Geo Höhn
Film music has a special place in terms of this relatively newly evolved landscape. Communicating and supporting a visual narrative in terms of music is a art in itself, and it takes a great deal of not only talent, but also skill and experience. One could classify a film composer as a musician, but might not necessarily classify a musician (even a brilliant on at that) as a film composer. Film composition is a finely honed skill that involves understanding of narrative, aesthetics, emotion, psychoacoustics, sound engineering science, technology on many levels, as well as musical skills such as orchestration, originality, timing and a sense of drama. A film composer must have the ability to communicate from the heart of the narrative without being bogged down my the technical challenges of the music and technology by which means she or he communicates. The other side of the coin is the ability to connect effectively and emotionally with the vision of the director in terms of the narrative and the characters of the film and the overall world that they inhabit in the course of the film. The composer should by definition become an extension of the director to tell the story in musical terms. A good film composer should be able to work under pressure and be able to handle criticism with grace and without an over inflated ego. On the other hand a good film composer should not be a push-over but bring something extra to the table that would not have been there before.