I hope I'm not too far off topic here in Post, but I'm genuinely interested to learn more about how professionals in the industry choose their composers.
Do you have a certain set of criteria?
Do you trawl through hundreds of composer applications? Is it a decision by committee or, more commonly, a single person?
How much is budget and location a factor?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Great question Justin.
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This is a great question Justin Wildridge. I know for us (small animation studio) we typically network and have a list of individuals we know we want to work with or we have listened to their work and it matches the feel/mood we are looking to achieve. I will say going through application tends to be a loooong process. A collective effort. I personally don't mind location, remote work is fine. As far as budget, I believe this is based on their rates and what all you are needing. A single composer or a full orchestra. This has been my personal experience however I'm sure industry professional may have a different process, system or platform they utilize.
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Interesting Cyrus, I wonder if your sentiments parallel with other professionals?
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Aye, interesting Q and an interesting lounge... I really out to get into the other lounges more often. As for music, past experience has proven it to be a point of contention. Everyone involved in a project (aye, even the crew) has his/her own vision of what the thing looks, feels and sounds like on its way out of post. Not to mention everyone and his dog has a friend or niece who composes on his smartphone or beat-up six-string from a second-hand store.
What I tend to resort to is sketching in the soundtrack and SFX with sound libraries and AI and seeing how that feels with the exec core. Then with the actual music feel and key and tempo and style etc. nailed down, I look for the composer who fits the bill.
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Appreciate you dropping in, Morgan. Your insight is invaluable. Your comment about the 'temp' track approach and AI is a particularly interesting one and one that sends shivers down the spine of many composers. Would you agree that, where possible, a composer should be involved from the outset and establish a language with the director (and possibly the entire crew) to create a final score that's unique?
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Depends, for a Holocaust film I'm working on, the director has his list of possible composers, and I have my list of compisers; if it gets to the production phase, who we choose from the combined list is the one we think will deliver the highest quality for the least money; if it's a tie, quality always tops amount of money, as sinple as that.