Dale Zawada's Lounge Discussions

Quality and reliability. Music is such a huge aspect and if the composer is late, sloppy, or unreliable it can single handedly tank a movie.

Quality and portfolio. You want to make sure the individual can capture the emotion throughout your project. Experience I believe goes hand in hand with quality and portfolio, I am sure you want someone you has been seasoned and well proven. You would not want someone to play the three stooges theme music during a highly involved emotional scene. That is just my opinion of course.

Dale, I completely agree. Music is not supposed to be distracting at all. Also, being reliable is such a great relief for the director. David, experience is important. If someone can't prove that they are the best fit for the project, then accepting them on the team is quite a daunting choice. Perhaps having the composer demo a scene would be a good route to try.

That sounds like a perfect solution. Maybe give them a few scenes to "dress-up." this way you can get a feel of different situations and how they would approach each scene and what you are looking to accomplish. Best of luck.

Haha! Yes, love that ferry. It's great in the summer. :) Oh, late the other night, I caught just the beginning of the movie "Disclosure" with Michael Douglas, Demi Moore—not the greatest of films! Anyway, it's set in Seattle and shows him running for the ferry, boarding where they load cars—which they would not let you do, nor would they EVER hold the boat for anyone—and I suddenly realized, hey, that's Bainbridge! That's our ferry terminal! Lol!

As far as breaking the 4th wall, I like it as long as it's done well and doesn't seem "forced" or overly contrived—does that make any sense? In Ferris Bueller's Day Off it works well. High Fidelity is great. When I first saw House of Cards, it threw me for the first couple of episodes. It took some getting used to. Lol!

4th wall is definitely an option. Adding a character might be better. He could talk into a voice recorder like John Cusack in 1404? He could be a guy who just talks to himself? Imaginary friend? Acts out conversations with people (like we do in the shower before an argument). There are definitely options, some better than others, all depends on your story. Good luck.

I love the comedic fourth wall-breakers the best. Whenever I see someone do it, I think of Mel Brooks, Ernie Kovacs, Groucho Marx, Oliver Hardy and W.C. Fields.

Exactly Bill, as in History of the World with It's good to be the king. @Dale, talking to himself is exactly the opposite perception the protagonist wants to project... which is why I'm thinking High Fidelity and its use of 4th wall breaking. @Beth, my two separate Bainbridge trips were in December and January before moving to LA in March of 1998 to try and sell my Seattle-based supernatural script to Hollywood... in order to give it that Twin Peaks feel with regards to location.