Calculating Tempos for film scenes

[GregV]

Hey Guys... I'm just wondering if this behavior is indicative of mild OCD or not!

Before I start recording/writing music for specific scenes, I spend quite a bit of time figuring out a tempo (or range of tempos) for the scene.
I try to strike a balance between the tempo of the edits in the scene, and making sure that the end of the scene lands on "Beat 1" so that the transition (or fade out) is in a musically satisfying place.

Do you do the same thing? Or sort of?
Or should I be Googling local psychologists?

[Philthy]

Originally Posted by GregV

Hey Guys... I'm just wondering if this behavior is indicative of mild OCD or not!

Before I start recording/writing music for specific scenes, I spend quite a bit of time figuring out a tempo (or range of tempos) for the scene.
I try to strike a balance between the tempo of the edits in the scene, and making sure that the end of the scene lands on "Beat 1" so that the transition (or fade out) is in a musically satisfying place.

Do you do the same thing? Or sort of?
Or should I be Googling local psychologists?

It's not ocd, it's good practice.

[DonaldM]

I don't do film scores, but whenever I've read about it how its done or when I've experimented with adding music bed to some home videos, that is exactly what seemed intuitive to do. It seems to me you'd have to know where the end beats and even the "hits" need to be and then construct tempo and timings from there. Seems pretty logical to me.

[Stig Eliassen]

I like to find a couple visual spots that I think should be musically augmented, and use Identify beat to set Bars|Beats to a tempo I feel would be right for the scene.

[Craig F]

Not a bad goal but accept that sometimes it won't work or they will re-cut and through you off

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Craig F

Not a bad goal but accept that sometimes it won't work or they will re-cut and through you off

From everything I've read on how film scorers work, they're supposed to get the FINAL edited film before the music is added so that all the timings will be correct.

I remember reading a story about a film score being recorded with live orchestra and the director had forgotten to tell the composer...John Williams I think it was...that 4 or 5 frames had been removed from a scene. Recording had to be halted for about 2-3 hours while Williams (or whoever it was) fixed the score...meanwhile all those union musicians were sitting there getting paid. I think the article said it added some $100,000 to the cost, with nothing to show for it. Oops!

[Craig F]

From everything I've read on how film scorers work, they're supposed to get the FINAL edited film before the music is added so that all the timings will be correct.

In a perfect world, yes. But in the modern age some directors keep fiddling with the edit until the last moment.

[GregV]

Coincidentally, the re-edit is why I asked the question...
My current project has an Oct 8 deadline, and I don't have a final edit yet. They keep saying "soon" and don't seem too concerned about it.
Right now I'm writing "sketches" of what I want but I'm not really recording anything because my tempo map might be completely out of whack!

[Craig F]

this is were Music Editors come into play, find the point of compromise between the Composer vision and the Directors cut/re-cut/re-re-cut

[GregV]

Ha Ha... Yeah, I wish this project could afford a Music Editor!
Or at least a Sound Designer!! (It's a bit of a mess right now)