Social Network Analysis of Collaborative Composition in Film Scoring via the IMDb

Peter BroadwellCLIR Postdoctoral Fellow

UCLA Library

“Traditional” scoring department organization

Head composer

Arrangementand production Orchestrator Editors &

copyists

Recording engineers

Recording Live musiciansConductor(may be composer)

Ghost writers

Director

Cue writing

Short score

Fullscore

Parts

Spotting,temp track

Delegates cuesif short on time

Fullscore

TO DUB

Remote Control scoring department organizationDirector(HZ) MIDI

mockups Feedback, Questionable temp tracksHead composer

Delegates or takes over

Arrangementand production Orchestrators/editors

MIDI mockups

Recording Live musiciansConductor

Notated partsFullscore

Recording, mixing engineers

Synthmix

Cue specialistsConsulting composers

Cue writingDelegatescues

Assistants/gofers

Synthengineers

Sample designers

Programmers

Sound design

IMDb as a “big data” source: reliable enough?

IMDb as a “big data” source: reliable enough?

Composers per film (credited and uncredited)

1938: AFM prohibits tracking

1942: AFM recording strike (“Petrillo Ban”)

1944: First contract between AFM and studios

Music department members per film

19271929

19311933

19351937

19391941

19431945

19471949

19511953

19551957

19591961

19631965

19671969

19711973

19751977

19791981

19831985

19871989

19911993

19951997

19992001

20032005

20072009

20110

5

10

15

20

25

Mus

ic de

part

men

t mem

bers

Producers per film

19271929

19311933

19351937

19391941

19431945

19471949

19511953

19551957

19591961

19631965

19671969

19711973

19751977

19791981

19831985

19871989

19911993

19951997

19992001

20032005

20072009

20110

2

4

6

8

10

12

Prod

ucer

s

Paramount

Warner Bros

20th-Century Fox

MGM

Republic

Paramount

Warner Bros

20th-Century Fox

MGM

Republic

Period # nodes(people)

average partners per person

average collabora-tions perperson

modularity:0 = well-connected1 = many small, isolated groups

maximum distance across network

average degrees of separation

1930-1960Golden Agecomposers & orchestrators

1,375 5.677 18.278 .543 13 4.163

1960-1988Post-studiocomposers only

5,664 1.445 1.692 .953 22 7.743

1989-2012Remote Controlcomposers only

11,912 2.0 2.243 .939 17 6.1469

Social network statistics for film scoring “eras”

Social Network Analysis of Collaborative

Composition in Film Scoring via the IMDb

Peter BroadwellCLIR Postdoctoral Fellow

UCLA Library