10 !!Chapter 1
The Composer’s Role
The composer is, typically, the last creative person to be hired during the
production of a commercial. When music is added as an underscoring
(background music), it is essential that the composer view the final, edited
picture—referred to as afinal cut—in order to write music that will prop-
erly enhance the picture. Unless the client has approved the final edit, the
music will most likely have to be rewritten if the film is reedited; revising
the edit will change the placement of the music. It is also possible that the
revised edit could change the message of the commercial. This could affect
the style of the music.
Example of a typical problem in television commercials: If the music
is building to a powerful musical ‘‘hit’’ (music and picture happening
simultaneously) and the section of film has been delayed by four frames,
the audience will hear the ‘‘hit’’ too early. The audience can hear and see
a variable of two frames of picture. If the section of film is varied more
than that, not only will the ‘‘hit’’ be perceived as being early, but also the
music following the ‘‘hit’’ will not be in sync. This is why it is essential
that the composer writes to the final edited film. In reality, clients request
editing changes numerous times before the final edit is approved.
Sometimes, a composer is asked to write music prior to filming. The
following are some of the reasons.
- If singing or dancing is shown on camera, it is best to write and
record the music prior to production.The music track can be used on the
film set to help the singers and dancers achieve exact synchronization with
the music. Suggestion: In the situation described in number 1, it is advis-
able for the composer tosuggestthat music be written and recorded before
filming. The potential technical pitfalls might not occur to the creatives. It
is not uncommon to notice poor lip-synching (singers moving their lips to
aprerecordedtrack)anddancersnotdancingintimewiththemusic.
There are several reasons:
- The singers did not lip-synch to the final music track during filming.
- The director was not paying attention to the lip-synching.
- The director did not notice that the dancers were not in time with
the music during filming. - Poor editing. Most scenes are filmed numerous times, using various
camera angles. If the film is not edited properly and some of the
selected scenes have synchronization problems, the final result is not
acceptable.
- An alternative to the method described in number 1 is to record a
simple melody with a click track tempo (a metronome click, e.g., 100
beats per minute) and play that music track on the set while filming.
This gives the singers and dancers the correct tempo. After the film has