Directors give emotional notes, not musical ones — "more heroic," "more air," "almost there." Here's how composers translate that language into concrete decisions instead of guessing.
A temp track gets weeks-long head start on a director's ear before your real score ever arrives. Here's how to diagnose what it's actually doing emotionally — and write something that beats it.
The instincts that make a standalone track compelling — melodic statement, dynamic arrival, emotional directness — can actively undermine a cue when there's a picture in the room. Three specific things change.
