Spotting With the Composer and the Sound Designer

Yes yes yes…I know…we entertained this subject last month. However, in the tradition of Post, I am following up last in the process!

This subject has been of particular interest to me, and has sparked a lot of interest among my colleagues in Post Production. Discussing spotting is a subject unto itself as we have seen with all the fascinating articles and comments these past weeks. The focus this time will be on the advantages, disadvantages, pluses and minuses of spotting a project with the Composer AND the Sound Designer present with the Director. Sitting down in a room, all together, with the same goal in mind… helping the Director tell the story. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer — why NOT do this? Save time and energy; reduce the classic ‘conflicts’ during the final mix; the left hand knows what the right hand is going to do; efficient; cost saving; keeps the creative focus. Ah, if it were only that simple.

Leon Willett: Spotting For Video Games

So far during my career, I’ve had the pleasure of scoring two video games. In line with this month’s SCOREcast focus, I want to address the issue of spotting for video games, and how it differs from spotting films. Among other things, the issue of interactivity throws up opportunities and challenges that are unique to video games. We’ll take a look at exactly what the opportunities and challenges are, and how they can help you successfully spot a game. We’ll also take a look at who turns up to a game spotting session, and how the musical decision making (at least in my experience) can be decentralized compared with a film. Hit the jump, and…

Spotting Content

We’ve looked at the ins and outs of spotting in the last couple of weeks; now, after the jump, we’ll talk a bit about all the stuff in the middle. The content, in other words: What is this cue trying to achieve, and how should we approach that in a spotting session? How much to say; how to say it? The truth is that this part is simple, as long as you’re following a few guidelines. It’s not easy—you’re expected to be handing a number of different dynamics during a spotting session, after all—but it is simple. I’d start with this: Focus the conversation on dramatic needs. You want to avoid loading up on musical…

Spotting from the Cheap Seats

***Note — What started out as an article about the role of assistants in the spotting process turned out to be a little more than that. I’ll cover some aspects of spotting from a composer assistant’s perspective, but you’ll find more of an overarching description about what assistants should and shouldn’t do overall in this particular column. End disclaimer. ;-)

When you assist a composer, which I have spent the majority of my time in LA doing, it’s hard to get excited about the “spotting session”. It is only on Spotting Day that I know several things are about to take place for me: I’m going to be fetching a hell of a lot of coffee and I’m going to repeating the phrase, “Can I get you anything else?” a whole helluva lot, too.

Heather Fenoughty: Staying in Sync

This has been a fascinating month of articles on the ins, outs, technicalities, principles and importance of music spotting. It’s fair to say that the spotting session is an essential part of the music composition process, without which it is virtually impossible to stay in line – in sync – with the director’s vision for the film. There’s been lots of useful, insider’s info about how spotting sessions apply in the world of big-budget, LA Studio films – but the principles are equally applicable to micro-budget, small-scale, shorts, documentaries, commercials, multimedia and web applications, games… even wedding videos! Hey, you gotta get experience somewhere. ;-) On, say, shorts and low-budget documentaries, or on projects where…

Getting Out

Last week’s discussion of spotting was all about entering a scene; now let’s take some time to consider how to exit (gracefully… or maybe not so gracefully!). More on “getting out,” after the jump.

Everything *BUT* Spotting

There are all kinds of things besides spotting that make a spotting session important. After the jump, some discussion: what they are, why they’re important, and how to turn them to your advantage. (And yes, I did make a special green logo for St. Patrick’s Day. You’re worth it.)

Spotting Form

Spotting is the art of putting the music in the right place in the film and it an intrinsic part of being a good film composer. Spotting is about many things, such as mood and tone and musical style, but an often overlooked aspect is form.

The music you put and don’t put in a film will affect the pacing of the film, its architecture. For you to do this well demands a solid understanding of story, screen writing, film’s unique visual language and the brains and experience to apply that knowledge to the unique film you are working on.

More… after the jump!

Getting In

For the next few weeks I’m going to use this column to dig into the three primary technical aspects of spotting: entrances, exits and function. There are three Fridays left in the month, so I suppose it’s good I thought of doing this now! First up: getting in. Let’s start with when to enter a scene. And right up front, a disclaimer: none of this is comprehensive. I sort of think that it couldn’t be. Each film is a different animal, calling for a different set of tactics. And for every rule there’s a brilliant exception. There are, however, some things that I think you ought to consider pretty much every time out. One of the most…

What Are the Rules?

As I thought about this month’s theme, it occurred to me that I have never spotted a film or a television show. Well, let me restate that last sentence: If you had asked if I have spotted a film I would have shown something like this — I think I understand the process of spotting and it seems similar to an artform like origami or animal balloon sculpting. Just kidding of course — but I think I can learn this art form… maybe I just need the practice of taking picture without music and trying to find the appropriate spots music feels appropriate for, and figure it our through trial by error. So help me,…

My First Spotting Experience

A few months ago I composed the score for my first film, a documentary called To Be One. This was a small project with a tiny budget, a flexible schedule, and an easygoing independent director. This suited me fine though, because I didn’t really have much of an idea of how to proceed. But SCOREcast’s Deane Ogden, Lee Sanders, and Brian Satterwhite helped me along the journey. More of the experience, and a tool to share… after the jump! The film was divided into three segments, each with a different composer. I wrote about 20 minutes of music for my 20-minute segment. Yes, wall-to-wall music. My director was in California and I’m in Texas, so…

Funny Looks and Spotting Jujitsu

People look at me funny all the time (I got that out of the way for you, just to save space in the comments!), but never more so than when I express my general philosophy about spotting films: I want to write the least amount of music possible for the project. Nowadays our up-front music budget seems to shrink with every new gig that hits our desk… so why would I take a wacky position like this? Why deny myself the (sometimes) glorious royalties that come from a wall-to-wall score? And doesn’t “writing as little music as possible” sound, well, kinda of lazy? My rationale, and more… after the jump. It’s simple, really: If my…