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.