GET OVER YOURSELF...

There’s a lot of ego in creativity – after all, what we create comes from deep within, and one way or another it's an expression of who we are. It can be extremely personal. We’re bound to be sensitive about what we create. But this sensitivity can be a huge barrier to successful collaboration.

Think about it – a young composer has just written what he feels is a superb piece of music for a film. It flows, it has life of its own. It’s distinctive and fits what’s on the screen perfectly. But the Director disagrees, and wants something different, or maybe even nothing at all. The young composer takes this personally, and is offended. They argue the point until the Director decides never to work with that person again.

Now I’m not saying that you should never explain why you think a cue fits a film well, or that you should never defend what you have created. But there comes a point where the Director has to make a decision. At that point, you need to get over yourself and move on. Change it. Scrap it and write something even better. You can always keep your unused music for another purpose. The point is that you have to be as dis-passionate and professional as you can about these things. Both you and the Director serve the film and its story.

And there’s another lesson here too: before you write any music, you should discuss in detail what the Director wants, both generally in terms of feel and approach, and specifically about where music is needed (and not needed) in the film. My preference is to go through an edit of the film – or the script at least – with the Director and agree what is probably going to be needed where – and why. My nightmare scenario is where a Director hasn’t thought about music at all and just wants me to do what I think is needed. I can certainly do that, but it can be very inefficient, leading to lots of unused material.

So, listen to what’s required, do your best to meet it, but be prepared not to get it right first time…

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