Adding Odd Bars for Hit Points

It is a common and well known way to hit hit-points that don’t lay on the downbeat of a bar by inserting one odd meter bar in order to make it fit, however it is also a quite common problem that learning film composers place that odd bar very often as the last bar before the hit point which very often creates a not very pleasing musical result and feels just as it is: an inserted strange bar.

Try placing that one bar a few bars earlier into a phrase that makes it feel like that odd bar is not inserted but needs to be there as part of a plausible musical phrase.

However, there is also a justification to have the odd bar right before the hit point which is when the new hit point is not expected or should not be expected as of course placing a hit point on a predictable downbeat makes it often very easy to anticipate which is not what you need for example in moments of surprise or shock.