Two kinds of spotting
Most films hold separate sessions. Music spotting sits the composer and music editor with the director to decide where score goes, where licensed songs go, and where silence works better than either. Sound spotting sits the supervising sound editor with the director to go reel by reel through dialogue problems, ADR needs, Foley coverage, and big effects moments.
Both run the same way. The film plays, someone stops it whenever a decision comes up, and the music editor or sound supervisor writes it down against timecode. A feature can take a full day per session, longer if the director wants to argue each cue.
What spotting notes look like
A music spotting sheet for reel 3 of a feature:
| Cue | Start | End | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3M1 | 01:02:14:08 | 01:03:40:00 | 1:25 | Starts as Maya leaves the diner. Low strings, no melody yet. Out hard on door slam |
| 3M2 | 01:05:02:12 | 01:05:40:20 | 0:38 | Source. Radio in Joe's truck, period country song, licensed |
| 3M3 | 01:08:30:00 | 01:11:12:04 | 2:42 | Garage scene. Build under dialogue, peak when keys drop, tail over cut to morning |
Cue numbers follow the reel and order (3M1 is reel 3, music cue 1). Source cues, which characters hear inside the scene, are marked apart from score because they are licensed and cleared differently.
Common mistakes
Spotting with a temp score in place is standard, but a director who has lived with temp music for months can end up asking the composer to copy it. Talk about what the temp does emotionally rather than asking for the same sound, because a close imitation of a licensed track can create a legal problem.
The other mistake is spotting an unlocked cut. If the editor trims six seconds from the garage scene after spotting, cue 3M3 no longer lands on the key drop. Productions under time pressure spot reels as each one locks, and the post supervisor tracks which reels are locked and which cues have been written against which version.
How it connects to budgets and delivery
Spotting notes turn into the cue count that drives the music budget and the song licensing list, which is why a producer usually attends the music session (see VFX and music budgeting). The sound spotting notes become the ADR cue list and the Foley plan. Both feed the music cue sheet and M&E tracks in the deliverables, and both depend on a real picture lock.