Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
114 M PS E . O R G semester, this young high schooler came in to give a trumpet seminar and blew the doors off everybody. I couldn't believe what I was hearing … double tonging, triple tonging, beautiful tone, then great jazz improv… I'm like, "What the heck?" It just blew my mind, and I thought, "Well, I'm screwed. If high school students can play like this, what am I thinking I'm going to do?" And so that's when I realized I was in a little bit of a crisis. I started going for walks in Boston on Boylston Street—up and down. And then one evening, I heard music that was just glorious. And I followed it to a building. It was nighttime. I didn't know what it was. I wasn't sure if it was a Berklee building or not. The following day, I went back. It was a Berklee building. I walked in, went up to the second floor, and there was a Film Scoring department. It was relatively new, like three or four years old. I changed my major that day and I still absolutely love film music! I got a composition degree which also included instruction in music editing. Part of the curriculum was learning how to temp stuff. We were working on 16 millimeter. We had flatbeds and Moviolas because everything was on film at the time. That really taught me the mechanics of film composition. My senior project was composing for a PBS docudrama which we got to record in Berklee's new recording studio. We had a small chamber orchestra, so I also got to conduct. We were able to utilize both a click track and free timing methods (conducting visual references—i.e., streamers, punches, and flutters). Berklee really gave me the tools I needed to get started. Once I moved out to L.A., I was able to connect with other grads (their alumni network then was nothing like it is now) who were now working and actually taught me how to use the tools. I like to use the carpentry analogy: At school, we taught you that this is a hammer. Now, let me show you how to use the hammer. A firsthand practical application. PL: So, given all of this, I'm very curious as to how you became so busy as a music editor. JD: It's an interesting thing… When I first came out to L.A., I was told you have to meet with everyone you can. Network. So, I met with composers and I also met with music editors. Some of the old-time editors told me I had to choose between composition and editing, which was discouraging, as I really like to do both. There's a craft, talent, and a lot of creative expression in both avenues. I spent about three years networking but eventually ran out of money as I couldn't find any work. The editorial union was closed, the roster was closed, and at the time, I was married and my daughter had been born—and my former wife didn't want to live in L.A. Things were so bad that my brother had to buy us plane tickets to come home. After being home for a while, the dean of the Film Scoring department at Berklee offered me a job as a teaching assistant. While I was doing that, he got a call from a doctor at Harvard that was going to produce a radio show (what we would now describe as a podcast). Simultaneously, and completely out of the blue, I got a call from the late Herb Harris, an independent music supervisor working on a Paramount project, to do some music editing on a TV show called Hometown. He got my number from a music executive at Paramount in LA that I used to visit with from time to time. Somehow he knew I moved, got my parents' phone number, and had Herb call me to offer me the job! I took the leap and flew out to NY. Herb immediately got me into the Editors Guild and that was that. This show ended up being a mid-season replacement which didn't get picked up but afterward, one of the picture editors went on to this low-budget feature which was a musical and asked if I wanted to music edit on it. It turned out to be Dirty Dancing. PL: So, this leads me to my next question, which has to do with the process of temping. Do you feel like your skills/experience as a composer helps you with that or is it the other way around? And how would you describe your process? JD: I definitely feel like my experience as a composer helps with the process of temping more than my experience as a music editor helps with the process of composing. In terms of the process of temping, I think the biggest issue is to find out what it is the director, and the picture editor are wanting. Beyond that, it's a matter of—as I like to say—who is the EF Hutton in the room? Remember the old commercial? "When EF Hutton talks, people listen." It's looking around the room, trying to determine whose words are most important. That's the person you need to please. It may not even be the director. PL: Especially in television… JD: Right. It may be a producer or the picture editor. Because our job's a service job, right? As a composer, you're a servant to the film and to the director. As a music editor, you're a servant to the film, the picture editor, the director, the composer, and the studio. So, you're there to understand everybody's needs and try to provide for those. That's my first step. The second step is understanding the story and going after the subtext. I'm huge on subtext. What is it? What's behind the words? And I'll add this: What made me a better composer and a better music editor was studying acting for 10 years. I now have a much higher level of empathy and scene comprehension and understanding of picture editing. The other thing was when I first met Craig McKay and worked with him on a number of movies. He's an Oscar-