Spotting The composer usually enters the creative process towards the end of filming at around the same time as the film is being edited, though on some occasions the composer is on hand during the entire film shoot, especially when actors are required to perform with or be aware of original
diegetic music. The composer is shown an unpolished "rough cut" of the film before the editing is completed and talks to the director or producer about what sort of music is required for the film in terms of style and tone. The director and composer watch the entire film, noting which scenes require original music. During this process, composers take precise timing notes so that they know how long each cue must be, where it begins, where it ends, and of particular moments during a scene that music may need to coincide with in a specific way. This process is known as
spotting. Occasionally, a filmmaker actually edits their film to fit the flow of music, rather than have the composer edit their score to the final cut. An extreme example of this is
Baby Driver written and directed by
Edgar Wright. Director
Godfrey Reggio edited his films
Koyaanisqatsi and
Powaqqatsi based on composer
Philip Glass's music. Similarly, the relationship between director
Sergio Leone and composer
Ennio Morricone was such that the finale of
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the films
Once Upon a Time in the West and
Once Upon a Time in America were edited to Morricone's score as the composer had prepared it months before the film's production ended. In another example, the finale of
Steven Spielberg's
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was edited to match the music of his long-time collaborator
John Williams: as recounted in a companion documentary on the DVD, Spielberg gave Williams complete freedom with the music and asked him to record the cue without pictures; Spielberg then re-edited the scene later to match the music. In some circumstances, a composer writes music based on their impressions of the
script or
storyboards without seeing the film itself, and has more freedom to create music without the need to adhere to specific cue lengths or mirror the emotional arc of a particular scene. This approach is usually taken by a director who does not wish to have the music comment specifically on a particular scene or nuance of a film and which can instead be inserted into the film at any point the director wishes during the post-production process. Composer
Hans Zimmer was asked to write music in this way in 2010 for director
Christopher Nolan's film
Inception; composer
Gustavo Santaolalla did the same thing when he wrote his Oscar-winning score for
Brokeback Mountain.
Syncing When writing music for film, one goal is to sync dramatic events happening on screen with musical events in the score. There are many different methods for syncing music to picture. These include using sequencing software to calculate timings, using mathematic formulas and free timing with reference timings. Composers work using
SMPTE timecode for syncing purposes. When syncing music to picture, generally a leeway of 3–4 frames late or early is sufficiently accurate. Using a technique called
free timing, a conductor uses either a stopwatch, studio size stop clock, or watches the film on a screen while conducting the musicians to predetermined timings. These are represented visually by vertical lines (streamers) and bursts of light called punches. These are put on the film by the Music Editor at points specified by the composer. In both instances, timings on the clock or lines scribed on the film have corresponding timings that are also at specific points (beats) in the composer/conductor score.
Written click track A written
click track is a method of writing bars of music in consistent time values (e.g., four beats in : seconds) to establish a constant tempo in lieu of a metronome value in beats per minute (BPM). A composer uses a written click if planning to conduct live performers. When using other methods such as a metronome, the conductor has a perfectly spaced audible click playing. This can yield stiff and lifeless performances in slower more expressive cues. A standard BPM value can be converted to a written click where X represents the number of beats per bar and W represents time in seconds by using the following equation: \frac{60}{bpm}(x)=W Written clicks are expressed using second increments, so the next step is to round the decimal to either 0,, or of a second. The following is an example for 88
BPM: \frac{60}{88}(4)=2.72
2.72 rounds to 2.66, so the written click is 4 beats in : seconds. Once the composer identifies the location in the film to sync with musically, they must determine the musical beat this event occurs on. To find this, conductors use the following equation, where BPM is beats per minute,
sp is the sync point in real-time (i.e. 33.7 seconds), and B is the beat number in increments (i.e. ). \frac{bpm(sp)}{60}+1=B
Writing Once the spotting session has been completed and the precise timings of each cue determined, the composer starts writing the score. The methods of writing the score vary from composer to composer. Some composers prefer to work with a traditional pencil and paper, writing notes by hand on a
staff and performing works-in-progress for the director on a piano, while other composers write on computers using sophisticated
music composition software such as
Digital Performer,
Logic Pro,
Finale,
Cubase, or
Pro Tools. Working with software allows composers to create MIDI-based demos of cues, called
MIDI mockups, for review by the filmmaker prior to the final orchestral recording. The length of time a composer has to write the score varies from project to project; depending on the post-production schedule, a composer may have as little as two weeks or as much as three months to write the score. In normal circumstances, the actual writing process usually lasts around six weeks from beginning to end. The actual material of the score depends on several different variables that factor into how a composer may write - for instance, the emotion the composer is trying to convey, the nature of the character on screen, the scenery and geography of the set, along with multiple more different variables. A composition could consist of different instrumentations, varying genres, and different influential styles. Each composer uses their own inspirations and pragmatic impressions that create unique and compelling sounds that can help to make a scene memorable. One example of this is in the "Lord of The Rings" score where Howard Shore uses a specific melodic idea to refer to The Shire by employing a tin flute to evoke a Celtic feeling. Shore does this throughout the three films of the trilogy to underscore a character's feeling of nostalgic reminiscence (Lawson, Macdonald, 2018). Other scores include not only original orchestrations but also popular music that represents the era and or the character being portrayed. Many films do this, such as
Guardians of the Galaxy or
Back to the Future. Alan Silvestri at times orchestrates compositions that are accompanied by tracks such as "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time", both by Huey Lewis and The News. This creates a sense of lightness that deviates from the fanfare-like main theme.(Lawson, Macdonald, 2018).
Orchestration Once the music is written, it must be
arranged or orchestrated for the ensemble that will perform it. The nature and level of orchestration varies from project to project and composer to composer, but in its basic form the orchestrator's job is to take the
single-line music written by the composer and "flesh it out" into instrument-specific sheet music for each member of the orchestra to perform. Some composers, like
Ennio Morricone, orchestrate their own scores rather than use an orchestrator. Some composers give the orchestrator intricate details and copious notes that outline which instruments perform which notes—which limits the orchestrator's personal creative input to re-notating the music on different sheets of paper as appropriate. Other composers are less detailed, and often ask orchestrators to "fill in the blanks" to provide their own creative input in the makeup of the ensemble, ensuring that each instrument can perform the music as written, and even letting them introduce performance techniques and flourishes to enhance the score. In many cases, time constraints determined by the film's post-production schedule dictate whether composers orchestrate their own scores, as it is often impossible for the composer to complete all required tasks within the time allowed. Over the years, several orchestrators have become linked to the work of one particular composer, often to the point where one does not work without the other. Once the orchestration process has been completed, the sheet music is physically printed onto paper by one or more
music copyists and is ready for performance.
Recording When the music has been composed and
orchestrated, the orchestra or ensemble then performs it, often with the composer conducting. Musicians for these ensembles are often uncredited in the film or on the album and are contracted individually (and if so, the orchestra contractor is credited in the film or the soundtrack album). However, some films have recently begun crediting the contracted musicians on the albums under the name
Hollywood Studio Symphony after an agreement with the
American Federation of Musicians. Other performing ensembles that are often employed include the
London Symphony Orchestra (performing film music since 1935) the
City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (an orchestra dedicated mostly to recording), the
BBC Philharmonic, and the
Northwest Sinfonia. The orchestra performs in front of a large screen depicting the film, The conductor and musicians habitually wear headphones that sound a series of clicks called a "click-track" that changes with
meter and tempo, assisting to synchronize the music with the film. More rarely, the director talks to the composer before shooting has started, so as to give more time to the composer or because the director needs to shoot scenes (namely song or dance scenes) according to the final score. Sometimes the director has edited the film using "temp (temporary) music"—already published pieces with a character that the director believes to fit specific scenes. ==Elements of a film score==