The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures (review)

Jeff Rona: The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures. A Practical Guide to the Art, Technology, and Business of Composing for Film and Television. Softcover, 2000, ISBN 0-87930-591-6, 272 pages, illustrated, appendix, resources, index; Miller Freeman, Inc., 600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, California 94107, USA; telephone (415) 808-3900; fax (415) 808-3997; electronic mail mfbooks@mfi.com; World Wide Web www.books.mfi.com

As may be gleaned from its title, The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures. A Practical Guide to the Art, Technology, and Business of Composing for Film and Television seeks to present and explain the issues associated with composing for picture. This text, which seems to be aimed at an amateur audience, does a reasonably good job at introducing one to the topics which comprise the title of the book. An easy-to-read, conversationally written book, Jeff Rona's work would never be identified as a text in the science of film scoring, but rather, as a primer to what film scoring might be about or possibly entail.

The book is laid out in three sections: The Creative Process, Technology, and Career. These three sections are then divided into chapters which deal with specific topics germane to the section under which they are located. At first glance, and specifically by looking at the chapter titles in the table of contents, I was excited at the seemingly wide array of topics Mr. Rona had undertaken to explicate in his book. Yet, upon closer scrutiny, most of these topics receive a cursory treatment at best, and there are large omissions in the worst cases.

By way of illustration, the chapter discussing cue sheets never mentions the conversion of frames to tenths or hundredths of a second, necessary to create the temporal unfolding of time within a cue. Nor do we get an idea of how a cue sheet is constructed. The use of software sometimes used to create cue sheets (and which has greatly simplified their construction) is never addressed. The same sort of treatment is given to conducting. To be fair, Mr. Rona never makes any claims that this book is a music textbook. However, I am curious as to what a person who has never studied music would make of the beat patterns which appear as an illustration. Potentially, the same sort of confusion might also occur when the non-musician happens upon the range of instruments somewhat haphazardly included as an appendix at the end of the book. These two examples typify what makes this book so disappointing: it is an introduction of a complex subject with little to no follow-through on the actual complexities of the subject at hand.

More successful are the sections of this book that avoid any direct reference to the technical or musical aspects of film scoring. The chapters dealing with career issues are quite effective in their presentation, especially the interviews with a music supervisor, composers agent, and film studio music executive. It is interesting to hear these professionals expound on the nature of the film music industry. Also engaging, but perhaps less illuminating, are the various interviews with established Hollywood film-score composers. One would have hoped to learn more of these composers' musical thoughts, rather than the largely anecdotal reportage that is often present in these interviews.

Although well written, very motivational, and encouraging (given the fierce competition in the field of film scoring), Mr. Rona's work is often long on charm and short on substance. In our time, when almost anyone can set up a basement studio and call themselves an "electronic musician," it is not surprising that a book such as the one under review can find its way into the marketplace and be greeted with success. Indeed, our consumer electronic music culture has spawned an entire generation of music-makers who can eschew any formal musical training whatsoever. To be sure...