Day 22: Second Review

I went in to the studio today at 11am. Brandon and Dave were there working on the Law and Order main title. The producers still aren't happy with the mix, so they've created 3 new versions of the song to send their way. Hopefully one of those will take. Once they did all they could, Brandon showed me about templates. It's pretty complicated, but I'm beginning to understand it a little. The upside of everything is that the template they use for SVU is actually a full template just specialized for SVU. I can modify, add and customize it any way I want so I don't need to build a new on from scratch. Mike had some meetings in the afternoon, so the three of us went to lunch and hung out in the studio, watched some videos and had a really good time. During that time, I also found out that I'm the only Pete Carpenter winner to get sent out to visit other composers, so I'm wondering how many firsts I'll have before this thing is over. I feel like I'm getting this special treatment or something.

Then Mike came back and we had my review. This one was great. Here I was thinking that I wasn't happy with the music. Then after I mixed it, I felt better but still unsure. This review went fast, and that was a good thing. First cue, in his words "Batting a thousand. Moving on" The trend continued. On the third cue, I got the best compliment ever. He told me he liked my cue better than the one he did that was used in the episode! So there that is. There were only a couple of cues he had notes for me on, and they were very minor. He told me none of my cues were bad. Then he looked over to Brandon with this very proud tone in his voice and said "The kid's done the entire episode." Turns out, I'm not supposed to be doing full episodes. Just a few cues from each one until the review, so he was very happy that I'm getting everything done. He's going to give me one more episode to score because he thinks that after one more, I could do my own show no problem. After that, I do the main title, and then who knows what. Overall, great day and a lot of good news.

Day 21: Templates

Ah, templates. Every composer uses them. A template is a set of commonly used instruments (virtual ones of course) in a project. That way you don't have to load every instrument from scratch every time you start a new piece of music. My template for example is all the common orchestra instruments, because that's the kind of music I write. I still usually need to add a few unique ones for each individual project, but it saves time. On a TV show, you usually have the same template throughout the seasons, and a new template for every new series you're working on.

I've only had to use the SVU template at the studio so far, but today I had nothing to do and wanted to get a jump on creating a template for a main title sequence. I know that's my next project after my review so I wanted to get a handle on how to create a template using Mike's gear. Originally I wanted to use my own stuff that I brought with me, but after talking to Atli, he said to take advantage of the better gear that they have, so I intend to do just that. Especially because this is the gear the rest of the industry is using too, so knowing how to use it may just help me get a job. It wasn't until I got started that I realized how complicated their system really is.

WARNING: This segment is about to get very technical, so skip to the end if it starts to get boring.

Logic runs on a Mac Pro in the studio. It's where all the writing is done. To get sound out of logic, you need to use virtual instruments. To do that, you load each instrument into Logic so that logic can control it. That's all well and good so far. My setup works the same way. But on mine, it ends there. All my sounds are on an external drive and that's that. In Mike's studio, the sounds aren't on an external drive at all. They're on another computer, and it's a PC. Two of them in fact. Those PCs are running a program called Vienna Ensemble Pro. On a normal computer, when you load a template, it has to load every instrument one after another, and then you can write. If you load too many your computer crashes under the strain. If you load another cue, or another template, it has to load all the instruments again. That can waste a lot of time. Vienna Ensemble Pro allows you to load the instruments once into a server. Logic then accesses that server when you write, so even if you switch projects, the instruments don't have to reload. They're already there, which is really brilliant when you think about it. The problem is. . . I have no idea how to do any of that. To create a new template on Mike's system you need to program all these connections between 3 computers, 2 virtual desktops and a server. Then once you have sound, you need to route that to another Mac Pro running ProTools which is attached to the mixing board where the speakers are so you can actually hear that sound. Whew! That was tough even to write.

The techno-jargon stops here.

Needless to say I couldn't figure any of it out so I came home empty handed. I spoke to Brandon and he said he'd show me how to make a template that way. He said once you see it done, it's not that hard, but definitely overwhelming the first time. So that all starts next week. Until then.

Day 20: The Importance of Mixing

I went into the studio tonight to finish up my episode. Turns out that I was ready to record the finished cues right after mixing. And here's where the beauty of that lies. Mixing is when you balance all the individual instruments into the final cue so that your main instruments are clearly heard and your background voices are helping the sound, not overpowering. As I mentioned yesterday, I wasn't sure how happy I was with the music, but now that it's properly mixed together, and when I watched it with the video, I was extremely pleased. This one felt a lot more like a proper episode to me, and when I take a step back and watch it from a viewer's perspective, the music starts to go away and helps the scene. That's exactly what it's supposed to do, so now I'm very excited to show this one to Mike.

Tonight for the first time, as I was locking up for the night, I had this little pang of sadness. I'm only three weeks into this experience; not even halfway, but it hit me that this is going to end. I've gotten used to this place, and even if I get a job, Mike Post's studio is not my final resting place. It's exciting, but the building and the people in it have really grown on me and treat me like I've been with them forever. It will be really hard to leave this environment in three weeks time. Until then, I plan to enjoy every moment and hope that I find myself in an equally great place in the near future.

Day 19: Finito

Tonight I finished my score for the newest SVU episode. There's not a lot of music in this one. I tried to improve on all the things that Mike told me about during the last review. I change keys less often if at all, I incorporated more sound elements and really focused on counterpoint. I don't know how happy I am personally with the music, but the point is to get out of my comfort zone, so even if this soundtrack isn't as successful as the first one I did, hopefully the things I tried to improve on did get better. That way, I can take the new things that I did better and incorporate them into what I was already doing right the first time, and then I'll have something really great. Tomorrow I'll go in to the studio and do my mixing, and maybe add some finishing touches to the score and I'll use sunday if I have to as well. Most likely monday or tuesday will be my review.

I had another idea today that I don't know why I didn't think of earlier (but better late than never). My goal is to get into Disney somehow. So I figured, why don't I do some research on IMDB and get the names of a lot of the Disney composers for both film and TV? That way I can ask Mike if maybe he knows some of them. Even if Mike doesn't, sometime soon I'll be having a meeting with some of the folks at BMI who will also try to set up some interviews for me. Maybe they know some of them and can also set me up with a few of them. I figure what I need to do is get as many names as possible because even if I get 100 'no's, all I need is one yes.

Day 18: Techno

I went into the studio this morning and worked through the afternoon on my SVU assignment. I hunkered down and got halfway through. There was a new twist thrown in this one though. There's a scene that has my first 'SX Cue' in it. An SX Cue is a Sound Effects Cue. It mean the music I'm writing is actually what the characters would be hearing in the scene, and for this scene, it meant . . . techno. The scene in question is inside a  clothing designers shop before a runway show, so they were playing the runway techno music you would hear before a runway exhibition. This was a perfect challenge to test my ability to write music I have no experience with, because at the end of the day, you have to write what the producers ask for or you don't have a job. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Check back in a few days once I have the final mix and I'll post it here. So after that I finished my half of the work and I plan on going in tomorrow to finish the second half. And that's it. After tomorrow I start mixing and then I get my second review most likely on monday. After that, I believe it's main title time. Until then.

Day 17: Part 2

I just got back from the studio. Dave and Brandon were there talking about the episode and the kind of work they have cut out for them. They already wrote as much as they could but can't go any farther until they get a more finished version of the show. They left and then I started working. I got almost one cue done and then the computers started doing things I've never seen them do. Rather than try to fix those kinds of problems myself I decided to take the hit and call it a day. I don't want to mess around with all that expensive gear but I heard there will be no one in tomorrow morning and afternoon so I'll go in then. Hopefully having all the gear off for a night will have fixed the problem and if not, then I'll see if Brandon or Dave knows what to do. So one extra night off which I definitely need after all that driving yesterday. Then it begins in full tomorrow.

Day 17: 2 Parter?

This title means a couple things. One, it could mean I'll write again tonight, and two is because I just finished watching the episode I need to score. First off, wow. This is a heavy episode and may or may not have two parts to it. I can't tell yet. So much of it is missing. At least 5 scenes need to be re-shot and 3 or 4 aren't even in this cut yet so I have my work cut out for me. This is a twisted, emotional episode so I'm going to need to rely on some strange sounds to make this one work.

I'm excited to start writing later, especially after my meeting with Atli yesterday, I'm ready to really embrace this electronic sound and learn all I can so that I can be ready for a potential job. Still no word from Robert yet. I don't want to be annoying, so I'll give it a few more days before calling again. In a few hours I'll be going in to the studio and see how far I get.

Day 16: The Empire

This morning I went into the studio to see what I have to do for the newest SVU episode. Mike and the crew were there and I told them about my weekend with Danny and my plans for today and this week. They gave me the new episode and shunned me out quickly so I wouldn't hear what Mike was doing. Can't cheat or nothin'! I can tell you that the next episode, airing next wednesday is called "Flight" but that's all I'm allowed to say. Turns out I have tons of time to work on this thing because they wont get the final cut until Friday night, and on Friday the studio is actually adding more music cues to the list. And yeah, the episode is still due saturday. Crazy how fast this business has to work sometimes.

Before lunch I made my call to Robert. He wasn't there, but I left him a message. Hopefully I'll hear from him soon because I'm insanely curious why he asked me if I was looking for work. Then it was off to Remote Control Productions; home of Hanz Zimmer, to see Atli Ovarsson.

I was given a security pass and was greeted by Dave, Atli's assistant composer. Let me just say this place is amazing. Hanz owns all these buildings over an entire city block. He also rents space out to all these other famous composers like Steve Jablonsky (Transformers), Harry Gregson-Williams (Chronicles of Narnia), Nick Pheonix (Creator of the virtual instruments I use) among others. This place has everything, and all the composers there have access to Hanz Zimmers' personal virtual instruments. Dave was telling me what it's like to work there and all the movies he's helped on. He says the resources available are like nothing else. The hours can be difficult to get used to where if they're really busy, he can be pulling 14 hour days every day. But he gets to write a lot of music for Atli, who is becoming quite a big name nowadays. As well as working on films with Hanz, Atli has scored Season of the Witch, Stuart Little 3 and Modern Warfare 2 (videogame) on his own and has a few movies I can't talk about lined up. Dave asked me about my technical background and what programs I use. Everything looks pretty familiar to what Mike does, but on an even bigger scale than him. He also let me in on a little secret that got me pretty excited. The winter season is quiet for the composing world, so everyone goes on a sort of winter break. That break just ended so things are pretty quiet, but soon it will get extremely busy. Atli usually has a third guy as an entry level assistant...but he doesn't have one now. Dave said that if he hears Atli talking about getting another one soon, he'll recommend me! And I have a shot because Atli was a Pete Carpenter winner, Dave was a Pete Carpenter, and so am I. Pretty convenient stuff.

Then I met Atli. Right off the bat he's such a nice guy. He told me how he got his start and we talked about music in general and where it's going. He says music is getting simpler and simpler and that can make a composers' life a little boring because that's what the public wants right now. This is the hierarchy as he sees it. Orchestral composition (like concert music) is on top. You have complete creative freedom to write whatever you want. Film music is next because you can still be create but must write for a general audience. TV is next, and finally radio. I told him how I want to get into childrens music and he said that's the exception. He said that's where you can get the closest to concert orchestral music because you can't be too over the top or fantastical with a childrens score. So that was good to hear. He asked me a bit about my background and then wanted to hear my music. I must admit, just being in Hanz Zimmer's building having an A-list film composer listen to my music...it was probably the most nervous I've been since I got here. First he played my Pete Carpenter song and was really pleased. He said the same thing as Mike did: if I can write that, then I can write for TV and even film. Then he listened to the End credits music that I posted earlier. He could hear that I had just bought a new library of sounds and that I was drowning in them a bit. He said the music was good but I hadn't learned how to mix them yet. Then he played a chase theme I wrote. Now here's where I finally got some real good feedback that sets me in a direction:

Electronic music (in terms of film and TV) is 'in' and expected by audiences now. I can't get away with pure orchestral music, which is what I was starting to figure out from Mike and Danny. He said (for all you composers out there) drum loops and synths can add a lot to an orchestral score. It doesn't have to be all electronic, but I need to learn how to use that. He told me that in terms of my writing ability, it's all there. He could hear the way I think and was able to relate it to how he writes (which was good to hear). But in terms of my sound palette, he said it's like I'm only using half. So I need to officially learn to use some electronic sounds, so I hope some opportunities come up soon to try that. After that, he talked about production value. He can tell that I'm doing all my work on one computer. Understandable because that's all I can afford now, but he said a good exercise it to write a piece of music and compare it to a professional one and see what I'm missing, but from a mixing perspective, not a music one. See what's loud and what's soft. Hear where the instruments are coming from and try to emulate that.

He's such a positive guy but to hear some real feedback was refreshing. I know I still have so much growing to do and so much learning and to finally have my next steps feels great. He can tell by listening to my music that I want to be a film composer, but with this whole experience and hearing a lot of TV music I became a little on the fence. But hearing him say that set me straight again that my style is a film style so that's where I should be. He said that it's important to know what I want and to try to get it. When I had to leave, Atli gave me all his information and told me to keep in touch and he wants to know what I do after the fellowship. I really hope that position opens up with him. Being in that environment would be amazing and I think I would learn so much. So now I have even more of a clear direction for the future and now I just need the next step to show itself by the time this fellowship is over so I can just jump in. You can bet that he'll be hearing from me before I leave to put the bug in his ear that I'll be his guy if he needs extra help. I hope I didn't forget anything, but I probably did. There was so much to take in today.

Day 15: Hike Fail

Today was my last day of rest before the rest of the week explodes. First I took a walk around town. I hadn't been out much this weekend so it felt good, especially in this weather. Last night I went to the studio to get the soundtrack I scored for my SVU episode. I'm going to see if there are any legal things I have to worry about, and if not, I'll post one of the scenes I did. After lunch I drove to the base of the mountain to look for a hiking spot. At first I couldn't find one so I took a drive to see all the huge houses build into the mountain.

That ladder on the left behind the tree is how you get from the garage to the house, the hills are so steep!

This house is a castle. There are turrets in the back and everything.

I found a park not long after that had some hiking trails. But these were legit trails that you need to be prepared for. They go up through the mountains and they'd kick your but if you weren't ready. I wasn't in the right clothes and had no water, so I decided to come back another day now that I know what I'm up against. Once home I burned the CDs for my meetings and laid low. Tomorrow is the day everything starts and I can't wait.

Day 14: Few Words

So today I finally don't have much to talk about. When you're on the high of this experience, the adrenaline takes over but when you get a couple days to yourself you really notice how worn out you can get. It was really great to have these last couple days to sleep and recover and get ready for this wild ride starting on Tuesday. My only plan tonight is to go in to the studio and pick up my SVU soundtrack and get some CDs together. Other than that, it's of to bed early. There's still nothing for me to do tomorrow, so I think I may go on a hike and see what I can find around here.

The possibility of me coming out of this with a job is beginning to impact me. This weekend, with no projects for a couple days, it was easy to slip back in to  normal life/normal job mode, but that period for me could be coming to an end. It's weird to think that in just two weeks I've been in the company of some of the most influential people in this industry and that if I play my cards right and work hard that I could be among them. So this is a make it or break it time for me. It's not every day that I'm going to be handed a real chance to do what I love for a living. So here's to this next week and I plan on making everything I can out of it.

Day 13: Demo

Today was extremely quiet and I needed that. I slept in as long as I could and then pretty much stayed in all day. I cleaned up the apartment and did dishes and caught up on some reading and work from home I've been meaning to do. Then I started choosing songs I've written to include in my demos for Atli and Robert. Atli is in the film world so I can submit orchestral works, and Robert deals with a lot of childrens shows so I want to include some of my younger-themed works. I'm including 2 of them here for you to listen to. Each is of a very different style tailored to who I'm sending it to.

'Bubba'

This is the entire soundtrack for a short film called 'Bubba' made by Kenn Magowen, a member of SECT Film in Connecticut. So you have an idea of what the music is telling the story of, Bubba is the story of a young boy on a quest to collect and save up money. By the end of the film, we come to realize the boy is saving money to purchase a bone to put on the grave of his dog who recently passed away in order to gain closure. Maybe you'll be able to picture how the story progresses based on the music. This piece will go to Robert.

End Credits: 'A Step in the Wrong Direction'

This is the end credits theme to a short film called 'A Step in the Wrong Direction' written by Jason Costa (my brother if you hadn't guessed) and made by the small film studio me, him and my father started about a year ago. This piece will go to Atli.

So that was pretty much it today. Tomorrow I will try to go into the studio to make my demo CDs and get the score I did to the SVU episode so I can have that on hand in case I'm asked for it.

Day 12: Danny Lux

I began my trip this morning at 9am, driving down to Agoura Hills. It was a beautiful drive through the hills. Danny works from his home up where some of the farms and stables are. It's a really great place. He has a home studio, but when I say home studio, I mean giant frikkin mansion with a full sized studio on the first floor. His place was gorgeous.

 His assistant composer Mike let me in and showed me around. His studio is basically 4 rooms. One is the computer room where all the sounds and hot, noisy gear live. The next room in Mike's station where he writes cues and so on. The middle room is the live recording room where vocalists and performers come in to record when needed. And the final room is Danny's station. He was in the middle of scoring some cues for the show 'Love Bites' when I came in. He was also in the middle of making the switch from Logic to Cubase as his main scoring software so not everything was working properly quite yet.

Danny talked to me about the shows he's working on, and I watched him make a cue for the show. Then he took me to lunch. We talked there about the industry and what the producers are looking for in a composer. He said that it's great that I write orchestral music, but if I submit a demo of that to the TV show guys, I'll never land a gig. That demo would go over well in the film world, but not TV. He said the producers want to know that you can write the stuff that's on TV now, and then if you get in a position where they want something more creative or orchestral, they'll let you know. He said the best way to get started out here is to become a composers assistant first. Most composers need them and it's a great way to ease in to making cues for shows before you get your own just dumped on you.

He told me how he got his start working for Mike Post by accident when someone from his studio walked into his dad's shop by mistake and his dad got Danny a gofer gig at the studio when he was 17. From there he moved his way up and worked with Mike for 9 years. From there he's been extremely lucky and fortunate to find gigs and is now loaded with work. He's said like everyone else that I need to move out here, so I really have to start thinking about how and when to do it.

I hung out with his assistant for a little while too. He had just gotten his first show that he's scoring on his own and he was working for a bumper for that. A bumper is a little piece of music you hear in sitcoms when they show whatever home or building the characters are in, and then there's no music for the rest of the scene. The most famous example is Seinfeld, when you hear that slap bass guitar before the scene starts.

The interesting difference here is Mike Post is not a fan of temping. He finds it limits you creatively. I don't know if I've described temping yet, so just in case, temping is when the editors put in music from other movies or what-have-you into the video temporarily to give a feel for the music with the video. Danny always gets temp tracks and the producers want him to write music that sounds like the temps. So that was interesting. He has a different way of writing too. He likes to go piece by piece, layer by layer until the cue is done, which is very different from Mike's almost on the spot method.

I got a lot of good tips and advice and then Danny told me that there's a guy who calls him often looking for people to assist him. His name is Robert Kral, and he works for Warner Brothers doing all of the WB cartoons as well as Buffy, Angel and the Dresden Files. Childrens music bells started going off in my head! He gave me Robert's number and email and told me to give him a call. So I went home and did just that. Robert's been composing for almost 20 years now and picked up the phone right away. I told him who I was and what I was doing here. He asked me how long I've been here and I told him how Mike thought I was at an advanced state and should be meeting people now. The first thing he said is "So you're probably looking for work then." I told him all of the above, and left it at that, but to have this guy mention work so fast I'm taking as a good sign. I refuse to get my hopes too far up, but this could be the start of something. So he told me to call him on tuesday to set up a meeting!

I have the next few days pretty quiet. No studio work or anything. Just getting my demos together and resting before everything explodes on tuesday. On tuesday I need to call Robert in the morning, go see Atli in the afternoon, and pick up my SVU episode back at Mike's at night. Sheesh. Is it weird that I'm talking like this? I feel weird talking like this.

Day 11: The Review

I went in at 11 this morning to await the review. Brandon came in first to set up the file so we could compare my work to Mike's. Once Mike came we jumped right in. We would play my cue, talk about it, then play Mike's and compare. Right off the bat, Mike was impressed. He started by saying I nailed the feel and the tempo; two of the hardest things to do. Mike was 'disappointed' that I wasn't screwing up as much as he wanted. He said "See, we're already talking about nuance and we should be talking about how you got the feel all wrong."

I wrote this score over the course of 3 days and Mike could see my improvement day by day. He noticed my music was very 'cue-y'. That I wrote music that lined up with what was happening in the scene. Mike describes the sound for Law and Order as more atmospheric, so you never actually notice the music, which is what he wants. He said at first I moved around a little too much and my music was a bit too full, but the feel, sound and tempo was right there.

Mike said the music is all about counterpoint, but not the counterpoint you learn about in school. He said no composer actually thinks about line and parallel 3rds and 5ths and so on. He said real counterpoint is you write a line, then you write another line on top without giving much thought at all to what you wrote before. Then you tweak. That's how John Williams does it. Mike's actually good friends with John Williams and they hang out. Mike is more rock based in his music, and John is more classical/jazz but they both write the exact same way, so that was really cool.

By the end of the review things started getting crazy. He said I'm actually around week 4 or 5 even though I just started my second week. He said I came in, had to meet new people, learn new equipment, learn a new style of music and how TV music works and then score an episode. And I did it in 3 days and nailed it. He said that's unusual. And he noticed how I got better after each day of scoring, so my last cues were very close. He said that I was so close to his, that he could submit both his music and my music to the producers. They'd still pick Mike's, but wouldn't have a good reason why they didn't pick mine. If they had just submitted mine, it would have been used in a show! I'm that close.

He then described his music in the best way. He said that the SVU soundtrack is simple and dumb, but effective and that's all it needs to be. But then he launched into this whole history of counterpoint going back to Bach and how it related to this show and it just shows how smart he is, but it's just so natural to him.

Mike said people win this award who have PHD's in music theory and people who are just sick musicians, and none of them got as close as I did. He said only two of his Pete Carpenters ever did as good as I did this early and they're some of the most successful composers he's ever taught. He said I'm special. he said the reason I won this fellowship is because he heard my music and how complex it was. Then he looked at my age and saw that I had never done any professional work, and that's why I won. So he said that I'm ready to just jump in and thinks I could already do my own show. To compare me to his best success blew me away, but it got better.

So he said he's advancing what his program would have been. Next week we get the newest episode of SVU. He wants me to score that one alongside him! And on his timetable too. So I'm not to come in when they're in the studio. I can only come in at night and when he's done with the scoring, we'll compare. Then He's going to throw a main title at me of some unknown show to see how I do with a blank sheet of paper. This is all insane. Then he told me to hang out a while while he called Danny and Atli Ovarsson, Hanz Zimmer's assistant composer (the two success stories he mentioned). These two have huge careers. Danny is doing something like 6 shows at once, and Atli scores films with Hanz Zimmer. I overheard Mike talking to Danny in his office about how I nailed this score and just hit a home run so fast and that Danny needs to meet me. So I got both their personal numbers to set up meetings. It was quite intimidating to call these people up out of the blue, even though Mike had talked to them first. I called Danny first, and I'm meeting him tomorrow morning at his studio, so that should be extremely exciting. Then I called Atli. Atli heard how well I was doing and asked if I was at the end of the fellowship based on how Mike was talking about me . I told him I really only started a week ago and he was impressed. So I'm invited on Tuesday to Hanz Zimmers studio! Hanz own a city block of buildings in Santa Monica. So I have to get a security pass to get in and I have no idea how I'll react to being there. On top of that, Atli wants me to make a demo of some of my music to give to him. No idea what that's for but the idea of that makes me shake it's so cool. So pretty much this day couldn't get better.

Oh and I went out and bought a little point and shoot camera so I can take more pictures of what's going on here. Big day tomorrow!

Day 10: ProTools and Pictures

I went in to the studio around 11am today. I had 4 more cues to write. The first, second and last went smoothly, but cue 4m3, the second to last was a beast. It starts all mysterious and then has 3 different types of action sequences. One is a chase to find out where someone is in danger. The next is when the girl finds out for herself that she's in danger, and finally is when the cops show up. And all that was in the course of about two minutes. So that cue took the longest. After that, I had finished scoring my firsts episode of SVU! Next came mixing. Each cue is a separate file and must be mixed individually. This is where things get complicated because their system is so huge. Logic (the program used to compose the music) is on one Mac. You write there. Protools (the program used for mixing and recording) is on another mac. So you need to send all your music over to protools to mix. Then you need to record it into the soundtrack for the show in sync with the dialogue and sound. Brandon and Dave were not there today and had not taught me how to do this, so I had to figure it out myself. After 45 minutes of tooling around, I had figured it out. So then I recorded everything to the final mix and the show was done. Mike was there and I told him that the show is ready. He was surprised to hear that I had finished so soon. Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet. So tomorrow at 11 is my critique to see if I was successful in sounding like Mike Post. Now all I can do is wait. In the meantime I have the pictures from when Lauren was here, so I can give you all a tour of the studio. I'll add some pictures to earlier posts as well, so check them out if you want.

Me at the Logic composing station

Watching a cue

This is the main mixing and Protools station

That thing to the right of me is the rack of computers in a soundproof housing

Full size keyboard, monitor and synthesizers

Mike's Grammy's and BMI awards

More of Mike's wall of awards

Mike's office

Mike's Emmy

Gold Record for the Law and Order theme song

Day 9: Progress

I woke up beat today. No idea why. I did my grocery shopping and got a wonderful care package from my parents: my GPS and mac and cheese. Now that's a care package. I went into the studio in the afternoon and wrote a few more cues. Then I came home, took a nap and made dinner. I just got back to the apartment now after going in again tonight. I finished all my cues up to act 3. So now just 4 more cues stand between me and my critique by Mike Post. I'm in a weird place with this. Mike wants me to screw up so that he can teach me. I want to do what he says, but at the same time I want to nail it as proof to myself that I have what it takes to score a TV show right now. So we'll see what happens. If I do extremely well on this episode, they may just move me to writing a main title, rather than another episode. I've never done anything like a main title before (except end credits, which is similar but still much different) so I hope I get to move on to that. That's it for today. The calm before another storm of awesome.

Day 8: 2m1

We woke up early today. I had to get Lauren to the airport before going into work. As much fun and as amazing as this fellowship is, it was tough to see her go. Being able to share what makes you happy with someone makes it even better. From the airport I went straight to the studio. Mike was just getting in when I arrived. He asked me how things were coming with the equipment. I told him that they were going very well and I wrote a cue last night. He said that if I'm already at the point where I can write a cue, then I should write the whole episode. Originally I was only supposed to write a few cues, but he said that if I'm comfortable, then to go ahead with the whole thing. This week will be pretty quiet. We're not getting another episode until next week, and the only thing happening is the meeting with Mike, Dick Wolf and John Yokum about the Law and Order: LA main title. So I'm up for the challenge.

I put 4 hours in this morning and got to the first cue of the second act, or 2m1. An act in the TV world is each segment of the show before a commercial break. The end of an act is actually written in and planned on, which is how TV shows end on the perfect cliffhanger before the commercial break. It's all planned beforehand. While I was there, a package came for me. I hadn't planned on any package so I opened it as fast as I could. The BMI Foundation had sent me a framed certificate for the Pete Carpenter Fellowship!

Better Picture Coming Soon!

Fully inspired, I continued scoring. Mike told me that he'd be there if I had any questions, but he wants to critique the whole episode once I'm finished, so I just kept on working. Later in the afternoon, Brandon came in to start repairing the slow computer in the studio. I played him the current cue I was working on. He said I nailed it. He said it's not what Mike did for the scene, but that what I did definitely fits within the SVU feel and that he was impressed with my writing. So we talked about our weekends and then we got into the topic of Disney. I told him that I was trying to find an 'in' there and wondered if Mike knew anyone there. Brandon didn't know outright, but he said he would see what he could do for me. He needed to kick me off for a bit to fix the computer so I headed for home. 

On the way out, Colleen stopped me to see if Mike had told me about Danny Lux. He's the composer Mike's going to send me to for a week. Danny started working as the low man on the pole for Mike when he was 17. Over the years he worked his way up and then started composing on his own. Now he's working on some major projects.     http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0527668/

Colleen is going to try to get me there within the next week or so seeing as how there isn't an episode in house right now. Danny does a lot for ABC, which is owned by Disney, so maybe Danny knows some people who could get me an interview. Baby steps towards Disney! So this week is looking fantastic. New people to meet, scoring SVU episodes and making contacts. Can't get better than that!

Day 7: 'Lazy' Day

So we woke up today and ate breakfast, then took a walk. But walks in Burbank are not like normal walks. First we did a loop around Disney Studios who own an entire city block down here, passed ABC along the way, and came up behind NBC before getting back to the apartment. It was so cool to see the place where all the Disney stuff goes down and I hope someday I'll be invited past the gate. To be a composer for Disney is like this free pass to anything you want to do with limitless paths to more work. You could start out scoring for Disney commercials then move to TV shows. From there, you could do shows for ABC because Disney owns them. Then you could move on to Disney original movies (the ones that air on TV) and eventually actual Disney films. From there you have the resume to pretty much go wherever you want or move on to say, PIXAR. So that was a great walk.

After that we had lunch and went to the park for a bit of reading. Then dinner, watched some of the Golden Globes, and then went in to the studio. I did a bit of a practice cue just to see if I could approximate Mike's sound, and I think I did okay. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting there. To compare, I loaded up the upcoming episode of SVU, airing this wednesday to see how I did, so Lauren got a tiny sneak peek of the newest episode. Now we're back and laying low. Lauren leaves tomorrow morning. I have so much exciting stuff happening next week, but it will still be hard to see her go.

Day 6: Hollywood

So this morning Lauren and I got ready for our trip to Hollywood. We got on Hollywood Blvd. a little after noon and found some parking. Then we got to walking. We looked at all the stars on the walkway and just took it all in. We could see the Hollywood sign and we found the famous Chinese theater where Star Wars and Indiana Jones and pretty much every major film premieres. We also walked around in the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars. Then we went to the El Capitan theater to see Tron: Legacy. So we got our tickets, which at the time seemed a little overpriced. Once inside we are greeted by one of the light bikes from the movie so that was pretty cool. The theater itself is very nice so we took our seats. Then this guy came out with a microphone and welcomed everyone there. We were all given a raffle ticket and a winner was chosen at random. This guy won two tickets to Disney. Then he said to put our 3D glasses on for the previews, and then take them off again for the laser light show. What?! So we do that, than this 10 minute laser show starts which was spectacular! Smoke fills the room and then all these lasers do a show to music and this big disk from Tron comes out of the floor and then lasers spell the word 'Tron' at the end so of course we all go crazy and then the movie starts, which was really great. On the way out there was another cool prop from the movie. By that point we had been walking around all day (pictures to come soon) so we headed home.

We ate dinner and then I took Lauren to Mike's studio. I got to show her what I was working on and I programmed the last cues that I'm going to be doing for my SVU practice episode. It was really great to have her there and show her what it's like in a professional setting. We only stayed for an hour. Now we're home and exhausted so we're calling it a night early. Nothing at all is happening at the studio tomorrow, so we're going to the beach and then I'm going in at night to record a couple practice cues to prepare for the real thing on monday. I'm pretty excited.

The man who does all the Disney films

The famous Grauman's Chinese Theater

Robin William's cement block

All the posts in the Kodak Theater have every best picture on them

The stairs leading up to where the Oscars are held

Lightbike used in the film

Day 5: Episodes and Airplanes

I slept in today. Little if anything was supposed to happen today until the new cut of the episode came in. I killed time and worked on some personal projects. It was 76 degrees today so I had lunch and took a walk to the park, and a good book in hand. Ender's Shadow if you were wondering. Lauren's plane didn't land until 6, so I decided to go into the studio just to see what Brandon and Dave were up to. When I got in, the only person there was Dan the accountant. He said no one had been in all day, so I have no idea what's going to happen to the episode seeing as it's due tomorrow morning. So I used that time to get more familiar with the gear. Tonight I watched the episode (without music of course) that I'm going to score next week. Very dramatic. I have the list of where all the cues are for that episode, so I started programming them into ProTools. Then I played around with Logic and Mike's setup trying to replicate his sound and style a little. I didn't record anything today, but I may do a little test tomorrow or sunday.

After that I went to the airport to pick up Lauren. Bob Hope is a tiny little airport and it was easy to find. Lauren arrived and it was so good to see her. We took off back for my apartment, but it was the first time for me driving in the dark here, so a lot of the landmarks I use I couldn't find. We got a little lost, but in our lost-ness we found Warner Brothers Studios and NBC. Then we started to get our bearings and we found a lot to turn around in. Turns out that lot was Walt Disney Studios! We pulled up and the security guard at the gate greeted us. I told him we made a wrong turn and asked if we could pull through to turn around. His response? "There are no wrong turns here." The perfect thing to hear when you stumble on Disney Studios. So that made me want to work for them even more.

We finally made it home, got some dinner and are settling in for the night. Tomorrow we go visit Hollywood and anything else we can find and then I get to show Lauren the studio. So that's it for now. Until tomorrow!

Day 4: All By Myself

This will be a short post but today was still a big day. This morning was more of the same. We got another draft of the episode so we started finding all the changes the editors made. So we finalized some more cues and that was that. Exactly the same as yesterday. We didn't finish though because we're supposed to receive another draft tomorrow evening, even though the final music needs to be ready on saturday. So we did as much as we could and called it a day.

We got word that the producers are still not entirely happy with the new main title theme to Law and Order: LA so Dick Wolf himself (the creator of Law and Order) will be coming down to the studio sometime next week to talk with Mike about specifically what he wants with the theme, so that should be intense to meet someone with that much pull.

Over the last few days, I've been watching episodes of SVU, taking notes on Mike's style of writing, and his method. It's my job to start sounding like him in a very short time, so I've been picking up on all kinds of trends he does with the music and what instruments are used for what and so on. Also, at the studio, I've been taking notes on all the techniques the engineers are doing to make the music sound the way it does for the show. Mike said my job will be very difficult because he writes the music, and then Brandon tweaks it, and Dave mixes it. I have to do all three by myself. This is intentional on Mike's part in order for me to learn, but there's a lot to do.

So I put all that to the test tonight. The computer in the studio is working better now so I was able to go in by myself tonight and play around. First of all, it's quite a feeling to be the only one in a multi-million dollar studio and know that you can touch anything. But then once I sat down, it all started to feel familiar. When you simplify it all, my little home studio is exactly the same as theirs, but on a much much smaller scale. But how you write the music and what you do with it once it's in the computer is exactly the same. So I started to feel like I was back in my bedroom just writing music. Once I was in that state of mind, it was just a matter of learning the differences between their setup and mine, and I was off. It was so much fun to be in there and play. I can't wait until I get to start scoring the episode. They're giving me the one called 'Mask'. It aired this week and had Jeremy Irons as the guest star. Dave had it ready and waiting on the screen when I came in tonight so I watched a little of it. It's going to so interesting to score an episode of something that I didn't make, trying to fit a feeling that someone else came up with and try to sound like someone who I'm not. I'm ready for this challenge.

Tomorrow I may not go in at all. Brandon and Dave are just waiting for the final cut of the show to come in which may not happen until late in the afternoon, and then they're putting the last two cues into this new draft. It's all the same as today and even they said they won't be doing anything I haven't seen already. Lauren gets to Burbank at 6pm so I'll be waiting for her at the airport.

Okay so I wrote more than I said I would, but that's it. I promise. . . Until tomorrow.

Day 3: Getting the Hang of Things

Pretty small day today. Mike is away until monday but the SVU episode is due on friday. So here's what's going on. Mike already wrote all the music for the episode, but the show isn't finalized yet. We just got another draft of the show today, so much of the timing of the music is now off. To add to that, some scenes are being reshot, so even after we fix all the new changes, more are coming. Brandon and Dave told me depending on who is editing the episode, sometimes the show goes through one revision, sometimes five. What we discovered today was the first 2 cues (a cue is anytime there is a piece of music in a scene) will remain unchanged through to the final cut of the episode, so we mixed those and Brandon had to write a tiny 12 second third cue that was added last minute. Brandon steps in as the assistant composer when Mike isn't around.

When those changes were finished we broke for lunch and came back to then bounce the tracks we did. Bouncing is when you turn each cue into a finished audio file that can be sent to the studio for use. Then the guys showed me more on the mixing board and equipment. I was supposed to start going in to the studio beginning tonight but one of the computers is acting up, so until we solve that problem or until after this episode is finished, that has to wait.

I did find out that Mike did a score to the pilot episode of the show 'Castle' currently on FOX. Mike couldn't do the whole show so he recommended the current composer to the studio. I'm mentioning this because the guys are going to let me listen to that pilot with Mike's music. This will be such a cool experience to watch an episode of TV scored by two different composers to see how each interpreted the show in their own way. I'm really excited for that.

Other than that, not too much happened today with the computer trouble and all. On another note, this Friday, Lauren is going to come visit me for the weekend. It should be a lot of fun. I mentioned it to the guys at the studio and they told me that she is welcome to come in to the studio with me when I'm working this weekend. So now she can see the world I'll be living in for the next five weeks. I'm excited to bring her. They also told me that if I have any of my own projects that I'm working on right now, I'm welcome to use their gear for it. I was blown away when they told me that. I'll see if theres anything in my computer that I can possibly find to take advantage of that amazing offer.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow. If the computer is looking better, I get to start coming in on my own and figuring everything out!

Day 2: New Faces

This morning I woke up at 7:30am and did my usual breakfast routine. Around 8 I started walking over. When I got there, Dave and Brandon were already there setting up. Then Mike came in and picked up this beautiful Dobro baritone guitar and just started jamming with it. Then we talked soundtracks and what music I listen to (more soundtracks) and composers. It was intimidating because when I usually talk composers and music with people, they know enough to keep up the conversation, but Mike's actually worked with most of these people so what do I know?! But it was good and hearing what some of these composers are like in person is a really good insight into that world. Mike told me of some great films to watch so I could listen to the soundtracks and I'm excited to learn from them. Once the gear was running we recorded the last cues for the SVU episode.

Then John Yokum showed up. John Yokum is this ridiculous woodwinds player. He's done work for Michael Giaccino (Up, Lost) and plays in the band for Family Guy, American Dad, and The Simpsons. We were working on the new main title theme to Law and Order: LA. The producers of the show weren't completely happy with the demo that Mike sent them, so he was making some changes. We just got word yesterday that it needed work so Mike didn't have time to write any new music for John. Instead, because these people are so crazy good, Mike would listen to the recording, then sing over the intercom to John in the recording booth what he wanted played, and John would just play it. Just like that! I was blown away. Once the recording was done, John and Mike took off and we started to mix it all together into the final draft (unless the producers want any more changes).

We broke for lunch and Andy took me over to pick up my car. I got this great little Toyota Yaris. Perfect little city car. It's tiny, good on gas and very agile. I didn't plan on leaving the street I'm on for the next six weeks, but thanks to Mike's generosity, I get to explore California a bit. Lauren comes to visit me for the weekend on Friday, so maybe we'll check out Hollywood and see what we can find.

After lunch we got a visit from Matt Janszen, who won the Pete Carpenter Fellowship in 2008. He came just to hang with Mike for a while, but I did get a chance to talk with him. Matt was going to grad school for theater when he applied for the fellowship. He applied 3 times before getting in. When he did, he moved to LA and was working as a page for CBS studios. After the fellowship, Mike gave him some contacts which mike followed up on. He interviewed with a few composers, including Chris Beck. He heard nothing for a year. Then out of the blue, he was contacted by Chris who gave him a position as a composers assistant where Matt helped work on  the score to films like Red, Percy Jackson and Hangover 2. Matt said that it was all about making the contacts and following up. He said living in LA helped so he could easily get to interviews and stay where the work was, and it's paying off. He's not able to completely live of film composing yet, but he's off to an unbelievable start. So his help gave me a lot to think about. I need to think about whether I need to move to the west coast, and when. And I need to make sure I have some contacts to follow up on before I leave here. It was really great to meet Matt.

Before we left for the day, Brandon gave me the quick and dirty on how to operate the equipment in the studio. Tomorrow, I'm able to come in after hours and play around. He made a template on the computer for me so I can't screw anything up for them. Mike is gone for the rest of the week, so my job is to get to know the equipment and get comfortable. Mike wants me to make little cues and learn how their specific setup works, which is much more elaborate than anything I'm used to. If I'm comfortable by monday, then Mike will give me the episode I'm going to score. If that goes well, then we'll see what happens next...

Day 1: Drowning in Awesome

My God, where to start. I woke up and 7:30 this morning way before my alarm went off just buzzing with energy. Ate some breakfast and got dressed and doodled around online before it was time to start walking. So many things were running through my head as I headed for the studio. What would I be doing? What kind of impression will I make? Where will I go from here?

I got to the studio and got buzzed in. I was greeted by Andy, who is Mike's assistant. I was the first one there so far, so Andy gave me a tour and then I sat and waited for the rest of the crew to show up. The studio is beautiful. Great wood paneling and an open layout and very bright. The next person to show up was Dave. He's the sound engineer and does all the mixing and mastering for the shows that come through.  He introduced himself and asked if I was the new Pete Carpenter Fellow and then ran off to get all the gear turned on. Then this man came in and introduced himself and Randy. He could tell right away that I was the fellowship winner and then went on to tell me that he's the executive producer of Law and Order: SVU. So there that was. He was a real great guy. One of the ladies who worked there, Sandy came in and we all chatted for a little while, waiting for Mike. Then I met the assistant composer, Brandon who runs the virtual instrument computer and composes and designs some of the textures and drum patterns that Mike composes to during a show.

Then Mike Post arrives. He introduced himself and congratulated me and then we were whisked away. There was no time for chatting at that moment because Randy had to leave for another screening of something else he was working on, so I was thrown right in to the spotting process. We went into his scoring studio which was beautiful. For you techies out there, here's what I can remember:

2 Mac Pros networked together
2 PCs running all the servers
Yamaha and Genelec monitors
Samsung big screen and computer TVs.
A D Command mixing board
lots of physical virus boxes, amps, guitars and routing gear
The Mac was running Logic Pro 9 and the Mixing board had a PC attached running ProTools

So we watched the episode which was cool to see a real TV show before it's finished and mixed. Randy would simply tell Mike the start and stop (or 'in' and 'out') points for the music and Dave would write them down and programs those segments, called 'cues' into the mixing board. After that, Randy left. Then Mike turned to us and said "Let's get started" and they began scoring right then! Mike's been doing Law and Order for 20 years now, so he knows exactly what they want and how to do it, so many of the middle steps weren't taken on this show because it's all the same from past episodes and seasons. And then they just went. Mike would ask Brandon for a specific kind of underlying drum pattern which he would build from loop generators, virus generators (which are boxes which generate musical textures with repeating patterns) and drum kits. Then he would get out his guitar and record a track direct into the mix using virtual pedals, delays and amps. Most of it, he wasn't even playing the video while he recorded. He just knew it that well. Then he would lay down keyboards and synths and build each cue up part by part until it was done, and then move on to the next cue. By tomorrow morning the entire episode will be scored.

He told me the number one thing wasn't the key, or the instrumentation or the scoring, but it was tempo. He said all the actors speak with a tempo and the editor edits with a tempo even if they don't know they're doing it. He said that we need to tune in to that tempo and that's what makes a score click. So we played it again, and this time I wan't really watching the scene, but was feeling the rhythm and I must have been bouncing or moving to the scene so when we stopped, turns out Mike was watching me and said that I was moving to exactly the right rhythm. So we did a few more cues and then Mike took us out to lunch.

We went to the amazing upscale place and Mike treated us all. He told me what I should expect here. He said the first 10 days, I'll be drowning, just learning everything and absorbing. Then he'll start me writing. Later on, he'll send me to another composer for a week to learn from him. And then, if he's not busy, he's planning on sending me to one of Hanz Zimmer's assistant composers. It just keeps getting overwhelming like this and I love it! He said the people who get the most out of this fellowship are the ones who 'fuck up'. He said ' the more you fuck up, the more you'll learn.' He tells the people who come and just instantly write good music that they should be looking for jobs and not fellowships. So he said not to be afraid to screw things up, no matter how big. He's never had a fellowship winner who didn't go on and be successful (at least as far as I know). So he asked me how I'm getting around out here. I told him that he's right down the street from my apartment so I'm just walking. He said 'Oh that's no good. You won't see anything. We'll get you a car'. So they're renting me a car so I can get around!

Mike is such a stand up guy and takes care of everyone and is just so easy to hang out with. Everyone in the studio busts each others chops and goofs around but they're crazy professional and so much work still gets done so fast and so well,  it's incredible. Then he told me what I'll be doing.

So my homework for the next couple days is to watch a bunch of screener copies of Law and Order they gave me and learn Mike's style of writing for the show. The music is always minor and modal and never deviates from that. This is good for me, and he picked up on it telling me that I have a big sound and write story music, which is great and difficult but wouldn't work on this show. He says I need to learn how to write like him. He said it's also how you get jobs out here. You network through other composers and show that you can write music like them, and then show them your own voice. So after I watch these episodes, he's going to give me a recently aired episode without the music and I have to score it and try to make it sound like Mike Post without hearing what he did for that episode. Then I go from there. Depending on how I do, I'll get more challenging projects and could potentially write  a few cues for the show.

So if it wasn't crazy cool already, here's where it gets better. They gave me a key to the building and said I can come in by myself anytime after everyone's gone home because he wants to to use and learn all their equipment, so I get to use all of Mike Post's studio to score this episode! I don't even know what to think. So we called it a day around 5pm and then I got to go home and process. But I didn't get to process just yet.

Before I left, I found out a couple of interesting facts. First, it turns out over a thousand people applied for the fellowship. I had no idea it was that many, and out of all those songs submitted, Mike picked me. What boggles my mind about that is that I write music in a style that Mike doesn't. He's not huge on the story music, at least not for TV but saw my talent and gave me a shot. He asked mw my age, and when I said 23 he said that was perfect. He didn't elaborate, but it sure made me feel good. The last thing I found out is that I am the last Pete Carpenter Fellowship winner ever. After me, Mike is not doing the fellowship anymore. It's unclear right now if the fellowship will continue in a different form or with another composer, but I will be the last Pete Carpenter winner to ever work with Mike Post. I don't know what to say.

So tomorrow will be an early day, but I can't wait and all I can say is that this is better than I ever expected it would be.

The City of Angels

I've made it to my final destination for the next six weeks, and getting there was quite a challenge. I flew from Seattle to Salt Lake City and had only a 30 minute layover to get to my connecting flight. Someone left their cellphone in the terminal so we took off 15 minutes late. When we arrived in Utah, I had 10 minutes to run through 4 terminals to get to my plane, so I consider that my exercise for the day. After we landed in Burbank I took a taxi to my apartment. Turns out that the apartment is broken into two buildings more than a block from each other and the taxi driver took me to the wrong one. But I found a map and hoofed it to the second building. It's a very nice place here. Courtyard with a fish pond, nice area of town and a 3 room place all to myself. I unpacked and having not eaten all day went in search for food.

About two blocks down the street is a CVS where I picked up a new toothbrush and soap, etc. and then maybe a 3 minute walk from there is a supermarket. I picked up a few things for dinner (cranberry juice and mac and cheese). I checked Google Maps to see where I need to go on monday and it's only a mile walk in a straight line to get to Mike Post's studio. So now I'm here and there's only one full day left standing between me and all the things to come.

A Quick Little Addition

So tonight, Lauren, Ansel, Sarah and I went to dinner and saw Tangled again. Sarah hadn't seen it and I was looking for any excuse to see it again to listen to the music with the film. Sitting next to me was this little kid, maybe about 9 or 10 years old. At first he looked like he didn't want to see the film. He had a buzz cut and popular clothes on and didn't look the type to watch a Disney princess-type movie. There's this scene in the film where the characters end up in a market and there's this folk dance song going on that turns in to this huge dance scene and there's no dialogue and it's fantastic; definitely one of my favorite songs in the film. I look over during this scene and the kid is leaned forward out of his chair, bouncing to the rhythm of the song. It was such a cool moment seeing someone that young latch on to a film soundtrack in that way.

I had this fantasy of what it might be like someday to write music for a children's movie like that and to sit in the theater, listening to my music on a big screen and see a little kid bouncing to the music. It would be one of those things you would never forget. So soon I get on a plane and see if I can make that fantasy a reality.

Day Before LA

Tomorrow I get one step closer to the fellowship, which starts on Monday! For christmas my parents gave me money for new clothes. I wanted to buy some new outfits for this trip. Colleen, the secretary for Mike Post told me that it's extremely casual there, and not to stress the clothing, but I still wanted to get some nice clothes in the middle ground between business and casual. A friend of mine here in Seattle, Sarah, offered to help me find the right clothes because this is an area I know very little about. She and I went on a huge shopping spree across the city and I wound up with some great new outfits. I'm very excited about that.

So tomorrow my plane takes off for Burbank at 11:35am and I should be in my apartment by 5pm at the latest. I got all my confirmations about the room (sent to me by text message which I thought was funny) and I'm within walking distance of Mike Post Productions.

The exciting bit is that I got my final message from Colleen before meeting everyone in person. She told me that I should be there at 10am on Monday where Mike will be 'spotting' an upcoming episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Spotting is when the composer and creative people involved with the project decide where the music is going to be placed and what purpose it will have during the episode. So I'll be able to watch an episode of Law and Order long before it airs or has music and potentially be involved in some way with the music process of the show.

There's so little time left and I can't wait. Next time you hear from me, I'll be typing from Burbank, California.

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. Mine was pretty quiet. Lauren and I spent time with her family during the day, played some board games, and made a fort with her little sister. Then we went out for dinner and were thinking about going to the space needle, but decided it was too cold and driving back would be a nightmare so we stayed in. We went to a friend of the families for a little while, then stayed in, enjoyed some ice cream and cookies and watched the Dick Clark special.

I should also mention we went and saw Tangled in theaters, and what a wonderful movie that was. If Disney movies continue on this trend, we have some great films to look forward to. But if you look in the credits, the executive producer is John Lasseter who is responsible for making PIXAR what it is, so it's no wonder the film was good. And the music was spectacular. Alan Menken wrote the score, and after hearing it, it's no surprise he has more academy awards than any other person. So naturally when I got home, I bought the soundtrack right away, and now I need to write music for a living more than ever. Childrens music is where I want to end up. I feel you can write in any style, in any genre and any way you want. Kids movies are like huge sandboxes that you can make anything in musically, and that's such a cool concept to me. So, feeling invigorated again, I looked for any job listings that may exist for film composers anywhere so I have some options when this fellowship is over. I'm within walking distance of ABC, NBC and a Disney office, so I checked the websites under their careers and job listing page, and here's what I found out.

The film scoring community isn't just a closed community, it's like a secret society. The jobs don't exist. There's not even a music category on ANY of the websites. They don't want applications from composers. I imagine the reason is because there can be only one composer for a film or TV show so they don't want to drown in resumes from every single person who writes music. It's unlike any other position, where you require a team of people to get the job done, so it makes sense; it's just frustrating. I guess the director or creative people in charge of the projects want to choose from a list of known, good composers rather than risk having the soundtrack scored by someone they've never met or worked with before.

So more than anything else, I'm hoping I'll get some names and contacts from this fellowship. I hope that I can get information on who I can send my music and resume to or who I can attach myself to that will take me behind the closed doors of this secret society so I can play in this sandbox I've been dreaming about. I bought my plane ticket from Seattle to Burbank yesterday so I'm all good to go. Just one more week and I get to see what this is all about.