Practical Composing Tips

These are hard won tips, tricks and bigger perspectives I have collected (and will keep adding to) over the course of my AFTRS degree and a previous life studying songwriting. I hope they bring you the slightest pivot you needed to find your way back to the music.

PERSPECTIVE

Question if you are centring the “right” character, lean on your collaborators to verbally process connection to story. Interrogate the character, their relationships and motives with the people around them. Choose instruments that work with the way you want to write. Try doing “less”. Check your ego and perfectionism.

 

RESONANCES

Use resonances to develop language around emotional tone and palate with the director, do this as early in the process as possible. Choose resonances that elicit the same emotional response intended for the audience, analyse the function of this cue in its original work and translate how that would fit in your own project.

 

ASK YOURSELF & COLLABORATORS MORE (& MORE) QUESTIONS

“What were you listening to when you were writing this?”

“What do you want the audience to feel in this moment?”

“For this character, what emotions led up to this moment?”

“If you could describe this film in five words using emotional language, what would they be?”

“How do you like to receive and provide feedback?”

“If I only saw this once, would I understand what is going on?”

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

When working independently, a screen composer can use practical tools such as score mapping (refer to Appendix 1: Score Map), familiarising self with script, visualising the score. To tap into emotion, specifically imagine the experience of the character you are writing for, ask yourself how you’d feel. Your personal experience of life is an invaluable resource, lean into your unique perspective so much that it becomes divisive. Assume your collaborators chose to work with you for a reason.

There is an argument to keep your skills sharp, per Christopher Gordon’s advice, develop a daily practise of doing something musical every day. If it serves you, protect your headspace. By having a structured, organised practice, you can make space for curiosity, play and intuition.

 

EXPECTATION

Although Christopher Gordon, a highly organised and intuitive composer, can interpret story into score very effectively, this is a skill that cannot be relied upon without extensive experience and selectively choosing a project that one is already both connected to and excited about. At AFTRS, we did not always have the luxury of choice and I noticed the more unfamiliar I was with the musical language that fit the emotional tone, the more effort, research and conceptualising it took to develop my skills. Focus on the dialogue you can have around rejected sketches as you have now ascertained something equally as valuable as the “right” interpretation; what it is not. Consider every note received and give yourself time to digest and incubate alternate perspectives and disappointing feedback, it’s not personal a comment on your ability.

Expect iterations, rewrites, trial, and error, especially as an emerging composer. Try and enjoy the exploration and allow the art to speak to you.

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you are still struggling, attend as many meetings as possible in person, go to set, or speak to as many collaborators as possible. I received some of the most poignant character insight from cinematographers and production designers.

ONCE YOU’VE FOUND THE EMOTIONAL TONE

The hard work is over but the real work begins. I can suggest the following practical exercises and considerations to assist in bringing the score to life:

  • Write a soundalike as a technical exercise in harmonic language and instrumentation then forget it and write intuitively using the new tools you’ve embedded in your musical vocabulary/toolkit.

  • Change the tool you are using to write if it feels limiting. I swap from DAW Logic Pro to Sibelius notation software when I need to “see” the notes and analyse harmony. I use Logic when I need to move freely across barlines when sketching my cue entries.

  • Try sketching from right or left brain per story board artist Doron Mayer’s suggestions. His book is also a game changer.

  • Check established themes and see if you can write a variation. Refer to how you’ve approached this emotion ro character previously.

  • If you are seriously struggling, give up today, take the night off and sleep on it. Go for a walk, watch a movie and remember why you love music.

  • Take the pressure off, “treat your exercises like compositions and your compositions like exercises.”

  • The work is better the amount of times you can step away and come back. Take breaks.

  • If you feel your interpretation is correct, is it a registral, harmonic, timbral, mixing or timing issue? We ask a lot of our collaborators to see through the potential of our mock-ups.

 

TEST YOUR MUSIC

To ascertain if your score is effective, pay attention to your own emotional response when watching it against the film. Seek feedback from collaborators and peers who are screen literate and/or are familiar with music. The fresh ears of a layman are invaluable, ask them how the music made them feel without briefing them, and imagine how they are experiencing it. You will vicariously have fresh ears.

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR BUDDIES

Composing can be a lonely, sedentary business but it can also be the most joyful, connective experience. Keep an eye on your isolated buddies and take every chance you get to listen to their art. To be trusted with a seedling idea is a privilege often accompanied by the gift of inspiration.