FILM SCORING MECCA | Score preparation icon Jill Streater – Part 2
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 continue our journey into the work of Jill Streater, an icon in the world of score preparation. Be sure to check part 1 if you missed it!
WORKING FOR FILM, TV AND PRODUCTION MUSIC
Budget does affect things on every level. Production music might have a slightly longer deadline but really most deadlines end up being short. Very short. The average time we have to turn around a film is – if we are lucky – 5-6 days. More likely it will be 3-4 days. This can be for up to 2 hours of music, which can be rather alarming, especially if it is for a large client team, who all want their own sets of scores. There is usually a bit more time on library music but it is actually amazing the amount of work involved in turning around each project even though we do it to a formula of scores and parts and production methods so it is wise never to underestimate such projects. Plus, we are usually doing these around more pressing projects.
Communication skills and tact alongside the ability to be your own self is what will shine through to clients
On the movie Skyfall (from the James Bond series) I had to print a title page for the song, which later appeared in Hello Magazine with Adele’s beautifully manicured hand on it. Fame! On that day I went into the control room at Abbey Road Studios and there was a little dachshund in there (dogs are not normally allowed in the control room and I love dogs) ‘Hello little doggy’ I said – and knelt down so it came over to me… looked up – and there was Adele – it was her dog!
FIXING MISTAKES BEFORE AND DURING RECORDINGS
We don’t change anything much on scores nowadays except the odd inputting mistake and questioning possible errata. It makes a huge difference that everything can now be listened to and special checking plugins run. We do address style issues (for example strings always need time signatures so we will add them and decent easy to read bar numbers if needed). [There were a lot more questions when scores were handwritten – there was much more variation in standards of writing accuracy and legibility! On the sessions, it is a rare project that avoids a couple of reprints for players who say they are ‘missing’ a part – for which – 90% of the time read – they have ‘mislaid’ a part! For sudden changes to parts, they might require a wind instrument to double something in the strings or want to put a phrase on a different instrument. Or maybe double up on some brass. Or add strings on something. More complicated fixes are relatively rare nowadays because the clients have the chance to listen to all the mock-ups and temp tracks and so know exactly what to expect.
Learn how to tape scores and parts correctly, efficiently and fast
LEARNING NEW SKILLS AND STAYING UP TO DATE WITH TECHNOLOGY
Certainly hand copyists who didn’t move onto computer back in the early 1990’s stopped working quite quickly. Nowadays if there is a requirement for a technical skill that I don’t possess – I usually know someone who does have that skill. Our main issue is to stay current on all the relevant notation programmes. Over a period of 5 or 6 years from the mid 1990’s to the early millennium the number of people used on an average large project went from using anything up to 15 copyists (‘Sleepy Hollow’ supervised by Vic Fraser had 15 of us at the studio on one of the recording days! ) – down to often just 2-3 people. That was the effect of the Internet and computer notation programmes. During the hand-copying era we either needed all to be in the same workplace, have access to a good courier service or like driving around! Nowadays my copyists can live up a mountain or in Madeira as long as they have an Internet connection.
Make sure you know all the notation programmes. Set yourself up with a decent printer and equipment.
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
Very frequently projects cover both best and worst in the same time period. Perhaps the run up to the sessions has been dreadful, last minute, complicated and with the fear that it will never get done in time – but the project goes wonderfully with great people, amazing musicians and music… and perhaps one even gets thanked (!) However I have also had the experience where I felt really calm and relaxed at the beginning of the sessions – with everything done in good time – it was ‘only printing’ (NB This is a misnomer – nothing is ever ‘just printing’!) … BUT when they began we discovered that there was a bug in a new version of the notation programme that removed all the time signatures, which quickly became evident as they played the first cue. Not a good realisation! Half the project had been printed from the programme rather than pdfs because in theory it should have saved some time (and therefore money). Not in this case. It all had to be reprinted. Motto – add the checking of time signatures to other final proof essentials such as bar numbers, transpositions being correct and final part pages being there! All of these have created nasty moments in the studio at some point or another however much one aims for perfection and it is never anything other than embarrassing and time wasting wherever the fault lies.
Network and meet people showing your own character
I must mention working with Hans Zimmer! The general feelings of anticipation, excitement, passion and energy, which pervade the studio whenever we are working on one of his projects, are totally special to him. He is such an innovator, and so many of his ideas have become mainstream that is it easy to forget that he set the trends in the first place. I truly treasure the projects I have been lucky enough to work on with him, culminating of course in his rocket fuelled Hans Zimmer Live Concert Tour.
Coming up next in the series: FILM SCORING MECCA | Emerging composer Anne-Kathrin Elisabeth Dern
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