Composing : Making full length versions by Bruce Bray

So far, both ways. It seems the deadlines dictate to me what I can do in the moment. I guess I'm looking for Nirvana. HA HA

Bruce, I truly know a woman named Nirvana. I can tell you where to find her. LOL! Seriously, I think deadlines dictate much of your question.

Thanks Timothy. A lot of response I got on FB kind of alluded to that as well. And I think that makes a lot of sense.

Ideally, make your spot out of the full track. Aim for a suite of music so you can pick different themes that you know will work together. Always do your Job first, your musical and artistic concerns are secondary.

I like making a suite. This way foreshadowing, and theme building really hype of the climax of the film. You can go for a few suites, depending on how many main characters there are. Other than that, I score the film first.

Make the Suite afterward for sure, you never know what you really like until it's marinated with the film a bit.

When I have worked as a soundtrack producer, as well as producing my own soundtracks, my job has been to take the various cues of a film and create suites from the recordings. Sometimes it's as simple as splicing a few cues together, sometimes it involves going into the stems and remixing multiple segments into a piece that makes more sense as a sole listening experience, as opposed to an audio-visual experience. It's tougher with a score that only has 10-30 second cues, but it can be done. If you've got the time, though, why not blow it up into a suite? Your first job, though, is to the film. If you create a suite first, it may be difficult to cull 10-30-second segments that make sense with the picture.