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