Score 4th draft: Chase

Here is just the music:

And mixed in with the sound:

To Premult or not to Premult

Now, I've known that 3D elements rendered out of Maya need to unpremultiplied before compositing, but I still wasn't sure when exactly I needed to do it.

I stumbled onto a document at work today that explains the rule:

1. Unpremult before any color correction, and pre-mult after
   
2. There's no need to unpremult before filtering options like blur because these operations should affect the alpha channel
   

Example:

Without un-premultiplying:

With: 

It's subtle, but the white 1-pixel halo around the green character's arm is gone. 

Score 3rd draft

New hat cue:

Score 2nd Draft

Intro v2 (with strings):

Intro v2 (without strings):

Hat Sequence:

Ending v2 (tweaked beginning, and also continues all the way through the credits):

*********************

My thoughts:

• The new intro I think matches the mood of my film better, but at the same time, I kind of like the music in the old one better. However, the flute sounds much better in the new one.
  
• I didn't really like the hat cue at all, it seems too flourishy and ornamental. I think something a lot simpler might work better. I'm not sure if I even need music in this section.
  
• For the ending cue, I like the part when  the credits start playing, but I'm wondering if the tabla beat is too upbeat. The other instruments sound great to me, including the harp that he worked in.
  

Score 1st Draft

My composer is Ludwig Goransson, a graduate of USC's Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television (SMPTV) program. He's worked on the following cues so far:

Beginning:

End:

I had some notes for him, but I think it's a strong start and I'm excited about the rest of the score.