see and hear inside the characters’ minds.
This meant Ritchie needed to write to the visual sidebars in some places and to the main action in others. In one short span with multiple sidebars, his score goes from music with a Middle Eastern feel to a brass band and a hoedown.
“The music makes a lot of the scenes,” Day said. “He [Ritchie] never went over the top. I think the judges noticed that.”
Despite bouncing ideas off Hatfield and Day and taking direction from their vision for the film, Ritchie said he learned that scoring a film is a “lot of boring time spent in a room by yourself. It is not a social career. You have to be able to work under intense pressure.”
By writing a score for a 70-piece orchestra in only three monthes, he showed he can do that. He proved it again by scoring a second film for Hatfield during finals week.
“People ask, ‘Where do you find inspiration?’,” Ritchie said. “I find inspiration in fear—fear of knowing I have to get it done or be out of a job.”
One of the perks of the Student Academy Awards is spending a week in Los Angeles before the award ceremony to network and learn more about the craft of filmmaking.
“We didn’t meet Hollywood big shots as much as we met other students,” Ritchie said. But, according to La Barbera, that is almost as beneficial. Film people, he told Ritchie, meet up while they’re young and go through their careers together.
If so, start watching film credits for the names Hatfield, Day and Ritchie. And, keep an eye out for future Oscar nominations. According to the Los Angeles Times, 33 Student Academy Award winners, including Spike Lee, have gone on to receive professional Oscar nominations.
Related Link
The Feedroom: USA Today, award-nominee film clips
