The difficult part is ‒ "detaching oneself" from the example—, which can be excellent, good, decent, or terrible, and here, beyond analysis, it is a matter of taste.
I agree 50% with Alessandro, and he knows for what reason.
I agree with the fact that if one relies — "solely" — on one's own state of mind and goes at random, by feeling, by instinct (as I often do, although much less than in the past), results will be fluctuating and inconsistent, at least until one has a minimal and solid foundation to start from.
I am very far behind with harmony; I have studied it but I am very far behind, suffice it to say that I still need to study progressions, and a small indecision caused me to stop 2 years ago, in addition to the fact that the teacher who was following me from that moment could no longer follow me. But what I have done, sometimes without realizing it, I put into practice; they might seem like nonsense, but they are more than useful, necessary to get work done in less time, and music of this type (I am speaking generally about applied music, which in this case is not such in the sense that you didn't start from images; there the discussion could, I say could, become complicated, because it is as if a person provides you with a text and you have to set it to music; it is not guaranteed that doing so is automatic and especially successful, but the craft of a film composer is certainly difficult because one must be able to be oneself even when scoring images that do not inspire them at first glance, and above all within a set timeframe, without the freedom one has in composing pieces for oneself and then releasing them) requires set timings above all, and I won't mention the rest because I am sure you already know (all factors that contribute to making a piece, or a series of pieces, a single unit with the film).
I would like to try sooner or later to score any extract from a film, precisely to "train" myself in this type of "work," because it is indeed work (I put it in quotes because it is still a pleasure, albeit not an easy one); it is enough to extract a part of a film, even 3/4 minutes, and know where it is most appropriate to use music, where not, which part needs to be emphasized, which less, creating contrasts, surprising those who see and listen (always with that balance mentioned above, so as not to distract those watching the film or the extract by capturing too much attention), but not like Americans often do in certain films (personal opinion), with "background" noises used as effects, or entries for a few seconds to scare people, etc.; there is no need for these tricks. The best films are those that do not continuously need the support of music, and the music itself is silenced when it is not necessary; this too is balance. And so far I have spoken, I hope maybe even just once, about doing such a job and proposing it, because then one must move to action, but those who know me know that "the road is long" (but I don't do it on purpose).
One last thing, one of the most interesting aspects of such an "experiment" is this: if you score a part of a film already seen (by you, I mean, as well as by others obviously), you will inevitably be conditioned by the previous listening, and this complicates things quite a bit; the other aspect is scoring a film never seen before, and here the conditioning only applies to those who have already seen it.
The first case is more complex for me, but also the most formative I think (not that the second one isn't, you know, you start from zero, and paradoxically in the first, even if you have already heard the music, in a certain sense it has a "path to follow" because you have perceived the type of impact the music brought to the film; it might seem strange, perhaps, but that is what I think).
