FILM SCORING MECCA | Score preparation icon Jill Streater – Part 1

Welcome to FILM SCORING MECCA – a series tailored and curated by composer Adriano Aponte for FST. Presenting amazing and insightful articles about professionals working at top level in the film music industry. Today we have legendary Jill Streater, an icon in the world of score preparation.

Music has always been a major part of my life but there have definitely been various important musical watershed moments, which defined my path in life

MUSICAL WATERSHED MOMENTS

First – my father, who was a huge early musical influence for me, died when I was only 16. This changed the course of my life completely. I probably wouldn’t have had the same opportunities to do music for a career because we were about to move away from London.

Second – choosing between the early security of a job playing the oboe with the BBC and a scholarship year in Germany.

Third – discovering popular music in a life changing way by touring the world with a very famous singer. It was also the first time I realised that it was actually possible to earn money by ‘copying’ out pieces of music!

Fourth – making myself available as a professional freelance copyist when I patently was not! Somehow I got away with it until my skills caught up with the job offers.. Fifth – transitioning from hand copying to computer. Also changing from being part of the team and occasionally leading projects to being in charge.

Always take any opportunity that presents itself

BECOMING AN IRREPLACEABLE REFERENCE FOR THE MAJOR LONDON STUDIOS

I wouldn’t say I am exactly that! The studios are definitely aware of copyists, though I’m not sure they are really 100% sure of what we do precisely – except creating huge quantities of paper material which frequently clog up their reception areas. I’d like to think that if they have a sudden problem with music prep my name pops into their minds as someone who is calm and good in a panic – and with enough equipment to sink the proverbial battleship and enough personnel to deal with any crisis!

DEFINE YOUR ROLE IN THE INDUSTRY

My involvement can range from organising music preparation for a whole project to something quite small. If it is the whole project it will often involve dealing directly at various points with the composer, lead orchestrator, production team, and orchestral contractor through to co-ordinating the appropriate team of copyists to process and print all the material and then onto attending the recording sessions and dealing with any aftermath – and all the finances. However, I might also just be contacted to format a few parts… I can truly say that every single project is different.

100% accuracy and huge attention to detail are absolutely key

I’ve worked on quite a few Bond movies. I’m pretty sure it was on Quantum of Solace when they had scarcely any time left to record the big Bond theme – but they did it – as I remember – in one electrifying, hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of- my-neck – take. And it was SO amazing that they have used it in several more Bond movies since, rather than re-recording it.

HONE YOUR SKILLS

As a copyist

One major benefit of having started as a hand copyist is that it was essential to plan the parts layout and the look of the page – and you had to know all the instrument transpositions. Nowadays of course with the advent of amazing notation programmes it is easy to think that these things don’t matter and that the programme will do it all for you but actually that is far from the case and it is still absolutely critical to look at all parts with the eye of a player and with the main aim of making the playing of the part as easy as possible for them. Speed of work and adaptability to ever changing schedules are also useful ‘skills’ – plus unending patience waiting for the cues that seem to take forever to come down the line… usually several days later than promised, which of course means that everything ends up being very last minute.

As a supervisor copyist

The ability to juggle multitudinous projects simultaneously and remember different line-ups, personnel and a million details, and a knack of being able to conjure an accurate estimate out of very little information. Always tricky! One thing that is important to realise is that once we get to the studio on one project we are often working on the next project(s) to some degree. If we are not, we will be in trouble down the line. There is a conveyor belt scenario with our work that it is probably hard to comprehend when one is young and fresh out of college….

On the second film of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy – The Two Towers – Howard Shore requested 24-hour music prep to be available and I ended up being in charge of the music prep at the hotel where he was staying – The Dorchester – one of London’s most exclusive. We had a whole row of bedrooms transformed into offices and Howard was in the Penthouse. It was very full on and sleep was in short supply, especially for me. The tables in our offices had white damask banqueting tablecloths down to the floor, so I took an opportunity to have a little snooze under the table, hidden by the tablecloth. Unfortunately Howard decided to pay a rare visit to our office, and I was jolted awake by hearing his distinctive voice saying ‘Is Jill here?’ and the sight of his shoes inches from my face. Thank goodness my colleagues didn’t give away my secret! The night shift at the Dorchester was effectively on New York time. We continued turning around versions of scores until they were signed off by Howard – usually by around 3am UK time (10pm NY time – his bedtime!), then we had to get them ready to be handed onto the prep team by around 6am, who would then format parts ready to be printed for the afternoon and evening sessions. Each new version was heralded by an email which simply said ‘pu’ (always lower case…) in the title – standing for ‘pick up’ – which meant I had to rush up to the top of the hotel to Howard’s room, door firmly shut – and collect the latest version sticking out from under the door. We’d then process the changes as quickly as possible and deliver the new score back to the Penthouse. One of my over exuberant deliveries back under his door elicited an immediate email. It said simply ‘ push don’t shove’.

On larger projects – designate people to check scores before they are signed off. It would also be so helpful if they would allow enough time for this process to sign off the scores in small-medium batches to be released to us for processing rather than a last minute scramble checking everything at once if they are doing it themselves.

Coming up next in the series: FILM SCORING MECCA | Score preparation icon Jill Streater – part 2