A glossary

Score - Music written by the composer to support the plot and feeling of a movie. The word derives from "scoring" - which is what you really do, as long as the production team can afford an orchestra. The term neither includes 'source music', nor songs. The complete music of a movie is called soundtrack.

Source Music – Music, contrary to the purely dramaturgical score, origins within the movie, e.g. a radio playing or a band performing a song on stage in a night club scene of the movie. To be precise: the source of the music can actually be seen in the movie. Source music can be purchased or be written by a composer for any specific scene. Sometimes it is more expensive than the score of the whole movie – just try a Robbie Williams song.

Cue – Music-entity with a beginning and an end. A score can consist of more than hundred cues as well as of less then ten, depending on length and character of the movie and the ideas of the director. The length of a cue can differ between a few seconds and the length of a symphonic poem (e.g. John Williams' "Finale For E.T.") Cues in excess length are often split. Good old Max Steiner ('King Kong'), however, gives the impression that there is only one cue. The music simply doesn't stop nor fade. You don´t do that anymore nowadays.

Spotting - The most important meeting of director and composer. Form and function of every single cue are discussed on the basis of a raw version of the movie. Usually, the director will exemplify his thoughts by means of temp tracks. Things disregarded or neglected during the (spotting-)phase may cost a lot of time, work and even money later on. Nonetheless, even a good spotting requires constant communication between stage director and composer during composition.

Layouts - First versions of different cues, normally generated on a computer. Layouts are very important. The approval of the layouts by the director reinsures the composer and supplies a first impression, even a feeling for the score, to production and sounddesign. Some arrange their layouts so brilliantly, that they can send home a reluctant orchestra, if need be. Others are used to stage directors who are able to imagine a full orchestra whilst listening to a sloppy demo tape.
I tend to go with the first and rather not count on the vivid imagination of clients. Actually, it's really not fair to do so - the composer is paid for his music, the others are paid for whatever but by no means are they paid for their power of imagination.

Temp(orary) Tracks – Herewith, the director marks every position of the movies raw version where he intends to have any music. This done carefully will be immensely helpful for the composer for a temp track will put emphasis on the climaxes of his to-be-written cues. Nevertheless, the composer shouldn’t adhere strictly to the form of the temp tracks, which are usually taken from known scores functioning as as-close-as-it-gets dummies. They don’t really blend in with the movie in question. That is why it is important to develop layouts quickly. Otherwise director and production team might get too used to the dummy tracks. Worst case scenario be a composer is kicked out of the project - that happened to Alex North, composer for "2001", because Kubrick happened to like all his temp tracks so much better than everything poor Alex came up with afterwards.

Carpet (dt.:'Teppich') - "... posh it up a little. There's something missing, it feels somewhat 'empty' here ..." This is all about density. Music can help if a dialog has a bit too much paper in it. The composer, however, shouldn't take that as his excuse for a boring or amorphous carpet. At best, the carpet is carefully developed from parts of the rest of the score to support the homogeneity of the soundtrack itself. Good composers always did wonderful carpets.

Sound design - All audio tracks, except for the music, are mixed and blended here. Beyond sound and atmosphere the sound designer is responsible for the overall tone of a scene. A place can resemble cosy or menacing, depending on the work of the sound designer. Sound designers develop different kinds of reverberation regions in which we hear dialogues or sounds or even hear nothing - at least we think we don't. Sound designers usually are as proud of their work as composers are. Sometimes you get heavy riots between the sound designer, who in any case wants to maintain the (so well faked) reality, sound wise, and the composer, who is usually transcending reality and (e)motion into music (`You’re really banging this up. I cannot even hear my music! - Yeah, man. But with lightning, there goes thunder, ya' know? - 'Ah, well ... you did that for five minutes here. People should know by now it's a thunderstorm!'`)

Approval - The basis of a good feeling amongst all people involved – and of course for the fee. The score must be approved by the director as well as by the producer. That might well take some time if scenes are altered after dubbing or stage direction and production team disagree about one point or another. If in doubt, music is approved as approved when the movie is on the TV or at the cinema.

Dubbing/mixing - Every audio unit is put together here. Score, source music, sounds, dialogue. Sometimes a lot of ego fighting is going on at this point of production. Sound design and score, let alone dialogues, do naturally go parallel. And the audience should be able to hear the dialogue, somewhat despite the sound and the score. If in doubt, director and sound engineer will decide about the right mix ratio of the several audio parts.
It helps to remember, as a composer, that the best cue ever still owes its existence to the very movie. Music always has the role of the support act. The movie itself gives the tune.

Crisis - Inevitably happens with every score and with each movie you work on. You're just gettin' to "Ohh, everything is running smoothly this time. Time schedule -check! Budget - check! You even got away without your well known composers block, even earned a few bucks. And - WHAM! - the movie has to be completely re-cut after the test screenings and shortened by twenty minutes. None of your cues is in place anymore, the crucial scene with the main motif is cut, and you're told to start anew, cutting in yesterday, please ...

Why, the hell, didn’t I learn something substantial ...