Canadian film composer Tom Third speaks to CanCulture about the melodically magical nuances of being a composer
By: Mariana Schuetze
A movie’s soundtrack, whether we’re actively looking out for it or subconsciously consuming it as it wallpapers the media, has the power to take us exactly where we should be. Behind almost every musical sound in a scene, there has been a discussion of where the audience should be taken by it. Should we be happy here? Sad? Is there more of the story coming? Building this roadmap and creating the pieces that move us is one of the jobs of a film and television composer.
Tom Third is an award-winning Canadian composer. Working mostly on documentary and television scores, Third’s most recent works include BLK: An Origin Story and the fourth season of the series Coroner, both of which have earned him positive reviews, nominations and awards.
Third has always been invested in music, but his career didn’t start exactly in film scoring. He studied film and new media at The Ontario College of Art and Design, and after graduating, he was making electronic music. To make ends meet, Third started doing music for television commercials, blazing a path for himself into the industry. He moved on to working on short films and, later, longer features and television series, where he’s been since.
Behind-the-scenes of composing
The role of a film or television composer is as dynamic as any, but the intricacies of the vocation too often go unventured. Like any other freelance job in this industry, the work usually starts with a phone call or an email. “First thing you do is, you’ll say, ‘Yes, I’ll do it,’ then you hang up the phone, and you panic and go, ‘can I really do this?’” said Third.
After that initial moment of panic, the planning and creation starts. Third says he usually has a meeting with the project’s director and producers, and other creative heads, where they’ll discuss the idea for the film or show. Almost always, when a composer gets on board, there is something to look at, Third says. The next step in the process is usually watching some of the material together and beginning the idea-generation process.
“We take really specific notes about where the music’s gonna go, and what it’s gonna sound like. We might talk about the kinds of instruments, but we try and build kind of a roadmap of the whole thing, like a list of all the pieces of music that will be in it, which triggers a whole bunch of stuff, organizationally.”
Part of Third’s job as a composer, creating original tracks for movies and television shows, is assembling a team when needed. After those initial meetings and coming up with the plan, Third will think about every piece they need to create and if they need to hire any other musicians to do it. “[We] will break it down and figure out what’s going to be shot where and how do we combine things together to maximize our resources.”
Third’s work also involves a back-and-forth between him and the project’s creative leaders. He says that first, they’ll let him go loose and “be really adventurous.” That’s when he’ll try “a whole bunch of things,” and starts figuring out what might sound best. Then, they’ll put it against the moving pictures and talk about it.
Although sometimes Third might be brought on earlier to the production, especially for films, composing usually comes in at the end. “It’s a middle-to-end-ish kind of thing.”
Sometimes it’s even the last part of the process. “The actual mix, where they put the sound and the movie together and make it all sound great, that’s very close to the last day of the film,” Third tells. “When you go see Avatar at Christmas at the movie theatres, they probably did the sound mix two days before that. It’s always right up to the deadline.”
However stressful this tight deadline may be, there is a reason for it. Sound in movies and television is closely integrated with the picture and much of the dialogue. The timings are really precise, Third says. That’s why they usually have to wait until the end after all the reshoots and re-edits to finally add the magical touch of music and sound.
The power of music! “Where do we want it to hit?”
Music is essential to tell a story in film and television. It’s basically the heart of it, Third says.
“Music has the magical powers, in my view, of somehow just really tapping into your brainstem and just bringing out all those emotions.”
In the end, Third’s job is finely picking out which specific sound will bring out that emotion needed at every seemingly imperceptible point in a scene.
“When I work on films, I’m given images to work with, not images in real life, but idealized images of what people experience, like the beautiful version of what that first date was like, or the best sunset I’ve ever seen… Then I think those idealized images, combined with music… and it just ups the ante and really makes [emotions] start to blow up,” Third says.
It’s all about the feeling they want to unleash in the audience. And that’s what Third’s scoring will do in a project and why it’s so intricately connected to the storytelling. That’s where the discussion with the director and producers come in. “We talk about, like, “We want them to cry on this shot. Hey Tom, make it hit here.’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s try that.’”
BLK: An Origin Story and Coroner
Working as a composer on an established television series versus a documentary can be slightly different. Third does both.
For a documentary like BLK, Third says his work is more on the backseat, especially in terms of how the music integrates with the image. In this case, particularly because the production was done during COVID-19, the scheduling was a bit more complicated.
BLK: An Origin Story is a four-part documentary series that explores untold stories of Black Canadians from the 1600s to the present. Rather than being the star, the soundtrack allows the stories to speak for themselves—and Third’s work functions as a frame for the narrative.
On the other hand, CBC’s original series Coroner is a project Third has been involved with for years, so the process runs a bit more smoothly. In dramas like this show, music sometimes takes on a bigger role.
Coroner is a procedural drama based on the best-selling series of books by M.R. Hall by the same name. The series follows a recently widowed coroner who investigates suspicious deaths in Toronto. In this series, Third’s work really helps build the anticipation that comes with a mystery story and adds to the drama of the show.
Unlike documentaries, where there usually is a lot of exposition, a drama can be conceived with music in mind, and less talking, making it all stand out. “Sometimes, it feels like it’s a little bit more poetic, in the way music can be used,” Third says.
Perks of the job
For both BLK and Coroner, Third earned nominations for this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. BLK won all five awards it was nominated for, including Best Original Music, for Third’s work.
“Well, it feels it feels great. It really does. I’m not blase about it,” Third says about his nominations and win. “It’s a really fun honour. It’s your peers. So it really does mean something.”
This wasn’t Third’s first nomination, and he’s also served on the jury of some awards too, and that’s an exciting part of the job for him. “It’s your friends’ work, you know, that you’re going to put forward. So we really take it seriously. So when you win it, the sense is that two people thought about it. It actually does mean something,” he said.
In fact, working with as many people as he has in this business is one of the reasons why Third keeps doing it. “Aside from all the music part of it, that’s one of the best parts about it. And the longer I’ve done this, it’s kind of [become] my favourite part.”
In this business, Third has found that working with compassionate and seasoned artists has been a gratifying experience. The experimenting and the constant challenging moments Third goes through while working on a project are also what keeps him motivated.
“Why do I keep doing this job? It’s that loving relationship you have with your creative partners, where everybody is very forgiving of everyone else’s missteps or experiments that didn’t seem to work. And that’s one of the things I think that makes it so intimate and so much fun.”
Constantly working with other creatives has another perk for Third: it allows him to grow creatively. “When I’m working on film or television projects, and there’s a producer, and there’s the network and all these other people involved, they’re all pushing me further and further, creatively, like outside of my wheelhouse and into sort of new territory.”
It’s always a new challenge, Third says. It makes the job “endlessly exciting.” And as far as jobs go, making music for a living is Third’s dream. “You would do it for free, right? It’s a passion project. I love to write music, I love playing music. So it’s very easy to have a job where you get paid to do that.”
And as for the future, Third says there are a bunch of new projects rolling in. Besides a top-secret film, which he can’t really talk about, Third is also working on another documentary. “It’s this pretty fantastic kind of social justice-style documentary, which is the kind I like to do best.”
These jobs are going to keep Third busy well into the summer. And after that, new projects should be coming in as new opportunities for Third to stretch his creative muscles.
“It’s very fun. It’s addictive. And every film is so different. Even if they’re similar. They’re so different. Every relationship is different. And none of the music I’ve written for any other film can get reused in the films I’m going to do next. Because they just do not fit.”
