Special Skills and Education
First, music editors must have musicality and skill using music editing
equipment. Second, they must be self-motivated and able to work on a
very tight schedule. "Being diplomatic; able to listen carefully to what
people are trying to communicate, and then fulfilling their desire without
a lot of problems, guess work, or questions back and forth," says music
editor Jeff Chabonneau. "It is very important to shut off your mind and
listen carefully to what the director is trying to say to you."
A Typical Workday
Chabonneau's schedule is dictated by where he is in the process of
adding music to picture for the project he is working on. On a film spot-
ting day, he meets in the studio with the film producers, director, film
editor, and composer. Together they review scenes to determine where
the music should start and end, discuss any stylistic concerns, and
address any other issues. If there is a temporary score already in place,
they might discuss whether it works in various scenes. They will talk
about specific songs they want to use and address any synchronization
problems if there is a live performance. The director may discuss a state-
ment he wants to emphasize with music in a particular scene.
"Involvement in the spotting session varies from film to film and project
to project. Sometimes the composer and the music editor will spot the
film on their own and give their notes or ideas to the producer or the
director, although that is very rare. On the series I work on, which is The
X-Files, I do all the music spotting on my own. I give my notes to the
composer and the producers and they give me feedback. The reason
we've done it this way is to streamline the process, because we don't
have an enormous amount of time to do the score and there is a lot of
music in the show. They trust me with knowing, or figuring out, where
to put the music in and where to take it out."
After the spotting is complete, Chabonneau will go through the film
to time the sequences and create timing notes: a breakdown of the action
taking place within in each scene. This is typed out for the composer to
see. Within a couple of days, the composer returns with the recorded
score, and the music editor and an engineer mix the score. Then, the music
editor goes to the rerecording stage and guides the music mixer on how
the music should fit into the scene, such as where the music is too loud
or too soft, where it should build and fade, and any background source
issues. Depending on the project, the rerecording process can take one to
three days, or three to four weeks. "On a television show, we're usually
on the stage for about two days." Next, the producers and director may
suggest changes, such as adding a sound to a scene or switching out a
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