EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

At 12:23 PM 10/31/2006, you wrote:

>I have what seems to me an odd question to have to ask. I'm working
>on a film score and the director keeps chopping my music up. He says
>he likes the music. ...then he cuts bits and pieces out of it making
>it sound like a mess...... and when the music runs short....because
>he's cut bits and pieces out of the score.....then I"m supposed to
>rewrite....leaving the pieces chopped out.... We're doing this on
>almost every scene. It's like he's using it like library music. I
>don't get it....why hire a composer if you're going to chop the music
>up.
>
>I've never run into this before.....Is this common practice. I feel
>like I"m in the twilight zone. Some how I can't imagine Ridley Scott
>chopping up a Zimmer score.....?

 From what I know from reading interviews and forums and watching the 
"making of" features on DVD's, this is actually very common even at 
the highest levels. For example, "The Phantom Menace" went through 
many alterations after the score was recorded, so the music editor 
had to do a lot of cutting, pasting and stretching to make the music 
fit. Ridley Scott definitely would not cut up Hans's score in an 
unmusical way, but he wouldn't hesitate to demand wholesale changes. 
It sounds like you are working with someone who has an amateurish 
understanding of the process, however. If he likes what you're 
writing and the score is still being developed, he should tell you 
what he likes and doesn't like and ask you to make alterations to the 
structure of the score to reflect that while still allowing you to 
sync the music logically to picture. You might want to go over to one 
of the forums frequented by composers to get more feedback on this. 
(Northern Sounds, V.I., Sanctus Angelis, etc.)

Sean