Temp Music: The Pros and Cons for Filmmakers and Composers

Temp music is a reality of modern film production.
Often, by the time a composer is brought onto a project, the edit has already been shaped around a temporary track, something the team has been living with during the edit, or even during shooting.

This isn’t inherently good or bad. Like most tools in filmmaking, temp music can be incredibly helpful, or quietly limiting, depending on how it’s used.

Working with Temp Music as a Composer

When a temp track arrives with a film, my first job isn’t to copy it.
It’s to understand why it works.

That usually means breaking the music down into its essential elements:
the energy, the movement, the density of the arrangement, the production style, the emotional trajectory. In many cases, it’s far safer, and far more creatively honest, to respond to those elements than to mimic harmony or melody directly.

Production language, rhythm, and intensity can be powerful reference points without drifting into imitation. The goal is to capture the feel of the temp, not its DNA.

The Upside of Temp Music

One of the biggest advantages of a strong temp track is clarity.

If a team is genuinely excited about a particular piece of music, it establishes a shared direction very early. That can remove a huge amount of back-and-forth and uncertainty at the start of the process. Everyone knows what they’re aiming for, and the composer can respond with focus and intention.

In practical terms, this can save time and help projects move forward efficiently.

The Downside: When Surprise Disappears

The risk is that temp music can also close doors.

Once a piece of music becomes familiar, it can harden into expectation. The film starts to feel inseparable from that sound, and alternative approaches, even potentially stronger ones, can be harder to imagine.

Often, filmmakers hire composers not just to execute a brief, but to bring perspective, interpretation, and occasionally surprise. When the musical lane is too tightly defined, that part of the craft can get squeezed out.

Two Different (and Valid) Skill Sets

There are really two distinct musical skills at play here.

One is the ability to carefully analyse an existing piece of music and recreate its impact in a way that’s original, legal, and musically coherent. That’s a real craft, and it’s often essential.

The other is the ability to watch a film with fresh eyes and imagine directions the project hasn’t yet considered, sometimes by doing the opposite of what feels obvious.

Both approaches are valid. The key is knowing which one a project needs.

When Breaking the Temp Creates Something Better

A simple example of this is when music resists the expected emotional response.

In some scenes, reducing musical activity, choosing tension over spectacle, restraint over momentum, can heighten impact far more than leaning into the obvious choice. These moments often emerge when the composer is allowed to step slightly outside the gravitational pull of the temp.

Final Thoughts

Every project dictates its own workflow.

Sometimes the job is to honour a temp and deliver something that feels aligned, confident, and precise. Other times, the job is to gently question it and see whether a different musical perspective might serve the film more deeply.

Knowing when to follow, and when to suggest an alternative, is part of the craft of scoring.