"When the script was written, it was sent to me with asterisks marking where he felt a song would be appropriate. Before the film was shot, the score was written. I made a demo of it, so they lived with the music as they were making the film"
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Creative control is rarely announced with a manifesto; more often it slips in through workflow. Alan Price describes a process that sounds almost logistical - asterisks in a script, a demo sent early - but the subtext is power. By writing the score before a frame was shot, Price isn’t just “adding music.” He’s shaping the movie’s rhythm while it’s still wet cement, turning what’s usually post-production decoration into a structural element the filmmakers must accommodate.
The asterisks are telling: placeholders where emotion is expected to happen. Directors and writers often treat music as a utility, a kind of cinematic adhesive applied after the fact. Price flips that assumption. If the cast and crew “lived with the music” during production, then the performances, edits, even camera movement can unconsciously conform to the score’s tempo and mood. That’s a quiet inversion of hierarchy: the film doesn’t get a soundtrack; the soundtrack helps generate the film.
Contextually, it also reads as a very musician’s answer to authorship. In cinema, the composer is frequently the last major artist invited to the party. Price is describing a seat at the table from the beginning, where themes can become motifs, not cues; where melodies don’t just underline feeling but pre-load it, letting everyone build toward a shared emotional target. It’s pragmatic, but it’s also a statement: music isn’t a garnish. It’s a blueprint.
The asterisks are telling: placeholders where emotion is expected to happen. Directors and writers often treat music as a utility, a kind of cinematic adhesive applied after the fact. Price flips that assumption. If the cast and crew “lived with the music” during production, then the performances, edits, even camera movement can unconsciously conform to the score’s tempo and mood. That’s a quiet inversion of hierarchy: the film doesn’t get a soundtrack; the soundtrack helps generate the film.
Contextually, it also reads as a very musician’s answer to authorship. In cinema, the composer is frequently the last major artist invited to the party. Price is describing a seat at the table from the beginning, where themes can become motifs, not cues; where melodies don’t just underline feeling but pre-load it, letting everyone build toward a shared emotional target. It’s pragmatic, but it’s also a statement: music isn’t a garnish. It’s a blueprint.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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