When Everything Can Change – An Investigation of the Implications of Non-Linear Production Technology on Music Composition for Screen Media

This research project aims to understand the impact, implications and opportunities arising from the development and adoption of computer-based non-linear (music and audio) production technology, on screen media music composition. It examines the impact of this technology on the creative process, notions of authorship, and how traditional composition in movie and TV production is being re-conceptualised.

A literature review reveals there is limited scholarly work in movie and TV scoring practice beyond studies that use musicological approaches, cultural studies and ethnography dominated by Hollywood practice and material. In particular, no literature has comprehensively dealt with the effects and creative implications of non-linear production tools to transform the practice of music composition for the screen since the emergence of the technology in the 1990s.

This thesis focuses on this gap using a mixed methods approach, including practice-led research, autoethnography and actor-network theory, to generate new knowledge concerning the research questions. These questions probe the disruption, opportunities and challenges brought about through the adoption of non-linear composition technology and ask how the technology may have changed the way music is conceived and operates in screen media. I am the composer and music director of the two major creative works produced as sites for this investigation. The first work is a 43-minute pilot episode for a TV series written and directed by Michael Joy, titled Culdesac. The second work is a 99-minute feature-length drama movie also directed by Michael Joy and co-written with Mieke van Opstel titled Smoke Between Trees. The commonality of writer/director for both creative works allows for an examination of these questions across two main screen media formats undertaken by the same creative team. The autoethnographic accounts draw upon three decades of professional music composition and production practice by the researcher, covering the transition period from linear to non-linear media and workflows. 

It will be shown that the development of non-linear production technologies has enabled new configurations of the production workflow, whereby composers are engaged in all stages of the screen media development and production process. This reconfiguration of process affects screen media works in ways that were not readily possible in traditional production workflows.

Accordingly, this opening up of the workflow affords composers the ability to work with directors in ways that allow them to influence the narrative of the work itself. The practice-led investigation in this research project shows the compositional process as flexible, iterative, and improvisational. It also reveals the dynamic nature of complex interactions with other production practitioners operating within a technically connected creative team and the blurring of roles that emerge when working with digital media in this way.

The outcomes of this study provide much needed and original insights into creative collaborations in screen media production and music composition in the non-linear media age, establishing a critical understanding of the practices and processes of contemporary screen composition. It also shows how the development of this technology is evolving “co-integrated” creative practice.