hi everyone, i had a question concerning the interaction between the musical composer for a game and the head director of the game. i''ve worked on 2 small projects in the past (both 2d scrollers) in which the directors gave me almost complete control over the musical side of things. they may have suggested a musical cue or two, and one of them rejected a couple of my songs, but most of the musical decissions and all of the composition was left to me. right now i''m working on a new and bigger project (and RPG). so far, both the songs i''ve sent in have resulted in emails telling me which notes i need to change, what instruments i need to change, where i should repeat things and so forth. it almost feels like i''m not even writing the music anymore. also, i get the impression that he wants to have total controll over the musical cues of which music starts where. so, my question is basically this: in the professional spectrum, what level of involvement does the director typically have in the music? if it''s the second way, where he looks over your shoulder and tells you every note to write, i think i might reconsider being a game musician. thanks in advanced to all replies.

I know *EXACTLY* what you mean! One guy sent me mp3 files of his voice singing the melodies he wanted..even though they were crappy i wanted to have my name on a game so i did the music. Then when the game was released he put his name under "music" in the credits and my name under "big thanks." That pissed me off so much..but later i worked on a game with my friends where i had "most of the musical decissions and all of the composition" ..and my name in the credits this time.. and I was really happy about that one. The first game felt like it was *his* game while the second one felt like it was *ours* even though i had nothing to do with the plot..Now I don''t know anything about "the professional spectrum" but i do know that i had a lot more fun when i felt like i was part of a team instead of someone''s b1tch.

Don't let them abuse you any longer! Check out my thread, you may be interested:

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=61453





Edited by - PoppinFresh on September 26, 2001 6:34:46 PM

Well, from a filmmakers standpoint, there is no one way that a director works with his team, or visa versa.

I''m not in game dev (though would love to work in cinimatics department for a dev team ), i am aware of the many ways that directors go abouts making thier project a reality. The key factor is that a director has to use a team. Some directors perffer a hands-off aproach, and say absically , "I trust your professional opinion, you do what you think is best". OThers however have the project nearly fully schetched out before the actual production takes place (that would be pre-production in film-speak, dunno if that''s synonomous w/ game-dev speak). Sometimes it is difficult as a professional in a field to conform to the directos every whim. However, if the director is known for creating a ''product'' of esteamed aprasial in the marketplace and eyes of industry professionals, then it would probably be very wise to swallow the pride, and do your most professional job at deliviering what the director wants. It seems that sometimes the cause of conflict between branches of a greative deparment of a production and the director is mis-comunication. That''s the director''s job : to comunicate what he wants, and how he wants it. The more presise his instructions, the more important it will be to work to acheive the tasks. Of course, there are some directos of projects that are needlessly detailed fanatics who are such just for self image reasons, or what have you not - but what i''m generally stating applies to Directors that conduct thier production in a professional manor.

off topic, but this place is pretty cool. Think i''ll register so i can post more often

Best of luck with the music compositions,

Jean-Loup