A composer can not only help finalize a concept, but can also help with lyric content if there s any singing. Mostly, I ve been in from the beginning, right after a first draft. There have been many times when I ve written a jingle for words that hadn t been finalized and had to change everything around because it hadn t been approved. For documentaries and natural history films, Hulse will come in when the project is near completion. Documentary and nature film people just want you to make their pictures look good and work, he says.
Composers have a lot more freedom with documentaries and nature films.
I know I do. They give me semi-finished or finished film and say, Make it wonderful, and go away and let me do it. Ostrovsky also likes to jump in as early as possible. Very often in movies, she says, I d write music and they d shoot along to the music. But usually, I m working as an ambulance the producers want the music yesterday.