Getting started
Now that you have your template ready to go and your DAW is optimized to your workflow it’s time to get creative. Here are some tips to help get things going quickly and efficiently.
The first thing you want to do is watch the film/show without any music so you can get your own raw impression. Then have a conversation with your filmmakers about their expectations. Find out if they already have a musical direction in mind (they probably do). Perhaps they’ve cut in a rough temp already, if so you want to hear it.
Use temp music as a communication tool. If they already have a temp, find out if they like it or not. If they do find out what is it that’s working for them, what isn’t? If they don’t have a temp, find existing music to use as temp and use that early on rather than spending a lot of time writing music that may be on the wrong track. Use temp music to help discuss musical direction with the filmmakers.
Once you have a handle on what you think they want, it’s time to start working. But before you start writing, consider if you already have something in your library that might work for this project. We all music in our library that never got used for one reason or another – whether it’s a rejected cue, something we did for fun, ideas we’ve been playing around with. If you have something that feels like it’s a good fit for the project you’re working on, temp it in to one or two scenes and show the filmmakers just as you would use temp music. If they like it you can explain it’s a piece of your own and you can create something new and original based on this idea for them.
When I was hired to score Captain Hagen’s Bed & Breakfast I made the mistake of spending a couple of days writing some music I really loved, but the director hated. I was on the completely wrong track. Rather than starting over, and spending hours writing something new again, I searched my library and realized I had a rejected demo that I thought was on the right track. I played it for the director and he loved it, and this became the main theme of the film.
Reusing existing material is especially applicable when you’re also responsible for source music in your project. You may already have something that works perfectly and then you can simply license that track to the production rather than having to write and produce a brand new track.