One thing that Danny Lux told me when I visited him in LA was that knowing more than one instrument can help with one's composing as it forces you to look at music from a different perspective. So with that in mind, last week I bought a guitar so that I could start teaching myself how to play. It came in recently and one thing is clear at the moment: I'm pretty terrible at guitar. Playing piano as long as I've been have made my fingers used to making certain shapes so this will be a long process, but a worthy one I hope. So far I know how to play E and G chords. It's slow going, but it's progress.
Colleen form Mike Post's got back to me with a new BMI contact that may be able to get me in touch with some more composers to network with. I need to build as many contacts as possible so I can jump right in when I get to LA. I'll be calling this person tomorrow and see what that brings me. Brandon (Mike's assistant composer) also got back to me a few days ago and mentioned he may have a lead or two for a show on FX that needs music, so I'm eager to hear what happens there.
Today I sent out a couple new emails. First, I emailed the person at BMI that I met with in January to see if she may be able to help me network. I hope she gets back to me. Second, I managed to find the email of Alan Menken (Tangled) so I took a risk and emailed him to see if I can start up a conversation with Alan. It's a huge longshot, but hey, the worst that could happen is I never hear back, so there's no point not to try.
So I'm doing everything I can and hope something takes hold. I've got just over a month before making my move to the west coast, so I'm crossing my fingers that I get some work back before I get out there. That will make this whole thing a lot less scary.
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Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Hunt for John Powell
So I'm two months away from my move to CA and I wanted to take this time to start contacting composers to see who may have a need for assistants come the time I get out there. I have the names I got from my fellowship, but there's no such thing as too many contacts and there's no harm in aiming high (as long as you're not afraid to have nothing come of it). So I want to do children's music and why shouldn't I try to work with my favorite children's composers?
Top of my list is John Powell. He does some of the best children's music, and music in general out there right now and I would be the happiest person on earth if I was given a chance to work with him. So I am beginning a quest to find him. Not in a creepy, stalker sort of way, but as a major goal in life. I feel that I could learn so much by what he brings to his music that I would be a fool not to try. So today I began sending emails and asking questions on how do you contact the people you want to work with in the industry. Seeing as how everyone knows everyone else right there, hopefully through the 'Six Degrees of Separation' one of the people that I know, may know how to contact him. It's a long shot, but any dream is worth a reach every now and again. So I begin today. I have no idea where this may take me, and it may lead me to a job with someone I hadn't even expected, but any movement is good movement right now. Wish me luck!
Top of my list is John Powell. He does some of the best children's music, and music in general out there right now and I would be the happiest person on earth if I was given a chance to work with him. So I am beginning a quest to find him. Not in a creepy, stalker sort of way, but as a major goal in life. I feel that I could learn so much by what he brings to his music that I would be a fool not to try. So today I began sending emails and asking questions on how do you contact the people you want to work with in the industry. Seeing as how everyone knows everyone else right there, hopefully through the 'Six Degrees of Separation' one of the people that I know, may know how to contact him. It's a long shot, but any dream is worth a reach every now and again. So I begin today. I have no idea where this may take me, and it may lead me to a job with someone I hadn't even expected, but any movement is good movement right now. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Squeeze Pods
The weeks following my seminar have been full of projects and I'm finally starting to cross some thing off my list. One of them is a web commercial for a new product called Squeeze Pods. Our little film studio was asked to create the quick demonstration for the website to introduce the project. I called in one of my best friends, Lauren Marston to lend her hands for the video. I also got to do a bit of music for the demo. This will be good practice for me, especially if Jack Bradley is able to get some commercial jobs for me once I'm out in LA.
The music for this little video is obviously very different from my usual film-styled music as it has to sound like what you'd hear on television commercials today. Overall I'm very happy with the music. We did 4 versions of the video and what I did was make the music scalable. What that means is I can easily chop the music into smaller bits that still make sense to use in shorter commercials so I don't have to write completely new music. The other great thing was that some of the demos I sent off are a few seconds longer than the first one (I wrote the music to the first one) but my scoring software allows me to change the tempo. So rather than writing new music again, I can just make the music a touch slower to have it match up with the new length so that was a real time-saver for me. I have the first Squeeze Pod commercial attached below.
In other news, I've been asked to do a spoof soundtrack for a parody on Ancestry.com. I've just finished the music today and sent it off to be evaluated. If it looks okay, I'll be able to post that as well, so stay tuned!
The music for this little video is obviously very different from my usual film-styled music as it has to sound like what you'd hear on television commercials today. Overall I'm very happy with the music. We did 4 versions of the video and what I did was make the music scalable. What that means is I can easily chop the music into smaller bits that still make sense to use in shorter commercials so I don't have to write completely new music. The other great thing was that some of the demos I sent off are a few seconds longer than the first one (I wrote the music to the first one) but my scoring software allows me to change the tempo. So rather than writing new music again, I can just make the music a touch slower to have it match up with the new length so that was a real time-saver for me. I have the first Squeeze Pod commercial attached below.
In other news, I've been asked to do a spoof soundtrack for a parody on Ancestry.com. I've just finished the music today and sent it off to be evaluated. If it looks okay, I'll be able to post that as well, so stay tuned!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
The Seminar: UPDATED (With Video)
Today I spoke at the South Eastern Connecticut Film Group. They asked me to come in and speak about my journey to getting where I am now and also to give tips to filmmakers on why an original score is better than royalty free music and how to prepare your film for a composer so you get the most out of your music. It was such a great group to talk to. I had a full room and everyone had some amazing questions and I felt honored that these people were taking someone as young as myself so seriously. It was a great discussion lasting two hours and it was filmed, so once I get the video, I'll put it on this blog in case it could help anyone. I met some great people there and may have gotten a couple scoring jobs in the process. Overall it was such a great day and if my seminar helped anyone, then I'd call it a great success.
Other than that, I've been asked to score my first film that could be headed to Sundance. I'm so excited about this one. I can't go into details on it yet, but the music should be really fun and a departure from my usual brand of music. I have a sample piece of music that I should also be able to post soon. So I'm definitely keeping busy until the move. It makes the time go by. I started sending emails to a couple composers just to touch base so I hope to hear back soon and see what the 'weather' is going to be like when I get out there.
Here's a video of the seminar. I apologize for the poor quality. I had to greatly reduce the video quality to keep in within the file size restrictions on vimeo. Audio seems fine though. Enjoy!
Other than that, I've been asked to score my first film that could be headed to Sundance. I'm so excited about this one. I can't go into details on it yet, but the music should be really fun and a departure from my usual brand of music. I have a sample piece of music that I should also be able to post soon. So I'm definitely keeping busy until the move. It makes the time go by. I started sending emails to a couple composers just to touch base so I hope to hear back soon and see what the 'weather' is going to be like when I get out there.
Here's a video of the seminar. I apologize for the poor quality. I had to greatly reduce the video quality to keep in within the file size restrictions on vimeo. Audio seems fine though. Enjoy!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Some News
Yesterday was the SENE Festival in Providence, RI. My family and my friend Nicole who acted in the film drove up in the morning for the festival. We met up with other members of our cast and crew who came to support our film being accepted in the festival. Our film was to show first on the 3:30 block of short films. 4 other films showed with ours. We got such a great crowd reaction and they really seemed to get into the story. I was really happy with everything and proud of all the work everyone put into the project that took it this far. If that project, made on zero budget got this good a reaction, I'm looking forward to what our next one will be like.
Today I got a call from Frank, who did sound on our film. He told me a filmmaker in CT he knows is working on a pretty ambitious film that he plans to debut at the Sundance Festival. The film shoots end of May and the director would like me to consider scoring the film when it's ready. Frank will be sending the script to me soon to look over as well as the links to his other work so I can get a feel for the other projects he's worked on. I'm excited to see what kind of project this is. Hopefully this work will keep me busy until I hear from whoever will give me a permanent composing job.
Today I got a call from Frank, who did sound on our film. He told me a filmmaker in CT he knows is working on a pretty ambitious film that he plans to debut at the Sundance Festival. The film shoots end of May and the director would like me to consider scoring the film when it's ready. Frank will be sending the script to me soon to look over as well as the links to his other work so I can get a feel for the other projects he's worked on. I'm excited to see what kind of project this is. Hopefully this work will keep me busy until I hear from whoever will give me a permanent composing job.
Friday, April 8, 2011
The Next Generation
A couple weeks ago Jeremy Taylor, my band director from high school asked me to come in and give a lesson to one of his MIDI classes about what I am up to and how MIDI is used in film scoring. Admittedly I was a bit nervous about this as giving lessons is not my strong suit. What Jeremy recommended was I talk about what I did in LA and then he would give me a clip that I had never seen before and I would bring in my rig and score a bit in front of them. I liked the idea so we set up the date.
That morning I brought in my equipment and set everything up. The class started and I spoke about my time in LA working on Law and Order and talked a bit about the important things to remember while film scoring, like tempo and honing in on what the music needs to do for the picture. The kids had some good questions and seemed really interested in the process. Then Jeremy gave me the clip. It was a scene from an old Betty Boop Cartoon. This was great because I got to talk about how the animators would draw with a tempo in mind and how the music in those days usually needed to serve as both the score and sound effects track for the show. I scored a little bit and showed everyone how to fix mistakes in the MIDI recording and moving phrases around and they really got into it. The time flew by and we only got about 10 seconds into the score but it was really great to do that, and hopefully if just one of those kids decides they want to try their hand at film scoring after the presentation, then that would be really amazing.
Jeremy and I were talking afterwards and he gave them all a small scoring assignment. I suggested that if a couple kids do a really good job on their project that I could come back and convert their scores into finished recordings using my system and the better-sounding instruments. He liked the idea and we'll see where that goes. He also told me that he ran into Jack Bradley after my meeting with him and Jack said that once I get out to LA, he may have some work that he could throw my way. I hope so. That would be a great start to my life out west if he does. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here in terms of music but very busy trying to finish up my side projects and get ready for the move.
Tomorrow I'm headed to Providence, RI for the SENE Festival. Our short film, A Step in the Wrong Direction has been accepted in the festival and will be shown there. We were also invited to speak on a panel about the film, so it will be excited to see what the audience reaction to it is and (especially for me) how the music is viewed for the film. I'll be sure to post an update once the festival is over.
That morning I brought in my equipment and set everything up. The class started and I spoke about my time in LA working on Law and Order and talked a bit about the important things to remember while film scoring, like tempo and honing in on what the music needs to do for the picture. The kids had some good questions and seemed really interested in the process. Then Jeremy gave me the clip. It was a scene from an old Betty Boop Cartoon. This was great because I got to talk about how the animators would draw with a tempo in mind and how the music in those days usually needed to serve as both the score and sound effects track for the show. I scored a little bit and showed everyone how to fix mistakes in the MIDI recording and moving phrases around and they really got into it. The time flew by and we only got about 10 seconds into the score but it was really great to do that, and hopefully if just one of those kids decides they want to try their hand at film scoring after the presentation, then that would be really amazing.
Jeremy and I were talking afterwards and he gave them all a small scoring assignment. I suggested that if a couple kids do a really good job on their project that I could come back and convert their scores into finished recordings using my system and the better-sounding instruments. He liked the idea and we'll see where that goes. He also told me that he ran into Jack Bradley after my meeting with him and Jack said that once I get out to LA, he may have some work that he could throw my way. I hope so. That would be a great start to my life out west if he does. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here in terms of music but very busy trying to finish up my side projects and get ready for the move.
Tomorrow I'm headed to Providence, RI for the SENE Festival. Our short film, A Step in the Wrong Direction has been accepted in the festival and will be shown there. We were also invited to speak on a panel about the film, so it will be excited to see what the audience reaction to it is and (especially for me) how the music is viewed for the film. I'll be sure to post an update once the festival is over.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Networking
I just got back from a meeting with Jack Bradley. He is a composer of most of the ads you see on TV today like Bounty and Samsung to name a couple. My band director from high school met him, and passed the name along to me so we met up today. He's such a great guy and so easy to talk to. We spoke of how we got started and he has a story quite similar to mine. He started playing piano when he was 5 and loved music until he got to college where he wondered how he would ever turn that love into a job. So he got into film instead and went into the production end of things. We wound up producing commercials and had the most fun working with the music guys. Now that he knew people in music, he wanted to go back to writing. Before too long, there he was, writing TV ad music.
He wanted to hear about my trip and said that he knows a bunch of guys out in LA, and even some who work with Hanz Zimmer. Networking is almost more important than the talent because it's so necessary to know people who can get you work and keep you working once you're doing it. I'm so grateful to know all these people who are willing to help and it really speaks volumes about the community of people that I'm trying to associate myself with. I haven't seen a single big ego yet even though so many of these people definitely could have them. Instead I see this group of people who love what they do. It keeps them young and they want to help anyone out who has put in the work to get into this industry. Jack had to leave for a meeting after about an hour (which went so much faster than I thought) but we agreed to meet up again soon so we can share some music. First week back in CT and things are already looking good.
On another note, I have 4 events coming up that I'm very excited about. I'll be giving a lesson at my high school in two weeks to the kids about film scoring which should be fun. They have a digital music class there which is so cool that the kids can be exposed to it in a classroom setting, so I hope I can encourage them to keep up the interest in it. Second, I'm going to my college to do a forum on film scoring and my experience in LA to the music department, so that should be interesting. Third, I'm giving a talk at the local SECT Filmmakers group about how important music is to film, which I'm hoping will raise awareness that thinking about music starts as early as the screenplay and maybe get me a few local jobs in the process. Finally, I've received word that our film 'A Step in the Wrong Direction' has been accepted into a festival for viewing in April, so my music finally gets to reach a general audience. I'm very excited for that. I'll give more details when I know them. So it's good to be back, and being back has been good to me, so here's to a great time back in CT!
He wanted to hear about my trip and said that he knows a bunch of guys out in LA, and even some who work with Hanz Zimmer. Networking is almost more important than the talent because it's so necessary to know people who can get you work and keep you working once you're doing it. I'm so grateful to know all these people who are willing to help and it really speaks volumes about the community of people that I'm trying to associate myself with. I haven't seen a single big ego yet even though so many of these people definitely could have them. Instead I see this group of people who love what they do. It keeps them young and they want to help anyone out who has put in the work to get into this industry. Jack had to leave for a meeting after about an hour (which went so much faster than I thought) but we agreed to meet up again soon so we can share some music. First week back in CT and things are already looking good.
On another note, I have 4 events coming up that I'm very excited about. I'll be giving a lesson at my high school in two weeks to the kids about film scoring which should be fun. They have a digital music class there which is so cool that the kids can be exposed to it in a classroom setting, so I hope I can encourage them to keep up the interest in it. Second, I'm going to my college to do a forum on film scoring and my experience in LA to the music department, so that should be interesting. Third, I'm giving a talk at the local SECT Filmmakers group about how important music is to film, which I'm hoping will raise awareness that thinking about music starts as early as the screenplay and maybe get me a few local jobs in the process. Finally, I've received word that our film 'A Step in the Wrong Direction' has been accepted into a festival for viewing in April, so my music finally gets to reach a general audience. I'm very excited for that. I'll give more details when I know them. So it's good to be back, and being back has been good to me, so here's to a great time back in CT!
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