Video Interview paraphrased and edited below.
Douglas Edward:
"The creepiest thing is getting the film for the first time because when you get the film there usually isn’t any music.
There are some moments where you’ll have video without music and the film can kind of feel naked in a way.
It’s very creepy and intimidating to watch while thinking, ‘I need to put something here that is going to work’.
It’s always a challenge, it’s always a lot of fun and at the end of the day it always comes together."
"Before I even score a film, I usually have to write the musical themes. This takes a whole lot of time because
you really want to nail the themes. I do this by playing and figuring out every note, note for note,
how each theme is going to work."
"Typically it takes an entire day to score a two or three minute scene, and that includes writing the music
for all the instruments that make up the score for the film. Now even though I have already figured out the
themes and the emotion for the moment, I can still spend six to eight hours just making sure every note
is perfectly placed. You can’t just slap a piece of music to video, which is a good thing because that is
why I have a job. But it’s also bad because it takes me a long time to score stuff and that’s not
including recording. That is just getting demo sounding keyboard stuff in sync with picture.
Recording is a whole other beast. So that is about half the work."
"Usually the music is the one aspect of a film that most directors know little about, as they have
extensive knowledge about the look, lighting, acting, how to direct the actors, and how to direct
the crew on set. So directors know how to shoot the film and make it look beautiful.
But when it comes to audio and music, which is such a whole other beast, some directors tell me,
‘here, I don’t know what to do’. I kinda like that in a way, as I’ll take it and run with it,
do my own thing,
and later on they can tell me what they like and dislike about it. And we get it all done. Easy as pie."
"The best experiences for a film composer usually are the ones where we are given the movie and
we are able to score and do what we want to do regardless of anybody else’s opinion, yes!" (laughs).
