COMPOSING TO PICTURE
These notes can be applied to most types of composing for film and television from 30 second commercial to a complete soundtrack for a drama feature. There are no hard and fast rules as to the answers, but the composer will stand a better chance of creating an appropriate score if he/she spends time thinking about the questions. Sometimes the answers are obvious; sometimes they only come through a process of trial and error, even for the most experienced composers. Very often the issues are subjective, one of the composer’s chief skills is the ability to understand the brief and almost get inside the mind of the director.
producers and directors may think otherwise, but in reality there is very little difference between composing for film and television, the real differences are between the various genres, for example animations often require lots of very tightly synchronised musical cues, almost as if they are sound effects. Using this kind of technique for drama or documentary is usually very annoying. Even composing for television commercials can use all the elements of composing for the bigger picture
, they just have to fit into a shorter and often more disciplined framework
Music is sometimes considered by the director from the outset, but is often added right at the end after the final edit. It has an enormous bearing on the apparent pace of a film. It can make fast editing seem slower and slow editing fast.
There are different approaches for different film genres, e.g. it is common for musical accents and strong beats to coincide with action in traditional animation, where it can almost act as a sound effect track, but this approach with modern drama will often appear to be very corny
.
- What is the overall emotional value (fear, love, hate, liberation, ecstasy etc)
- What (emotions) can music add that is not already present in the film?
- Is it actually necessary to add anything?
- Are there places where pauses or silence would be more telling?
- Is it necessary to tell a story or just convey a mood?
- Is there a climax or turning point?
- Are there secondary
peak
moments? - Should the music follow or contrast with the visual rhythm?
- Should music cues synchronise exactly with action, or come earlier or later?
- How does the music affect the rhythm of the film (eg the pace of the editing).
- Whose point of view needs to predominate?
- How does the music interact with dialogue, voice over, sound effects? Does it clash or complement?
- How does the genre of the music relate to the characters or the audience?