youve had a Final Cut? Locked picture? ...I haven’t had that in 20 years!
my music editor and the director and I try the suites as ideas, but then every cue is re-written in MIDI to fit exactly to not just the cuts and mechanics of a scene, but the subtext and atmosphere.
but if you wait for a final cut, you’ll never write with as much detail, because you’ll be out of time.
but editors, and music editors and directors do some heavy lifting. And then my assistants and I try to recreate sometimes brilliant chaos. I remember a music editor taking two complete orchestral tracks and doing a 64-bar cross-fade, that I then had to somehow make playable by one orchestra...
but if you WRITE to SCREEN, you are limiting your imagination by relying on what is already there. Hitting cuts is easy - any kid can do it. But write from memory. ive done this for so long, I can hit any cut after seeing a scene once. But I can switch the movie off in my head...
widen your gaze. Go beyond what’s on the screen. Express what you can’t tell elegantly in words and pictures, and don’t ever be just a musical secretary to the picture...