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.