Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1487730
28 I M PS E . O R G effects, and you have to make sure that you continue to think about and honor the artistic goals. PL: Could you please tell us a little about your process of creating a temp score? JER: First, I learn everything I can about the project. I watch previous work by the director and editor, and if a composer has been hired, I try to talk to him or her. They usually have something very interesting to say about what they want to avoid on the project, or what they are hoping to incorporate. Ideally, then I watch the whole film with no music at all, even if the editor has been putting in temp music (And I don't read the script beforehand). I just want to experience the raw footage, and the rhythm of the picture cuts, and I will only get one chance to do that. I find that if I first see the movie with any temp music, it gets imprinted on my mind, and it is harder for me to see alternate approaches. In general, I try to only use music that has come from films in the last decade (although I certainly make exceptions). That encourages me to do a lot of investigating new scores before I start, and one of the most fun results is when you find a piece of music from an unexpected source. I try to start temping with a significant sequence near the beginning of the film, and I want to present the director two or three alternative musical approaches so that I can start learning about their musical sensibilities. For example, when I started temping The Perfect Storm I thought it looked like American realism that was close to a documentary, but I had to adjust as I realized that Wolfgang Petersen saw it more like an opera! The most frustrating part of the process, and the most rewarding, is getting in the head of the director. I like working on temp scores, but I often warn directors that there is very little connection between the process of creating a very good temp, and the process of creating a very good final score. In other words, there are great temp scores, and there are great final scores, and there's very little correlation between them. There are things that might accidentally work well in a temp score, and if you try to get the composer to recreate that magic, you end up squeezing out what was special in the composer's approach. Jerry Goldsmith had a fearsome reputation for hating temp scores, but the one time I temped a movie for him, he was surprisingly interested in what I was doing. What he hated, which I had avoided, was when his previous scores were reused in a different context. I find that most experienced composers are able to use the temp score as a point of reference with the director, so that they can understand what he/she is looking for. PL: How do you see the current state of the music editing profession and what advice might you offer to anyone who wishes to pursue this as a career? JER: One thing I find very encouraging about the advent of streaming is the large number of new composers who are getting exposure, and that opens more opportunities to less experienced music editors too. Change is hard on egos, but we need new blood. Like every other part of filmmaking, the language of music in storytelling is evolving. When the 1961 West Side Story was released, the Bernstein score was boldly avant-garde, but by the time we released the version last year, it was a museum piece, albeit beautifully recorded. And that's the way it should be … we communicate with the audience with a musical shorthand that easily becomes cliche, and then bolder filmmakers find ways to remake and break those cliches. I feel like there's a lot of adventurous film music being created; some of it is disastrous, but you can't innovate without having some failures. My advice to anybody interested in music editing: 1. Do whatever you can to hang around somebody who you think is very good at their job. That might even be a composer. 2. If something sounds wrong, trust your ears, not your equipment. 3. If something looks wrong on your paystub, ask questions. 4. Whenever possible, talk about storytelling ideas and musical ideas, not equipment or plug-ins. 5. Good ideas can come from anywhere. 6. Once you're in overtime, bad ideas can also come from anywhere. Joe E with a live reindeer, 2010.