Welcome Storytellers

Whether curiosity or fate brought you here, I’d like to share how passionate I am about Stories That Move People and helping Filmmakers and Editors create these films.

If you’re a Storyteller who is driven by compelling stories, my goal is to provide you with a unique service and experience, that can bring deeper discoveries and clarity into your film.

I offer filmmakers and editors an opportunity to experience for themselves, a creative process that opens up undiscovered insights in the film’s story, before they start to shape the rough edit. Together, we will explore aspects of the story arc, acts, characters and the core emotions of your film - using a trusted process I’ve developed called the Emotiff Discovery Method™

Breakthrough By Mistake - Realization By Design

What led to the creation of the Emotiff Discovery Method™, was my way of helping filmmakers explain the music they needed from me.

Some people can struggle to articulate this with words. However, by using images and my carefully-crafted questions, they were able to fully-express themselves. Together as collaborators, we created a shared understanding and a common language.

What I hadn't anticipated however, was how this method would also help these filmmakers shape their story. They were able to explain the story arc, scenes, characters, core emotions and more importantly how they wanted to move their audience, in ways that they had never been able to before.

After just a 2 hour Discovery Session, I was able to give them a recording of our conversation, a detailed report to summarize the discoveries we found for the story acts, characters and core emotions, and 3 x Music Illustrations that represented the emotional context for the beginning, middle and end acts of the story.

These tools appeared to give them a way to feel ‘Unstuck’.

Sharing creative discoveries that support to build and shape the story is suddenly a possibility, having new discoveries of the story early before the rough edit to inspire a focused direction is suddenly viable, and having the option for original cohesive music that helps you begin the editing process is now truly a reality.

It’s OK - We all can feel a little lost at times

Whilst my Discovery Method might not be for everyone, I feel there are some ‘creative logjams’ that can happen before and throughout the editing process, where I could provide some solutions to you.

Appreciaitng how long a journey it can take you to get to the rough cut stage, and even once you get there, you will likely reassess the story many times. You will probably then pause, reflect and take time to discuss, as filmmaker and editor, any obvious issues in the story’s structure. It’s obvious to all, that this has to be a time for clear communication between the director and editor, to be totally aligned on the direction to create a coherent story and to get through the next stage of editing.

If you empathize or can relate with some of these ‘creative logjams’, then maybe I can help you:

• There are times during the editing process, where it feels like you have lost focus on where the original story was heading, and feel you’re undecided which direction to head towards.

• Could it be that you’ve started the rough edit, but over time you are starting to realize you need inspiration to help you bring stronger emotions into the story, and a clear direction that will help the audience experience what you want them to feel.

• There are certain scenes that just aren’t working with the key characters, and you want to open up the emotional context of these scenes to heighten the tension or opposition that maybe isn’t obvious at first to the audience.

• As the filmmaker and editor, you are both finding hard to create a more specific dialogue of the story, and desperately want to move into the edit on a unified path. One that dramatically raises the bar on the tone and approach set for collaboration on the film project.

• Maybe the structure isn’t working as well as you hoped, and you need to explore other parts of the story to find the missing links that draws in more of the emotional and intellectual contexts that you feel is needed.

• There could be a need to change the point of view, and bring in another perspective that will keep the story relative to its core emotions.

• Could it be that some of the footage of characters interviewed for a scene, needs to be examined again, and to see if there is a deeper underlying emotion that wasn’t obvious based on what they told you. Did you maybe miss the hidden elements from their emotions and reactions, and focus only on the words?

• The tone of the film maybe just doesn’t feel right and you need to identify where the emphasis of the story needs to be focused, that will bring flow to the structure.

• Maybe there are times when you feel your personal interpretation of the story is slipping away, and you need to feel emotionally reconnected to remind yourself why you were attracted to this story and why you started this film journey.

• Could it be you have found the tone and structure for your story, but the rhythm of the film doesn’t feel it’s matched to how you want the story to unfold.

• There are situations where you have reached a point where you have so many emotional elements within your story, that you’ve started to lose track of what the emotional core of the film was in the beginning, and that was fundamental to the tone you wanted.

• As the filmmaker and editor, in advance of starting the edit, you both feel the need to pause and take time to feel a renewed emotional and personal connection to the story, that will help place you both in a much more unified creative space that will truly serve the story as you begin to structure the film.

About William (aka “Bill”)

British-born William Baird started writing music at the age of 13 after being inspired by 80’s synth band, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. It was their 1980 album ‘Organisation’ that ignited his passion for music. Throughout his teenage years, William wrote synth pop songs and in the early 1980’s he formed an electronic duo band, ‘Pseudo Art’. He became completely absorbed in the British electronic music scene.

The band's passion for electronic music led him to Los Angeles in the late 80’s. At the young age of 21, through serendipity, his band had the pleasure of working with the legendary record producer, Peter Asher. After returning to the UK, William completed a Sound Engineering program at the University of Kingston, London, and studied composition, harmony and orchestration under private tuition.

He worked with renowned record producer and film composer, Steve Levine, who scored the feature film “Mister Frost,” starring Jeff Goldblum as well as the American TV series “She-Wolf of London.” This was a profound time in his life, being introduced to the world of Film & TV music composition.

William found his true passion - writing music for compelling stories.

William has been responsible for numerous original scores of award-winning documentaries that have seen theatrical releases and are currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Super Channel, Discovery Channel, and CBC. He has been recognized by others, as having a natural gift for understanding and shaping the story with documentary filmmakers, and being inspired by the emotions these collaborations generate.

Today, William is a Canadian citizen and continues to write music at McBaird Studios. This is his private studio, nestled between forests and the Pacific Ocean on beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. He lives there with his wife, son, and their two dogs.

My wish is for Filmmakers and Editors to begin well - not just end well.

- WILLIAM BAIRD -