Interpreting some else's art....

[dropblacksky]

I've been working on sound design and some music elements for a fairly high profile art installation. The artist has given me direction in as much as he can with vague descriptions of mood and context...but I've still been unable to "nail it" on a few of the cues. As the revisions come back to me, I'm beginning to second guess my work...particularly as deadlines are looming.

How do other people deal with this challenge? What helps you to interpret a director's vision with sound?

[ggegan]

I just keep asking questions and floating trial balloons. After a while it usually becomes predictable. I don't know about an art installation, though. That may be more abstract and difficult to nail down. I'd still approach it the same way: mind probe and taste tests.

[philper]

Originally Posted by dropblacksky

I've been working on sound design and some music elements for a fairly high profile art installation. The artist has given me direction in as much as he can with vague descriptions of mood and context...but I've still been unable to "nail it" on a few of the cues. As the revisions come back to me, I'm beginning to second guess my work...particularly as deadlines are looming.

How do other people deal with this challenge? What helps you to interpret a director's vision with sound?

The key to this sort of work is the endurance of your good attitude, and how many times you are willing to try again without getting pissed off. You are in a particularly difficult situation here, but consider that composers of film music face these issues on every job. I'd encourage you to split your remaining time/energy between doing what you think they are asking for (by parsing what they say) and totally blue-skying it all--things that might even be counterintuitive. All they can say is no (or hopefully "You're a genius!").

Philip Perkins

[subbasshead]

Helping directors to own their opinions is a valuable skill
& sometimes the only way is to have a lot of options up your sleeve....

if its abstract, then sometimes directors dont actually know what they
want until they hear it (or something vaguely like it) so rather than present
only your best version, present it & then also play through five other versions
so that it becomes a comparative opinion, rather than "hmmm no thats not it..."

[ggegan]

Originally Posted by subbasshead

Helping directors to own their opinions is a valuable skill
& sometimes the only way is to have a lot of options up your sleeve....

if its abstract, then sometimes directors dont actually know what they
want until they hear it (or something vaguely like it) so rather than present
only your best version, present it & then also play through five other versions
so that it becomes a comparative opinion, rather than "hmmm no thats not it..."

I agree that you need to have options ready to present, but generally speaking I think it is best to start with your best shot at a cohesive concept (the one you believe is best based on your understanding of the goal) and not present the alts unless and until they are requested.

Of course there are always those clients who you know are going to insist on 8 choices and have to personally select every element. You know the type - the ones who think that nothing is any good unless it is their idea. With them you might as well just play them all one by one right from the start and let them micromanage everything, but I wouldn't automatically assume that is the case. With some clients too many choices can muddy the waters, when a well constructed single presentation can be very convincing.

I mixed a couple of films for Bob Altman and the way we approached each reel was to put it together on our own in the morning and then have him come in and watch it as a piece. Generally speaking he would have one or two very minor notes - that's it. It wasn't so much that we were so brilliant, he was a believer in collaboration and appreciated that we had a cohesive concept to contribute. You may just be working with someone like that, you never know unless you try. If you can't sell it, then go for plan B.

[jahtao]

I've been working on something similar recently, one particular part of it was really getting me down: the part where the character's drugs kicked in and i had to sonically evoke...

"nostalgia with a hint of malice"

by

"decomposing"...

an amazing song by an amazing band who's work I would never dream of interfering with, (I'm not Puff frickin Daddy). And then...

"develop a bit of a heart beat from the beat"...

Whilst she OD's, only to wake up a moment later...

"feeling sexy"

All this in the space of 30 seconds!

In the end I went completely nuts with about 5 convolution reverbs, many sampler channels, buffer over-ride all over the shop, filters etc etc.... in a fit of pure rage and frustration. Automated EVERYTHING to hell and back. Properly puked it his way via FTP and......

He ****ing LOVED it!

My advice: be lucky. But seriously, what helped was to find the one thing that made any sense, dynamically, and that is i had to go from sobre to intoxicated to dead to alive. As long as that dynamic is there you are conforming to his structure, irregardless of whether that structure makes any sense to you.

Go nuts,
M

[question]

This is a deep and almost more of a psychological theme than a musical one.
Some very interesting insights from the other posters. There are two interesting books that deal with the subject of communicating/interpreting what the director tells you regarding his music wishes. One is Jeff Rona's "The Reel World", the other is called something like "Getting your score"; which is written for directors to explain what the composer needs to know.
The problem that I mostly encounter is the directors' inability to identify the element(s) that is (are) problematic in a music cue. Sometimes it is tempo, sometimes associations with an instruments' sound. An accordion reminds one person of polka in Italy, another perceives it as Argentinean tango. Sometimes the harmonic/ melodic structures are just not "sad" "suspenseful" or whatever enough. I always ask the director for several non-musical adjectives relating to the context and mood of the scene.
Although I am a musician and film composer, I find that reading books about screenwriting more helpful than studying more music books!
Any other composers wish to share their wisdom regarding reading the directors' mind?