Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Were you ever interested in what's a temp track, how its made and who are the people who put it altogether? Who are these guys, where do they get all the music and what's their agenda? Read more about the temp tracks in my article which is based on interviews with two popular temp editors working in the industry:

http://blofeldscat.livejournal.com/60245.html

Wow. I've been obliged to put temp music into stuff I've worked on in the past but it never occurred to me that one could specialize in that kind of thing. *shudder!* Learn something every day, I guess. Interesting read.

_________________
Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

Interesting, thanks.

I can understand an editor wanting to have a musical metronome of sorts to fine tune a cut (though I suppose it should be part of the job to be able to feel how long to let a shot run, when to cut to another angle, how often in a scene, ...), or a director using existing music (scores or classical music) to better convey the composer what he has in mind.

Letting someone else other than the composer define the film's musical identity, however, I don't think is "right".
It's not prejudice against temp trackers, since the input might be invaluable; I just think that the ideas for the film's score (style, mood, originality, tribute, ...) ought to come solely from the director (it's their movie, after all) and the composer (the one with the musical experience whose job it is to actually write the music).

_________________
Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

...were they green eggs and ham...?

It is a touchy issue because music is vitally important to a film, but often filmmakers really don't have the vocabulary to be able to express what they want from it. This isn't even necessarily related to their critical standing; it has been said that Alfred Hitchcock had something of a tin ear, for example. Filmmakers used to a more technological process often seem to view music and music-making as a weird sort of magical process (regardless of how technological the film scoring process actually is).

A temp score, however imperfect, is often the only means a director has to express to a composer what he's looking for. I did find it a bit eyebrow-raising that there are people whose job it is to put together a temp score, rather than the temp coming from the director and/or editor. It leads me to the conclusion that too much attention is being paid to the temp score than is healthy for the film...

This is certainly not a reflection on the practices of the industry, but when I put a project together, I assemble a series of tracks on CD for the composer that establishes the general approach I'm hoping for and give it to them before they actually view any footage. During editing, I often try to find music that fits the tone of a scene but I make a specific effort not to locked into a particular film/music relationship. This gives the composer more of a chance to impose their personal stamp on the project.

On the other hand, being more musically conscious a filmmaker with an interest in tying the score into the narrative means that I often saddle the composer with ideas as to where and how thematic material should develop, or request two unrelated themes that could work in counterpoint for a particular sequence. So I giveth and I taketh away.

_________________
Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

Interesting article! I recently did a blog post about temp tracks on my blog as well. Wish I had two temp editors to talk to. However, I linked to your article.

http://www.filmscoreclicktrack.com/2009 ... the-track/

I'm definitely going back to explore your site more. I like that it features things you don't find on a lot of film score sites: LP liner notes, Musica Obscura (great title!), etc. Congrats on a great site!

Jim

_________________
Jim Lochner
http://www.filmscoreclicktrack.com