How To Give A Composer Notes That Improve A Score
Let’s be honest and upfront about this. If you are hiring a composer it is because they have a specialism that is bringing something to your film that not everyone can do; it is the same for all departments.
You hire the best in that particular field you can within your budgets.
So having to give feedback, particularly technical commentary, on their work can be quite an uncomfortable task. Even more so if you know your musical knowledge is limited but there are easy ways around this.
Self-Checks
The first port of call for analysing anything in an area is a self check. If you are familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect you will know there is an ingrained bias for everyone to overestimate abilities in areas outside of expertise. This is something I do all the time when approaching analysis, even when looking at varying musical genres. Ask yourself, do I fully understand the area in which I am working, what is the end goal of what I am trying to achieve, and how can this be said in the simplest of terms.
"a little learning is a dangerous thing" - Alexander Pope
What I mean here is, don’t feel the pressure to speak in detailed technical musical terms just because the feedback is about the music. If you have a little musical understanding, ensure that any terms you use, you have a full understanding of. Otherwise you could end up with something you don’t want without realising it.
Focus
Focus on the film and its intent, not the music.
A common example is that a director would comment on a cue and say something along the lines of ‘I want more melody here’ or ‘make the strings darker here’. These are musical directions not the outcome.
This, in effect, is the tail wagging the dog where the director is making the musical decisions that fall within the composer's specialism and you are removing the ability to utilise the composer’s expertise within your film.
Now if a director comments on the film’s intent you focus on the desired outcome, allowing the composer to suggest options for achieving this.
A great example would be along the lines of ‘I need this character to really feel the weight of a decision here, the feeling needs to focus on the overwhelm not the action we see’. The director could go on to refer to the music by saying ‘the written cue feels like it doesn’t carry the intensity needed’ or ‘it makes me feel x, y, z. And I need 1 ,2, 3.’
None of this is focused on the musical detail but solely the desired outcome. This is almost entirely what the following points restate by the way!
State What Isn’t Working
This sounds straight forward, however, the most frequent thing I see is analysis and comments jumping straight into the music.
Take a moment and focus on the desired end result.
A director can talk in excruciating detail about the music, say not being intense enough, and cover dynamics, instrumentation, rhythm, register, harmony, and momentum amongst other elements, but none of this solves the underlying problem of what the end result needs to achieve.
Focus on the end result and say why the cue isn’t doing this, or what it makes you feel instead.
Character Of The Sound Not The Content
A valuable trait of a director is restraint. It is so tempting to wade in with ‘can we try a solo piano here?’
Whilst this may be a solution to a problem it is a creative decision that may have an exciting other option that has now just been ruled out.
Again focus on the intent for feedback and describe the character of the sound you are trying to achieve, such as ‘I want to feel how isolated the character feels’.
Avoid ‘More Emotional/Sad/Happy’
Speaking for all composers I can almost guarantee this is the most frequently used descriptor for feedback… and it doesn’t help get what you need.
‘More emotional’ or sad, or happy is not specific enough and could be interpreted in so many different ways it is almost meaningless. If this is the feedback the composer is left guessing. Every time.
Narrative descriptors, and yet again, intent are your best port of call:
‘I want the viewer to feel overwhelmed with how much the characters love each other’ or, ‘let’s make feel like the character is holding back tears, so don’t unleash this feeling too soon’.
Include Perspective
Similar to speaking in terms of narrative descriptors, a director can also include perspectives into this.
Are you focusing on an experience or a character within the film world?
Are you trying to show the perspective of the narrator and make the viewer feel as though they are standing alongside the narrator within the scene?
Do you want to focus on the audience’s perspective and highlight something the characters do not know, such as an impending trap ahead?
Do you want to highlight the filmmakers perspective and question a key theme that runs through the film such as morality or decision making?
Clarifying perspectives doesn’t make creative choices for the composer but it does direct these choices to be made for the direction you want to take. I love it when a director gives perspective, it makes writing targeted with a clear goal in mind.
Talking About Pacing
On occasion things can be clear in spotting and then not quite sit right in review. One of these moments is that the music may be achieving a purpose but not at the right time.
This could be:
The music needs to enter earlier for setting up the moment
The scene needs anticipation
A transition is too abrupt and requires blending or softening
Qualities from a previous cue needs to affect the following scene so the music needs to continue
Momentum needs to build before the action
The edit needs more space
There are lots of aspects to discuss about a cue where the music is not dismissed as ‘it isn’t working’. Whilst this may be correct we can analyse why. Is it the music itself or its positioning, or preparation?
Density
Sometimes the music isn’t necessarily wrong but the effect of it may be. There may just be too much or little of it.
It could be a case of the music being too rhythmically or harmonically busy, too orchestrally full, too intrusive with other elements such as dialogue or sound design. It could demand too much attention at the wrong moment.
Too much or too little of the music at any one point can skew focus. Comments such as ‘I like the cue but my focus is on the music whereas it needs to be on the dialogue, or the sfx’. This gives the control to the composer to blend what is there and give the focus to what you intend.
Preference vs. Function
‘I don’t like it’ is very different to ‘it isn’t working’.
A good composer isn’t precious so will be able to understand that just because a director doesn’t like something doesn’t mean a track is poor. It may mean there is something not working or it could be simply a stylistic miss alignment.
Highlighting this is a good thing and this is a moment for the composer to shut up and listen, and the director to narrow down the scope of what they are looking for. Once the director has said their piece and stated their aims a composer may ask questions if they need to hone in further on your intent. References are useful but it is important to identify what it is you like about them without becoming too attached to one sound.
A director should not suddenly be required to become the composer.
Can You Sound Like ‘X Composer’
This is one of those requests that some composers don’t mind and others get the deflated feeling of having to provide yet another pastiche of composers like Hans Zimmer or John Williams. It hampers creativity and will not allow for anything innovative to be produced.
If it is the type of sound that will work then great, but if the budget doesn’t match up to the reference then it highly likely to sound like a worse version of what you are referring to. If you do have the budget then the blunt question is why aren’t you going to the other composer if that is the sound you need?
The composer doesn’t need to sound like a reproduction of the reference, they need to understand what the dramatic function of the reference is performing to apply it to the scene in your film.
