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!