“You Don't Cook a Steak by Having 100 People Breathe on It”
Orchestrating Success: How to Get the Best out of the Composition Process.
A well-crafted score can resonate with audiences long after the final credits roll. But what are the best ways to unlock the full potential of a composer? How do you achieve musical success every time?
We asked seasoned producers, directors and composers to help shine a light on how they get the best out of the music score.
How do you initiate things?
Is it a conversation, visual or musical references, a written brief or something else?
“Probably a combination of all of them.” says Caroline Hawkins, Creative Director of UK-based Oxford Scientific Films (OSF) (Secrets of the Elephants). She adds, “It can be many and various – a simple description – ‘we want it to feel like Nordic noir drama or like Pirates of the Caribbean or His Dark Materials’. Sometimes it’s a Spotify playlist like 'we think it’s got these flavours'”, she says. “It’s always important to bring our composer in at the earliest opportunity. I’d never allow our teams to edit, then look for a composer. It really is so important”.
Director Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters, The Hollow Crown) starts by hearing her composer’s thoughts on the script. If it’s later in the process and there is a cut of the movie to show her composer, she will share that. That is followed by a full discussion of how they both feel about the film, the emotions that drive the film, important narrative twists and turns, any strong character beats and how she wants the audience to feel. “Like all creative partnerships”, Sharrock says, “you have to be ready to take a leap of faith in sharing your instincts and opening your mind to others”.
Collating existing music helps Laura McGann, director of Netflix’s 2023 deep-water diving feature doc The Deepest Breath, inspire the score. “I'll listen to a lot of music and put together a playlist and then go back to it after a couple of weeks. And there will be something that stands out as being a cohesive sound maybe for a scene - even if it's just the tone of the scene or the mood of the scene - that can be a good jumping off point with the composer” McGann says.
From the composer’s point of view, initiating the scoring process begins with a conversation to understand the essence of the film according to Sheridan Tongue (Silent Witness). “Although I may have already read the script or viewed a cut, distilling the film's intention into a single, clear sentence is crucial for me”, he says. With that, he can then embark on his musical journey to align with the director's vision.
When’s the best time to initiate the process?
The luxury of time...
Having the luxury of time helps composers be well-prepared for when scoring begins. Director Vince Marcello (Netflix's The Kissing Booth) gives his preferred composer the heads-up even before the script is written. “I'll put a bug in their ear that it’s coming and give them my initial creative objectives on it just to plant it in their mind.” Once there is a script, Marcello writes markings or indications on where he sees key musical events occurring if there are diegetic events in the story.
At pre-production, his composer works on preliminary themes and melodies. When there are some assembled pictures, he gives the composer an opportunity to watch them, “without me telling them where I think the spotting is – I just let them get a sense of it”. Marcello continues, “they then give me their opinions and I share with them mine on what I thought the spotting was and why. And sometimes I'm right, sometimes they're right and we find the middle ground on whatever that is.”
But what if you don’t have the luxury of time?
Director Alex Pillai (Bridgerton) was just weeks from the first internal screening of his 2024 Prime Video film How To Date Billy Walsh when his composer, Rob Lord, came on board. The production had also struck a deal to include major artists’ songs including by Dua Lipa, Charlie XCX and Lizzo. Despite the tight turnaround, “any composer joining the project would have to compose music in a mood congruous to these commercial tracks and yet be given enough freedom to express in their own way the emotional story of our characters” Pillai explains.
Rob’s task was to find a musical language that fit with the pre-existing soundtrack, notwithstanding the time pressure. They adopted a speedy way of working and communicating. “Rob tackled the big tasks first, aiming to compose a sound that worked with the palette of the film. We found a way to collaborate fast and simply by Rob sending me short excerpts of the film with his temp music mix. This would be via WhatsApp and Vimeo, so that I could respond in real-time. Every composer is different, and directors need to be adept at explaining their intentions to a wide variety of collaborators. With Rob, we reached a shorthand to take us through the 40 or so cues” says Pillai.
The Written Brief
What do Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and The Golden Girls theme have in common? Not a lot, you' be forgiven for thinking. But these were two of many references provided in a recent music pitch document sent to one of our composers for a series theme pitch.
Some commissions are tendered out for composers to pitch on. I have learned that composers respond best when working with a director or producer from the start, developing music incrementally and collaboratively, rather than through a ‘nail it first time or die’ pitching process. But where a pitch must happen, to get the best out it, the music brief should be as concise and clear as possible. Run it by a composer or agent for their take on it if feasible before putting out the brief generally. I have seen composers off-put by overly prescriptive briefs with too many musical ‘inspiration’ references.
RELATED: THE COMPOSERS' GUIDE TO FINDING REPRESENTATION
A focussed music brief will benefit both composer and producer – and ultimately help find the best candidate.
How valuable is the so-called “temp track”?
Temporary solutions...
Often used, temp music is existing music placed temporarily on a cut by a director or editor, prior to the score, as a music guide.
BAFTA-nominated director Tessa Hoffe (forthcoming Gangs of London) recounts a director friend who sent footage to their composer while shooting scenes so that the editor was cutting to the composer’s music and not temp music. “I remember saying to that director when I watched the show, ‘the music’s amazing’. He was sending the composer cut scenes very early on. That’s a process I’m really interested to try. I can see and feel the difference. The editor is only working with the composer’s material. It lifted everything and was so much stronger.”
For director Thea Sharrock, temp music is a double-edged sword. It can be both very helpful as a guide and “simultaneously seductive”. She says, “it can be very difficult to navigate away from, or indeed sail close to.”
A composer will often have their own existing music catalogue to temp with. When the time comes to replace that music, it will more seamlessly help keep music within the same musical sound palette throughout.
“Music is one of the dark arts. Everyone loves it, but few people know how it's actually made and understand what's easy to do and what's difficult.”
How do you like to communicate along the way?
For some, there is no substitute for being in the room with the composer during the scoring.
Jeroen Jaspaert is a director and showrunner who has worked at multi-Oscar-nominated UK animation company Magic Light Pictures (The Gruffalo, Stick Man) for the last ten years. He has sat in composer René Aubry’s Paris studio to discuss music for projects they have worked on together. Jaspaert recalls of Rose D’Or-winning BBC animated film The Highway Rat, “[Aubry] is very intuitive. While we were talking, he would suddenly get his little mandolin out and play something and it just felt really useful to be creatively sitting together” he says.
When it comes to giving feedback (discussed further below), written notes are his default, but they can be sometimes construed as a critique, so Jaspaert often favours a face-to-face call to quickly clear up any confusion in written notes and to keep the collaboration flowing smoothly.
Similarly, director Vince Marcello works with composers who allow him to go in and sit with them and help them to reshape music cues where needed because it saves time. “If we sit and I have someone who is comfortable with sitting at the piano with me, we get things done much faster.” That, he says, works so well that it can get to the point where the composer will ask Vince, “when you coming over?”.
But there’s no one-size-fits-all. Face-to-face isn’t always realistic or necessary, especially in the digital age. OSF’s Hawkins says, “A lot of relationship are really global, so it doesn’t faze me to have a composer in the US who we never see.”
In the interactive world, there’s often a watertight communication system in place from day one. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) senior music supervisor James Marshall (whose blockbuster credits include the Gran Turismo series and Sackboy) says there is more to it than just thinking creatively when working with a composer. Game scores can take years to complete. There is the dual challenge of not having a lot to show a composer at first, but, “we need music that will work within systems” he says. There are also usually numerous composers working on a game (Sackboy had 12).
So how does Sony ensure smooth communication and music that can seamlessly plug into those systems? They lean on highly organised processes internally to make sure the composer has what they need at all times. As well as engaging the main game composer(s), SIE has an in-house production team, made up of music supervisors and music designers who edit and implement music, as well as compose additional cues if required. “We don't want composers feeling like they’re an isolated island,” he says, “throwing stuff over the fence and then not really hearing anything from us.” Having a composer feel part of the whole development team is critical for a successful collaboration.
What challenges have you faced with the scoring process and how have you navigated them?
Latham Gaines and Shelby Gaines are a brother composer team who make their instruments from found objects. On resolving creative challenges during the scoring process of their latest film, Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke, they say: “Fortunately, we’ve been lucky in this regard, but on Wildcat (Prime Video) we had a different opinion to Ethan about the amount of music that should be included in the film”. Shelby continues, “we felt strongly that less music, more carefully placed, was going to elevate the film, but he wanted a lot more music. In the end, Ethan was right and we found a way to arrive at his ask in a way that was congruent for us… that's what collaboration should look like.”
See how they did it on the page below...
OSF’s Hawkins has had occasions where there is too much music – “like wallpaper” – she describes it as. “I had to reduce it right down in the mix. You [also] don’t want a composer who is just going to dial it in or subcontract it to someone else. You really do have to have someone committed” she says.
Paul Farrer (recently described by Richard Osman as the "Don of TV Themes") positions himself as the least complicated part of his clients’ lives and goes all out to avoid issues arising in the first place. “You want it painted pink? Fine. It's got to be edited down to seven seconds? No problem.” He says most challenges arise when someone is not empowered to give feedback or make decisions, leading to inefficiency. Feedback, he says, which is positive in the first instance but with the caveat of let's see what everyone else thinks, is usually a red flag for him.
Liaising with one (key) person is, I often hear from our composers, the best way for a successful collaboration. “As they say in Hollywood” Farrer continues, “you don't cook a steak by having 100 people come into a room and breathe on it. You can't do it by committee. There are a billion options for everything: tempo, instrumentation, style” and so, says Farrer, anything that can allow a composer to understand just what the producer needs quickly and without wastage is invaluable.
Says AAA games composer Inon Zur (Prince of Persia, Star Trek and EverQuest), “A less experienced producer can hear a track and just say, ‘it's not working for me’. But I want to know what's not working for them.” Zur asks for reasons why it’s not working, posing questions such as, 'was there anything that you liked about it, such as instruments or pace or the mood?'. He continues, “usually [through that process] we find out that they like a lot of it, but they hated the clarinet.” It’s a case, he says, of a composer helping their client understand what they don't like through questioning which, for Zur, works well.
"The Kid": Making The Music
Should feedback be a two-way street, or do you expect no questions asked?
For director Tessa Hoffe the answer is very much the former. If music isn’t quite working right, it’s not about telling the composer the solution, but communicating to them what the problem is and why the music isn’t working. “Let them find the solution and figure that out”, she says, because, “as a creative person that’s what you want. And same for me as a director. If the edit isn’t quite right, I’d rather know what the problem is so I can go back and recut rather than being told “cut here or edit there’. You don’t get the best out people that way”, she says.
Vince Marcello tries to avoid getting into what he calls a ‘give boss what he wants’ mentality. “If I give feedback and [composers] don't respond to my notes, that's when I worry. Because I believe that if anyone moves into ‘give the boss what he asked’ mode – that’s death for creative collaborators. If you’ve done something to put them in that frame of mind,” he says, “you've just thrown away all of the creative value of that person, and they've now become a set of hands”.
Marcello (who has a background in music) explains that composers who are at least receptive to hearing elements which resonate with him in relation to the music temp track, “are people who I'm more comfortable working with”. Those who are unreceptive to feedback are closing themselves off to his creative process which he sees as a lack of respect. During the scoring process generally, Marcello explains “I want [the composer] to push back in a collaborative way, though not to get me to keep it exactly the same as it is, but to understand what am I feeling. Because however experienced I am with music, I've not a fraction of what they have.”
Laura McGann echoes that sentiment. She says, “I don't have all the answers. I don't want to tell a composer what it should sound like. They're the expert. I want a composer to come with their opinions and with their preferences and their ideas. And we both kind of figure it out together.”
Contrast that with games composer Inon Zur who leans more towards a ‘no questions asked’ approach when feedback is given. Zur doesn’t hear his music in context. He trusts his client’s judgement, however unsure he feels about changes requested.
Sony Interactive’s James Marshall explains that for a large game there may be a significant number of stakeholders who input music feedback. It’s an iterative process, he says. When music is implemented into the game, it’s not unusual for it to need modifying, editing or re-contextualising to work within the system (something may need really dialling up in terms of intensity). “There might be almost a two-stage feedback process of, ‘OK, we've got the sound. Now we need to form this into something that works within the game’” James explains. But they run a well-oiled machine to manage this. They call it the feedback loop. Music is delivered, implemented and fed back on continually throughout the development process. They collate music feedback from those stakeholders into something manageable and methodical for the composer to avoid the composer being overwhelmed by multitudes of opinions (their in-house music designers help with that).
What are your key ingredients for a successful composer partnership?
Besides the ability to work quickly and have a good range musically, Clare Richards (director of Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story) says, working with a composer who is emotionally intelligent is “high on the list of attributes that makes a successful collaboration.” She says people work with people who they like and that applies to any role in the production process. “Communication must also be as good as it can be” she says. Being able to articulate what you feel you need more or less of musically (“it’s an evolving process”) and the composer effectively listening and responding helps make a successful communication, she says.
Similarly, composer Raphaelle Thibaut (whose clients include Lucasfilm and Amblin Television) believes that achieving clarity around creative visions on both sides is a must. She too echoes the emotional intelligence theme. That, and empathy Raphaelle says, are critical for a successful partnership. Being in creative fields, she says, doesn't give us a free pass for disorganization or chaos.
For director Laura McGann, to “read each other's minds is handy… but really it's the communication” she says. “Finding a language that you can both speak [musically]; if that’s speaking in colours or tone, we just find a language that we both understand. Understanding each other and being patient with one another and being patient with your composer and also the composer being patient with me” McGann says, is vital.
Director Thea Sharrock says she always hopes that it’s a relationship based on an honest dialogue back and forth between her and composer. “It’s not always easy to find the words to best describe how you feel about music, so honesty and confidence in the partnership is vital”, she says. Generosity, confidence, a sense of adventure and excitement for the journey and patience are other key elements in any composer partnership for Sharrock.
The director, according to Alex Pillai, “makes the project come alive to the composer by conveying the story in the most simple terms. Humility is perhaps the most important ingredient, because it is not for the director to suggest a musical solution to their story requirements. It is for the director to fire the imagination of the composer. The director should create an environment for the composer to be unfettered, with the hope that the composer’s initial draft will be startling and offer new insight into the film.”
There is another ingredient common to many of those I interviewed, perhaps best summed up by Pillai: trust is the hoped-for result of all of the director’s collaborations.
“You don't need to be their best friend”, says games composer Zur, “but it’s important for creatives to form a trustable, warm working relationship with the composer for best results. You want to be happy when you're receiving their e-mail and feel liked and that someone’s trusting you – and vice versa.”
Marcello says mutual respect of the craft is vital. “I solve problems” he says, “composers have to do the same thing for me. Likewise, when I understand that something's really important to the composer (I want more strings in my score), I am very compassionate to those type of things and if I can see a way to do them, I fight for it.”
Coda
Market conditions are challenging. Budgets are often squeezed. The importance of getting things right first time with a composer can’t be overstated. The common thread from my interviews is that success isn’t just about engaging great talent. Synergy between a production creative and a composer is crucial. Clear communication, early composer involvement and mutual respect should be a given. Whether it's face-to-face meetings or WhatsApp exchanges, a shared language and understanding are key. And trust is, of course, a big component of any successful collaboration.
Getting all this right will result in more than just a good musical accompaniment to a production. Music will become a lasting, resonant part of its legacy.
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Steve Berman is an agent and former lawyer and runs The Composerworks.
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