Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1434375
72 W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Once you are off the scoring stage, you're basically done with it, right? I'm done with it. Once it's mixed and it goes to the dub or the music editor, I'm done. Unless there is a note from the dub stage. However, much of the time, a music editor can take care of things, though, sometimes it's me. In general, if I have done everything right, and if the show runners don't need anything else, then it's done. Right, but in the case of episodic, you are finishing one up while you're in the middle of three others. Yep, it's like they're mixing this one today, and I'm writing the other now, and we have spotted two or three down the road. So, that's your process from beginning to end. How many people do you have working with you to get to the end? Generally, it is only me writing. On occasion, because it's not humanly possible, I have other composers come in. Beyond that, I have two assistants who help keep me moving along. Then the orchestrator, maybe a copyist, a scoring engineer, and sometimes a music editor. As teams go, we're pretty small. And, what is the typical time scale of your projects these days? On the network shows, it's a week turnaround from spotting to delivery. Wow! Yeah, so when you have three network shows going on… Yeah, that's fast! Are you able to stagger your writing days or how does that work? The way that I have been doing it, I don't like to work on more than one show a day. Now, sometimes that's just not a realistic thing, but I try not to. This is why it is so important to have that infrastructure, that machinery that keeps the workflow going. Grease as many corners as possible, and keep going! Well-put for most of us in post- production! Thanks to Greg and Sherri for sharing their insights into the current state of the scoring universe, and for helping us understand how a modern score comes into being! we've talked about it. I know that my orchestrator will need X amount of time to prep [the physical score]. I build in a little wiggle room and I know that I will need final approvals by [a certain date]. [In essence], I talk to the dub mixer and ask him or her when do they need the music, and I work backwards from there. And, generally, how long does it take for the orchestrator to do their thing and get it copied to actual parchment? Depending on whom you talk to, this is very generous or it is unheard of in the scoring community, but I try to get them two weeks. But, that can be hard for me because it [eats into] my time. What I can do is [try to get it out on a rolling basis] where the orchestrator gets a chunk of the [score], and they can do their job while I'm finishing up some other things. So, the order of cues going out to the orchestrator is based on your spotting? The order is really laid down by what gets approved first! I keep a list, and I look at that list, and if I have cues that [have been heard by the filmmakers] and there is no note on it, I send it to the orchestrator. If a cue has been hit by a note, I make the changes and send it to the filmmakers again for approval, and so on. I think it is important to know what is movable and what is not movable. The orchestrator can, most likely, move their work schedule [they have some flexibility]. On a regular basis, I have seen them and their team churning the pages out literally in the scoring stage's control room while the orchestra is recording. Right, and I really try not to do that, but the scoring engineer's schedule may not be movable. The dub mix, it's not movable. So, when you know what is not movable, you build in all your padding. I consider myself a movable part. If I have to, it's [not ideal], but I can work faster and can make those things happen. And I have built an infrastructure to [aid in that]. Again, so much of this process is about not the writing! It is about the admin and the business side and always building out your infrastructure and knowing how the whole system works. So, for me, I don't record something until it's been approved. I have been forced by scheduling to record things without approval, but I try to do it in a way that I can change it on the stage if need be, or in a way that lends itself to being seamlessly edited.