So, So Much

As you can see, this is not the website. The site is actually finished, but I'm now in the process of getting hosting, and figuring out all the fun things like bandwidth and media and such. But far too much has happened that if I didn't start writing now, I'd begin to forget things and leave bits out. I may still do that, but I'll do my best.  To help this process, I'll try to break this up into sections.

Animated Shorts: So a few months back, a coworker of mine was finishing her final project for school. It was an animated CG short about how California Rolls are made. She was not going to have sound, and wanted some music to follow the film and take the place of a soundscape. She asked me to do the music, and I was delighted to help. Animated films are where I want to end up anyway, so I jumped at the chance. It's a very cute little film, and I had so much fun writing it. Here's the finished video.

California Roll from Brenton Costa on Vimeo.

SCL: After a meeting with Greg Smith, he encouraged me to look into the Society of Composers and Lyricists. It's a group that gives advice to those in the industry, hosts seminars and has screenings, as well as allow networking in the music field. There's really nothing like it anywhere else. Well, I finally decided to join, as I finally met the requirements to do so. I needed to have a feature film credit to join, and now I do. It's a fantastic group. I've had the opportunity to go to a few seminars now, and it's been invaluable. I recently went to one that demonstrated the benefit of live instruments as opposed to digital. I went to one where Gary Schyman, the composer of the Bioshock music discussed his process on making game music, and this week I went to a Screening of Space Shuttle Columbia: A Mission of Hope, and met composer Blake Neely and was able to speak to him about his music. The SCL has taught me a lot in a very short time, and I'm looking forward to what comes next.

Movies: So I am officially involved with Corbin's next movie. I can't give details on it just yet, but this will be an interesting one. I contacted them early and asked them if I could get a head start. They loved the idea and sent me the screenplay. They haven't started filming yet, but I get a chance to start coming up with ideas now. That means, they can temp the film with my music so I won't get distracted or influenced by someone else's music, and the music will be much tighter with the film because I'll be involved from the start. This is super exciting, and I can't wait to really get started.

I am also working on a Victorian era short film for UK director James Canty. The lead character is a piano player, so the music is going to fit very tightly with the film. I'm extremely excited about this one too, but let's face it. I'm excited for all my music projects. We're still coming up with what the theme will be, but here are some rough piano samples showing the direction we're headed in.




Video Games: I am officially doing a video game! This is the most exciting thing to get started. This is a huge project, with involvement from the people who brought you Starcraft, Command and Conquer and World of Warcraft. I can't go into much detail right now, but this is going to be funded on Kickstarter, so keep your eyes peeled. It's a space game, and NASA is also involved. I have already started writing music for the project, and while in its early stages, I'd like to share it with you all. This is the opening Kickstarter video music for our Upcoming space game!

Mixing: The one area I know I fall short in is mixing my projects. It's a career in and of itself. I know I'll never be as good as the career mixers, but knowing enough to make my digital mockup sound good is very important to me. I recently reached out to a Recording Expert I met at Capitol when I accompanied Greg Smith. She has agreed to help me learn as much as I can with mixing. It's a great opportunity to learn from someone working at Capitol, and I can't wait to get started!

Live Orchestras: It's time to bring in the live players. Now that I have these great projects coming up, the next level is to incorporate live instruments. Nothing compares to the emotion and richness that live groups add, and I want to start adding these in. Luckily, Greg Smith has been invaluable to me. He has introduced me to his music producer, who I will be able to start using on my projects. He will be responsible for hiring the players, booking the studio and everything that comes after the writing is finished. I am hoping to use live players in both the video game and the upcoming film. I've already got a meeting with the music producer to put some budgets together and see if the folks I'm working for bite. I can't wait to see where it all goes, and I'll be sure to take you all along with me.

The Switch

Hey Everyone. I'm sorry that it seems like my posts have dried up. It's not for lack of news, but it's because my new website is almost finished. All energy is going into that project right now. This blog will also be moving over to that new website, so I don't want to add too much to this one right now. All my old posts will be on the site to review though, so no need to worry there.

So please bear with me and within the next couple weeks, we should have a brand new site up and running with videos and easier links, and all shall be well with the world again. So fear not! I have not forgotten about this blog, and new and better things will be coming soon. Stay tuned!

New Rig, New Place, New Possibilities

It has been quite a while since my last post. But then again quite a lot has happened (I'm noticing a pattern here). First, I moved. Originally I was living in Costa Mesa, so every time there was music related things to do, I had to commute either into or through LA. If you've never driven through LA before, the stories are true. Every hour is rush hour. I'm now living in Burbank, and beautiful and quiet small town-feeling place outside of LA. It's also where everything happens. Most every major studio is here including Disney, ABC, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, all of which are within a 10 minute drive from our apartment. Also, I'm about a 5 minute drive from Mike Post's studio where I did the fellowship. I'll be trying to pay a visit soon to see how everyone is doing. Now when I say everything happens here, it really does. On the 10 minute drive we made to get groceries, there was a TV show filming, a movie by Troma Films filming and something huge filming at a high school from Buena Vista Studios. Not bad for a trip to buy tortillas.

Now that I'm here, studio trips and networking will be so much easier. I felt like I couldn't do too much networking because if I got a job, I'd be commuting a couple hours every day, and that'd be rough. So the hunt for steadier music work begins!

Now for the technical stuff. I also upgraded my music rig, in preparation for the next films I'll be doing. Previously, I've been scoring all my films on a laptop. It was a pretty powerful machine, but it was definitely struggling under the weight of the features I did. I recently purchased the new 27" iMac, so the new specs are as follows:

3.4 GHz Quad-Core i7 Processor
32 GBs DDR3 Ram
768 Gbs Solid State Drive
Nvidia Geforce 680 MX 2GB video card

New Rig all set up

In addition, I purchased a LaCie 6TB Thunderbolt drive, and set it to Raid 0. Here's what that means. The thunderbolt drive is 2 hard drives in 1 case. Raid 0  means that when you put a file on it, it splits that file into 2 parts, and each part is put on one of the drives. That means when you access the file, it is accessed twice as fast. Perfect for music guys who need to stream thousands of samples to their computer in real time. Things are quite fast now.

You may remember a post I made not too long ago about my recent purchase of Vienna Ensemble. It's the software that allows me to keep all my instruments loaded inside Vienna so that Logic is just being used for the music, and doesn't load all the sounds every time. Well, on my previous computer, Vienna and Logic running at the same time was too much for it to handle, so I couldn't use it. Now, on this new computer, I have spent the last few days getting Vienna up and running, and it works perfectly. It did take a lot of work though. My goal was to create a template. Many composers create a template that automatically loads up the instruments they use most often, so they don't have to reload them all for each new project. I loved this idea, so I wanted to do my own. Also, because the routing between Vienna and Logic is so complicated, a template saves time. So here's what I had to do. (Warning: Technical talk ahead!)

First I had to enter the dreaded 'Environment' in Logic. This is where you connect virtual cables together to make Logic talk to other programs. In the picture below, you'll see that I created a virtual Instrument for each section of the orchestra, one for my synthetic instruments, and one for anything I need to add after the fact. Each instrument is just a placeholder. I then created 15 MIDI instrument channels for each section and routed them through Logic out to Vienna.

Next I created an instance of Vienna for each section I wanted, and loaded all the instruments I wanted to have ready for each new project. I left some free space in there as well for loading instruments unique to each project.

After that, I created all the channel strips in Logic, color-coded them and connected Logic to Vienna.

Luckily everything works beautifully. I did a stress test on the system, and there were no problems, and now every time I start a new project, I can save the time of having to load everything from scratch. Also, in the case of a feature film when I have dozens of cues, I don't have to reload all my instruments every time I switch to another cue. I'm very excited to do this all for a real project. 

So now everything is ready and waiting for the next thing to come my way. I hope my posts will be a bit more frequent now. Also, the website is making great progress, so stay tuned for that, as everything will be switching over to that site when it's done, including this blog. Until next time!

Hollywood and High School

Sorry for the lack in posts! This is the last month in my current apartment, so I'm busy making all the necessary moving arrangements. A couple things did happen recently though, that I'd love to share with you.

Last week, I had an opportunity to speak to my old high school's Music Technology class through Skype. I still keep in touch with my band teacher, as he is such a huge influence and source of support. Any time I can give back a little to the person and the school that helped me get to where I am, I'm all in. He asked me if I could Skype in one morning to talk about my journey so far and my process. As it's a music technology class, I was able to share my screen and show them the software and virtual instruments I was using, and talk a little bit about my process. It was so great to speak with the class and answer their questions. I hope to do it again soon because I had a blast. Doing a Skype interview of sorts worked out very well, and I hope that it inspired a few of them to pursue music as a career. It was such a great experience and I will treasure the memory.

You may also remember a month or two ago, I wrote about about the opportunity I had to write the intro music for a theater chain in Pennsylvania called Hollywood Theaters. The final animation came out and is now in theaters, and I was given permission to post the video on the blog to show all of you. I'm so happy with how it turned out and very grateful for all the exposure this will have. I hope you enjoy the video, and if you ever find yourself near Philadelphia, stop into a Hollywood Theater, and you will hear my music!

HollywoodTheater from Brenton Costa on Vimeo.

Video Games

So I've been pretty quiet lately. Truth be told that's a good thing at the moment. The two movies that I scored were my first two movies ever, and there was a lot of learning to be done with them. That's a good thing, but what I didn't anticipate was that it would be two movies back to back. I wouldn't change a single day of the process, but by the end, I was tired. Luckily I don't have anything huge lined up until the summer, where I may be doing another film, but that's not official yet.

I'm currently working on a short western film called Dead Man's Hand. I'm doing it as a favor to someone who helped me out a lot a couple years ago. This film is the perfect test bed for my new software (and I'm learning a lot about it here) as well as a great way for me to test my chops at a new genre. So far, I'm really liking the way things are sounding. You can expect a sample in the next day or two.

After the short, I may be doing a web series that should be very interesting. Then it's the wait until summer. I'm moving (in more ways than one) in April. I'll be relocating closer to LA, as well as moving my digital life over to the new website. On that topic, I've been getting some samples of the new site from my web designer and I'm thrilled at how it's looking. It's simple, elegant and easy to use. It's all about getting to the music, and I don't want anything flashy to distract from that. I'll also be moving to my new rig once the computer I need becomes available. Lots of changes coming up!

So I find myself in a greatly appreciated slow period. But I don't want it to be slow for long. So I've started doing some research into music for video games. It's a great industry to be in, and the exposure is huge. I'm interested in trying my hand at some Indie Video Games. These are lower in budget, yet huge in creativity. At the moment, I'm reaching out to game developers to try to get involved with a few projects. This idea is in its infancy at the moment, but I'm excited to get started. I've already received a couple replies, so it will be a lot of fun to see where this goes. More updates to come!

School All Over Again

I've had a couple days with my new software, and it's been a blast learning everything. Omnisphere has this incredible depth to it. I don't think I'll ever reach the limit of what it can do, and I'm okay with that. It will always be there to do what I need it to do. I'll be working on a short film in the coming weeks, so it will give me the perfect chance to put Omnisphere through its paces, and I can't wait.

Vienna has been the learning challenge, as it is changing my whole workflow. As I mentioned in my last post, Vienna keeps all my sounds loaded and routes them to Logic so I don't have to reload instruments every time I switch projects, and I can easily spread my library on instruments over multiple computers with ease. The challenge has been learning how to do all this routing. Things are about to get very technical in here, so read with caution.

To explain why routing things with Vienna is a challenge, we first need a history lesson, and it all starts with MIDI. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and it is the programming language that we use to write music on a computer. The language also allows you to connect real hardware like piano keyboards, synthesizers and the like to a computer so that the computer can understand it. MIDI is a wonderful language because it is used universally by everyone, so it makes writing music with it very easy, but it has some limitations. MIDI was developed in 1983 when digital musical interfaces started to get more common. It was developed as a musical standard between all the competing audio companies so that they could all use the same language for all the devices and software they were developing to be used with a computer. MIDI has barely changed since its introduction, and because the language is a bit dated, software manufacturers need to come up with some clever workarounds to make it all still work. You might ask, why don't they just come up with a new MIDI language? To answer that, you don't need to look any further than the gas in your car. There are plenty of alternate fuel sources far superior to gas, like electric and hydrogen, but in order for them to become a global standard, you'd need to change every engine in every car and every fuel station in the world. No small feat. The same goes for MIDI. The digital music industry is built around MIDI, so everything would need to change if we adopted a new musical programming language. It may happen someday, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. So why does that make Vienna hard?

MIDI allows you to send signals over 16 virtual channels to your composing software, like a television that only gets 16 stations (which at one point was true, imagine that!). That means that Vienna (because it uses MIDI to communicate with Logic) can only send 16 instruments to Logic. Not nearly enough. My film scores, which are by no means huge use an average of 30-50 instruments, so I need more than that, and I've seen some larger projects that use 100 or more instruments. Vienna uses a trick to increase the number of tracks you can load at once. When I say that MIDI has 16 channels, those are output channels, meaning signals that are going from Vienna to Logic. But, MIDI also has 8 input channels, meaning 8 unique devices could be sending signals through MIDI at the same time. Because of these inputs, once I need instrument '17' and so on, I can switch over to input 2, and then 3, up until 8, giving me a total of 128 instruments that Vienna can route to Logic. So what happens in the event that I need more than 128 instruments? Because Vienna is a server software, I can load another instance of Vienna, which gives me another 128 instruments.

Now that I've got my head around the idea of how Vienna works, I think with time, the whole setup process will become second nature to me. I'm also going to build templates of common instrument setups that I use all the time so I can get a baseline going, but all in all, I'm excited to have this new workflow up and running.

In other news, I got in touch with a very talented programmer I know, Ansel Santosa who is going to be constructing a website for my music. I want to have a one stop shop for all things music related with a nice portfolio of my past and current projects. So within the upcoming weeks and months you can expect to see a lot of changes. I do plan on keeping this blog going, but it may move to the website once it is completed, but I'll be sure to let you all know when that time comes.

With Progress Comes Change

My workflow over the last few years hasn't changed much. I've always used Logic to compose my music and I've always used my EastWest sounds for my orchestra running off my laptop. But as my projects, vision and skill increase in size, I must adapt to those changes. After 3 day test, I wrote that I would slowly be upgrading my music rig over the coming months. It started with the simple addition of my little MOTU Microbook II. Apple has recently released their 27in iMac which will be replacing my current laptop when it becomes available, and I am eagerly awaiting that day. In the meantime, there was some software I wanted to purchase to increase the capabilities of my music. At first, I wanted to wait until I got my new computer, but now that I find myself in between projects, I figured this would be the perfect time to learn new software, as it will be changing the way I write music quite a bit.

First, it has become apparent that even though I primarily write for orchestra, other sounds are often needed to supplement the music. This was most evident in my most recent film, Barlowe Mann. In that score, I used a fair number of synthesized instruments, as well as real instruments that were heavily modified for the ethereal and often whimsical sound I was going for. I knew it was time to invest in some synths, and there's nothing better to start with than Omnisphere.

Omnisphere is called a Power Synth. Not only does it come with over 8000 preset sounds, it allows for the creation of sounds, so it has nearly unlimited possibilities. This should allow me to create any atmosphere or non-orchestral sound I need for any project. I'm very excited to begin learning this new program. 

During another blog post, I mentioned a piece of software called Vienna Ensemble.

 I was first introduced to Vienna during my time with Mike Post, and its benefits were instantly visible to me. Here's the nutshell version. Any time you close a track you are working on and load another, your composition software needs to reload all the sounds for that project, even if the sounds are the same. This wastes a lot of time and puts extra strain on your equipment. Vienna (among many other features) loads all your sounds into itself, so you don't need to reload everything when you switch projects. It's really useful. 

Both these programs arrived today, and I am installing them as I write. These programs, Vienna especially are going to drastically change how I go about making music, so there's a lot to learn. I will be using this downtime to get everything in order for the next big thing. 

Speaking of the next big thing, I have received word that Corbin will be filming his next movie in April and it looks as of right now that I will be involved in the music for that one. Details are scarce right now, but I'll be sure to write in as soon as I know. Stay tuned for more updates as I tackle these new programs!

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.