Composers- What Kind of Director?

So, a Part 2 question might be; What do you composers like/not like to get from a director?
What makes you say YES! and what makes you think Uhoh....?

One thing that has happened to me and many others is this;
The Filmmakers have been using a Million Dollar score to temp
with. Then, they can't understand why their low budget (or no budget)
score disappoints them! There are some really talented composers out there
that can do *wonders* with sample libraries but remember if you are temping
with a well known score, one of the reasons it sounds so good is because
the best Orchestrators, recording studio, players and composers worked on it and
the budget was $900,000-$1,600,000. :blink:

On the positive side, a temp score can be a great way for the director and
composer to communicate. It gives some absolutes to the situation which
can be good when you are talking about things like emotions and feelings.
Jcaz

Hmm.... I'm rarely dissapointed, and almost always at the very first tests, if anything. By the final, its been pretty good in most (all, I think) of my productions.
Some isn't perfect, but that's also the projects where the composer had less than a day to compose or something. Heh.

I haven't had tons of experience working with directors, but ideally, I'd like to have plenty of direction but enough freedom to do my job.  Naturally, the director can specify this and that, but I'd rather the leitmotif be left up to the composer.

Again, this takes a lot of trust from both parties.

A question to the composers- how involved do you think the director should be in in the scoring process? Should she just say 'here's a scene I'd like music for it' or actually get in with them? Well for me I can't actually visit my composer so I'd comunicate through IM or gmail.

That's been discussed A LOT in this and other threads in this section.

Basically... it seems like you need to be on the same page with the composer, either giving him complete freedom or checking out what his plans are first and/or suggesting, then just give him the piece and say "go". That's how it should work. Your involvement, if any, should be before he puts a bunch of work/time into it.