I have frequently run into these issues with various Directors and Producers so I started to compile this list of thoughts and tips on how to improve working with a composer. First come the technical aspects and a little further down are the creative issues involved.
Technical
Formats:
In my case .dv is the preferred format for the workprint. The reason for this is, that I have to work in this format anyway, because the output of my hardware only allows .dv streams. That means, if I receive a different format than a .dv stream I have to reencode the video which can take quite some time and is an unnecessary step since the editor has to output some file anyway. So she/he may as well output directly to a .dv stream. And since I have to encode previews for the director/producer that I mostly will upload to my internal website to get feedback and direction from the aforementioned receiving a .dv stream also increases the video quality of my layouts, because they don’t go through yet another step of video reencoding, that means, they will just look better and everybody likes that.
Handing me a video DVD forces me to reencode the video thereby loosing quality and it costs a lot of time but more importantly: a lot of times the DVD format will drop frames and so the video isn’t really what it should be and I can’t really count on it being encoded reliably. DVD video is the worst delivery for composers.
Resolution
I’m not very particular when it comes to resolution, however, the higher it is, the better it will look and the more motivated it makes me when composing. Looking at blurry pictures doesn’t really get the motivation as high as it could be. 720 X 526 is great. A 55 minute TV show comes out to be roughly 12 GB of data.
Timecode burnin
Having the timecoded burnt into the video increases workflow speed by a factor of about 10. It’s easy to talk about specific points in the video, the director can just say, at frame 01:15:19:12 please emphasize the look towards the boat on the horizon. Much better than saying: emphasize the look to the boat… is it the eyes I’m supposed to focus on or the cut to the boat or the boat? So much clearer with timecode burnt in.
This will also increase delivery speed on my part as I can just start the filename of each cue with the timecode so that the mix engineer knows immediately where to put each cue. No extra phone calls necessary this way.
Creative development
Of course this issue is much much broader than a couple of lines in this essay. But this gives a good starting points for ideas.
Temping your film
The development of the temp track is both a blessing and a curse. The curse is, that it boxes the composers into a very specific mold so there is a danger of just recreating what’s already there. This has the obvious implication that it’s hard to take risks this way and the artistic and experimental aspects of filmmaking are moved to the background. Now, in a lot of situations this is very very desirable because it increases production speed – absolutely necessary for a lot of projects.
So here we are already at the blessings of temping: by using a temp track the director has already started to actually put some musical moods into the film and see what they feel like thus her/his frame of mind is already busy thinking about the content of the scenes from a musical viewpoint. This is very good as then the meetings and discussion around the music don’t come as a surprise to the director.
The process of music creation isn’t a very fast process although it has increased in the past couple of years due to the tools available to the modern composer. It needs time. Time to get a feel for the pacing and the content of a scene. It takes watching a film a couple of times and at 55 minutes length a day can go by without playing a single note let alone a meaningful one.
To achieve a soundtrack that is coherent, which is very very important, you wouldn’t want your scenes differently saturated either, it is very important for the director/producer and composer to agree very early on the sonic direction a soundtrack takes: is it going to be orchestral, are we going to keep it very very sparse, simple and clean, what are the instruments we would like to use, do they imply the correct settings/locations/point in history. Those are all consideration that when decided too late can force the composer to redo pretty much all of his work. Of course we are willing to do that, but why go through that nightmare if it can be avoided through good planning.
As a composer I’m a tool (hehe) for the directors vision, but for that to work, the director has to develop the sonic vision for his film. Temp tracks help, but if they come from different films than the problem with a coherent soundtrack arises.
Experimenting with music early on in the editing room is the best way to get a feel for pacing of scenes. A lot of times directors will work without any music while editing which creates films that really move too fast at times. The audience needs moments to take in what is happening, to enjoy/suffer through periods of silence and the music can help to sustain those moments and keep momentum even if the picture doesn’t do it. This planning really starts when shooting, because the actors need to take into account that they may have more time to deliver lines because the music will keep the scene going.