25th Annual INCOSE International Symposium (IS2015) Seattle, July 13-16, 2015
Systems Engineering Practices Exhibited in the Creation of a Film Original Score Alejandro Salado Stevens Institute of Technology
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Carlos Salado Freelance Composer and Filmmaker
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Copyright © 2015 by Alejandro Salado and Carlos Salado. Published and used by INCOSE with permission.
Abstract. Systems engineering has been successfully applied to a wide variety of industries, which include defense, space, energy, or transportation. All those systems have in common that they are engineered systems and/or socio-technical ones. Yet, systems engineering is considered both an art and a science. Therefore, could systems engineering be or have been applied in the domain of art, even if not done explicitly? Being one of the authors of this paper a systems engineer and the other one a music composer, this paper reports on the reflections of mutual discussions about how each of us of carried out our activities in our respective domain. Interestingly, it turns out that engineering a space system and creating a film original score abstractly follow the same set of principles and practices.
Introduction Economic situation all over the world stresses a global need to provide society more with less. Systems engineering is intended to enable the development and realization of successful complex systems (Haskins, 2010), by providing higher value than traditional engineering disciplines (Honour, 2004; Boehm et al. 2008). And yet, cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance failures continue to be an almost default outcome of such developments (Bahill and Henderson, 2005; Schwenn et al., 2011). In fact, it was already stated in 1969 that “if I plot a graph versus time of what appears to be a recent rising tide of costs, cost overruns, unsatisfactory performance and unhappiness among engineers, I have reason to worry. […] If I plot on the same graph versus time the rise in talk, directives and use of 64 systems engineering … I see high correlation between the two graphs … This does not prove causation, but it suggests, at least, that the new techniques are proving to be a poor substitute for real science and engineering; they are, at the least, not doing what they are advertised as doing, if they are indeed actually not making things worse” (Frosch, 1969). Around 40 years later, these concerns have taken thrust again, leading the research community to hypothesize if architecture elegance could be a solution for those problems (Griffin, 2010; Madni, 2012; Salado and Nilchiani, 2013a, 2013b). Systems engineering: An art and a science. More and more authors agree on the idea that systems engineering is both an art and a science (Ryschkewitsch et al. 2009; Jansma, 2012). Specifically, it is asserted that an effective systems engineer needs to possess a good balance of hard- and soft-skills (Ryschkewitsch et al. 2009; Jansma, 2012). Whereas the scientific part is necessary to produce actual designs, the artistic one seems to drive the value of the system architecture (Muirhead and Thomas, 2010). As a matter of fact, while attributes
and qualities of good architectures are known, there is a lack of deterministic techniques to pursue them (Maier and Rechtin, 2009). If there is an artistic part… What do artist do? If research and industry today begin understanding and agreeing that there is an artistic component in the architecting of systems, it would make sense then to study and learn what artists actually do to effectively create complex artistic projects such as a film, an opera, or a conceptual photographic exposition. Consequently, this paper describes the standard approach for creating film original scores and compares it with the application of systems engineering to engineer a space system, as an example). Research method. This paper provides the reflections of conversations maintained by the authors. One of the authors has been a practicing systems engineer in the space industry for more than 10 years. The other author has been a music composer for more than 18 years and a film director for more than 3 years. Because the aim of the conversations was to understand in an unbiased manner how film original scores were created, the composer was interviewed by the engineer. Then, the engineer mapped the findings to the standard activities in systems engineering. Finally, such a mapping was also done for negative consequences that resulted from trying to create a film original score for a fulllength movie without applying the systems engineering-like practices.
Creating a film original score Context This section provides a general description of how a film original score is created (Nieto, 2003; Román, 2008; Xalabarder, 2013). It should be noted that although formally a film original score includes sound effects, dialogues, and other elements, this paper treats only its music. For readability purposes for a non-film domain expert, the term “film original score” will be used in this paper to refer only to the musical component. In order to ease readability, the first sections will present the context under which a film original score is created and used. The parties. Several entities, either as organizations or as individuals, jointly participate in the creating of a film original score. Key players are depicted in Fig. 1 and described in Table 1. As can be seen, the diagram nicely resembles that of an industrial organization in an engineering project. A mapping is provided in Table 1, as well. The pieces. While songs, such as a pop/rock one, are independent compositions, music for image needs to fit within a context and a set of dramatic and artistic needs. Consequently, the creation process differs significantly. In composing a song, a composer has complete freedom for decision: no predefined tempo, no predefined duration, no predefined dramatic message, and no predefined storyline. Contrary to that, a composer needs to fit a film original score within tight boundaries: the duration is set, the dramatic and artistic message is set, the tempo is set, the storyline is set, etc. Furthermore, the score is made of several compositions that need to match together. Figure 2 depicts a sample tree that shows how different artistic elements finally make a whole (a movie). As can be seen, the diagram seamlessly resembles that of a physical architecture in systems engineering. Moreover, the
contextualization of the film original score within a movie has a clear mapping to the need of a system or subsystem to be compatible with a number of external interfaces (e.g. a film original score needs to match the different sequences of a film, the tension of the moments, the behavior of the actors, etc.). Finally, it is interesting to realize that in art, like in engineering systems, there is a fundamental difference on how to proceed depending on the requirements and amount of external interfaces that need to fulfilled. Producer
Director
Composer
Scriptwriter
Others
Arranger 1
Arranger n
Orchestra
Figure 1. Example of parties involved in creating a film original score Table 1: Description of parties involved in creating a film original score Party Description SE mapping Producer Ultimate responsible of the film (end-product). Customer Therefore, they have veto power on any decision regarding the film. Director Controls dramatic and artistic aspects of a film. They are Prime in charge of creating the film. They have veto rights in contractor all decisions regarding the creation of the movie, yet under the constraints and authority of the producer. Composer Responsible for creating and delivering the film original Supplier score. He oversees that all compositions match and that they fulfill the dramatic and artistic needs of the film. Arranger Responsible for creating some of the compositions that Supplier/ form the film original score. Implementer Orchestra Responsible for recording the composed music. Manufacturer /Integrator
Film
Film original score
Video recording
Other...
Composition 1 Composition n
Figure 2. Example of different elements making up a film Does size matter? There are a wide variety of types of visuals that usually demand music, like for example commercials, short films, or full length films. One of their key differences is the duration. Such an attribute has a direct impact on the complexity of the artistic and dramatic development. As a result, the duration of the film will drive to some extent the amount of necessary compositions the film original score will have and, as a result, the amount of resources (i.e. different organizations) that will participate in its creation. For example, while a composer is in many cases capable of creating and producing (orchestrating) on his own the full music for a commercial, a team is necessary for putting music to a full length movie. This dependency with size and complexity can be directly mapped to the systems engineering effort required to develop a system (Valerdi, 2008).
Details: How it is done Overview. This section describes the approach to create a film original score. For readability, mapping to key systems engineering activities has been performed by directly naming the music creation activities with the systems engineering jargon. It should be noted that no effort has been made to make the activities fit and that the activities have not been altered in logical sequence. Yet, the logical sequence in the creation of a film original score seamlessly fit that one of systems engineering. As a note, logical sequence in this context does not imply that the activities are necessarily executed sequentially, but that they are finished in that order (i.e. similar to one of the key characteristic of the Vee model in systems engineering). As a matter of fact, the creation of a film original score is often highly iterative. Stakeholder requirements. The starting point for creating a film original score is the footage and the dramatic structure of the film. They are defined by the director and supported by the scriptwriter. These two elements set the external interfaces: duration and location of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and epilogue. This is important because the music needs to support the dramatic structure. At this stage, the key objective for the composer is to understand all bits and pieces of the movie: topic, storyline, internal plots, psychology of the characters, historical and geographical setup, and dynamic structure. This is a critical point because if those elements are not understood properly, then the film is destroyed. For example, a director
may create a romantic film, yet the storyline is actually the human frustration of the main character. The music needs to support that storyline. This knowledge is elicited by multiple interview sessions with the director and scriptwriter. It is generally documented in three main artifacts: the technical script from the director, the narrative script from the scriptwriter, and the notes taken by the composer. Good practices indicate that the director should never dictate the musical style, where to put music, or how to do it; but only what they want to transmit with their movie! It sounds dramatically familiar to the systems engineering practitioner (e.g. Haskins, 2010). Experience in filmmaking shows that enforcing specific decisions regarding music styles or similar (a.k.a. design implementations in systems engineering), instead of defining the message to convey and giving freedom to the composer, results in limitations of the quality of the work. In summary in systems engineering terms, the composer assesses the interfaces to the film and interviews the director and scriptwriter to understand their needs. Failure to define designindependent needs, often results in degraded performance. ConOps/Concept alternatives. Once the dramatic structure, film messages, and other elements of the film are understood, a spotting session is carried out. During this activity, the composer defines how much music the film will have and where it will have it (system requirements). This is driven by the skills of the composer and the cinematographic discourse of the director. In fact, a good composer for film music is not only characterized by their ability to compose beautiful music (good architecture, elegant design), but to effectively transmit the director’s cinematographic discourse from a functional or pragmatic standpoint (fulfill system requirements). This is measured by the correlation or coupling between the value each composition has on its own and the value of the discourse elements the composition accompanies. In addition, the thematic structure is defined, which consists in identifying film threads or sub-stories within the storyline that demand own musical subject. For example, they usually include central subjects, main subject, countersubject, secondary subjects, initial subject, and ending subject. A subject is defined in this context as a music composition that as a beginning and an end. For example, in Braveheart film, there are three central subjects: 1) William Wallace as a hero, 2) William Wallace as a lover, and 3) Scotland. Scotland is in addition the main subject. This is why the music that is associated to William Wallace does not sound anymore once he dies in the movie, yet the music associated to Scotland continues to be present until the very end. In this context, secondary subjects are necessary for completeness and functionality, such as for a battle, but do not directly support the main purpose of the story. Good practices in composing film original scores indicate that success is ultimately driven by a good thematic structure, choose it adequately and know how to place it. At this point composition activities have not been carried out yet. The objective is only to understand what the music will do to the film. Mimicking system development, the activity resembles the development of a concept of operations, where design or architecting has not occurred, yet it is understood how the system will fit and operate within its required operational environment.
Furthermore, the differentiation between beauty of a specific musical piece and the fulfillment of the objectives from a pure filmic standpoint deserves more attention. Table 2 explains the effects of various characteristics of a film original score and maps them to the effects of compliance and elegance in systems engineering. There are two key messages. The first one is that, because music is a part of a whole, its fulfillment of its requirements is a must-have to ensure it aligns to and supports the purpose of the overall system, i.e. the movie. In fact, its suitability to be integrated in the movie takes preference over its specific beauty. The second key message is that, once requirements are fulfilled, its beauty (elegance, goodness) can make a film original score succeed beyond its initial purpose (support the movie). This is in line with current thinking in the field of systems engineering that elegance in addition to (not opposed to) fulfilling requirements can make a system potentially successful in initially unplanned operational scenarios or missions thanks to, for example, emerging adaptability from elegance (Griffin, 2010; Madni, 2012; Salado and Nilchiani, 2013b).
Musical standpoint Ugly music
Table 2: Effectiveness of a film original score Filmic Effectiveness/effects in stakeholders standpoint Ineffective Chances are high that the music is discarded and a new film in conveying original score is requested. If not, chances are high that the discourse movie is a failure. Furthermore, the music will not make any independent impact on the audience.
Ugly design
Not compliant to requirements
Ugly music
Effective in conveying discourse
Ugly design
Compliant to requirements
Beautiful music
Elegant design Beautiful music
There are high chances that the system is a failure and, if applicable, it cannot be integrated at higher levels. Furthermore, chances are high that the system cannot be even used in degraded mode or reused for another purpose. The music will be accepted for integration into the movie. If the movie is good, the music will contribute to make it a success. However, the music will not succeed as an independent entity and will therefore not evolve beyond the movie itself.
The system will be accepted and potentially support higher level integration, if applicable. Probably, as defined in (Griffin, 2010), the system may succeed in its intended purpose but it will not be able to seamlessly evolve or adapt to new scenarios or purposes. Ineffective Chances are high that the music is discarded and a new film in conveying original score is requested. The music may be adapted to a discourse new movie though. Not Chances are high that the system is not acceptable, yet it has compliant to the potential to be adapted to a different mission. requirements Effective in The music will be accepted for integration into the movie. conveying If the movie is good, the music will contribute to make it a discourse success. Furthermore, the music will impact on its own
merit and probably develop a life on its own, providing pleasure when played even without the other parts of the movie, or adapt to other artistic crafts such as video games or commercials (e.g. Braveheart film original score). Elegant design
Compliant to requirements
The system will be accepted and potentially support higher level integration, if applicable. Probably, as identified in (Griffin, 2010), the system may succeed beyond its initially intended purpose and adapt to fulfill the needs of other missions.
System requirements. Once the thematic structure is defined, unique identifiers are given to each block. This is commonly known in the film original score jargon as Cue Sheet. Key information from the interviews is then allocated to each block: identify which actors, subjects, etc. are relevant to each scene, for example. Often, this information is documented in whiteboards, walls, or composing software. In addition, the narrative of the image, as well as the footage, the weight of the characters within the action, scene changes, character movements, and so forth drive the tempo that is required on the different compositions. For example, in the introductory scenes of Up movie, the tempo dramatically changes from the happy moments on which the main character and his wife meet and form a happy couple, to the sadness of knowing that they cannot have children of their own. This is just down by adjusting the tempo. Therefore, this can be understood as ensuring synchronicity (interface matching) between the music and the image. At this point, a review of the tempo and thematic structure can be done by the director in order to validate the message the music is transmitting only with its rhythm. It should be noted that at this point, no composing effort has been carried out; rather, the activities have been focused on setting up what needs to be done next in order to guarantee the music seamlessly integrate with the other elements of the film. System architecture/Subsystem requirements. At this point the actual composing activities begin. First, in the words of the “composer” author of this paper, the whole film original score is composed in general terms. This basically means that (1) a coherent underlying structure is put in place and (2) main leads are composed in order to guarantee continuity of the music throughout the film. This is achieved by defining three elements, which in systems engineering jargon could be called architecture perspectives. First, the music style is defined, which is associated to a specific musical color. For example, styles include tragic, sinister, melancholic, happy, etc. The entire film original score is related to this. The style can be seen as the glue that makes all compositions fit in general terms. It thus provides coherence, uniformity, and harmony. Those attributes resemble characteristics of good architectures in systems engineering. Second, the set of instruments that will be used is defined, including their role (priority) within the entire music. This indicates how the music style will be implemented. Third, the main lead of each composition is created. There is no additional harmonies, no arrangements, or any other detailed musical element. It is only a guide on which a full music
piece can be created. These leads are created from the tempos, the characters, the dramatic message, and other elements identified previously. They may also inform which instruments can be used in which part of the score. In systems engineering terms, it resembles the flow down of higher level requirements into lower level ones. In fact, the music style, the set of instruments, and the main leads are the only information that is given the arrangers for creating the full compositions. Finally, a review with the director and producer may take place in order to guarantee the music fits the needs of the film before moving forward with the detailed elaboration of the different compositions. Detailed design. At this point, arrangers are in charge of taking the main leads and create the full compositions, under the constraints of the instrument set and the music style. These elements, as defined in the previous section, are collected in a musical script. This activity is done with computers and there is no recording or similar activity with actual instruments. This activity resembles that of detailed design of the different components of a system. In fact, the work of the composer does not stop here, but act as a kind of equipment supply manager in the sense that they supervise the work of the arrangers. Reviews are guaranteed. As a note, the composer is also in charge of allocating financial budgets and set schedule needs to all arrangers. Again, totally resembling a procurement effort in an engineering project. Manufacturing. Two versions of each composition are usually recorded: (1) a demo and (2) a master. The demo is produced by the arrangers. It is usually based on digital libraries and sound quality is not at the standard of film release. Its objectives is to verify the product before the releasable ones goes into production. Its built standard and model objectives resemble those of a prototype in system development. The master is the recorded music that has sufficient quality to be released with the film to the public. It is usually recorded by actual players. Consequently, there is also an influence of the actual players and orchestras when playing the compositions created in paper. As a result, there is a need to evaluate its correctness as well. Its build standard and model objectives resemble those of a market-ready product. Integration. Two versions of the film original score are produced: (1) a demo and (2) a master. The demo is produced by the composer, who integrates with the help of the computer the building compositions. Therefore, its sound quality is not at the standard of film release. Its objectives is to support final verification and validation, as described in the next sections. Its build standard and model objectives resemble those of a prototype in system development. The master is the recorded music that has sufficient quality to be released with the film to the public. It is usually put together by a professional music producer. Its build standard and model objectives resemble those of a market-ready product.
Verification. The composer evaluates the final result of the integrated film original score. With the demo (prototype), the composer evaluates if the music fulfills their initial expectations, i.e. if (1) they like the music and (2) it transmits the messages the composer understood it had to transmit. With the master, the composer evaluates that the actual recording does not differentiate from the demo (to a limit). It has not been possible to determine in this paper if there are formal or contractual limitations to this activity in major productions. In minor ones, verification tends to be rather subjective, although it contains some objective assessments as well. On the one hand, the composer checks if the elements defined in the musical script (system and subsystem requirements), such as tempos or instrument set, have been followed. On the other hand, the aesthetic aspects (architecture goodness, system elegance) are handled in a negotiation manner, depending on the available resources and professional interests of each party. Might stakeholder negotiation techniques that are widely used in systems engineering be of value in these cases? This question remains unfortunately open at this stage. Clearly, the verification aspect requires deeper investigation in more formally, contractually driven environments, such as for example in big Hollywood productions. In both cases, the activity clearly resembles that of system verification in systems engineering. Validation. Once the composer is fine with the film original score, it is delivered to the director and fitted with the other elements of the film. It is the director now, who evaluates if the music fits the film effectively. This activity is done with the demo and with the master, in order to guarantee acceptability before producing the final release (design, mitigate risk) and to ensure no problems occurred during the recording of the master (workmanship). But the director is not actually the only stakeholder involved in validation. Spectators and critics play a fundamental role in validating the score, since they are the ultimate objective of a movie and its constituent elements. As a matter of fact, as described in the Stakeholder Requirements section, a film original score can jeopardize a movie (invalid), it can support a movie to be well received (valid), or can even spin off from the movie and have its own prevalence over time. Consequently, the activity resembles that of validation in systems engineering, where the acceptability of the music is evaluated towards the stakeholders, not by the developer. General remarks. As can be seen from the previous descriptions, the systems engineering principles and approaches that are seeable in the creation of a film original score do not only address requirements and architecting, but the whole organizational aspects, which include for example elements such as cost allocation, risk mitigation, or procurement, are also included. An interesting aspect is that of formal reviews, which lets the open question: are they more effective in art than in engineering? Is there any mutual learning from them?
Consequences when “systems engineering” was not applied to create a film original score One of the authors attempted to create his first film original score for a full-length film without applying the approach described in the previous section. As described below, the results were catastrophic: The film was more difficult to understand with music than without it. The message the director wanted to convey was not conveyed when the music was played. The music was unable to describe the internal psychology of the main character. The music did not support the story to anticipate unconsciously what was coming next. The tension throughout the film was in constant change, resulting from a wide variety of music styles and instruments. There was no coherency. This had a tiring effect on the spectator, who has a feeling of being cheated constantly. In a word: the composition did not meet its requirements, it failed when attempting system integration, there was no cohesion on the architecture, and it was plenty of rework. In addition, such a process took around 1.5 years of composing effort, yet without achieving its actual completion. In contrast, applying the approach described in the previous section resulted in a complete film original score that fulfilled all the needs of the director in around 3 months. These figures are not intended to prove a deterministic or even approximated improvement factor, but only as a qualitative demonstration of the effectiveness of using “systems engineering” when creating a “complex” composition. Finally, the reason for trying to create a film original score following the same approach as for creating a pop/rock song was simply the unawareness of the existence of a better way to do it! In the experience of the other author (systems engineering), this reason continuous to be a frequent root cause for failure in effectively developing engineering systems.
Conclusions and future research This paper has described the process to create a film original score. It reflects the state of the art in the film and the 18+ years of experience in composing music of one the authors. The mapping to systems engineering was performed by interview, being the interviewer the other author of the paper, who holds 10+ years of systems engineering experience in the space sector. Interestingly enough, all activities can be mapped to applying systems engineering to develop an engineered system. Furthermore, good practices in the creation of a film original score are identical to those in systems engineering. Moreover, the negative consequences of not applying such a rigorous approach in creating the music for a film can also be mapped to those in systems that result for not properly doing systems engineering. Finally, although a quantitatively determination has not been done, improvement in effectiveness has also been experienced when creating a film original score. The results of this paper should raise interest to further promote research in bridging science and art to a common place for exchanging ideas. In particular, we encourage the research community to answer the following questions:
Are the findings of this paper expandable to other relatively complex crafts, such as filmmaking, operas, musicals, or photographic exhibitions? May we use art to understand better what goodness or elegance of an architecture is and, most importantly, how it can be deterministically pursued? Can systems engineering benefit from current practices in artistic domains? Can artistic fields benefit from current practices in systems engineering? Are systems engineering patterns or practices identifiable in other artistic domains, such as film, photography, painting, or opera, for example?
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Biography Alejandro Salado holds a BSc/MSc in electrical engineering by Polytechnic University of Valencia, an MSc in project management by Polytechnic University of Catalonia, an MSc in electronics engineering by Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the SpaceTech postgraduate Master in space systems engineering by Delft University of Technology, and a PhD in systems engineering by the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is a Systems Engineer with OHB System AG in Munich, Germany, where he is currently acting as chief architect for the European Space Weather SoS and chief systems engineer for the PLATO 2.0 payload, actively contributing to the improvement of the company’s systems engineering capability, and leading an initiative to transform it into model-centricity. He is also a part-time Associate Professor of systems engineering with Buskerud Vestfold University College (HBV) in Kongsberg, Norway. Previously he was employed as a Satellite Systems Engineer with EADS Astrium GmbH (now Airbus Defense and Space), an Electronics Engineer with SENER-NTE S.A., a Stagiere Electrical Systems Engineer with the European Space Agency (ESA), and an Intern Electronics Engineer with Delta-Utec SRC. His research interests include the generation and application of systems theory, the generation and prioritization of requirements, the design of elegant systems, and the development of affordable space systems. Alejandro has been exposed to a wide variety of manned and unmanned space systems and his efforts have contributed to several projects, including PLATO 2.0, Space Weather (SWE), EnMAP, DARPA’s F6 program, Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV), MARES, and Young Engineers’ Satellite 2 (YES2) among others. Dr. Salado is a member of INCOSE. He received the Fabrycky-Blanchard Award for Systems Engineering Research, the Stevens Institute of Technology Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the Stevens Institute of Technology Best Student Paper Award in 2014, the Fulbright International Science and Technology Award and a Stevens Fellowship in 2010, and a team World Record Guinness in 2009 for the longest manmade structure ever deployed in space with the YES2 project.
Carlos Salado holds a MA in audiovisual communication. He is currently the creative director and main composer at Grupo Idex and “Yo Me Comprometo” social proponents. During more than eighteen years he grows in music composing, recording, mixing, and mastering. Among his portfolio, Carlos has recorded as a player, composer, and producer a wide variety of music styles, as well as educational albums for Anaya publisher. He has especialized in music for visuals, composing work for media, television, and cinema. In addition, he has directed six short films, one half.length film, and one full-length film, where he also acted as composer, screenwriter, and editor.
