A Lot Can Happen in a Month

Hello everyone! I finally have time to come up for air and write a blog post. I've missed you all. There's a lot to talk about and show you and I hope I don't leave anything out.

The last month has been a crazy one. I have been mostly locked inside my apartment working on the score for Barlowe Mann. I'm happy to say, as of last week, the score is finished. This project has been a pleasant challenge and quite a lot of fun to work on. The music is very different from my usual variety and I love doing new things, so this score has been a blast. This was a very tight timeframe, so burning the midnight oil was a must. Thankfully the deadline was met and the sound department is now hard at work mixing my music in with the dialogue and sound effects for the film. I'd like to take this opportunity to give you a sampling of some of the music from the film. I hope you like it.

Barlowe Mann Sample 1:



Barlowe Mann Sample 2:



Barlowe Mann Sample 3:



During the final weeks of working on Barlowe Mann, an opportunity came up that I absolutely had to make time for. When you go to a movie theater, before the previews there is usually a short ad for the theater you are in. "Welcome to ______ Cinemas" and it involves something like a roller coaster showing where you can buy popcorn and whatnot. I was asked to do music for a theater chain in Philadelphia for one of those videos. The video is this amazing and quirky little animation of a moviegoer getting thrown through all the different genres of movies before landing in his seat. The music is supposed to parallel the type of movie he is moving through. That kind of exposure was too good to pass up so I pulled a few all nighters and made a sample to send off. Last week I was emailed by the guy who asked me to try out, and he let me know that my piece was chosen to accompany the video! So in a few months, if you find yourself at a Hollywood Cinema in Philly, you'll be hearing my music before the movie starts. I'll post the music for it here, and once the final animation is finished, I'll be sure to put that up here as well.

Hollywood Cinemas Music:



It has been such an amazing month and everything really seems to be coming together. The strange thing for me has been adapting to these new jobs mentally. What I mean is this: My process and the way I've been writing my music hasn't changed at all since I got my first computer for music. My rig is still in my bedroom, and most days I'll wake up and write in my PJs (comfort is important when you're at your keyboard for 10 or more hours a day). But then this music gets put into a feature film bound for television, or into a theater, and I need to put on a suit and go to production meetings. It's as if part of my music life hasn't changed at all, and at the same time it is completely different. This became very apparent last saturday. Saturday was the premiere for my first film I scored, 3 Day Test. A red carpet event was held in LA at the Downtown Independent Theater. Cast, crew and guests were invited to see the finished film on the Big Screen.

I arrived early to pick up my ticket. It felt like any other movie ticket, but this is for a film I know very well.

Outside the theater was the red carpet, a ton of press and a photo wall for press shots.

Corbin giving an interview for a TV network

Primary Cast taking photos in front of the press wall

Lead actor George Newbern giving his interview

This was my first experience with press. Luckily, as this was my first film, nobody knew who I was, so I wasn't asked any questions . . . until the movie ended. We all make it into the theater, and before the film starts, the owner of our distributing company, Echolight Films makes a small speech about the film. Then Corbin took the stage to talk about what this film meant to him. During that time, he made sure to thank the cast and crew for their contribution to the film. But then he started talking about how he discovered this great,  young composer who wrote a soundtrack that sounded like it costed a million dollars. He made me stand up in the audience, and it was totally overwhelming. The gratitude he showed over my work was one of the best feelings I've ever had. He mentioned that he'll be using me for all his future films. After that, there was no hiding. We watched the film, and it got such a great reaction. It was such a great day. 

Afterwards there was a short reception. I was able to talk with the cast again and congratulate them on a job well done. Because of the wonderful words Corbin said about me, I was suddenly asked to be in pictures and did an interview for some network about my music for the film.

 The team behind the film told me that they will be filming their next movie in march and it's very likely I'll be asked to score that one as well. Things are really picking up. I also got to speak to the producer for Barlowe Mann who I had never met before. She told me that because Barlowe Mann tackles some very heavy topics, a lot of changes had to be made to the story of the film. She was worried the film would be hard to follow at that point, and she told me that after she had heard the music, it all came together. She went as far as to say my music saved the film. What a compliment! She's a screenwriter herself and said that if one of her films gets off the ground soon, she may contact me to score that one as well. It's amazing the kind of networking opportunities you get when you go to an event like this. 

So after this crazy event, I'm back at home and have a little downtime until my next big project. I never would have thought that within such a short time, I'd have two movies back to back with more to expect in the future. I'm so grateful for everything that has happened this month, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

IMDB

This will be a quick little update. After the wonderful news of having my first film available for purchase, I got another little surprise today as well. I went on IMDB today to show someone the film I'm currently working on, and discovered that I now have my own little page regarding my composing, and my films are now listed on it! It came a such a shock to see my name on a site that I frequent, and it's quite an honor. I'm including a link to the page now, where you can also see more information on the films. Stay tuned for the promised music update. It's coming soon!

Brenton Costa - IMDB

The 3 Day Test DVD is Out!

Hey everyone! An update is long overdue, and I promise that I will have a big music update soon. I am in the crunch period for the Barlowe Mann film, hence the long gap between posts. I'll be sure to make up for it in the upcoming days with some sneak peaks at the music for the movie. In the meantime, I was just given word that the DVDs for 3 Day Test have gone on sale and are available now! I'm so excited to celebrate the release of my first movie I've scored. Here's a link to the page on Amazon.

3 Day Test on Amazon

If you happen to find yourself with a copy of the film, I do hope you enjoy it, and I'll be sure to keep you all up to date with information on the TV release when I hear word. 

Meet Emma

A couple months ago I met a girl named Sarah Long. Sarah is a writer of the paranormal and science fiction and is exceptionally talented. She has embarked on a very similar adventure to mine. She is at the start of her journey to become a best-selling author, and from what I've seen so far, no one deserves it more than she.

I have the honor of being in the middle of reading an advance draft of her first novel, and within two days I find myself to be more than halfway through. Her characters leapt out at me and inspired me to realize them in music. Her lead character is a girl named Emma, growing up in Victorian England. Emma has a lot going on under the surface of her carefully controlled exterior so she makes for an excellent person to base music off of. First I created a piano draft of her theme to make sure I was on the right track with her sound.

Emma Piano



Sarah let me know that I really got her personality down in that piece, so I wanted to move forward. After a full day and sleepless night of writing, I had my final version of Emma's theme. Sarah's reaction to the music was one of the best I have ever had, so I hope you enjoy it as well.

Emma's Theme (Orchestral)



 You can read some of Sarah's short stories, as well as follow her progress towards publishing the novel here.

You can expect to hear more music based on her story soon, as I have an idea to bring back a long-dead idea that I sorely miss.

 PS - Thank you all for sticking with this blog as I celebrate my 100th post! I won't be stopping anytime soon, so onward towards 200!

Barlowe Mann

Last week I was given my second film to score for Corbin Bernsen. The film is called Barlowe Mann. It is the story of a young boy growing up in a very religious town. His family raises him to accept faith and God as the answer to life's questions, but science makes more sense to him. The movie follows his journey as he struggles to make sense of these two very different concepts, and he is aided by a strange man who arrives in town named Barlowe.

It's a very interesting film with a great message. Corbin wanted the music to almost serve as another character in the film, not always going along with the scene, but sometimes pushing the actors in one direction or another. Specifically, he wanted 3 distinct themes to represent the main areas of the film. One theme would be for Barlowe. His music should be mysterious and a little childish. The idea of faith should also have it's own theme. This would be comprised of mostly strings with long, warm tones. Basically it should feel like a blanket. And finally, the idea of science should have a theme. This one should sound more mathematical, cold and predictable.

As I began sketching ideas, I had a thought. The lead character struggles with these ideas throughout the movie, and different ones in different combinations tug at him all the time. I wondered if I could create 3 themes that work on their own, but when put together also create a coherent piece of music. I got to work and a day later, I had a working idea. I sent it to Corbin and he wrote me one of the nicest emails in response. My idea was a go, so I set to work. As of this moment I am a little over 10 minutes into the film, but I hope to get that number up after today. I'd like to show you all the theme ideas I came up with. I hope you enjoy!

Barlowe's Theme



Faith



Science



All Themes Together



Even more to come very soon!

The Christmas Spectacular Recording

Last week I had the honor of being invited to a recording at Capitol Records. Disney Tokyo is preparing their Christmas Spectacular show at Disney Seas, and Greg Smith, among other composers had been asked to write the music for the show. Greg invited me so I could see how a live orchestra recording is done, and to introduce me to some people who can help me get live players for my future film scores. The recording was to be broken up into two days. Day one would be percussion and rhythm section instruments, and day two would be strings, brass and woodwinds.

Early monday morning I made the drive up to Hollywood Boulevard to the capitol records building. I was signed in by the security, and it was in the parking lot that I was greeted with my first surprise.

For the two days that I would be there, I had my own parking spot. They sure did a great job of making me feel important. The building itself is such a cool place. 

After getting inside, I had to sign myself in, and I was given a badge as to what my role wold be during the recording. Notice the watermark in the background? After 24 hours, a watermark saying expired will appear so you can't get back in on a different day!

The recording studios are in the basement. So after a trip down a few long hallways, I found myself in Studio A. The room was beautiful. All of my dream gear was piled everywhere and all the engineers were getting ready for the days recordings. Greg was there, talking to some of the players. He brought me into the recording room, which was incredible. 

Inside the room was everyone who would be involved with the recording. The CEO, musical director and show director of Tokyo Disney were there. Running the show was Dan Savant, who will be the person I speak to whenever I want to use live players for a film. Mike (the man with the hat in the picture) runs the soundboard and positions all the mics, and he's an absolute genius. Just by listening, he can tell how many inches a mic needs to be moved for a better sound. He was so fast. The ProTools operator was Melissa, and I could not believe how quickly she can start a new session and process recordings. It seemed extra human. Standing in front of the soundboard is Dan Stamper. If it's music for Disney, it has to go through him. Apart from Greg, some of the other music for the show was being written by Don Harper, who was there, and two other composers who could not attend, so Don would be conducting their pieces. Being in a room full of live players, I knew that it would sound totally different than what I was used to with my digital rig, but I wasn't prepared for the full sound. It makes all the difference in the world. The emotion the players put in, and the little imperfections are what makes these things sound so good. It was amazing. Here are a few more shots from the day.

Brass are in the foreground. Strings are in the back, separated by a sound wall.

Brass section seen through the recording room window. 

Greg conducting his pieces. 

What can I say about the two days? It was such a great experience and I learned so much. Greg and I spoke on the phone a week after to discuss how the event was for me. He sent me the finished recordings from the session, and it's amazing to hear the difference. After these raw recordings were processed, they were sent to Disney in Florida where the choirs were waiting. All the vocals were recorded there and the whole thing was mixed there. Hearing a piece of music after being there and seeing it made was very cool. There's so much more to hear because you're on the lookout for things you saw or heard during the session.  The next thing Greg wants do is to get me on to one of the big sound stages, either at Warner Brothers or Sony so I can see a film score get recorded to see how it's different. I don't think I'll be complaining about that one. He's also going to start sending some work my way pretty soon, so I can't wait for that. Needless to say, these were a couple of days I'll never forget. I have much more news, but I want to break the posts up, so check back in soon, and there will be more to read....and hear.

Greg Smith

On Friday I had my meeting with Greg Smith up in northern California. This meeting has been in the making since last October when I was given his number from the folks at HiFi, the commercial house I freelanced for. The purpose of this meeting was to share music with each other and for him to explain how the recording at the end of the month would go.

Greg lives in a beautiful part of the state in an amazing house. His studio is part of the house, but only accessible from the outside. I think it's a really nice little way to keep his work like and home life separate, but not far away from each other. We met in the morning and sat in his studio to talk. The first thing I noticed was he had a poster of a show that happened at the Schubert Theater in Connecticut. I asked him about it and he told me that it was the first show that he ever wrote for a live orchestra. Small world right?

Greg asked me to bring my music with me so we could have a show and tell sort of day. He asked me what I had been up to since we last spoke, so I told him about 3 Day Test. He was very impressed that in the six weeks it had been since we spoke I had completed an entire film score. He really enjoyed the music, and it turns out the work he is finishing for Disney is for the Tokyo Disney Christmas Show, so we had a lot to talk about. He said that my music for the film sounded very realistic, fit the movie very well and hit the emotional spots very well. It made me so happy to get so many compliments from a Disney composer. I told him that Corbin wants me to do more of his films and wants to try to incorporate a live orchestra, and Greg was very excited. He said he'd love to help in any way possible. He's going to introduce me to his music mixer, as well as his Music Preparation Supervisor. The latter is the most interesting. Greg explained that his music preparation supervisor will help me find out how many players I can afford, help hire them, and book the location and the recording artists - pretty much all the things I don't know how to do. I'm beyond excited to be making those kinds of connections.

He said I also need to get in touch with my Film and TV Relations agent at BMI (how weird is that that I need to call an agent?) to help me register all the cues I did for the film. Also he said I need to affiliate myself as my own publisher because I own the rights to the soundtrack, I'm entitled to double the residuals from any TV airings and DVD sales. Without Greg, I'd have no idea about any of this, and I'm so grateful he's willing to be so helpful.

After that we started talking about the recording. On the 24th, we will record just the percussion, and on the 25th we will have the rest of the orchestra come in. It will be recorded in 2 parts though. There are going to be about 41 players total that day, and the brass will be overpowering in the small recording room. So, the brass will be recorded separate, and then strings and woodwinds will come in so the mixers can balance properly. Greg asked me what kind of experience I had with live orchestras and sheet music. I have next to no experience in that area, and every time I would tell him that, I expected for him to be disappointed, or tell me he wished I knew more, but instead this was his reaction: "Wow Brenton, there's so much I can teach you." That was his attitude! How did I meet this guy!? He told me that he wants to start throwing some work my way. Sometimes it may be for a stage show, and sometimes it may be a Disney commercial you see on TV or for the fireworks in the parks. He's still figuring out what help means so it will be intermittent work to start, but I just got hired by a Disney composer! I am yet another step closer to my dream of writing for the films. I can't believe all this is happening so fast.

As a funny side note, remember I tried out for the Brave toy commercials and ended up not getting picked for it? Turns out I lost to Greg. Go figure, but his music was fantastic for it. It's just funny to know that he's the guy I lost to. So the meeting with him was better than I ever could have hoped for. In the days since, I've been laying low and recovering from the intense but amazing experience of writing for 3 Day Test. I just heard Corbin's Studio today that they want to start discussing their next film, called Barlowe Mann. So it appears that I'll be back in the fray in no time. Now I'm just hoping Apple comes out with new iMacs in the next few weeks so I can upgrade my rig before the film starts. Until next time!

Capitol Studio A

Barring any emergencies, as of last night, the music for The 3 Day Test is officially done. We had one little problem that I needed to fix late last night, but now it's really done. The issue we encountered was in the film we have a scene where the team really wanted me to do a spin on Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I wrote that cue and they were very happy with it. Come to find out that song is not public domain, so we'd need to shell out a lot of money if we wanted to use it. Instead of doing that, I decided to do a rewrite.

Normally a complete rewrite of a cue would take a lot of time, as I'd need to figure out timings for a completely new piece of music. What I did instead was keep the piece exactly the same and simply remove the instruments playing the recognizable melody of Santa Claus is Coming. I kept all the chord material exactly the same and just wrote a new melody and dropped it into place. that way the piece is almost identical, just not a song we'd have to pay for anymore. This saved a lot of headaches, as I was able to get a new piece off quickly, and all the levels the sound guys already did on the last piece will still work on this new one. It was a lucky break. So now it's done. As promised, I'd like to release another cue from the film. This cue is the perfect example of why I love the family genre of music. In one film, you may write a sentimental, full orchestra arrangement, then 5 minutes later be writing a chase scene, or a fight scene, and then a comedic scene. Family movies are all over the place emotionally, and the music needs to reflect that, but still fit with each other. The piece is called Always Be Prepared (or it will be once the CD is ready) and it's near the end of the film. This is one of the final confrontations between the main characters. The music goes all over the place because it very tightly follows the scene. Hope you enjoy.

Always Be Prepared



In other news Greg Smith sent me an email the other day as well. He and I will be meeting on September 7th. We'll be sharing our music with each other and talking about what the recording session he invited me to will be like. The recording will take place September 24th and 25th, and it will have a live orchestra that is preparing a new song for Disney Tokyo. The recording itself will be at the famous Capitol Studio A at the Capitol Records building. Here's the building.

I absolutely cannot wait to get in there and see how it's done for real. It will also be a great lesson on how I'll need to go about preparing for using a live orchestra if we get a budget for it on Corbin's next film. 

Well now that the film is out of my hands, it's just a waiting game until I find out release information. So check back in from time to time, and I'll be sure to let you know when I find out!

End Credits

Hey everyone. Thought I'd give you a sneak peak at some of the music for 3 Day Test. As of today, all the music is finished. About 5 minutes ago I just sent off the opening credits. Originally, we were going to use a source cue (not my music) to open the film, but last minute the team changed their mind, which is why I wrote the opening music last. At first, they asked for sentimental and slow, so I wrote a piece of music that I liked a lot. Things shifted a bit this afternoon, and they instead told me to write a new piece of Jingle Bells that sounded like something you were hear on the radio in the 50s and 60s. I just finished writing that piece, but I was left with this nice and slow Christmas tune and nowhere to put it.

Well, the end credits haven't been finished yet, so I haven't yet written that music. It's funny how things move around in a film, because the first montage song that I already posted is now going to be the beginning of the end credits, and the original opening credits piece I wrote this morning is now going to wrap up the film. Confusing, right? Hope I've got it all straight.

This (now) end credits song was a fun one to write. The overarching melody is something original I came up with, and has sprinkles of the theme of the film thrown in it. But I also included bits of as many Christmas songs as I could fit into it, making a very interesting sounding song. See if you can pick them all out. I hope you enjoy it.


3 Day Test End Credits

Can There Be An Upward Spiral?

Tuesday I went to a meeting with Corbin to discuss the remainder of notes he had for the film. He likes to do things in person, and frankly so do I because a lot of creative direction can be lost when you only communicate over emails. Driving up I was nervous and pessimistic because in his email asking if we could meet that day, he told me he had a lot of notes for me, so I was under the impression that I had done a lot wrong.

When I arrived I was told that Corbin was going to be a bit late because he was at an ADR session at another studio. ADR stands for Additional Dialogue Recording. Sometimes during a film there's a lot of noise on set, or the microphones didn't get a good recording of a scene, so the actors will come in later on and re-record their vocals. That's what was happening that day. So I hung around the studio for a while. Home Theater Films is a really cool place. It's full of props and photos from Corbin's films as well as other shows or movies he's been in. After a bit, Corbin arrived and we got started.

As it turned out there were far fewer notes than I had thought, and many of them were really minor. This being a family comedy, there are a lot of specific moments that Corbin really wanted to highlight. Those highlights are called stingers. On quite a few of the notes, he told me to keep the music as is, and just add a few stingers to certain moments of the scene. There were only two big areas that needed a lot of work. The first section was an area where I was asked to write my own version of some music from the Nutcracker Suite. Corbin used two pieces from the Nutcracker in the film that I had to create and he originally wanted me to change it up a little bit. He was very happy with the music I came up with but the problem was the scene the songs go in was edited to a specific recording of that song, so while my version is very close, they really wanted it to match that temp version they used. It's going to be a bit of a rewrite, but the music is all there, so I'm not terribly concerned about it. The second big section is regarding the ramp up to the end. You may remember a few posts ago I added a song that I described as the montage of when the family comes together for the first time, so I wrote this sentimental, upbeat sort of tune. The vision for that scene has changed a bit. The second half of the film has a bit of a Home Alone vibe and so this scene in which I wrote the music as sentimental, Corbin now wants more of a preparing for battle kind of song, so a bit more driving and aggressive. The good news is that Corbin liked the song I wrote so much that he wants to use it for the end credits, so the work on it has not gone to waste. Other than that, the only other changes he wants are for me to extend music further into scenes because it works well in that scene. I can't complain about being asked to write more music, so everything seems pretty good there. Now all I need to do is become a model of quality and efficiency because on Monday the 20th, everything needs to be completed. That means all the music needs to be finished, all the changes need to be approved and all the music needs to be mixed and sent off in two days.

After the meeting about the cues, Corbin and I spent some time talking about music in general and future projects. Here's something you should know about me: I'm terrible at taking compliments. I always have been. Corbin was telling me how much he liked the sound of this film and asked me how much it would cost to get a live orchestra to record future soundtracks. I told him that with this being my first real feature, I have no knowledge of the live recording realm. He asked me to do some research on it so that on future films we could use a live orchestra! I told him I would because I'd love to do more projects with him, and here's what he told me. "We love your music so we'll have you keep doing our films until we can't afford you anymore". This man has more years of film experience than I've been alive so I'm not great at thinking these moments in my life are real. Corbin said he thinks I'll be big faster than I imagine it will take. This is already a bit much to consider. In the composing world, you so often need to pay your dues, and work as an assistant to another composer for years before you start getting your own films. You also hear advice that you want to get a director to "buy into you" so you start doing all their films. I seem to have jumped a few steps here (maybe I blacked out) because based on our last meeting, it looks like I'll be doing many future films for Corbin, and we'll try to get live orchestras to record them. Needless to say I'm a bit overwhelmed by all this.

After that bombshell, Corbin told me that there's another film that he wants me to take a look at. It's already been filmed so they're close to the scoring stage. He said this film is very important to him because he wants the music to actually be like a character in the film, so it has its own agenda rather than always following what's going on in the scene. He showed me a few minutes from the film and it looks fascinating. I'd love to get my hands on this project.

So that's where I am now. I have a lot of work to cram into the next few days to finish this soundtrack, then building and testing a completely new music rig that I'll be creating with the paycheck from this film. After that I'll be researching what it takes to record a soundtrack with live players. Late in September I'll be accompanying Greg Smith to a recording of an orchestra for Disney Tokyo so I'll be able to ask him the costs associated with it. Then I guess I'll be preparing for this next movie. When did I get so busy, and how did this happen?

Well it's off to work for me. Wish me luck to hit the deadline, and check back in next week as I may have some music from the film up on the site. Happy weekend everyone!

The Cameo

Work on this movie has been amazing. As of this moment, I have about ten minutes of music left to write before I find myself at the end of the film. That in no way means I'm done, but I'm getting super close. So what's next after the end of the film? Well the studio is still putting together the opening of the movie, so when they finish, I'll have however many minutes of opening titles to write. That should be an easy, fun thing to do though because all the theme music is already written so it's just a matter of introducing the themes I use later on in the beginning of the film. Then there are the production credits: the scrolling credits found at the end of the movie. Again those will be easy. There's something that I've found I like to do during the end credits that I hope to include in this film if I have time so be on the lookout for it when the movie comes out. I enjoy to retell the entire story through music during the credits, so I'll write tiny snippets of the iconic music from different parts of the film and string them together to tell the story again in miniature. I have no idea if I'll have time to do that, but I hope so. It's always fun.

But even after all that, I'm still not done. Every cue I write needs to get sent in to the production team to get approved. Then it's up to the director to determine if he wants any changes to the cues. So far, I've only received minor notes and they are really pleased with the music (and with the sort of deadline we have, that's a good thing). Once the cue is approved, I need to go back and mix the whole track. As of right now, when I write, I'm just putting all the notes down, meaning what is each instrument in the orchestra playing. I'm playing all this into the keyboard as I watch the film, and sometimes my timing isn't precise. So I need to go back and fix all the timing errors, and then mix all the volumes for each instrument as well as add my reverb (the sound of the 'room' we're in) and any other effects I need on the track. Only then is a cue truly done. Movies and TV need cues in a different format however than something you would buy on iTunes does. When you buy a song off iTunes, you get a finished, single file that you can play on your computer or burn to a CD, so when you click on the name, it starts playing. That file has also been 'mastered'. What mastering is, is once the finished piece of music is ready, the volumes and sound gets adjusted again so that it sounds good on every set of speakers you may play it on, and isn't too quiet, as orchestral music recordings usually are. For this project, I am not mastering the files. The sound department will be doing that so that it specifically fits within the film. If I want to release this soundtrack on iTunes (which I do) then I'll have to master it myself after the film is over. The other difference is I am giving the music to the team in stems. Here's what a stem is. Your iTunes song is one file you click play to and it plays. For a movie, I need to break the segments of the orchestra up into separate files. Meaning one file for the strings, percussion, brass and woodwinds, and sometimes solo instruments or special sound effects. This way, the sound department can adjust those sections of the orchestra themselves after I've finished the music in case the string section in one section is too loud and covers up the dialogue in a scene, they can still make that change without needing me to resend a cue with those changes. So that's my little lesson for today. On to more storytelling!

So two weeks ago I get an email from one of the producers asking me what I'm doing last saturday, the 28th. I always have those days off so I was free. They told me that they had a reshoot scheduled and that I was invited to the set to meet the cast and crew! They also told me to bring a winter coat because I was also invited to be an extra in the scene. This was totally unexpected and exciting so of course I agreed. Saturday morning I woke up at 5am to start driving to Burbank for call at 7am. This was a crew call. I arrived at a little church and met all the crew who had just started setting up for the shoot. This was to be a quick thing with no dialogue. It'll be the very last scene in the film. I told them that I had a bit of production experience so I was able to help set up lights and help out wherever else I was needed. The actors also had to do an EPK interview that morning. EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit. It's basically a behind the scenes that will be used as a DVD extra as well as for promotional purposes. I was asked to be a stand in to make sure the camera was sound gear was tuned properly, but then the producer said "Wait, you're the composer. Why don't you do an interview for EPK too." So I did an interview for the behind the scenes about my involvement in the project, where my inspiration for the soundtrack comes from and what this experience has been like for me. Yet another unexpected perk of showing up. The actors came a bit later for hair and makeup and I was able to meet all of them. Everyone was extremely nice, very professional and easy to talk to. Filming had been done for months, so this last reshoot was like a reunion for everyone, and they were all happy to 'get the family back together' another day. Soon after, Corbin arrived to oversee the rest of setup. As I was walking around the set, I heard some of my music playing, and I walked into the green room to find Corbin playing one of the scenes I scored for the actors. None of the cast or production crew have seen the film yet, so they were very excited to get a look at it. All the extras came last and we moved into the church. Corbin started placing everyone into the scene, and he actually placed me right next to the lead family, so I'm sitting next to the little girl who plays a character named Jesse in the film. I was very honored to get placed there. They filmed the scene a number of times which was very fun to be a part in. Usually the film is already done by the time the composer is involved, so it's a rare treat to get a chance to go on set.

After the main filming, Corbin had an idea for an alternate version of that scene where the little girl sings in a choir. He had some B-Roll (B-roll is footage shot that's not involving the main cast or crew, like scenes of a crowd or a shot of a building) of a children's choir singing Silent Night, so he wanted to play that scene on his computer and have Jesse sing to it. Problem is his computer ran out of battery and he didn't have a charger. But I remembered the tempo and key of the song the first time he played it, and the church had a piano, so I offered to play silent night so they could still get the shot. So that's what I did. The scene came out really great in the end. I still haven't scene the finished version yet, but I'm excited for it. After that we wrapped, and that was the day. On the way out, the lead actors who play the mom and dad came over and thanked me for doing the music and said that what they heard was very impressive. I told them that their acting made my job very easy, and I hope we'll all be able to see each other again for the premiere. I came home and slept happily for the rest of the afternoon. Being on set that day was such a fantastic experience, and definitely inspired me for this last leg of writing I'm on.

I'd to leave you all with a little something as a reward for getting through this long post. Here's a sneak peak of one of the cues for the film. This piece of music accompanies a montage where the family comes together and works as a team. Keep in mind this is a currently unapproved cue, so what you hear may not make it exactly as is it into the final film. Also, the timing errors haven't been corrected yet and none of the volumes have been adjusted. This makes it simple for me to make changes if they request any, so what you'll be hearing, even if approved still won't sound the same once it's truly finished, but you'll get a good idea of what this movie sounds like. Hope you enjoy!

3 Day Test Montage Cue

Sirius Black and the Secret Keeper

Hey everyone. The website for Sirius Black and the Secret Keeper just went live. You can see Part One now. More to come soon.

Part One

The 3 Day Test

In my last post I mentioned that I had some big news. Well here we go. Thanks to Brandon and Mike Post, I was asked to score my first real feature film. On the phone, Brandon made it sound as if it was a very small film, and I guess when you work on Law and Order every day, it might very well be. But to me, who's just getting started, few things are small. On friday I was invited to their studio to talk about terms and spot the film. Remember, spotting is when you watch the film with the director and those involved in music decisions to determine where music should be in the film and what its purpose is. Their studio is located in (go figure) Studio City, which is right outside of Burbank where I did my fellowship. On my drive up it was nice to see familiar places I had been during my time with Mike, and I passed the Disney studios again which always makes me happy. Someday...

When I arrived at the studio, I was greeted by Jim, the producer who I had been speaking with on the phone, Chris the editor and Corbin, our writer/director. The studio was beautiful and it felt fantastic to be back in that environment again. Corbin had to finish up a few things before getting started so I was able to chat with Jim a bit and hear about the project. The first person to arrive was Chris and he wanted to go over terms. Here's where I start to get surprised. The first thing he told me is that I would maintain ownership of all my music. Here's what that means. Usually when music is written for a film, that music is then owned by the production company so only they can say when and where it can be used and make money off of it. If I own that music, it means that I can still post it wherever I'd like, and I would make a small cut every time the DVD is sold or if the film were ever to air on TV. Speaking about TV, I was now told that this film is scheduled to air on TV in november! I don't know which network yet, but you can be sure I'll tell everyone as soon as I do. So I'm already ecstatic. I'm wondering why did Brandon say this was low budget. He gave me a number for the budget of the film, and that number seemed too low for the scale of this project. It turned out that the number Brandon gave me for the budget of the film was the budget for the music - meaning my paycheck. Fully in shock, the meeting continued.

Corbin, the writer and director for the film was last to arrive, and he is such an amazing person. Extremely nice, easy to talk to and immediately puts you at ease as soon as you're in the room. He asked me questions about my music style and if the proposed deadline of August 20 is something I can hit. It's going to be tight, but I think I can handle it. I shouldn't say think. This is my big shot, and I will blow this one away. The whole time I'm talking to Corbin, I think that he looks so familiar and I can't put a finger on it. It wouldn't be until the next day that I figure it out, and that's a good thing, but I'll get to that. From there we went into the editing room where I sat down with Corbin and Chris, the editor to watch the film and make cue notes. They had already temped the film with music that fit very well and that will help me a lot with such a tight deadline.

Corbin and Chris wanted my input as well and told me to let them know if I thought anything should be changed or if music could be different. I felt very comfortable so I was very honest about where I thought things should go and they were very respectful of my input. They were surprised by my age, but that was not a barrier for them like it can be with other people, and that was one of the best feelings I could have. After spotting, we talked for a bit to get to know each other and I went home to get started.

The next day it all got crazy. I'm on my lunch break at the Apple store where we have a bunch of computers to do whatever we'd like or watch TV. I'm in the middle of the show Psych and the dad of the main character is on the screen, and it's my director! That's why he looked so familiar. The Corbin that I'm working for is Corbin Bernsen, who has appeared consistently in major TV shows for the last 30 years. Here is the IMDB page for Corbin as well as the page for The 3 Day Test, the film I'm working on.

Corbin Bernsen

3 Day Test

Many of the other actors in the film have pretty impressive track records as well and I'm beyond honored to even be a part of the film, let alone write all the music for it. This is a dream come true. After seeing who it is I'm actually working for, it's a good thing I didn't know all this going in or else nerves may have gotten the better of me! So as of today, I have just under 5 weeks to score a feature film so I'd better stop writing here and get started! But I'll be sure to write about my progress and maybe give some inside peeks into the music.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

When I started this blog, I had no idea how long I would keep it up or what it would be like if I did.  What started out as a record of my Pete Carpenter Fellowship turned into a story of my quest to follow my dreams of writing music for films. As much as I can I try to add in little technical bits of how I put things together, what I'm learning and the people I'm meeting along the way. The dream is only a tiny piece of the whole story. How I get there and the successes and failures along the way are just as important as the end goal itself. My hope is that if anyone ever reads this blog someday who shares in the same dream, that my words can help out in some way and paint an accurate picture of what a journey like this really entails. Following a dream is hard to do, and the path isn't always a pretty one, and I feel as though I left some parts out by neglecting to describe the difficult moments. While hard to write an read about, they are just as influential as my successes, so I want to include them now. But before I do, I should explain what happened that brought me to this decision.

In my last post I filled you in on just about everything that had happened during my blog hiatus. I was fortunate enough to find a passionate group of guys who wanted to include me on their project with 'Sirius Black and the Secret Keeper' and I finally arranged for my meeting with Greg Smith. Well a couple days after that I'm at work and I notice that I have a voicemail waiting for me. During my break I had a chance to listen and it was a call from Brandon, Mike Post's assistant composer. He and I haven't had a chance to speak in months so I was surprised to hear from him. He explained to me that Mike had been asked to score a Christmas, family oriented feature film. The film is semi-low budget but has distribution so exposure is high. Mike ended up being very busy and is in the process of retiring so he was unable to do the film. The director asked if there was anyone they recommended and they said me! I called Brandon back as soon as I could and he told me they were looking for someone who could write family-based orchestral music. Specifically for this score they were looking for a Home Alone meets Mrs. Doubtfire sound. Well guess who's dream fits perfectly into that movie?

Later that day I was called by the producer and director to discuss my potential involvement in the film. They described the movie which sounded fantastic, sent me a digital copy of the unfinished film and asked if I could send them some of my work. I watched the film first and got sucked in almost immediately. The acting and cinematography is fantastic and the characters are believable and relatable. So I pulled together some of my family music and emailed it off. I got a response within a couple hours saying that some of tracks I sent were spot on the sound they were looking for. We scheduled a phone meeting for monday to discuss it further. This whole situation isn't really sinking in yet that my name is being thrown around a bit and people are considering me for real projects now. I can't wait to see how this meeting goes. By the time this blog goes live, I'll have already had the meeting, so read on, and see how it went!

Five weeks ago here I was, living in a new place, wondering if I was ever going to get noticed or get a job in music. Why was I thinking this? Well at that time I had no commercials to work on, no prospects and I had exhausted all my contacts. I was treading water at that point. Now all of the sudden I have an episodic fantasy series, a short film and a potential family feature to work on. What happened? Well, this is where I feel I should talk about the fact that dreams are hard to get to. It's probably why they're called dreams and we want them so bad, because they're not handed to us, otherwise we'd take them for granted and they wouldn't mean as much. That said, I want to respect the hardships and talk about them a little bit, because I believe that had a hand in leading me here.

Before I moved out here, I had a very pretty but naive view of how things would go. I would trek across America to the land where movies are made and use the contacts I established through the fellowship to get a music job within a few months. I had already learned about myself that the place I'm living isn't important so I felt the transition would be easy. At first it was. Everything was so new and exciting and life was good.

But eventually that new car smell wore off and I needed to figure out what I was going to do out here. After about 3 months, I had met with quite a few composers and emailed far more, but nothing was panning out. I had to resort to plan B and get a job to pay the bills. Right around this time (I think it was about December) things started to change. It was wrong of me to assume that I wouldn't have a transition period; creating a new life for myself and leaving a life I had known for 23 years behind. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was depressed, and the person that I was in Connecticut 'fell asleep' for a while as I protected myself from all the changes that were happening, and preparing for what would be a long haul before anything regarding music happened. It was admittedly one of the darker periods of my life and it very much had an effect on those around me. It would take some months and more bad news before things turned around. Nearing the end of spring, things took their worst turn. Some major events took place in my personal life as well as finding out that I would need to find a new place to live with very little notice. I had lived a very stable and safe life up until that point so it is safe to say that this was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Now with nothing familiar and completely on my own, I had to figure out what to do. My entire support system and those who care about me were 3000 miles away and I knew I had people who were there for me, but I still felt very alone. At my lowest point, I had to turn things around. Step one was using those intense emotions to my advantage and write a piece of music that I could pour all that into. That's where my song 'Goodbye' came from. From there I was determined to get music back into my life because during that dark period for me, I was writing very little as my heart wasn't in it. I started to write again and began reconnecting with all my music contacts I had out here. It took a couple months but eventually I started hearing back from people. All of the sudden I had my phone meeting with Greg Smith, I was getting commercials, the Harry Potter film, and eventually the feature film. It's as if life was waiting for me to recover from all the negative things that took place and then threw all these opportunities at me all at once.

So here I am. It feels like after coming out the other side of all this, I'm at the beginning I envisioned for myself when I first moved out here. For those of you in my life who stuck with me through the darkest period in my life so far, you have my deepest thanks. From the bottom of my heart thank you. To support someone while they're at their worst, lift them up and love them even though they can't return it at that moment is a true gift, and it saved my life. Because eventually all bad times come to an end, and now that I feel awake and like myself again, it's time for me to give back. As my career in music seems to finally be starting, know that everything I write is for you all, for those of you who believed in me from the start.

At the moment that I finish this post, I have big news for you, but that will have to wait until my next post. Expect another entry in a few days!

As Long as There's Movement (And Harry Potter)

It's not okay how long it's been since I've updated the blog so I'm fixing that today. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to begin writing, but life always seems to have a way of interrupting the normal flow of things. The period of time between Easter and now has been full of so many stories, where do I even begin?

Leading up to my last blog post, I was working on music that I was submitting to the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. I had finished my five entry pieces and submitted them for review. I was told that sometime in May we would receive word either way on whether or not we were accepted into the workshop. Well on May 25th, word finally came in. Unfortunately my work was not accepted into the workshop. This is the letter I received.

Dear Composer:

Thank you very much for your recent application to the 2012 ASCAP
Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis.

Each year the quality of submissions has increased dramatically among
the several hundred we receive, thereby making it more difficult to
select the final twelve participants. Your submission was reviewed by
qualified professionals, including some of the top composers in film
and television. Unfortunately this year, we regret that we cannot
invite you to attend this year’s workshop. However, we strongly
encourage you to apply again next year and thank you for your
interest.


Even though you prepare for this outcome whenever you enter any sort of competition, it's never easy to be rejected from anything. I feel this was important though. To be honest, I've never been rejected from anything big regarding music yet. Strangely I just happen to apply to various things knowing full well I have no chance (like the Pete Carpenter Fellowship) and then I get accepted. I remember one of my posts very near the beginning of this blog I mentioned that it's a nice feeling when all you hear are praises of your work, but it's the criticisms that force you to adapt, grow and push yourself into areas that maybe you never would have ventured had everyone always told you that what you're doing is great and never to change it. So looking at this now, I feel good about the situation, but it's safe to say that like any other rejection, I wasn't feeling so hot after getting the news. It's a big part of why I stopped writing for a few weeks. At that time I felt like I needed to justify myself as a composer again. Even though it's irrational, rejection makes you wonder if you're really good enough, and if you really have what it takes to make it. 


So I spent the next few weeks trying to get back into the spirit of writing, which was a challenge in and of itself. I had been holding off calling or emailing composers because of the ASCAP event just in case they wanted to meet during the time I'd be at the workshop if I had won. Now that that time is no longer in question, I have started messages all my contacts again. A piece of advice that I was given during my visit with Chris Beck was that I need to be persistent while making calls. He said (and he meant this with no offense) that I'm forgettable. What he meant is the fact that the people I'm trying to get in touch with have full careers and very busy schedules so chances are they're not going to remember the one guy trying to break into the industry. I need to remind them, so it's not considered rude to be persistent. With that I began sending emails and making calls again. During that time, I did get another email out of the blue from Robert Kral asking me which music software I was familiar with. Robert emails me from time to time asking me questions like that, so I'm hoping he's slowly doing some research on me. I also heard back from Adam Berry who would like to schedule a phone meeting middle of August to discuss music and my path through the industry. After hearing back from some people, I was beginning to feel more inspired to get back into my writing swing. 


A while back I mentioned a project that I was starting just for fun with an illustrator I met through Apple. We wanted to make a spoof off of Star Trek and combining that with Apple. We met a few times and I came up with a potential Main Title theme to that project. I wanted to make it sound very cliche and a bit old school as this is a spoof at the end of the day. I still may make some adjustments on it at some point, but here is the main title to Apple Trek:


Apple Trek Main Titles



Early in June I was asked to demo some music for a potential Nike Commercial that was being made providing the Thunder won the playoffs. The music was to start off soft and kind of ironic to what was happening on screen, and moving into a more intense feel towards the end. Sadly the Thunder did not win so that commercial will not be aired. I was pretty happy with those tracks so here are the 3 versions I did for Nike:

Nike Thunder 1



Nike Thunder 2



Nike Thunder 3



Later that month was my birthday. I turned 25 on June 23 and as a gift my parents got me tickets to come home to Connecticut for a week. I hadn't been since I moved out so I was beyond excited for the chance to see everyone again. The week went by faster than I thought but I was able to reconnect with all my close friends and family and had an absolute blast.

You may remember a few months back I mentioned that I wrote a demo Harry Potter track for a group of guys making a short film in the Harry Potter universe. That film is finally ready for scoring and I have been asked officially to do the music for it. The project is an episodic series following Sirius Black during the years James and Lilly Potter are still alive. Episode One is called Sirius Black and the Secret Keeper.

 Here is the official synopsis of the episode.

"The Death Eaters are closing in and The Order of the Phoenix are fighting on the losing side of the first Wizarding war. Lord Voldemort will stop at nothing to capture James and Lily Potter who are in hiding with their newborn son, Harry. A life changing fatal mistake is made when Sirius Black over hears the prophecy from his deranged cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange and suggests to his best friend James Potter changes their secret keeper, forever twisting the fabric of wizarding history."


A selection from the first episode will debut at the Ascendio Harry Potter Convention in Orlando Florida this month. I'm very excited to be working on this project. This is a very dark series so I'm being asked to write some very disturbing and dramatic music for the series which I don't often get a chance to write so I feel very honored to be included on a long term series like this. 


Composers don't often get a lot of time to work on film scores. Usually on a major film, a release date is chosen before the film is even made. A composer can't score to picture until everything has been filmed and edited, so they are the last ones to work on a film. This project is the same in that the finished video must be submitted by July 10th and the picture was just locked a couple days ago, so I have about 10 days to do the score for this episode. This will serve as a great learning experience and simulate the kind of deadlines a real working composer is under during a project. But then again, this is a real project, so it's really not a simulation but an actual job! We are previewing the first seven minutes of the film for Ascendio and I have about five minutes sketched out so far. Everything is extremely rough at this point and nothing has been mixed, but I'd like to give you all a sneak peak at a portion of the score. This segment is part of a scene where Sirius is about to attempt a rescue of two members of the Order of the Phoenix. Enjoy!


Sneak Peak of Sirius Black and the Secret Keeper


I've been waiting for so long to finally have an opportunity to do a dramatic, high intensity score so I've been pouring everything into this one. I hope you like what you heard so far.

I know I've thrown a lot of news at you already, but there's one last thing that happened very recently. Months and months ago I had a wonderful phone conversation with Greg Smith, who does a lot of work for Disney, including all of the commercials and much of the music heard throughout the parks like the fireworks show. After our conversation he asked me to send him some music of mine which I promptly did. Now he's an extremely busy guy because he does all his work with no help, so it always takes him a long time to get back to me, but he always does. A couple months after sending him my stuff, I reached out to him to see if we could speak again. He got back to me and told me that he would be unreachable until summer but we would definitely talk again then. So I hunkered down and got back to my life and right before my Connecticut visit, I emailed him to see if he had freed up a bit. Well last week we were finally able to have our second phone conversation. He asked me what I had been up to and told me that he had listened to all the music I sent him. He said I was a very capable composer with a mature sound and a good handle on writing for orchestra. We both have very similar origin stories and college experiences so we shared a lot in common. He also asked me about my skills in writing for live players. Honestly, our conversation felt a bit like an interview. By the end he told me that in August we should meet in person! He'd love for me to come to his place and we can both share our music and discuss how we put it together and do a critique session. He also mentioned that the fact I work for Apple is of use to him because he uses Apple computer for his music but would also love to know more. He's getting to a point where he needs help from someone to share some of his responsibilities with. So while trying to stay as grounded in reality as I can, I can't help but be incredibly excited that there may be some work in the future. Now he never said outright that there's even a position available, but we've been building this great working relationship over the last months and I feel like we're really getting somewhere. This will be an incredibly long month, but come August, things may begin moving quite fast.

So I hope this brings you up to speed. I'll try to keep things more up to date now and as more happens with our Sirius Black project, I'll be posting more things for you. Stay tuned! This blog isn't over, and I feel that it may be only just beginning!

Write What You Feel

I hope everyone had a great Easter. This was my first holiday away from everyone I know so it was a little rough, but I decided to use all that time to write a new piece of music just for myself; something I haven't been able to do in quite a while.

Art in general, whether it be painting, music or dance is a highly emotional medium. Works of art seem to take on a life and meaning of their own when the artist puts the powerful emotions they're feeling into that piece of art. I wanted to do that with this piece. This weekend I was feeling some powerful emotions, namely sadness, love and hope. Rather than sit with those emotions, I wanted to pour them into this piece of music, and this work is the result. I recorded a 30 second sketch late Friday night and the piece was done by sunday evening. It felt really good to slave away at some music again. I hope you can hear the emotions I threw into it. This piece is entitled 'Goodbye'.

Goodbye

Soundscapes

This week I was asked to write some music for a 15 second Bailey's Creamer commercial. The commercial is a very visual experience displaying the blending of the creamer with the coffee. So for this commercial, the agency wanted more of a soundscape. A soundscape is a piece of music that blurs the line between music and sound effects. The agency didn't want to go full out soundscape, but wanted a very textural piece of music with only a hint of melody. Some could have a rhythm attached to it, but they were looking for a very clean and modern sound. I've never done a soundscape or anything close to one, so I was excited for the opportunity to try it out.

I used a plugin for Logic called Sculpture. It's a synth engine that lets you build your own sounds. The interface is very visual based so you can see what you're doing to the sound, hence the name.

This would also be one of the first times I've used synths since the dreaded hip-hop main title I did for Mike Post. This one was actually fun, as I was able to blend synths with traditional sounds for a unique feel. I did 5 versions of this commercial and I think I may want to incorporate some electronic elements into future projects now. I hope you enjoy these.

Baileys 1



Baileys 2



Baileys 3



Baileys 4



Baileys 5

An Exercise in Revisions

Last week I was asked to do two spots for Progressive (the auto insurance, not the soup). Both feature that girl Flo. The first had a retro, 60s-esque feel and the other, they wanted a 'Whistle While you Work' vibe to it. I got working. I had a lot of fun on the spots, especially the 60s one because that's a style I wouldn't normally write on my own. Here are those pieces of music.

Ode to Flo 1



Business 1



So I sent those pieces in and a little later I got a response back. They really liked the pieces, but the agency wanted a more French or Italian vibe to it, so they wanted instruments that reflected that and the tracks modified. This was the challenge. At first I was worried because I only had that night to fix them and because I wrote what I heard in my head, I couldn't hear them written another way. I thought I would just have to write two new pieces of music, because these couldn't be modified.

But then I remembered the film scoring book I read, and this is a common thing that composers have to get over. Sometimes the director needs things to be different for a piece of music, even if the composer thinks it sounds perfect. I took this as an opportunity, and rather than write new songs, I would figure out how to modify these into what they wanted. And I'm actually really happy with the results. I feel it's something I wouldn't have come up with on my own.

Ode to Flo 2



Business 2



Regardless of what happens to these tracks, I'm happy with the experience of having to push myself out of my comfort zone.

And Now We Play The Waiting Game

So all the work and hopes have come to this point. I have finished and submitted my application to the ASCAP Workshop for this year. 5 pieces, and nearly 11 minutes of music among varying styles. Here they are in one place for your listening pleasure.

1.) Romantic Comedy: I like my music to tell a story, so I wanted to do the same with this, rather than write 90 seconds of the straight and obvious romantic comedy feel. There are a lot of other emotions that go into a movie like that to make it work. So this story starts out with the traditional comedic and upbeat music, followed by love and sadness, then reunion and love.

Romantic Comedy



2.) Action/Adventure: Adventure pieces come in many different flavors. Some cues are used in gritty shoot 'em up movies and others in swashbuckling pirate films. I want to be a composer for family oriented music like the Disney/PIXAR films, so I wanted to showcase that side of my writing, so I chose the Disney style of adventure music. This is one of my favorite pieces.

Action/Adventure



3.) Epic: This is another one of those subjective genres. Epic could mean emotionally heavy, or glorious like when you see the alien ship rise out of the ocean in the Abyss. Or it could mean ultimate action and danger like in 300. For this piece, I chose to go the danger route because it's a style of music that would contrast best with my other, lighter pieces and show my varying styles of composition.

Epic



Wild Cards
These could be anything that I wanted under 3 minutes that show off my compositional skills. The first I wanted to showcase was the piece I wrote that won me the fellowship last year. But that piece wasn't aging well. The music was fine, but the way it was put together was starting to fall apart. I wanted to remaster it using the skills I have developed between writing that piece and now. I found the original file, relinked all the instruments back to it, re-recorded, mixed and mastered it. I feel it revitalizes the piece, and I'm still very happy with the sound.

Wild Card 1



For the last Wild Card I wanted to use the Quest for Asia song I had written over the summer. The problem was that it was 30 seconds too long to meet the 3 minute requirement. It needed some editing. I felt this would be a good learning experience. In the real world of film scoring, if the director doesn't like on of your cues, you need to edit it, even if you as the composer feel it's perfect. I love Quest for Asia and I wouldn't change it, but I took the axe to it and picked it away. Certain sections I sped up a bit to shave a couple seconds, and others I had to remove a few measures here and there to make it fit. The result still preserves the feel and experience I was going for, so I'm still very happy with this piece.

Wild Card 2



So here they are. I hope you enjoy them, and come May I'll know one way or another if I've been selected. This is an extremely competitive workshop so I'm not anticipating getting in right away. I have hear of people have to try to a few years running to get in, so I'm just happy to have the chance now. More news to come!

A Pleasant Surprise

Last Thursday I was invited to attend Flashback at California Adventure. Flashback was the Disney event I wrote music for the commercials for. I was given two tickets, so I went with a friend from work. The event was to raise money for one of the Charities Disney supports. The event was 4, 20 minute musicals put on by all the people who work at Disney. Some were Disney actors, but others were management, custodial, ride operators; basically anyone who wanted to be in them. The shows were of the utmost quality, but it had the feel of a talent show, because the audience was all Disney employees, so they were cheering and screaming for their friends on stage. The event raised $10,000 for a local children's charity so that was amazing too. Here's the cover to the program.

While looking through the program, I was reading the credits for the production team when I stumbled across something they didn't tell me about. Look near the bottom. 

I got my first real credit printed in something! It was a small thing, but a huge moment for me. I hope maybe someone at Disney liked the music and notices my name. 

So that was a really cool surprise. In other news, I started writing my final piece for the fellowship due April 1st. I'm writing my Epic genre song right now. It took me a long time to get it going, but I'm finally into it now so I hope if everything works out timing-wise I'll get it done in time. Not too long to go. Once I get it finished, I'll post all the tracks I'm submitting. Tune in soon for more news!

Meeting Chris Beck

Last Friday I got the opportunity to visit Chris Beck at his studio in Santa Monica. I was able to get in touch with him because we both received the Pete Carpenter Fellowship (though he got his a 'few' years before me). When I arrived I was greeted by his assistant accompanied by a lot of scary screaming coming from the back of the studio. I was given a tour of the place which was fantastic. In his studio is a live recording room, the server room and a full mixing suite. The server room contains all the sounds, along with 10 mac pros and maybe 8 to 10 mac minis networked together. Then I was brought to the screaming where I met Chris and his other assistant Leo engaged in a very serious game of foosball. I was introduced to Chris and we headed outside to talk. He wanted to hear a lot about my story and how I got here. I'll spare that part, as my whole story is written here in the blog. We also talked a lot about the composers we know. Chris has worked with many of the composers I have met so his insight into the world was very helpful.

Then it came down to business. In terms of what Chris needs, he said that he is actually overstaffed, but having us both be Pete Carpenters, he wanted to help me out. One thing he said would benefit me was to advertise at UCLA and USC and offer to write scores for student films. He said this won't pay the bills, but it will keep me writing, give me exposure, experience and if any of the student directors or producers gets a job in the industry, I'll already have a working relationship with them, so getting a scoring job is a possibility. Chris was in the process of contacting someone he went to school with many years ago who is doing a major film he wants to write for so he said it does pay off. It took Chris almost 10 years to really make it in the business, so I know I have my work cut out for me.

After that he recommended that I get in touch with Trevor Morris. Trevor does the music for The Borgias, and The Tudors and had just finished his first A list feature, Immortals. I did send him an email and he responded to me the next day. He said that I am a bit on the inexperienced side having not worked for another composer yet, but he said we should meet anyway. I'm hoping to set up a meeting soon and see what we can work out.

All in all it was an amazing day with Chris and I feel like I'm in the right place doing the right thing and just need to put in my dues and get ready for the long haul. More to come soon!