Just to get this up front and out of the way: this isn’t some sappy love letter. It’s not, “I love directors, they’re so creative and visionary and I couldn’t possibly do what I do without them,” blathering piece of sales rubbish to make you want to hire me (though that would be good, the hiring bit).
This is the real reason I like collaborating with directors:
Directors are a source of raw materials, just as the music I make is a source of raw materials for directors. The raw material could be a film or a theatre piece or just a brief for any kind of project.
It’s a source of ideas, and, more importantly, a boundary and framework for me to ‘bump’ up against whilst composing.
I crave these limitations and frameworks. The most stuck I ever get is when there is no brief, it’s just me and the page and the entire universe of potentialities that I just can’t choose from. There’s too much choice. It’s classic analysis paralysis.
And a director, after providing this brief, will go on to give an interactive, evolving framework through their feedback on my music drafts – and these drafts help to make it clearer in turn to the director what they really want from the sound, and what really works with the image.
But this is the best bit: there is something deeply satisfying about decoding the director’s choice of language. Through the process of briefing, music drafting, feedback and redrafting, I can gradually but surely centre in on exactly what this particular director means when he describes a certain concept or notion.
This means I write the music that you really want, because I’ve worked out exactly what you mean.
Which probably also means that we’ll work together again. Everyone’s a winner!
Directors I need you! For:
- Your big ideas and raw materials.
- Your boundaries and frameworks.
- The challenge and satisfaction of creating a common language.
The by-product of which means I write some cracking tune. Thanks!
Photo by “My Life Through A Lens” on Unsplash