How does a music editor cut suites to a feature film?
- Thread starter Fitz
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Scoremixer
Active Member
Bounce everything out to plenty of stems, and cut with the audio. Bounce out a click track as well, as an easy visual aid for cutting and looping stuff in tempo.
Yeah, and then when the music is cut to the movie, how do you then go back into the suite file and create 'cue' project files that work? Is that just the conform process?
Scoremixer
Active Member
Has an editor already made a rough cut of the music for the film?
Not yet. I’ll be doing some it myself.
GNP
Senior Member
Sometimes it makes you think - do certain film composers out there simply make fuckin suites, and then music editors do the rest of the heavy lifting? I don't doubt some of the good things that comes from this process, but if I'm a FILM composer, I WRITE to the SCREEN, literally, by a FINAL CUT.
In a way, this is actually doing it "LIVE". As opposed to just suites being chopped up by others.
In a way, this is actually doing it "LIVE". As opposed to just suites being chopped up by others.
Scoremixer
Active Member
Well, in answer to the question from the thread title - a music editor would take mixed stems of the suites, pull them into their project (normally 1 session per reel, but that can vary) and cut the audio files to picture as needed. There would be no reconform of the original suite project file.
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...
GNP
Senior Member
You can still go beyond what's there while doing it live. Besides, it's not really a limitation - it's in fact liberation. In a way you don't have to worry about what you haven't written that's needed.
Besides, I don't have the luxury of having music editors and assistants in my area of the market...
I have to eliminate the need for those folk by actually having a final cut to literally score to.
Sorry uncle Hans! Lol this is just a matter of how lousy the budgets are in my area of the market!
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X-Bassist
Senior Member
You get time? I'm not a secretary, more of an emergency room doctor. I get films weeks before release where my predicessor dropped the ball, sometimes after the pic editor has walked away, and I'm to make the most of what's up on the screen. Amazing how much you can do when you're up against the wall, but I'm glad to say they are usually pleasantly surprised, and I get to learn a lot on every single project. As you said, whether it's music or sfx, you try to make more out of what is there, and the story needs... sometimes taking it past what the director expected (which they usually love).
Now I'm talking about independent film, no studios here, but it's been great when it goes well, which is becoming more common with experience and learning when to say "no thanks!"
I think it's important to clarify if you are taking your Suite project files you write, and using those to then go into the individual cues with the assistants. OR, starting each cue from scratch with the music edits you built as a guideline and writing from that. Two very different ways to get to the end result
Rob Elliott
Senior Member
I seem to have TWO brains:
1. Thematic (based on screenplay / director's thoughts)
2. Scoring
#1 for me is the most enjoyable (sometimes done up to a year before 'locked' picture) as I get to paint on a canvas without 'limits' of what I see and hear - I seem to get to the 'heart' of the story/character in a better way. I almost feel like #1 is what I would do for free and #2 is what I get paid for.
1. Thematic (based on screenplay / director's thoughts)
2. Scoring
#1 for me is the most enjoyable (sometimes done up to a year before 'locked' picture) as I get to paint on a canvas without 'limits' of what I see and hear - I seem to get to the 'heart' of the story/character in a better way. I almost feel like #1 is what I would do for free and #2 is what I get paid for.
Valérie_D
Member
A successful film composer from Montreal once told me I was very lucky to be able to write and get inspired without images, he himself had to write directly to the film to get his ideas flowing. I'm glad I get my best ideas anywhere.
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GNP
Senior Member
Obviously it's not just about ideas - but literally down to the detail of doing where the hitpoints of certain scenes are. Sketching ideas is just part of it. Imagine doing a horror film suite, but in the end, you have no "jumpscares" scored directly to film. Imagine doing a love scene, where you leave silence when they kiss, and then have the music come in just nicely after the kiss. Direct stuff like that needs to be done directly down to the millisecond, no?
Any idea can be sketched - until you test it and put it up against the images. So instead of doing things the long way around - why not just....you know, get the damn footage and the cut, and you'll have a much better idea of what you're doing.
Any idea can be sketched - until you test it and put it up against the images. So instead of doing things the long way around - why not just....you know, get the damn footage and the cut, and you'll have a much better idea of what you're doing.
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