Film Music vs Temp Tracks: The Struggle

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, several important film score composers were asked about their experiences writing music for film. Their answers varied amongst each composer, as it would naturally happen, and each one presented their own individual view, as seen through the prism of their unique upbringing, education, and overall experience working with directors, producers, etc.

However, when asked about their opinion on working with temp tracks, their opinion aligned in unilateral agreement. They all hate it.

Temp tracks have become a popular technique used by directors and editors, thanks to the increasing availability of music online. Basically, when a director is putting together a movie, he/she will most of the times resort to borrowing a track from a song, or an existing piece of music, and incorporate it in the piece while they still haven’t found a composer, so as to get a preliminary idea of how the whole thing will look with music.

Then, when the director finally hires a film composer, they send him/her the material with the temp track, which will serve the composer to have an idea of the kind of music and mood that the director is looking for.

This all sounds great. Why then, does composer Danny Elfman refer to temp tracks as “The bane of my existence”?

Myself a person who has worked writing music for short films, I believe I can answer that, especially considering the kind of never-ending nightmare that my first music-scoring job was. I had been assigned to write music for this independent short film. It was a six and a half minute drama that seemed to have the sort of dark and magical tone that I personally feel comfortable with, as I love writing dramatic and dark music. The film, of course, was already “scored” with some temp music that the director found and incorporated, from different tracks (one of them, I remember, was a track from an existing movie which seemed to be his inspiration for this short film)

I began working on the music for the short film and once after sending the first drafts, my first feedbacks weren’t so much about my music, but about the temp music. Basically, the requests seemed to boil down to my music needing to sound more like the temp track.

I went back to the drawing board, and listened closer to the temp track, and this time tried to imitate its style, but while still creating something original. However this wasn’t welcomed. Instead, I was basically instructed to be more loyal to the temp track. Once again, no comments about whether or not my music worked for the film and why. Instead the criteria seemed to be how closer my music was from the temp track. I tried to satisfy this request, but my further attempts to come “closer” to the sound of the temp track were rejected as still not enough and quickly, what originally came as an opportunity to create something original, sadly unveiled itself as a frustrating, back-and-forth ordeal of sending music, in attempts to satisfy this need to have music that sounded just like the temp track. It felt more like doing the work of a counterfeiter than that of a composer. I realized that if it wasn’t for the copyright laws, the director might as well just be happy using the temp track as it is, for the final cut.

My surprise when listening to the Hollywood Reporter interview is not only that I am not alone, but that this is in fact the rule of what happens 99% of the time. Use of temp tracks has become so mainstream that composers are virtually never given a piece of film without temp tracks. This means that they always have to deal with this sort of struggle to try to un-brainwash the director from his affinity toward the temp track, which is a big problem for everyone involved in the process. What directors don’t realize is that by using temp tracks, and as consequence of having to revisit the material so many times and listening to the temp music, the music slowly starts to stick to the piece. So by the time the director tries to see the same piece with a different music, their ear is unconsciously still attached to the temp track they originally used.

Additionally, using temp tracks while still in the editing stage of constructing a sequence, is a big mistake, because you’re editing to a piece of music which wasn’t written for your film. This can lead to a lot of editing errors and inaccuracies, and needless to say, by the time a composer tries to write original music to the piece, they can encounter an editing rhythm that is somehow off, making the music scoring process even more difficult.

For many (if not most) directors, the idea of putting together a sequence without ever resorting to a temp track, seems almost inconceivable. They feel the composer they hire needs to have what they call a “reference music”. Granted, music is something very abstract, and directors find that rather than try to explain with words (“It needs to be happy, but not jolly happy. It has to be energetic, but not too energetic“), that they can instead just show the composer how the music “is supposed to sound”. However, for the reasons explained, this is clearly not working.

So what to do then?

Here’s a few tips and pointers on how to work with a composer without resorting to a temp track:

• Your film IS the reference music: This is the most important point that directors need to know and internalize. The idea of a “reference music” for any film is incorrect, because as already stated, whichever temp track you may decide to use, no matter how close you feel it resembles the mood of your work, it is still a piece of music that some guy you don’t know (and who doesn’t know you nor your film) wrote without having your film in mind. The real reference needed for writing music is your actual film itself. Its editing, photography, acting, pacing… All of these visual cues (as well as sound effects, and of course, the script) are what the composer takes in consideration to write music. You need to keep in mind that film music is not the same as music. You don’t simply throw a song to a piece of film and expect it to fall in place. Film music is basically sounds (not necessarily musical) that are written/created/recorded to the cue a visual sequence. The film composer has to think like a director, an editor or even an actor. Sometimes the composer needs to know what’s going on in the character’s mind, because maybe they need their music to reflect what the character is thinking/feeling, rather than what they’re doing.

• You need to talk to the composer: Nowadays, with the internet, finding jobs online is becoming more and more the to-go way to find work. As a consequence of that, I’m noticing that a lot of directors don’t even care to engage with the composer beyond a brief sequence of e-mails. They just send the material to the composer (with the temp track, of course) and basically pat them on the back like saying “There ya go, champ. Bring it back with music”. This is not a correct method of working. Again, music is a very subjective language, which is by default, impossible to put into words, yet paradoxically, this is why you need to talk to the composer, not necessarily to try to describe the music you want, but to tell them what you feel your movie is about, why you decided to do it, what emotions/reactions you intend to get from the audience. The composer and the director need to develop a sort of chemistry, not necessarily become “buddies” (This would be an absurd demand, since history is filled with cases of directors and composers who didn’t get along), but at the very least get to know each other beyond a few formal exchanges. Since the film is always, to some extent, an extension of who the director is, the film composer needs to have access to who this person is.

• Avoid trying to use musical terminology: It goes without saying that most directors are not musicians, and yet a lot of them make the mistake of trying to use musical terminology when talking to a composer. This is not only inefficient, but in fact detrimental to the communication, chiefly in that, because the director is not a musician, chances are he/she will use the wrong words to communicate what they want. So you may end up telling the composer that you want to hear a certain “rhythm” in a certain point of the scene, when in reality you meant to say a different “time signature”. This creates confusion, as the composer is going to go by the literal word you used, when that is not what you actually meant, which will waste time and build up frustration for both of you. This is also why it’s not very accurate to ask for “sad” or “happy” music, as different people hear music differently and what may sound dark and melancholic to someone, could sound hopeful and peaceful to someone else. Therefore, you should instead talk to the composer as if he was another director, or an editor. If a scene needs to be tense, or fast paced, tell them that. You should even feel free to call out visual details that you feel are relevant to the piece (the lightning, the use of certain colors) The composer needs to know these things, as he/she will have more expressive and contextual tools available when trying to conceive the music.

• If you definitely must use a temp track, treat it as that. TEMP music: A temp track is supposed to be just that: a reference. It’s not the final music, nor anything close to it. You must then understand that the final music is going to be very different. And in this case “different” means “better”, because the music that is going to be written for your film, is going to be like a tailored suit, made for your individual measurements (whereas the temp track wasn’t, and at best, it just coincidentally “seems” to interact with your piece) So you must learn to open your mind and ears and be psychologically ready to receive music that will most likely steer very far away from the temp track you used. But if this happens, instead of asking yourself “Why is this new music so different from the temp track?”, your priorities should instead be “How does this new music react to my film?” “Does it portray the tone that I intended?” “Does it manage to enhance the emotions I wanted to bring out while at the same time not being too distracting?”

• If the music is not working, you need to communicate even more: The previous point only becomes more critical at this juncture. If, when the composer finally sends you a piece, you find that it has nothing to do with what you intended, then that means the communication between the two of you failed. If by now, you still haven’t spoken to the composer, you need to do that. If they’re in another country, schedule a phone or skype conversation. I can’t stress enough how underrated communication is in this industry. It’s important to understand that most of the times, because of the nature of the job, composers are given material once the movie is almost finished, which means they are pretty much in the dark as to what the director wants. Another thing to take in consideration when you receive material is that the composer probably worked very hard to give you the material you have in your hands, and some tact would be very appreciated when giving feedback. Simply dismissing the piece and asking to start over is not going to be well received, and additionally, it’s not gonna get you what you’re looking for because again, the composer still doesn’t know what is it you want, and the process can be very frustrating if there’s no communication.

With all this being said, if you find yourself constantly rejecting the music because it doesn’t resemble the temp track enough, you might want to step back and ask yourself if maybe the temp track is what you wanted in the first place. Some of these temp tracks’ copyrights are not too expensive to purchase, and you will save yourself (and the composer) the headache and waste of time in trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

And with this last point in mind, it has to be said that if you’re equally satisfied with either a temp track or with original music and you have the money to buy a temp track, you should definitely use that money instead to pay a composer to write original music for your work. Nowadays, composers are struggling to find work because of the overwhelming availability of temp tracks online. While these tracks are a great tool that can “save the day” for a lot of directors and editors who just don’t have time to find a composer, I believe that all of them would benefit if they resorted more to original music than to temp tracks. On one hand, you’re giving work to an artist, and at the same time, you’re getting in exchange music that is original, and made specifically for your piece, rather than something you just bought online. I urge directors, animators and producers to not rely so much on temp tracks and put more value in the craft of having an original piece of music written for their content. Yes, it is more difficult and sometimes can be a painful process in trying to sort out the music needed, but the result is much more gratifying for everyone.