Composing : Managing workload by Hannah Woolmer

That's a tough one. Sometimes I think the only way is a lot of 16 hour days in a row and lots of coffee. Last time I did that I swear I got something that I call "Sibelius shoulder". It took months before my left shoulder stopped hurting. Hey...and I wasn't compensated as I was promised either, but that's another conversation. lol Someone much wiser than I told me that there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it. Let those around you know you could use help with the day to day life stuff...and then write like mad. :)

Danny Elfman compares post-production schedules to ships on the ocean: at the beginning of the year they're all set where they're supposed to be, then as the year goes on they drift and run into each other. Once I start on a score, it's a lot like world building. The score is playing in my head 24/7. So it's difficult to work on two scores simultaneously. When I work on two scores with the same deadline, I try to halve each of the schedules, finishing one before beginning the next. So...all-nighters, 5-hour energy drinks, stuff that'll take years off your life...

Sometimes long hours are needed, but they should definitely be the exception, not the rule, otherwise you'll burn yourself out. The more experienced I'm getting, the more I'm realising that I'm most creative when I'm also looking after myself, so eating right, exercising, doing things that calm my mind (such as taking a bath). It can feel counterproductive to take a break, but generally, if your mind and body are being given room to breathe and think, when you sit down to compose the music then comes a lot more easily, which means less hours overall

It's also good to not feel like composing has to mean sitting in front of your computer or piano struggling for ideas. The amount of times I've gone out to walk the dog thinking about a cue, and have come back feeling more upbeat and with mental sketches or resolutions to difficult problems is countless! I also do a lot of great sketching of pieces in a notebook just sitting outside the local coffee shop, or out in nature somewhere. These are simultaneously re-energising and creative moments, and I find working this way to often be more productive than sitting at the piano for ten hours banging my head on it. I've heard from other composers like Pinar Toprak and Nainita Desai that they are the same way- I think Toprak came up with the Captain Marvel theme whilst out on a walk!

Also, sometimes when dealing with big projects or simultaneous projects I build a spreadsheet of cues, so I can focus in on exactly what's needed and in what time frame. If there's a particular cue or film that's worrying you, definitely focus on that first, otherwise it will niggle away in the background and interfere with your scoring for the other films. If you can manage to focus on multiple films simultaneously, you could always write a cue or two for one, send it to the director to get their comments, and then whilst waiting for their reply move on to write some cues for the next film (though this method relies on your director being too busy to reply straight away!) Hope some of that helps.

When I was young :) back in 1970, there was a relatively obscure rock song called "Sympathy" by "Rare Bird". Made it as high as #27 in the UK (it was a UK group) and never charted in the U.S. (Back in the 1960s I was in a rock band playing Organ/Farfisa so I loved all organ/hammond-based songs of the era).

The "hook" of the song has stuck with me for 50 years - "because there's not enough love to go round". I treat all my business's based on that mantra while also taking care of myself as described. In my wedding videography business, I often refer conflicting weddings to another videographer and if I get a request to score and it looks like I am not really available, I do 'soul searching' as to whether I can really do a 'stretch' such as a 5 to 7 hour mid-Sat night 48 hour competitive score :) but I have scored enough to understand my limits. So I still today operate from the perspective of "spread the love" - I refer the scoring to a composing peer. I will not score two films simultaneously - if I have taken them both on, they are done sequentially. Last year I made an exception - had taken on two films, but one had not yet been locked and I knew the other could be done quickly (in one day). So I scored the other which turned out to be my only nomination last year (for best sound design).

As Youtube pretty much has every song that has ever been made.... :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TMw92_q8Ac

Thanks for responses. Has anyone ever asked for an extension on deadline for tardy films? By this I mean continue to compose the film that was sent on time but ask for an extension on the ones that didn't stick to deadline? Also I'm fine with composing multiple projects at the same time (if they're of different genre or stylistically. Big they're similar it can become confusing).

Maybe I've just got lucky, but so far, if the director has been running behind schedule on sending me stuff, they've always suggested moving the ultimate deadline backwards a little. However, from reading about other composers, I think that this is the exception rather than the rule! Directors don't usually set arbitrary deadlines, so if I was to ask for an extension (even if that was the director's fault for running late), I'd want to understand the wider picture of production (festival submission deadlines, a set-in-stone mix day, that kind of thing) before asking. Directors are under so much pressure already, and our job is really to support them and their vision, rather than piling on pressure from another quarter. It also depends on your relationship with them, the film's goals, all those sorts of things. Basically, if they're asking you to do something huge in an impossibly short space of time and there's no particular reason why it must be done by then you're well within your rights to ask for an extension, as long as it's not going to make the rest of post difficult for the director.