1 Hour Film Music Composition Work Flow ?

[priorytools]

Hi.
I have a film that's just over an hour in length to compose the score for.
There are no separating cut screens with the scene numbers, but there is time code. .
Is it best for me to deal with it in "chunks" in separate sessions or all in one big session would you say ?
I'm erring to the former, but thought I'd put this question out there .
Any advice greatly appreciated .

[reichman]

With our TV composers, I encourage them to put all their cues in a super session (Logic, PT, whatever). This is because they have to work fast, the band is often about the same from cue to cue, and they have to export tracks for mixing quickly. The downside is that it makes for an elaborate tempo map, and revisions are harder to execute.

But on projects with very different bands from cue to cue, it makes sense to break up cues into separate sessions. However, separate sessions is much more time consuming, is harder to record live instruments into, and makes mixing slower, but revisions are easier.

Make sense? :)

Think about your schedule, how disparate the cues are musically, and think carefully about the tracking and mixing workflow.

Good luck!

[priorytools]

Hi.
Thanks for your reply.
I think I'm going to make a working template which will contain the entire movie & all channels I have in my main studio temple.
Then I'll work on numbered sections in separate sessions.
Then,once the music is done, during which I would anticipate edits are bound to happen, I'll data import the channels used in each section session into a master session for final mixing.
Straight on til we get there !

[reichman]

Good plan. I often like to mix with a tempo/meter map of the underlying cue (we'll get this from Logic via a Standard MIDI file). It makes editing and time-based effects like delays easier. But many people mix without the tempo map, just be aware of this issue when you make your master session.

[Tom Graham]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Hi.
I have a film that's just over an hour in length to compose the score for.
There are no separating cut screens with the scene numbers, but there is time code. .
Is it best for me to deal with it in "chunks" in separate sessions or all in one big session would you say ?
I'm erring to the former, but thought I'd put this question out there .
Any advice greatly appreciated .

I recommend putting the entire movie with dialogue and FX in your master template as you describe with your basic instrumentation laid out as well. Then saving each as it's own Pro Tools session or cue as described above to do your major writing on a cue by cue basis (each one having it's own tempo map, etc…)

Then I would recommend printing all your instruments with Commit or Track Bounce as stems and taking all those stems files and placing them into one master full length session so that you can mix them against each other. This allows you then to deliver that as a fully edited and mixed session (keeping it virtual all the way to the end) to the dub stage ready for them to tweak as needed. We showed this workflow in our Pro Mixing Webinar "How to Create and Indie Soundtrack" which you can watch online….