How composers and directors get in tune
What's the fastest way for a filmmaker to foul up a new relationship with a composer?
``One of the worst things, I think, is to ask the composer to make the score sound like another film," says John Kusiak, one of the hardest-working film composers in town.
``There's this term in working on films called `temp music,' " Kusiak says. ``It's the temporary music that a filmmaker uses to cut to and build up the film." Unless the filmmaker plans to pay the royalty fees to use that material, he or she hires a composer to write original music.
``Filmmakers can get married to the temp music, and it can be hard to let go," says Kusiak. ``I had one filmmaker who wanted me to basically rewrite the music -- change a few notes -- which of course is anathema to a composer, both creatively and legally."
Kusiak will talk about the ways to make the relationship go right at a Filmmakers Workshop on Wednesday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. He'll also show clips of early and final versions of films that he has scored. The workshop, part of a monthly series, is put on by the Sharon-based Center for Independent Documentary in association with the Alliance for Independent Motion Media and the Massachusetts Production Coalition.
From a production studio in Arlington, Kusiak works primarily on documentary soundtracks and music for television commercials. His music is in several Errol Morris films, including ``The Fog of War" (which is, coincidentally, playing this Wednesday and Saturday at the Harvard Film Archive; see next item). It's also in smaller films, such as Chris Schmidt and Gary Henoch's documentary short ``The Puppeteer," about onetime Harvard Square street performer Igor Fokin.
Kusiak is currently working on Melanie Perkins's film ``Have You Seen Andy?," about the abduction of her childhood friend in 1976. He also performs in a ragtime band called Tillie's Nightmare, which plays live during screenings of the 1914 Charlie Chaplin silent film ``Tillie's Punctured Romance." The band will perform at Mass MoCA in North Adams on Aug. 12.
This week's workshop will be held at the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston and is open to ``experienced filmmakers." It is free, but an RSVP to susi@documentaries.org is required. Information is at 781-784-3627 and www.filmmakersworkshop.org.
BACK TO VIETNAM: The Harvard Film Archive's series about the Vietnam War continues this week with in-person appearances by two Boston-area filmmakers. Bestor Cram, who served in Vietnam, will be at the theater on Wednesday with two of his films: his 1982 ``How Far Home: Veterans After Vietnam," about the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and 2001's ``Unfinished Symphony: Democracy & Dissent," a film he made with Michael Majoros.
``Unfinished Symphony" uses footage from a 1971 protest march organized in Lexington by Cram himself for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. It won the best film award at the Prague Human Rights Film Festival, the New England Film Festival, and the Woods Hole Film Festival. Cram, who founded Boston-based Northern Light Productions 24 years ago, has produced work for the Smithsonian Institution, National Park Service, NASA, and New England Aquarium.
Also, Holy Cross humanities professor Karen Turner will be at a screening of her 2003 film ``Hidden Warriors: Women of the Ho Chi Minh Trail" on Thursday at 7 p.m. Co-directed with Phan Thanh Hao, the film highlights the role of Vietnamese women soldiers.
Other Vietnam films playing this week as part of the series are Morris's ``The Fog of War," shorts made in 1968 and 1969 by the Newsreel Collective, and ``Bittersweet Survival," about Vietnamese immigrants in Monterey, Calif., and Philadelphia. Descriptions and times for all the films are at 617-495-4700 and www.harvardfilmarchive.org.
Also at the Harvard Film Archive this week: Kelly Reichardt will attend a screening of her 2005 ``Old Joy," which stars Will Oldham and Daniel London, on Friday at 7 p.m.
And ornithologist David Allen Sibley, author and illustrator of the ``Sibley Guide" series, will introduce the documentary ``Winged Migration" tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. The program is part of the ``Science on Screen" series, co-presented by the Museum of Science and New Scientist magazine. Jacques Perrin used five teams over three years to film the migrations of birds over the seven continents. They're captured in the urban jungle of Paris, US deserts, and the Arctic. Sibley was given the American Birding Association's lifetime achievement award in 2002. Details at 617-734-2500 and www.coolidge.org.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Rachel Boynton's documentary ``Our Brand Is Crisis," a behind-the-scenes look at political strategist James Carville's work for Bolivian politician Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Studio Cinema in Belmont (617-484-1706 and www.belmontworldfilm.org). . . . Frank V. Ross's 2005 ``Quietly on By" on Friday at 8:30 p.m. and next Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive.
And at the Museum of Fine Arts this week: Erik Greenberg Anjou's ``A Cantor's Tale" today at 4 p.m. and Thursday at 6 p.m., and Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri's ``Only Human" starting Thursday through July 2, as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival encore series . . . A six-show engagement of Singapore director Eric Khoo's ``Be With Me," starting on Friday 23 . . . Italian director Roberto Rossellini's ``Rome, Open City" along with Guy Maddin's short ``My Dad Is 100 Years Old," starring Isabella Rossellini, Saturday at 1 p.m. . . . And three new Portuguese films -- ``Adriana," ``The Murmurs Coast," and ``Magic Mirror" -- next Saturday and Sunday. Details on all films at 617-267-9300 and www.mfa.org/film.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 
