Many of us light up at the mere mention of the monumental cinematic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. Howard Shore’s magnificent score brings the picture to life. But, how many of us have pondered the nuts and bolts behind the music’s surface? Who makes it possible for a composer to complete such a monumental task? There are, of course, musicians, audio engineers, and orchestrators (although, Shore served as the sole orchestrator for The Lord of the Rings), but film music editors play an extremely important role and can often be the composer’s backbone while working on film. Music Editor Tim Starnes (www.timstarnes.com)is arguably one of the strongest backbones the feature film industry has to offer. In addition to the Lord of the Rings sequels, Tim has worked on The Aviator, King Kong, and The Departed. Recently, MusicSupervisionCentral (www.musicsupervisioncentral.com) had the opportunity to get inside the head of film music’s “master mechanic,” and professor of film music editing at New York University.
On a rainy afternoon in New York City’s Greenwich Village we walked down the street to a quiet location in the basement of the New York University library to discuss his career as a film music editor. Starnes, holding a cup of coffee in his hands, recalled the days when he attended NYU, and reflected briefly on using the Bobst library for research on the score he compiled for the 2005 film Casanova. Starnes entered into the career of Film Music Editing by chance. He grew up learning to read music and playing guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and the violin. Starnes never broke away from music, but at 19 started a career as a TV postproduction editor where he picked up many skills in editing both video and music. Later on, while still maintaining his work in TV, he shifted back towards music to run a professional recording studio. Given his experience and love of music, Tim decided to attend NYU’s graduate program for a degree in music technology with the plan of teaching audio engineering at the university level.
Tim’s superior level of talent and skill was greatly recognized during his years at graduate school, and he developed relationships with all of his professors there. One day Ron Sadoff, director of NYU’s program in Scoring for Film and Multimedia, received a request from Howard Shore’s production company, Eventone to provide him with a new music editor for his immense project: the score for The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. Shore required an individual who could do a job that required significantly more skills than your garden-variety film music editor possesses -- he needed someone who could bridge the gap between the job of film music editor and composer’s assistant. This person needed to be able to read, comprehend, and edit the written music based on the composer’s musical direction for each piece. Without a moment’s hesitation Sadoff recommended Tim Starnes.
Tim’s job as film music editor for the project was extremely unique as he not only had to assume this never-before-performed hybrid role of music editor/composer’s assistant, but also had to tackle the film’s unprecedented production schedule. The number of musical cues, edits, and re-edits was off the charts. “Lord of the Rings,” Starnes recalled, “required an incredible level of organization and planning.” Throughout the project his organizational skills ascended to virtually celestial heights. The post team was re-editing picture down to the wire, in some cases as late as the day before recording the score. With the film’s tight and grueling production schedule it was common for Starnes to work until 4:00 AM on the nights before recording. He recalls those long nights of editing and preparation as being similar to -- and in some ways surpassing -- Sam and Frodo’s fateful journey to the infamous “Mount Doom.” “After The Lord of the Rings, organization on all other films was easy,” Starnes says.
After his adventures with The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and Return of the King, Tim gained experience as an orchestrator for composer Sonny Kompanek. He then continued to work as film music editor on other major motion pictures including The Aviator, King Kong, and The Departed. Starnes recalls famed director Martin Scorsese having an “intrinsic” sense for the way music connects human emotion to the drama on screen. It seems that Starnes himself must have a similar “intrinsic” connection, for he reflected on his childhood memories of listening to his father choose music for the plays he directed at the University. During rehearsal, it was very emotionally powerful to experience the music connected to, and reinforcing the dramatic scenes.
When asked to give advice to young directors on choosing music for their films, Starnes offered four pieces of advice for directors of all ages. Firstly, Starnes emphasized that the most important step in choosing music for the film is to decide on a composer as early as possible. However, it is not always possible to involve a composer until much later in the production. He also stresses important, yet double-edged role of the “temp score” as a vital tool for directors to gauge the way music should serve the picture. With the benefit of a temp track (a temporary music track), usually compiled by the film music editor or film editor, a director can easily switch back and forth between several musical styles, each of which affect the mood of the film differently. One word of warning accompanied his suggestion for using this approach: “Don’t get stuck on the temp score.” Sometimes the director can be so attached to the temp track that, when it comes time for the composer’s music to be heard, he might not be open to the composer’s original score. Starnes said, "during post-production, the director has a much clearer view of the interaction of all the elements of his film when the music is at least a demonstration version of the intended final product." He offered that a reasonable compromise may be for directors to 'temp' the film with previously recorded music written by the composer they plan to hire.
The third piece of advice Starnes gives is for the director to be open to the ideas of the composer during spotting sessions. Even if the director has a preconceived vision for what he wants the music to be, openness with the composer’s ideas could wind up servicing the film in an even more effective fashion, because of the composer’s wealth of musical experience and creativity.
His fourth and final piece of advice is for directors to “give the composer direction as if they were an actor.” Effective use of emotional language rather than haphazard attempts at using musical language often communicate more directly to the composer, and as a result, the composer usually hits the director’s vision more accurately.
In the case where a song is used instead of score Starnes says, “… the music supervisor can be the film music editor’s best friend!” Tim explained that on many occasions the director is attached to a particular song that is too expensive to license. In this instance the music editor can contact the music supervisor with a request for a song that feels exactly like the one the director connects with so strongly, but is within the post-production budget. Starnes credits Tracy McKnight, Rachel Fox, and Hal Wilner as being among the most helpful music supervisors with whom he’s had the privilege of working. He noted that Hal Wilner has one of the largest and most diverse music libraries he has ever encountered.
Tim foresees a change in the role of film music editor approaching on the industry’s horizon. Film music editors tend to work mostly on Hollywood features. Starnes predicts that as budgets decrease it could become a more common decision for production companies to license pre-existing music. This, in turn, would give more work to music supervisors and film music editors alike. In addition, it would create the opportunity for the forging of stronger relationships between music supervisors and film music editors.
Starnes also points out that there is a growing surplus of composers primarily because the tools to create great-sounding music have become affordable to most anyone. This, in turn, over-crowds the field and these composers are willing to work for much less than the going rate. Decreasing film budgets, the abundance of composers willing to work for less, and the increased quality of composers’ sound libraries makes it more desirable to filmmakers to hire less experienced composers for less money who can create a score without needing to hire an orchestra. A situation like this often requires a music editor to help the inexperienced composer acclimate to the film environment.
Having recently worked on The Informant, Doubt, and Soul Men, Starnes looks forward to what the future of the film industry has to offer. Regardless of what the particular circumstances might be, the future holds within it many exciting possibilities. Tim Starnes hopes to continue to enjoy the satisfaction of collaborating with others and successfully contributing to the overall filmmaking process, aiding not only the composer, but bridging the gap between all participants of what he says is “the most collaborative art form on the planet today.” – Jeffrey DiLucca
