Temp music = temporary music and it’s just as it sounds. It’s a placeholder music guide that video editors cut to and will later replace with the final score. If you are a filmmaker, composer or working in the video production business you have probably heard of or been affected by the dreaded ‘Temp Love’. For those who haven’t become familiar with temp love: TL refers to the attachment producers and editors can have to the temporary music in their video or film.

Why it’s unpleasant: Imagine a piece of music that fits perfectly to your video edit, all the accents are emphasizing in the right place, beats are on the cuts, things are looking and sounding amazing, but wait…your edit is cut to a Hans Zimmer cue from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ soundtrack. Yikes…no chance of those rights being secured! So, what do you do? The producer is in love with the edit and now you have to tell them that the music has to go.

Luckily the temp love trap can be avoided with some careful considerations.

4 Considerations For Avoiding & Dealing With Temp Love

1. Hold off on using temp music for as long as possible.

The less time you and the producer are listening to the same temp music over and over the better! Naturally, after repetitiously watching the same sequences the “placeholder” music becomes married to the picture. This is bad news down the road when it’s time for the final score to come in.

If possible, don’t add any music until you absolutely have to. This allows you to focus on making the storyline or content of the video as great as it can be. When the temp or final score is finally added it will make the edit that much more amazing.