I’m very lucky that when I watch a film without music, I often start hearing ideas for how to score the film in my head. I can imagine a score as I watch it, and feel like I know exactly what to do. Sometimes I can envision multiple approaches to a given scene.
But sometimes I watch a scene and… nothing. Crickets. No clue what to do. I’m at a compete loss for how to handle the scene musically. Sometimes this is a sign that the scene doesn’t need music. But sometimes it’s clear the scene needs some musical help, but I just don’t know what to do.
Whenever I experience this situation, whether cutting a temp-score or composing original music, I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The first thing I try is grabbing some cues that work elsewhere in the film and putting them up against picture to see how they feel. Even if an idea seems ridiculous, I try it. Even the worst ideas can provide clues to what the music should be.
By trying different cues against picture, I get a sense for why a certain piece doesn’t work. Is it too fast? Too slow? Too dark? Too light? The wrong feel? The wrong style? The wrong instrumentation? The wrong size? The wrong energy? I may not yet know which path is the correct one, but I have just eliminated one wrong path.
If none of the cues used elsewhere work, I expand my search and look for music from other films, or sometimes even songs. With each track I try, I can eliminate wrong musical paths and the experiments inform me as to what isn’t working, and why it isn’t working. Usually after trying just 2 or 3 things I have a pretty good idea of what the music needs to be, and find the right path to solving the musical challenge of the scene.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.