“To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.” – Quentin Tarantino
Singer-songwriter Micheal Pulse recently shared his journey in music scoring with The Weekender. Pulse has five years’ experience in the music and film industry and has worked on music for ‘The White Line’, ‘Salute!’ and now ‘Kapana’ – the latter two by film-maker Phillipe Talavera.
“A film score is music that helps inform the storyline of a film. It’s also used to emphasise a scene or the emotions of a character,” Pulse says.
Music scoring is no easy task, he says.
“Sometimes it requires out-of-the-box thinking, because each piece of music is created specifically for an individual moment. Sometimes that piece has to be broken down into even smaller pieces,” he says.
Pulse says getting the ‘feel’ of the music to fit a scene is challenging, but not much different to other projects he has worked on.
“They are not all that different, because the music I create usually comes from a place of storytelling, and things I have gone through. Same goes for music scoring. The scene or character will dictate what type of music is needed to enhance the scene or the character’s journey through the film.”
Pulse worked alongside producer Ponti Dikua for the scoring of ‘Kapana’, and Talavera praised his work on Facebook recently.
“Micheal Pulse did a beautiful song for ‘Salute!’. I was so happy he agreed to co-write the music of ‘Kapana’ with Ponti. He is incredibly talented as a songwriter and storyteller. His music has meaning and his voice . . . It is a huge privilege for a film like ‘Kapana’ to feature an artist of this calibre.”
Pulse says each of the films he has worked on required a unique approach.
“The film scoring for ‘The White Line’ called for us to look at the characters and what they were going through, and so the music changed according to where the characters’ journeys were in the film – whether it was a breaking heart or the beginning of love,” he says.
In ‘Salute’, Pulse created ‘Medusa Love’ for the raunchy gay sex scene, and mentions this song is about love found in the most unlikely places.
“The music for ‘Kapana’ needed to express the ups and downs of the lead characters. So each piece plays a role in telling a story, what the character is doing or going through in the film.”
‘Kapana’ will premiere at Ster-Kinekor Grove Mall on Thursday, 6 August, at 19h00.
Due to social distancing, only 100 tickets will be available to the public, so check out the film’s Facebook page for more.
