The Director/Film Composer Relationship: How to Make the Collaboration Sing

So you landed a job as a composer for a Film. Congratulations! But now where do you start? I think a good point is to build a positive relationship with your Director. That could definitely contribute to the success of your gig.

Like any other kind of human relationship, there are no rules to make it work and there is always room for improvement, but here you’ll find some tips and thoughts, based on my experience, that I think might be helpful.

Let’s suppose you have negotiated the deal, the agreement is signed and so you can focus on the creative part of the job. I usually prefer to negotiate and sign the agreement before anything else for this reason.

Film making being a collaborative process I think it is a good plan to take some time to get to know each other a bit, possibly talking at first more about who you both are than about what you do. Share some personal experiences in filmmaking and not. Connect. Open up.

You’ll find you have different backgrounds almost for sure, but never forget:

• you are sharing the same goal which is to make the best film possible. Just like for a sports team: different roles, but the same tactics and objectives. This goal is common ground that will keep the relationship going.