Temp Music

Okay, temp music can be a composer’s worst nightmare, but it can also be great if treated right. It took me a while to see that side of temp music.

The aspect of temp music that’s not great is when a piece of temp music sits in an edit for too long, and the directors, producers, and editor become attached to it to the point of not quite being able to hear anything else over that particular scene. That can lead to making music revisions that become closer, closer, and closer to the temp until it’s practically the same chord progression, same instrumentation, same tempo, very similar melody, and you still get notes like, “at :48 the in the temp, the melody goes up, and yours goes to a different note there.” At that point, just license the temp if possible. I’ve even heard stories (and it’s happened to me) where a composer gets their own music from another film as temp, and even though it’s their own piece that they know exactly how to create, it becomes a struggle where one needs to keep getting closer and closer to the temp, throwing out all originality.

In those cases, I think temp can be counter-productive. Every film should have its own sonic treatment and score unique to it. Not to reinvent the wheel every time, of course, but it should be a score for that specific project.

On the other hand, when a director brings music references to the table that are creative, something that I might not have considered, I love it. I end up studying as much as I can about that piece and the composer’s style of music as well as sometimes going deeper by trying to find what references or inspiration that composer might have been drawing on, which can give me more of an insight into how to create something that achieves what the temp/reference does but in a unique way.

So now when temp or references are brought up, it’s not a negative subject necessarily, but just depends upon the role and treatment of them.