Doc Music

Tobias Wilner, a composer for films, TV and documentaries, gave an excellent talk at Hot Docs about his process of creating music specifically for documentaries: 

I like silence, especially in documentaries.

It’s a documentary, so why even use music? You maybe use it to keep the attention of people or create a mood.

One of the most common mistakes I encounter when directors give me a cut with rough music in it is they have put too much music and too many different themes in it.

I ask to first see the movie with no music, and let’s see if you need music at all. Because sometimes lighting a cigarette can be music. You don’t really need to put so much music in a movie. And if you want to do it, why do you want to use it? Do you want to use it to describe a character? Do you want to describe where you are in the world?

Usually we end up using less music than the director originally wanted to. Because he’s so bored with his movie. He’s watched it so much. But he has to remember that a good piece of music you can listen to 2,000 times and never get bored, but a movie you watch once or twice. So you can actually use the same music a lot. You don’t need to change so much. And then the film will flow better.

There is a Finnish documentary called The 3 Rooms of Melancholia that is a masterpiece both as a film and for the music.

I like to get involved a little before the editing is finished, because music can actually change the mood of the film, maybe make a scene longer. The filmmaker will usually have to do another week of editing once the music is placed.

I try to use music like a poem — to bring together what’s behind the lines.

“My head is made out of stars, but it is not yet arranged into a constellation.” (Elias Kaneti)
That’s how I feel when I go in to help a director. He has all this video and has to start organizing it. When you organize the pictures, you can actually create art. It’s the same with the music.