Composing

I've always found deadlines to be inspiring. Historically, they're certainly an opportunity for Quality PLUS Quantity, whether it's Mozart's Little G-minor Symphony, or Goldsmith's academy-award-nominated score to Chinatown which he composed and recorded in ten days.

For professional composers try-Walter Piston Harmony and Counter Point- also Charles Louise Hanon

Here's an idea to try since I am doing it as we speak (i'm on a 5 min break). Try scoring 4 - 11 minute short films in three weeks. I had 6 days each for the first two (the first was 12 minutes - wall to wall music... it was a documentary). The third I had four days and this was all practice to the 'fun one'. I started the last 11 minute one yesterday and it has to be done tomorrow night.
Try doing that with many instruments, perhaps full orchestra. Don't try writing about 9 minutes of music for just one instrument (the other three were not wall to wall but had a lot of background music underneath the dialog).
And now let's complicate it further - you have a director who likes to micromanage, asks to review each scene in a dropbox mockup and a bunch of scenes asks for some changes. And the director sends you three links to temp tracks and a bunch of hit points. When you write happy and uplifting they change the requirement to sad and vice versa. Welcome to real life! I'm going through it right now with a smiley face on me and in my voice.
When you work under these conditions, watch the scene maybe once or twice, make a decision what will work and go for it. You really don't have a chance to write something different. It's time to go with your gut with the first version and keep moving. The only way to work under the above conditions is to keep the coding momentum with occasional breaks for your body (and sometimes maybe even some sleep! :) )

For professionals who want to learn about the future of audio and film music please look here www.a3exchange.com

I struggle to get a 15 or 30 minute break. lol

Another one... https://www.youtube.com/user/artofcomposing

Thanks for sharing this story Greg.

Appreciate the read!

I enjoyed that, Greg.

I'll add my voice to the choir; that's a wonderful story.

Great job, Joel. Congrats to you!

Congrats Joel!

That's great Joel! I'd like to see how it works with the picture. Congratulations!

Brian - the filmmaker controls the picture and plans to create a longer version. So there are no immediate plans to put "Hotline" online. However, as we are both Houstonians, we can meet up locally and I can play it for you on my iphone7+. Shame you didn't come to the showing last night.

Joel Irwin, sorry I missed it.

You did not provide a location. You profile says you live near Raleigh, NC. Are you looking to interact with filmmakers there or are you willing to locate to say Los Angeles or New York?
Aside from being an 'intern', you may be interested in participating on teams for various domestic and international film competitions. For example, the 48 hour film competition is underway and was held in two North Carolina cities last month. There is still one more left in Charlotte the weekend of Aug 11th. We had 58 teams competing here in Houston last month. One winner moves on but think about all those teams who could use a composer and many teams consist of people like you who are just starting on their journey's. Both Richmond and Atlanta are competing this coming weekend and you may still be able to find a team (and you don't have to be physically there but after the competition, they might be within driving distance if y'all decide to do it again).

I am looking to work in Raleigh or within 30 minutes of it. As for participating in competition, I would love to, but can't guarantee my availability. I am open to any opportunities anyone is willing to give me!

Be open to work remotely. I just scored four films for the 168 film festival 8/26-27 at the Regal Theater in downtown LA. Two of them were produced here in Houston (and I received a nomination for "Best Score" for one of them, "The Last Command").
One film, the documentary, "The Door" was shot and produced in Pueblo, CO and another film "Wood And Stone" was shot and produced in LA. I have not yet met the filmmakers for these two films and won't see them until I go to the festival next month. We communicated with "Dropbox". I asked for a low resolution film locked MP4 (resolution of 320x240) and then I would produce a WAV file containing the whole score and I also provided them with 'mockups' of my music laid on the film so they could get an idea of how well the cues fit.
There is no reason why you need to restrict yourself to Raleigh even if you don't travel. The film competitions and any local film industry meetup groups (www.meetup.com) are a great way for those entering the industry outside of LA and NY to get connected with other like minded professionals. You won't be outclassed. Those in other areas of the film business use these opportunities as well.
The only other easy to follow way is through classes/educational institutions - whether it be a music program (as I have done) or a film program.

Thank you very much for your help! If you ever need an intern, I'm your man!

The music to some movies just moves my soul!

Don't forget Tom Newman and Desplat! Great choices everyone.

Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Gustav Holst, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov... and probably a dozen others. :)

Vangelis, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, Thomas Newman, Michael Giacchino, Rachel Portman, John Williams. and more!

Elliot Goldenthal, James Newton Howard

Don't know if this is heavy enough: https://youtu.be/soWFzxswiRE ? If not, also PM me, I could help you out through some connections in the metal scene.

Yes, can't wait! Apparently the new Wordl Builder is much improved :D

Yea that's why they're touting is the new phrases and word builder being pretty revolutionary in the Choir space. I can't wait to hear it!!

Looking forward to hearing it. I believe Spitfire has one in the works, as well. What a money pit, huh? lol

Oh man, a deep one!! Lol

It is that! On the flip side of the coin, it's nice to have all these instruments at my fingertips to help better express myself and to be able to offer budget friendly music production.

Very good points all. The biggest dislike of mine is doing "covers"! I've done one in 25 years (which I really like perversely) and have always believed in doing what's within me rather than someone else. I guess though it depends on what I want to do with my musical career! I have given myself 5 years to get up and running as a viable business so that gives me scope to experiment a bit. Find a micro niche perhaps or stick to cues rather than scoring?! Who knows, a vast amount of talent goes under the radar so.....only time will tell!

Adam, here is a twist on 'covers'. When I was first learning to orchestrate, I had no-one available for me to perform live. There might be many opportunities to write for a single instrument or even perhaps a string or other trio or quartet, but go try to find a large ensemble. Unless you are a full time student at a large university or blessed with excellent musicians such as at Julliard or here at Rice, it is unlikely you will have orchestral ensembles you can practice your 4 and 5 parts harmonies with. But my teacher and early mentor suggested instead I learn how to write idiomatically for big band. The music may be 'different', but one quickly discovers that big band writing normally consists of 5 sax staffs (2 alto, 2 tenor and bari), as well as 4 or 5 trumpet staffs , 4 trombones staffs, a rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass and drums) and sometimes, a solo singer, a duet, or an SATB jazz choral group - quite a few staffs. Also, arrangements often are fast paced, generally in 'swing', and rely on many different types of 'articulations'.
But to the topic here, the best way to start and learn is to 'transcribe' an existing track (of piece that you did not compose). As I recollect, the first one I ever did that was performed live back in 2005 was "It's Been A Long Long Time" - the famous Harry James track that is associated with "VE Day" which ended World War II in 1945. I wrote the charts without a string section but had a vocal part which got sung.
It doesn't even have to be a 1920s - 1940s big band/jazz specific transcription. Some years ago, I posted a transcription video here I did to the famous Top 40 Cozie Cole track from 1958 called, "Topsy, Part II". You can listen to an original track on Youtube and then watch a 'first reading' (which they nailed) of my charts by the Houston Community College big band back in Sept. 2011.
https://www.stage32.com/media/644309202969309144
The point of doing these 'transcriptions' which is sort of a cover is not necessarily to get it into a film (with a sync license of course :) ) but it is (1) a great learning exercise to learn many aspects of large ensemble writing and learning to interact and possibly conduct live musicians and (2) hearing music we have written performed live.
So if you aren't lucky enough to have an orchestra at your disposal, try transcriptions for a big band.

Now that is food for thought! Mind you it's been 20+ years since I touched upon theory/written/sheet music!! Could be time to dive in again!
In the meantime, here's a little something I put together https://youtu.be/KRXfLpwnekU

I think you need to try all avenues, and hope for the best through hard work!

Good point also Robert! Do everything, keep all doors open :) Never turn down an opportunity... well, at least until you're Hans Zimmer and can be a little picky about who you work for

I love IMSLP! I use it all the time to find music for my students. I have been meaning to put some of my non-film work up there, but I keep getting caught up with other projects.

I have been using it for about 10 years to read many of the classical full orchestra scores from the Masters such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. Following the full score while listening to a piece of music, especially a symphony is a fun way to learn orchestrations without having to spend time actually analyzing the arrangement (which I also do). I have not yet contributed my film scores myself yet, but seems like a useful place to park scores (and I do have an IMSLP account).
I remember one of the very long and complex scores my teacher had me download and try to follow (which I also highly recommend every composer do is) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_at_an_Exhibition
Either the piano score or the orchestra score (and don't listen to the Emerson, Lake and Palmer track which we grew up with and which came out in 1971).

Awesome, guys! Keep being creative!

There are lots of ways to do it. The function is normally handled by a "Music Supervisor". Wikipedia gives a great overview. You can wear that hat yourself, get someone else to do it, or get a company to do it. Unless the is in public domain, you will need to get a 'sync license'. And unless you pay a performer yourself to record the music, you will also need a 'master use license'.
Music, especially well known tracks, can often be quite expensive to license. There are web site, often used by wedding videographers, to license covers or original material from lesser known artists, singer sonwriters, etc. This music can often cost $50 to $100 each.
While there are again many ways to pursue this issue, I have parked my music (as a film composer) and have gone with www.musicsupervisor.com.
Remember there are also sites providing royalty free music of various types and these sites are often quite popular with film students and those filmmakers who are either starting off or on little to no budgets.

I hope you do well!