For SAE school assignment
Cultural Studies Module

A depiction of Frankie Wilde's Life as seen in the film "It's all gone Pete Tong"

Introduction to Frankie’s Character

This film is based on the fictional character of Frankie Wilde, a legendary disc-jockey who helmed the club scene as a Disc-Jockey in Ibiza during the mid and late nineties. Frankie’s character is portrayed as one who leads the life of a “celebrity rockstar” a life of sex, drugs and alcohol. While leading the high life, Frankie’s sense of hearing appears to deplete after each gig. One day Frankie goes to a doctor for a medical exam and then learns that he was born with a degenerative medical problem that would eventually lead him to total deafness. At that point, Frankie was totally deaf in one ear and was 80% deaf in the other. The doctor advised him to change his lifestyle of loud music, alcohol and drugs to slow down the depletion rate of his hearing sense. The doctor gives him a hearing aid and warns Frankie only to use it when he has to. Sensing a dramatic turn to his life, Frankie enters a state of slumber, feeling depressed and confused; Frankie finds it hard to accept the tragedy he is faced upon, which leads him to continue his lifestyle of drugs and alcohol to suppress his emotions. The turn for the worst came when Frankie finally lost his hearing during a recording session for his latest single in the studio. Now completely deaf, Frankie feels directionless, and he roams the streets aimlessly, with passer-bys and fans greeting him in excitement, only to have reality hit him harder each time in the face, that he can’t hear and feel the same joy he had before tragedy struck. Frankie’s life soon gets worst, one day his wife decides to leave him, taking his son along with her. Faced under tremendous adversity, Frankie locks himself in his house for a year, caged away from the world, continuing his lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, until one day Frankie finally comes to full acceptance of his deafness and decides to start life anew. He goes out and finds a lip-reading school, where he meets a lip-reader whom he soon falls in love with, they soon learn they have similar personality traits and share the same love for alcohol and drugs. Frankie’s music life seems to have come to a complete closure until one day his wife takes him to a kind of tap dancing performance in a location surrounded by wooden floors and material. While the performers tap danced, Frankie notices the vibrations resonating through the room and discovers that he can distinguish beats and rhythms through vibration, he soon learns to apply this new found technique to DJ-ing and producing music; Frankie learns how to monitor each record/sound with each feet separately placed on individual speakers each playing from a different record/sound, along with a spectrum/waveform analyzer. Frankie soon goes on to the studio and produces a single which hits the top ten in the Ibiza dance charts. Overwhelmed by his success, his manager and he decide to hold a comeback gig for him at one of the Ibiza clubs. The gig turned out to be the best gig of his DJ career as expressed by his fans. After the gig, Frankie mysteriously disappears from the club, and till this day no one knows where Frankie Wilde is, the legendary disc-jockey who disappeared completely from the scene. In the closing scenes, Frankie is shown sitting down in the middle of an unknown street basking with a drum, his new wife and son pick him up from his spot and they walk away happily into the streets…


Concept Development and Pre-Production

Concept

The name of my sonata is “The Life of DJ Frankie Wilde” the theme is based around DJ Frankie Wilde’s life as portrayed in the film. After watching the movie I have decided to create a sonata consisting of 3 movements, in this sonata the music chosen will be based from a first person point of view; a musical translation of my interpretation of the emotions experienced by Frankie Wilde.

Statement – DJ Frankie Wilde as legendary DJ during his hay-day

Variation – Tragedy; DJ Frankie Wilde losing his sense of hearing and what follows

Recap – The Redemption and Revival of DJ Frankie Wilde


Structure and Elements

The sonata will be in a 4/4 time signature and a tempo of 100 beats per minute, I will be exploring the use of the various midi samples found in the Reason sound bank.

The 1st movement (the statement) will be happy and uplifting, I will rely on the use of major keys to express feelings of joy and happiness, the 2nd movement (the variation) I will focus mostly on minor keys to express the feelings of depression, frustration and confusion, this is due to the extreme contrast between moods, for the 3rd movement (the re-cap) I will use same elements as the 1st movement but with added elements from the 2nd to indicate that Frankie is still deaf as part of the story. For bridging transitions between movements I will like to experiment with the use of counterpoint melodies that appear to match well with all of the 3 movements individually.

Statement

Frankie leads a life of bliss; he enjoys the celebrity lifestyle of a superstar disc-jockey.

Variation

Frankie’s life takes a dramatic turn as his hearing depletes to complete deafness; Frankie experiences tragedy through misfortune and the repercussions of his lifestyle. But Frankie soon starts to see some light in his life and enters a state of redemption

Recap

Frankie discovers a solution as to how he can DJ and produce music despite being deaf, Frankie makes a big comeback to the DJ console, spinning at his comeback gig but only to mysteriously disappear from the public’s eye.

Frankie has found peace in his life together with his new wife and son.


Statement

The statement opens with a short intro with the rhythm instrument and glitch drum samples 1 & 2 playing what follows shortly is the introduction of the breakbeat drum sample and scratch samples, this continues until the first breakdown of the track where the lead instrument is introduced. After which all instruments are played simultaneously until the 2nd breakdown where only the lead and rhythm instruments are heard. The Rhythm instrument slowly fades out followed by the lead instrument. Concurrent with the 2nd breakdown (the outro) the start of the variation is introduced.

By introducing each instrument in a structured manner, I was allowed to create momentum. Such as the build up of the different elements which allowed me to give prominence to the lead instrument where it was introduced in the first breakdown. During the outro, the lead instrument would also be the last to be heard in the statement, signifying its purpose, which translates to “the coming of an end to Frankie Wilde’s blissful life”.

Variation

The variation follows a similar structure to the statement, in its build-up. The use of the techno kick drum and down-tempo percussion samples marks the transition between the statement and variation. During the outro of the statement, where only the lead instrument is playing, glitch sample 3 (Frankie Wilde’s Deafness) is introduced in counterpoint, creating distinct contrast between the 2 instruments, signaling the change of mood in the story, followed by the introduction of the aggressive hardcore drum sample, bass line and the rhythm instrument playing a “dark” riff in minor key, which translates to ‘the beginnings of Frankie’s tragic life story” this builds up until the breakdown where the violin sounding lead instrument is introduced in a major key. The counterpoint between the lead and the rhythm/bass line is to create drama, placing emphasis on Frankie’s emotions, confusion, insanity, depression, disbelief, denial, translating to “Frankie’s darkest hours”. All instruments play simultaneously until the outro, where the bass and rhythm instruments fade out with the lead instrument left playing and changing to a higher key twice, this translates to “Frankie entering a state of redemption”

Recap

The Recap opens with a scratch sample along with the continuation of glitch sample 3 (Frankie is still Deaf), which translates to “Frankie is functional again and is deaf” the rhythm track represents the start of Frankie’s revival as a DJ and producer, the lead track represents Frankie back at his best playing his final gig and experiencing the same kind of joy he once experienced. The outro ends with glitch sample 3 and the lead instrument, which translate to the end of Frankie’s story; he finds peace in his life despite being deaf.

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