From 12 May to 5 June, students on Trempo’s ‘Composing for the screen’ course enjoyed an immersive experience at the crossroads of music and film. As part of their course, these artist-musicians, who already have a solid instrumental or vocal background as well as skills in composition, arrangement and computer-assisted music (CAM), worked on creating soundtracks for short films made by Cinécréatis students.
This educational collaboration enabled the apprentice composers to confront a central exercise in their future profession: using music to serve an audiovisual work and the intentions of its director. For this project, they used the short film “Entre deux regards”, directed by Louve, a student at Cinécréatis.
Over the course of the sessions, the Trempo students analysed the images, the rhythms of the narrative and the emotions conveyed by the various sequences in order to propose sound worlds consistent with the director’s vision. On the 7ᵉ day of work, Louve and Philomène came to meet them to present the film, share their artistic intentions and chat with the musicians. For nearly an hour and a half, the discussions shed light on certain directorial choices and helped them better understand the project’s narrative challenges.
These exchanges sometimes gave rise to moments that revealed the richness of the dialogue between image and music. One anecdote particularly struck the participants. During the analysis of a transition scene showing an overwhelming sun, the Trempo teacher invited the students to explore different musical avenues. These included the idea of a break with a lighter or unexpected atmosphere, in order to question the perception of this relatively abstract sequence.
This suggestion opened the discussion on the deeper meaning of the image. Louve then explained that this scene was a direct reference to the novel L’Étranger by Albert Camus. In the novel, the blazing sun is much more than a decorative element: it contributes to the dramatic tension and heralds the turning point in the story. This clarification enabled the students to refine their understanding of the sequence and to gauge the extent to which the narrative context can influence musical choices.
This exchange illustrated the importance of dialogue between directors and composers. Behind the same image there can be several interpretations, and it is often the confrontation of points of view that makes it possible to construct a soundtrack that is as close as possible to the artistic intention.
For several weeks, the musicians composed, tested and reworked their musical proposals. Each choice of instrumentation, rhythm or harmony was thought out to accompany the emotions of the story, reinforce certain intentions or underline what was not said on screen.
On 5 June, students from Trempo and Cinécréatis got together to discover the different arrangements that had been created. This event enabled the directors to rediscover their film through the eyes of the composers. The same sequence could take on a totally different colouring depending on the musical choices made, demonstrating the influence of the soundtrack on the perception of a work.
For Louve, the experience was particularly rewarding: “I loved seeing my film again from a different perspective. I really enjoyed it. A reaction that testifies to the richness of this collaboration between the two schools, where each has been able to enrich its practice through contact with the other discipline.
Through this project, Trempo and Cinécréatis have offered their students a hands-on immersion in the professional realities of audiovisual creation. It’s a formative experience that reminds us just how essential the meeting of image and music is to cinematic storytelling.
The short film Entre deux regards will shortly be available on our website and on all our social networks. It’s an opportunity to discover the work of Cinécréatis students and the musical creations imagined by Trempo students.
