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!