I love what I do. For a multitude of reasons but mostly because film scoring is a collaborative art. You can't do it without a filmmaker or group of filmmakers with whom to collaborate. I find the challenge of collaborating to be so much fun, and generally rewarding. Granted, it can be frustrating and harrowing at the same time but that alone has never been a deterrent for me.
After my second try composing music for this scene, the documentary filmmaker I'm hoping to work with is giving me yet another go at it. But it occurred to me that it would be madness to dive back in without getting some kind of bigger insight into the mind of the filmmaker here. So, I suggested a phone conference this evening and we were able to chat and hash some things out. It was my aim to figure out what, specifically, about the music was intrusive and disruptive to the interviews. To some extent, though, my instinct helped me to determine this on my own but I hoped to gain a window into her thoughts on the music I had written as well.
Whether or not I get this job I hope I can learn something about the process of writing for a documentary. It's an area in which I have regrettably not had much experience yet. As I had mentioned, my instincts have been helpful and certain things have occurred to me without having to do much research and the research I have done (articles and actually watching a few documentaries and paying particular attention to the music) has basically confirmed what I've been thinking.
First of all, it's been obvious to me from the start that this is a different animal than scoring for a feature length narrative. When scoring a narrative, the first thing that occurs to me that there is a suspense of disbelief by the audience. The implications of this are that the audience (and of course the filmmaker) will be a lot more forgiving of the overt presence of music in the film. With a documentary, not so much. These are generally real people and none of it was scripted so there's an element of realism and music just can't behave the same way. It has to assume a different role, one of quiet support. It's not there as another character in the film, like one might consider it in a narrative film, but rather as another dimension of the overall mood of the film. It does provide emotional support but not by telling you how to feel. Of course, a lot of filmmakers will tell you they don't want the music telling you how to feel in a narrative either. I guess the simplest way to put it is that with a documentary, there's less you can get away with as far as indulging yourself and writing the music however you want. When I first attempted to write something for this, I was too focused on writing good music and writing it the same way I would for the concert hall, I forgot to consider a myriad of things that come into play when you're scoring.
Specifically, I pinpointed several things that were going wrong with my music, beyond the fact that the cues were "disruptive" and "fighting with the interviews," two direct quotes from the director. I composed a reverent, majestic, overture-sounding piece for the opening where the nuns talk about entering Hong Kong harbor for the first time. A string trio plays a feather light, pianissimo chordal figure that goes through a progression of 7 different chord changes but at a pretty slow tempo (Grave, one quarter = 56 bpm). What the hell? Your take away from that, if you're not musically inclined is that the instruments change 7 times. That's distracting. I had hoped that the stupid composer trick of writing slow sustained notes would not cover the interviews too much but apparently I made a few mistakes. The way the director described it was the the music, while beautiful, sounds like it's leading us somewhere…meanwhile, we're staying in one place with the interviews. They're talking about coming into Hong Kong harbor and seeing it for the first time. I was trying for something that would convey the same emotion of experiencing beauty and majesty for the first time. There are beautiful old stock footage shots of Hong Kong harbor and the surrounding mountains spread throughout this sequence as well, so there's plenty of imagery as well. The mood of my music was right for all this but with the music seeming like it was a thing unto itself it took attention away from the all important thing, the interviews.
I guess you could say my music should be playing the same role as the b-roll footage. They're talking about Hong Kong, so the director shows Hong Kong. Their mood is reverence for the beauty and majesty of it all. My music should sound majestic. And that's all. It doesn't need to necessarily lead anywhere.
The secret to doing this? There are a number of stupid composer tricks for achieving these ends. My plan is to scale back the chord progression to only a few changes and also, something else I didn't mention, the music has rests (pauses) between each chord change. This kind of halting feeling also draws attention to itself because it's an unnatural rhythm that doesn't exist in the pacing of the cuts or the rhythm of the interviews, so it is incongruous to the scene. So, I plan on removing those somehow. Additionally, higher pitches or pitches that are in a similar register as the speaking voices of the interviewees can also stand out or interfere with the audio of the interviews. This is something I may try as well.
So, to some extent the solution is logistical and not necessarily creative. But there is a certain amount of creative work to be done. One of the other cues, later on in the sequence I was given, was a bit too "sad" for the subject matter. While "sad" is a very generalized observation, I get what she means. That was my gaff. I think the original version was probably okay but I took some notes out because the melody was too busy, I thought, and was sure that was what was going to fix that particular cue. On a second listen, I realized that, indeed, by removing certain melodic notes and stripping it away to only a few elements of the initial chord progression, I had changed the mood slightly. So, for this I'm going to be writing a whole 'nother cue.
This process is what I'm all about though. It's probably the funnest and most interesting part of the job, up until you actually start rehearsing the performers and recording to picture. With any luck I'll be blogging about that process in a few weeks. Meanwhile, it's back to work tomorrow afternoon. I won't get much done tonight, because it's back to the score for the sci-fi short.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Experimental Music, Professional sports and bad cab rides...
So, it looks like I'm going to be going to Boston at the beginning of May. Tania and I are now planning on doing a concert on May 5th at The Lily Pad in Cambridge, as a prequel to the concert on May 10th at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. So, I need somewhere to stay or else I need to buy a ticket on a late train back to NYC that night. We'll see how that goes though.
Soon, Tania and I will start rehearsing the new piece, about which I am excited, because I have some new ideas. More on that later.
Meanwhile, I push forward on the score for the sci-fi short and await approval or rejection for the 90 minute doc. I got some input from the director of the short tonight and made some edits before Logic decided to be a pain in the ass and crash. Something to with running too many plugins or specifically with the Akoustik Piano plugin. I'll figure it out in the morning, because it's right about the witching hour right now and my attention span and stamina are seriously fading.
After meeting with the director for the 90 minute doc last week, I was asked to score a short 10 minute clip to give her a feel for what I might do. My first take wasn't quite on the mark but I resubmitted something Saturday morning. And now I wait. I should know something tomorrow afternoon, hopefully. There are a few other composers they are looking at, so fingers crossed.
This morning, I hiked up to Queens to have brunch with a friend and then go to a Mets game. That was actually fun. First time going to a professional New York sporting event too. I had heard that Citifield had some gluten free food so I sought that out while I was there. Kozy Shack there sells gluten free pudding, hot dogs and sausages as well as Redbridge beer. The game itself was a good one, from what I understand about baseball. The home team won; there was a decent amount of suspense, not too much downtime and it was all over in slightly less than three hours. And it was sufficiently sunny, albeit slightly chilly to begin with. A fun time all around.
After the game, the better part of which was spent in direct sun, I retreated back to Brooklyn, sun stroke and drowsy, ate dinner and tried to nap because I was headed next to an experimental music salon concert in someone's apartment in Prospect Heights. That was also cool and relatively impromptu. My cinematographer friend Steve, the same for whom I'm writing some music for his promo and narrative reel, invited me along. I've always heard about things like this. Lacy and Tania both have told me about the same one in Philly that always takes place at this woman's mansion. The one I attended last night roves around from location to location. Unfortunately, since I had to leave and go to work, I didn't get enough info about when the next one is or how to go about performing at it.
I only saw two out of the three acts that night, the first of which I did a little networking with after his piece. He was a violin player and mentioned something earlier on when we spoke about being in a string quartet…I may need a string quartet for the documentary score if I get the job, so we exchanged information. His piece was compelling. He did some ambient improvisation on his violin over a sine wave drone that played back on a CD player. The piece was long but surprisingly not repetitive for how simplistic it was. Half of the intrigue came from watching the crowd react in such a small space.
The next piece was two performers and finally explained the pile of weird percussion instruments and toys laid out on a table in the corner. One guy made noises with that array and the other performer had a mixer, patch cables, some kind of box and a guitar amp (later a guitar came out), all to make a ton of noise using waveforms. I somehow missed him explaining all of his equipment and had to guess at how he had it set up. The interplay between the two performers was probably most interesting to watch.
At about twenty minutes into their set, I started to realize that my time to make it back home and grab my stuff and lunch for work was dwindling…and I was also sort of trapped in a corner in the kitchen and would have had to walk right down the middle of the room where the performance was happening to get my jacket and get out the door. I decided that I would not risk it and just kept thinking through contingency plans in case the music kept going on and on. By the time the music did end, at approximately 9:20, I figured I had time to say a few quick goodbyes and run down to Grand Army Plaza to grab a cab home and then I'd have just enough time to get to work at 11pm.
I kind of wish I could have stayed a little longer and maybe seen the first act, too. As it was, I didn't really get a good chance to get any further impressions or process what I was seeing. Nor did I get much info on when and where the next one will be but I'm sure I can ask Steve.
After I left, I went down to Flatbush Avenue and managed to grab a cab no problem. But I managed to get a cab driver who doesn't ask if you mean Manhattan or Brooklyn before he assumes you mean 19th Street in Manhattan and starts rocketing towards the Manhattan bridge. I didn't realize that that was what he was doing until about the time he had passed 6th and 5th avenues and was heading toward 4th avenue at a pretty good clip. "I meant 19th Street in Brooklyn, by the way!", I said, hoping it wasn't too late but knowing deep down he wouldn't be able to make a left turn until about Nevins Street. He, of course, complained about my not telling him and we went back and forth about it for a bit, me telling him that I assumed he was taking 4th avenue, which is why I didn't stop him earlier. He just kept saying he thought I meant head into the city. Eventually, he got me back on track, but not before worrying me that he was going to try and get on the BQE. Unfortunately, his plan to take Court St. to Hamilton Avenue backfired because the drawbridge over the Gowanus Canal was just opening when we got up to it…a drawbridge which I have never seen open. So, that took 10 minutes. Eventually, I did get home and I managed to get here to Chelsea early.
And now I'm here at work, with 3 hours or so to go and I'm so tired. Remember that nap I mentioned? Didn't happen. Before I go, though, there's some VO news. That audition I asked to resubmit? I think they're going to hire me to do it. Also, I got offered another gig on the site as well. So things are finally starting to happen there. So we'll see what tomorrow holds. For now, it's lunch time. Yes, lunch at 4 in the morning, 'cause that's how I roll.
Soon, Tania and I will start rehearsing the new piece, about which I am excited, because I have some new ideas. More on that later.
Meanwhile, I push forward on the score for the sci-fi short and await approval or rejection for the 90 minute doc. I got some input from the director of the short tonight and made some edits before Logic decided to be a pain in the ass and crash. Something to with running too many plugins or specifically with the Akoustik Piano plugin. I'll figure it out in the morning, because it's right about the witching hour right now and my attention span and stamina are seriously fading.
After meeting with the director for the 90 minute doc last week, I was asked to score a short 10 minute clip to give her a feel for what I might do. My first take wasn't quite on the mark but I resubmitted something Saturday morning. And now I wait. I should know something tomorrow afternoon, hopefully. There are a few other composers they are looking at, so fingers crossed.
This morning, I hiked up to Queens to have brunch with a friend and then go to a Mets game. That was actually fun. First time going to a professional New York sporting event too. I had heard that Citifield had some gluten free food so I sought that out while I was there. Kozy Shack there sells gluten free pudding, hot dogs and sausages as well as Redbridge beer. The game itself was a good one, from what I understand about baseball. The home team won; there was a decent amount of suspense, not too much downtime and it was all over in slightly less than three hours. And it was sufficiently sunny, albeit slightly chilly to begin with. A fun time all around.
After the game, the better part of which was spent in direct sun, I retreated back to Brooklyn, sun stroke and drowsy, ate dinner and tried to nap because I was headed next to an experimental music salon concert in someone's apartment in Prospect Heights. That was also cool and relatively impromptu. My cinematographer friend Steve, the same for whom I'm writing some music for his promo and narrative reel, invited me along. I've always heard about things like this. Lacy and Tania both have told me about the same one in Philly that always takes place at this woman's mansion. The one I attended last night roves around from location to location. Unfortunately, since I had to leave and go to work, I didn't get enough info about when the next one is or how to go about performing at it.
I only saw two out of the three acts that night, the first of which I did a little networking with after his piece. He was a violin player and mentioned something earlier on when we spoke about being in a string quartet…I may need a string quartet for the documentary score if I get the job, so we exchanged information. His piece was compelling. He did some ambient improvisation on his violin over a sine wave drone that played back on a CD player. The piece was long but surprisingly not repetitive for how simplistic it was. Half of the intrigue came from watching the crowd react in such a small space.
The next piece was two performers and finally explained the pile of weird percussion instruments and toys laid out on a table in the corner. One guy made noises with that array and the other performer had a mixer, patch cables, some kind of box and a guitar amp (later a guitar came out), all to make a ton of noise using waveforms. I somehow missed him explaining all of his equipment and had to guess at how he had it set up. The interplay between the two performers was probably most interesting to watch.
At about twenty minutes into their set, I started to realize that my time to make it back home and grab my stuff and lunch for work was dwindling…and I was also sort of trapped in a corner in the kitchen and would have had to walk right down the middle of the room where the performance was happening to get my jacket and get out the door. I decided that I would not risk it and just kept thinking through contingency plans in case the music kept going on and on. By the time the music did end, at approximately 9:20, I figured I had time to say a few quick goodbyes and run down to Grand Army Plaza to grab a cab home and then I'd have just enough time to get to work at 11pm.
I kind of wish I could have stayed a little longer and maybe seen the first act, too. As it was, I didn't really get a good chance to get any further impressions or process what I was seeing. Nor did I get much info on when and where the next one will be but I'm sure I can ask Steve.
After I left, I went down to Flatbush Avenue and managed to grab a cab no problem. But I managed to get a cab driver who doesn't ask if you mean Manhattan or Brooklyn before he assumes you mean 19th Street in Manhattan and starts rocketing towards the Manhattan bridge. I didn't realize that that was what he was doing until about the time he had passed 6th and 5th avenues and was heading toward 4th avenue at a pretty good clip. "I meant 19th Street in Brooklyn, by the way!", I said, hoping it wasn't too late but knowing deep down he wouldn't be able to make a left turn until about Nevins Street. He, of course, complained about my not telling him and we went back and forth about it for a bit, me telling him that I assumed he was taking 4th avenue, which is why I didn't stop him earlier. He just kept saying he thought I meant head into the city. Eventually, he got me back on track, but not before worrying me that he was going to try and get on the BQE. Unfortunately, his plan to take Court St. to Hamilton Avenue backfired because the drawbridge over the Gowanus Canal was just opening when we got up to it…a drawbridge which I have never seen open. So, that took 10 minutes. Eventually, I did get home and I managed to get here to Chelsea early.
And now I'm here at work, with 3 hours or so to go and I'm so tired. Remember that nap I mentioned? Didn't happen. Before I go, though, there's some VO news. That audition I asked to resubmit? I think they're going to hire me to do it. Also, I got offered another gig on the site as well. So things are finally starting to happen there. So we'll see what tomorrow holds. For now, it's lunch time. Yes, lunch at 4 in the morning, 'cause that's how I roll.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Massive update...
I've neglected to post a few fun things that I've done in the past few days along with a few general updates so I thought I'd write something. The weekend was a busy one, between work, working on the score for the sci-fi short I'm doing, and a tiny bit of socializing, but also, Sunday was jam packed with musical stuff.
While I did not sing for the Brooklyn Unitarian's Palm Sunday service, I did attend and it was well worth waking up early. They sang selections from Handel's messiah with a full string orchestra, trumpets, tympani and harpsichord (played by my multi-talented choir director Bill Peek). The piece, while known for being performed in religious settings was actually conceived as an oratorio. Written in under a month the piece consists of three movements and, interestingly, was composed for a small ensemble at first and only later adapted for the large orchestras we're so accustomed to hearing perform the piece. So Sunday's performance seemed fitting as it was a small choir and a small instrumental ensemble. But the piece still moved me and felt powerful enough. Sidebar, I'm not really religious in the traditional sense, so I can't say it was the subject matter of the piece. The Hallelujah Chorus from the end of the second movement, though it's probably one of the most recognized choral works in the traditional repertoire, is still profound. I think hearing it with such a small ensemble in such an intimate setting makes a difference too.
On top of all of this, I'm proud of the Unitarian Church's choir, because they sounded amazing. It's times like this that I wish I had all the time in the world to do everything. I wanted to be up there singing with them. To me, music is definitely a serious career but indeed, it is also a hobby. And I wish I could always have opportunities to treat it as such. Getting paid to write music is an amazing feeling and I've worked hard to achieve it. But, rehearsing with an ensemble and performing beautiful music for the sake of it is something that I always will need and want in my life.
After leaving church, I was headed to the Village to catch the extremely talented Tania Stavreva in a production of The Tempest put on by the Onomatopoeia Theater Company and my friend Thomas Gordon. A friend from church was headed that way as well and agreed to have lunch with me. She even suggested a place that happened to be right next to the Player's Theater where the performance was taking place. It was called the Olive Tree Cafe. A great place with really great art on the walls, silent films being projected (Charlie Chaplin while I was eating there), and tables that could be drawn on with chalk. Mostly Mediterranean food but it was good and it was good catching up with my friend before the play. Since it was right next door, too, I was able to take my time with lunch.
The performance incorporated modern elements (most notably casual nods to the setting, an office instead of a desert island, complete with references to the king of Mahattan and the Duchess of Brooklyn instead of Naples and Milan respectively) and music, performed by Tania Stavreva (some of it composed by her as well). It was a lot of fun and the cast was great.
Incidentally, as I was settling into my seat and the play was starting, someone popped into the door of the tiny theater room that I did not expect to see at all. An old friend from graduate school, Rachel, who lives in Washington Heights now and whom I hardly ever get to see. She knew someone in the play apparently. So, that was really great getting to catch up with her after the show.
Part of the reason I came to the show was to finally give Tania the score to my new piece that we will be performing on May 10th at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO at this show. I'm incredibly psyched about that but also somewhat nervous. It's going to be a logistical nightmare but if we can pull it off it should be rewarding. As I may or may not have mentioned, there's going to be some pretty complex electronics for the piece. Complex only logistically speaking. I'm going to be looping Tania and she's going to play over top of herself. In addition, I'm going to be performing triggering samples of her earlier performance, which I decided to capture at a rehearsal and not during the actual performance. This will give me time to edit the samples and morph them however I see fit and then map them to my MIDI keyboard. There's a program called Max/MSP that I used in graduate school that I could probably use to achieve these ends while performing live but I'd either have to program a patch myself or borrow someone else's patch. For a later performance of the piece I may go this route. God knows it'd be fun to delve back into Max/MSP, considering I haven't used it since the graduate school days. Even then, I could barely program using it and was borrowing patches here and there. I have a program by Native Instruments called Reaktor that is sort of similar, at least in some of its functionality and interfacing but in fact, very different, that I could also use but, to be honest, I've been so slammed lately that I've barely had time to learn how to use the latest piece of MIDI equipment I've bought, the FCB1010 MIDI footswitch. I'm even writing a blog for the main webpage about the damn thing and I still haven't even finished that!
So, it's becoming clear to me that I need about 6 more hours in every day to fit in all the things I want to do with my life and my career. Meanwhile, I've been plugging away at the score for the sci-fi short, having just finished the first set of ideas to pitch to the director to see if he likes where I'm going. That means I get a little respite this evening because there's no point in working anymore until he's responded and let me know I'm either on the right track or way off. I'm also meeting with the documentary filmmaker who's asked me to score her 90 minute documentary on trailblazing nuns. That's tomorrow at 6pm.
And on one final note, related to voice over, I finally got some more attention from voice123.com. Someone asked me today to resubmit one of the auditions that I sent in yesterday. They were looking for two more takes because the first, while they thought it was a good read, was a little flat to them. Now I wait for their response to my resubmission. Wish me luck with that.
When this is all over at the end of May and I have a little extra money in my pocket, I'm seriously buying a new desk chair because the one I'm currently sitting in as I type this causes me to slouch something awful and I have to deliberately tell myself to sit up every five minutes. I'll leave you with this, though, the most recent fruits of my labor, the official Youtube release of the opening scene of the pilot episode of "The Life," complete with music by yours truly. Good night for now!
While I did not sing for the Brooklyn Unitarian's Palm Sunday service, I did attend and it was well worth waking up early. They sang selections from Handel's messiah with a full string orchestra, trumpets, tympani and harpsichord (played by my multi-talented choir director Bill Peek). The piece, while known for being performed in religious settings was actually conceived as an oratorio. Written in under a month the piece consists of three movements and, interestingly, was composed for a small ensemble at first and only later adapted for the large orchestras we're so accustomed to hearing perform the piece. So Sunday's performance seemed fitting as it was a small choir and a small instrumental ensemble. But the piece still moved me and felt powerful enough. Sidebar, I'm not really religious in the traditional sense, so I can't say it was the subject matter of the piece. The Hallelujah Chorus from the end of the second movement, though it's probably one of the most recognized choral works in the traditional repertoire, is still profound. I think hearing it with such a small ensemble in such an intimate setting makes a difference too.
On top of all of this, I'm proud of the Unitarian Church's choir, because they sounded amazing. It's times like this that I wish I had all the time in the world to do everything. I wanted to be up there singing with them. To me, music is definitely a serious career but indeed, it is also a hobby. And I wish I could always have opportunities to treat it as such. Getting paid to write music is an amazing feeling and I've worked hard to achieve it. But, rehearsing with an ensemble and performing beautiful music for the sake of it is something that I always will need and want in my life.
After leaving church, I was headed to the Village to catch the extremely talented Tania Stavreva in a production of The Tempest put on by the Onomatopoeia Theater Company and my friend Thomas Gordon. A friend from church was headed that way as well and agreed to have lunch with me. She even suggested a place that happened to be right next to the Player's Theater where the performance was taking place. It was called the Olive Tree Cafe. A great place with really great art on the walls, silent films being projected (Charlie Chaplin while I was eating there), and tables that could be drawn on with chalk. Mostly Mediterranean food but it was good and it was good catching up with my friend before the play. Since it was right next door, too, I was able to take my time with lunch.
The performance incorporated modern elements (most notably casual nods to the setting, an office instead of a desert island, complete with references to the king of Mahattan and the Duchess of Brooklyn instead of Naples and Milan respectively) and music, performed by Tania Stavreva (some of it composed by her as well). It was a lot of fun and the cast was great.
Incidentally, as I was settling into my seat and the play was starting, someone popped into the door of the tiny theater room that I did not expect to see at all. An old friend from graduate school, Rachel, who lives in Washington Heights now and whom I hardly ever get to see. She knew someone in the play apparently. So, that was really great getting to catch up with her after the show.
Part of the reason I came to the show was to finally give Tania the score to my new piece that we will be performing on May 10th at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO at this show. I'm incredibly psyched about that but also somewhat nervous. It's going to be a logistical nightmare but if we can pull it off it should be rewarding. As I may or may not have mentioned, there's going to be some pretty complex electronics for the piece. Complex only logistically speaking. I'm going to be looping Tania and she's going to play over top of herself. In addition, I'm going to be performing triggering samples of her earlier performance, which I decided to capture at a rehearsal and not during the actual performance. This will give me time to edit the samples and morph them however I see fit and then map them to my MIDI keyboard. There's a program called Max/MSP that I used in graduate school that I could probably use to achieve these ends while performing live but I'd either have to program a patch myself or borrow someone else's patch. For a later performance of the piece I may go this route. God knows it'd be fun to delve back into Max/MSP, considering I haven't used it since the graduate school days. Even then, I could barely program using it and was borrowing patches here and there. I have a program by Native Instruments called Reaktor that is sort of similar, at least in some of its functionality and interfacing but in fact, very different, that I could also use but, to be honest, I've been so slammed lately that I've barely had time to learn how to use the latest piece of MIDI equipment I've bought, the FCB1010 MIDI footswitch. I'm even writing a blog for the main webpage about the damn thing and I still haven't even finished that!
So, it's becoming clear to me that I need about 6 more hours in every day to fit in all the things I want to do with my life and my career. Meanwhile, I've been plugging away at the score for the sci-fi short, having just finished the first set of ideas to pitch to the director to see if he likes where I'm going. That means I get a little respite this evening because there's no point in working anymore until he's responded and let me know I'm either on the right track or way off. I'm also meeting with the documentary filmmaker who's asked me to score her 90 minute documentary on trailblazing nuns. That's tomorrow at 6pm.
And on one final note, related to voice over, I finally got some more attention from voice123.com. Someone asked me today to resubmit one of the auditions that I sent in yesterday. They were looking for two more takes because the first, while they thought it was a good read, was a little flat to them. Now I wait for their response to my resubmission. Wish me luck with that.
When this is all over at the end of May and I have a little extra money in my pocket, I'm seriously buying a new desk chair because the one I'm currently sitting in as I type this causes me to slouch something awful and I have to deliberately tell myself to sit up every five minutes. I'll leave you with this, though, the most recent fruits of my labor, the official Youtube release of the opening scene of the pilot episode of "The Life," complete with music by yours truly. Good night for now!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Scoring process...
I've started work on the new film score #1. "The Feed." Currently, my focus is on spotting, or the process of basically figuring out where the music is going to go in the film. It's kind of like tracing the route you're going to take on a road map and plotting all the stops along the way, before setting out.
The first step is to meet with the director and get their ideas about where they think music should go and what important plot points there are. This is where I start to draw the map. Then, the next step is to go home and essentially write out what is essentially a travel itinerary. The spotting notes. I get specific and write what has to happen at each time code and what emotions the characters are experiencing and how important the music is at each hit point. This could be the equivalent of deciding what to do at each of the stops on my itinerary.
Now that I've done all this, my next step is to start writing out some musical ideas and start working with timbres and textures. Since I composed a short piece already for the director to give him an idea of what I might write for him, I have some stuff to mine from. He liked the ideas that I put forth so I'm going to tap into a lot of that. This score is going to incorporate a lot of sound design type stuff, background noise, white noise and FM synthesis. Also some guitar effects (nothing that will be recognizable as guitar) and perhaps some acoustic instruments like piano and cello or violin. It will be mostly atonal but I plan on having a few relatively tonal melodies break through at certain points.
The film itself is only about 13 minutes long but there is a great deal of character development. All the characters in this dystopian future when the film is set have a computer linked to their brain and are experiencing a constant stream of information. We talked about having a theme for when the Feed is connected and one for when it is not. I'm considering themes for certain characters too. But I'm not quite there yet. That's for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I'm liking this road map metaphor. I'll see how far I can extend it though. Tomorrow I get to decide once and for all which instruments I'm going to use, as I actually sit down and start working melodies and themes. Kind of like deciding which model of car I'm going to rent for the drive. Wish me luck.
The first step is to meet with the director and get their ideas about where they think music should go and what important plot points there are. This is where I start to draw the map. Then, the next step is to go home and essentially write out what is essentially a travel itinerary. The spotting notes. I get specific and write what has to happen at each time code and what emotions the characters are experiencing and how important the music is at each hit point. This could be the equivalent of deciding what to do at each of the stops on my itinerary.
Now that I've done all this, my next step is to start writing out some musical ideas and start working with timbres and textures. Since I composed a short piece already for the director to give him an idea of what I might write for him, I have some stuff to mine from. He liked the ideas that I put forth so I'm going to tap into a lot of that. This score is going to incorporate a lot of sound design type stuff, background noise, white noise and FM synthesis. Also some guitar effects (nothing that will be recognizable as guitar) and perhaps some acoustic instruments like piano and cello or violin. It will be mostly atonal but I plan on having a few relatively tonal melodies break through at certain points.
The film itself is only about 13 minutes long but there is a great deal of character development. All the characters in this dystopian future when the film is set have a computer linked to their brain and are experiencing a constant stream of information. We talked about having a theme for when the Feed is connected and one for when it is not. I'm considering themes for certain characters too. But I'm not quite there yet. That's for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I'm liking this road map metaphor. I'll see how far I can extend it though. Tomorrow I get to decide once and for all which instruments I'm going to use, as I actually sit down and start working melodies and themes. Kind of like deciding which model of car I'm going to rent for the drive. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Feast...
It's been an exceptionally foggy day here in Brooklyn. First day of Spring...go figure. I've been quite happy with the weather as of late though. It's turned, almost with the calendar, warmer and sunnier. Jackets and shoes I haven't worn in months are out of the closet and I even had on short sleeves last night. I went on a date to Barbรจs to see Slavic Soul Party last night. (These guys are pretty amazing live and this was not the first time I'd had the pleasure of seeing them). I love that I can walk only 10 blocks up from my apartment and be at a world class music venue with a great atmosphere. In fact, harping on the benefits of my location again, on the walk up there alone, there are some five awesome looking restaurants/bars/cafes that I am really intrigued by and totally want to try.
All in time. April is going to be a very busy month. In this week alone I've been offered two film scoring gigs, both of which have deadlines at the end of April. It's truly feast or famine, it seems. But I'm so psyched to be a part of both of these projects. The first is a 90 minute documentary about trailblazing nuns that were arrested for their humanitarian work. The second is a short drama about a future where everyone has the internet constantly streamed into their brains. Two very different projects that will require very different scores.
Meanwhile, I'm still writing the underscore for "The Life," a dramatic series about the sex trafficking problem in NY. That's a fun project too. I'm realizing that it's been a while since I've gotten to do some basic underscoring. All the processes behind that are fun; figuring out specific hit points, how to stay out of the register of the dialogue and not overpower it, and then of course, there's the dance of trying to develop a theme in a certain amount of time, working with tempo and creating melodies (where needed) and structures that fit with the length of a scene. It can be fun but it can be tedious as well.
I've put the music for my cinematographer friend's promo and his narrative reel music on hold for a bit while I wait for him to get back in town and for those projects to be finished. But that should be soon. He's out shooting the last thing that he intends to put on his reel right now and I think he intends to finish editing the promo shortly after.
And Lacy and I are talking about gigging soon. So, there's no sight of famine around here for quite some time. I absolutely have to go to sleep now. Yoga at 8am.
All in time. April is going to be a very busy month. In this week alone I've been offered two film scoring gigs, both of which have deadlines at the end of April. It's truly feast or famine, it seems. But I'm so psyched to be a part of both of these projects. The first is a 90 minute documentary about trailblazing nuns that were arrested for their humanitarian work. The second is a short drama about a future where everyone has the internet constantly streamed into their brains. Two very different projects that will require very different scores.
Meanwhile, I'm still writing the underscore for "The Life," a dramatic series about the sex trafficking problem in NY. That's a fun project too. I'm realizing that it's been a while since I've gotten to do some basic underscoring. All the processes behind that are fun; figuring out specific hit points, how to stay out of the register of the dialogue and not overpower it, and then of course, there's the dance of trying to develop a theme in a certain amount of time, working with tempo and creating melodies (where needed) and structures that fit with the length of a scene. It can be fun but it can be tedious as well.
I've put the music for my cinematographer friend's promo and his narrative reel music on hold for a bit while I wait for him to get back in town and for those projects to be finished. But that should be soon. He's out shooting the last thing that he intends to put on his reel right now and I think he intends to finish editing the promo shortly after.
And Lacy and I are talking about gigging soon. So, there's no sight of famine around here for quite some time. I absolutely have to go to sleep now. Yoga at 8am.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
NC and Brooklyn, again...
I've been meaning to post about this since last weekend since it's sort of a follow up to the previous post about the Greensboro (in this case NC in general, specifically Winston-Salem) - Brooklyn connection. I went to a party with my friend Steve, a cinematographer/director for whom I've been writing music, somewhere in Greenpoint at his friend's audio mastering studio where they were having a fourth anniversary party.
I arrived later than I had intended because the L train wasn't running all weekend, so when I got there all the alcohol was pretty much gone except a few liquor bottles and I knew no one except Steve. I hung around though and we went to a bodega to pick up some booze and brought it back. As the party started to dwindle and people left, I started to think it was going to be a bust. I had been hoping to meet a lot of new people, and some of them industry people but I had only really had a chance to speak to a few of them...one of them the girlfriend of some drunk jealous hipster. When the party was down to about 10 people and everyone seemed to be engaging someone else, I got talking to a guy named Amos, who offhandedly mentioned something about North Carolina. When I asked him if he was from NC, he mentioned Winston Salem and having attended the NC School of the Arts, a program I had auditioned for some 11 years ago. Incidentally, he also auditioned for my Alma Mater, UNCG. Funny, if things had been differently, we might have gone to school together. He studied music as well, was a clarinet player.
So, I've made another musician connection and another NC-Brooklyn connection connection. Incidentally, when he sent me a friend request on Facebook, I checked it right away on my phone as we were all walking from the party to the G train. We had 6 mutual Facebook friends, most of them old dorm mates of mine from freshman year that he went to high school with. Small world.
Anyhow, beyond serendipitous run-ins, the world of the composer is still humming with much activity. I'm still technically on retainer for "The Life" and there's a chance I may have to write some more to the cues that I've already submitted. Steve's music is nearing completion on my end, hopefully. Both the promo and the music for the narrative reel. I'm enjoying both processes as always. There's yet another exciting film music opportunity potentially on the horizon but I don't want to say too much about it yet. It's not certain yet.
And beyond those projects, still, I have to complete composition on the piece that Tania and I will be performing on May 10th at Galapagos Art Space. This is going to be the toughest because not only do I have to complete the piece I have to work out logistics for performing it but I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to test out the viability of sampling her during the performance and then if it doesn't work, I'm going to save recordings from our rehearsal and use those as material for the performance. To catch you up, my plan is to use recorded samples of her performance, cut into chunks and manipulated, as material for the second half of the piece...where things are going to get interesting. Sorry, that's all the preview you get for now.
Meanwhile, the voice over career has not seen anymore excitement since the Aereo project but I've been submitting to voice123.com feverishly every chance I get and even working out ways that I can submit auditions while on the go, as long as I can find time in one of the edit bays at work and I have my laptop. Also, currently trying to figure out how to install Windows on my Mac so I can use Sound Forge anywhere. It's a Windows only program but it has the easiest to use noise reduction plugin that I can find anywhere. If I am at work and I get an audition that I can submit to on my break or before I clock in, it would help me immensely to have Sound Forge at my fingertips since I've already created the best workflow with it here at home. And back here in my home studio, I've streamlined my process even more to the point where I can submit as many as two auditions in under thirty minutes. Most of that is because of being able to leave things half setup but also, it comes from years of using this software and equipment.
For now, I'm going to get going. Lacy should be here in a bit and we'll be rehearsing all afternoon. We're performing at Pete's Candy Store's open mic tonight in Williamsburg. Come if you can, it starts at 6, I believe.
I arrived later than I had intended because the L train wasn't running all weekend, so when I got there all the alcohol was pretty much gone except a few liquor bottles and I knew no one except Steve. I hung around though and we went to a bodega to pick up some booze and brought it back. As the party started to dwindle and people left, I started to think it was going to be a bust. I had been hoping to meet a lot of new people, and some of them industry people but I had only really had a chance to speak to a few of them...one of them the girlfriend of some drunk jealous hipster. When the party was down to about 10 people and everyone seemed to be engaging someone else, I got talking to a guy named Amos, who offhandedly mentioned something about North Carolina. When I asked him if he was from NC, he mentioned Winston Salem and having attended the NC School of the Arts, a program I had auditioned for some 11 years ago. Incidentally, he also auditioned for my Alma Mater, UNCG. Funny, if things had been differently, we might have gone to school together. He studied music as well, was a clarinet player.
So, I've made another musician connection and another NC-Brooklyn connection connection. Incidentally, when he sent me a friend request on Facebook, I checked it right away on my phone as we were all walking from the party to the G train. We had 6 mutual Facebook friends, most of them old dorm mates of mine from freshman year that he went to high school with. Small world.
Anyhow, beyond serendipitous run-ins, the world of the composer is still humming with much activity. I'm still technically on retainer for "The Life" and there's a chance I may have to write some more to the cues that I've already submitted. Steve's music is nearing completion on my end, hopefully. Both the promo and the music for the narrative reel. I'm enjoying both processes as always. There's yet another exciting film music opportunity potentially on the horizon but I don't want to say too much about it yet. It's not certain yet.
And beyond those projects, still, I have to complete composition on the piece that Tania and I will be performing on May 10th at Galapagos Art Space. This is going to be the toughest because not only do I have to complete the piece I have to work out logistics for performing it but I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to test out the viability of sampling her during the performance and then if it doesn't work, I'm going to save recordings from our rehearsal and use those as material for the performance. To catch you up, my plan is to use recorded samples of her performance, cut into chunks and manipulated, as material for the second half of the piece...where things are going to get interesting. Sorry, that's all the preview you get for now.
Meanwhile, the voice over career has not seen anymore excitement since the Aereo project but I've been submitting to voice123.com feverishly every chance I get and even working out ways that I can submit auditions while on the go, as long as I can find time in one of the edit bays at work and I have my laptop. Also, currently trying to figure out how to install Windows on my Mac so I can use Sound Forge anywhere. It's a Windows only program but it has the easiest to use noise reduction plugin that I can find anywhere. If I am at work and I get an audition that I can submit to on my break or before I clock in, it would help me immensely to have Sound Forge at my fingertips since I've already created the best workflow with it here at home. And back here in my home studio, I've streamlined my process even more to the point where I can submit as many as two auditions in under thirty minutes. Most of that is because of being able to leave things half setup but also, it comes from years of using this software and equipment.
For now, I'm going to get going. Lacy should be here in a bit and we'll be rehearsing all afternoon. We're performing at Pete's Candy Store's open mic tonight in Williamsburg. Come if you can, it starts at 6, I believe.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Leap day...
Been thinking a lot about the UNCG/Greensboro - Brooklyn Connection lately. This past weekend, I saw an old Greensboro friend on the subway platform at Jay Street-Metro Tech. Because I wasn't expecting her to be in that spot at that time, I second guessed a few times whether or not it was her but meanwhile, she and her friend kept on walking down the platform toward the stairs to the A train platform. She was gone but I couldn't shake my curiosity so I emailed her on Facebook and asked her if she was in my city or if I was crazy. She was. And texted me almost immediately. She was going to be in Park Slope the following evening watching her friends' band play at the Tea Lounge. So I got there a little early and hung around watching the first band play. When she arrived, her friend's band was getting set up and she mentioned going to high school with them. When she pointed toward the stage I looked up and realized that I had gone to college with these guys, hadn't seen them in about 10 years and had no idea they had been living in my city for the past 5. So it was a great reunion. The band Runaway Dorothy has been doing quite well for themselves. Check them out.
In addition, to running into all those Greensboro friends, I had coffee with an old friend today from the UNCG days (Masters degree days around 2005), a fellow musician friend I met while I was still working at Tate Street Coffeehouse. Caitlin recently moved to Brooklyn and we've been trying to catch up for a few months now. The East Village and Mud Coffee on E 9th Street is usually my go to spot to meet people who are new to the city, as it was one of the first good coffee shops that I went to when I first moved here and it quickly became one of my favorite spots in the E. Village. Strangely, Caitlin had walked past Mud a few days ago and wanted to go there but didn't get the chance. Now Mud has a new fan.
We have a great story of how we met, involving me helping her break into her mother's car because she locked her keys inside, while I was supposed to be closing Tate Street Coffee. She came in asking if we happened to have a coat hanger and then when we produced one, she admitted that neither her or her friend knew how to jimmy a lock with one. So, I assisted as best as I could, joined shortly after by two younger guys who were trying to help as best as they could. When they got desperate and started trying to open the trunk with a pocket knife though, I realized I'd better do something quick. The car, a late 90's model Chrysler Sebring convertible, had its front door handle on the inside on the top of the door, so I grabbed a sturdy branch off a nearby tree and slid it in between the roof and the driver's side window, wedging it under the door handle, opening the door from the inside. Having saved the night, Caitlin was able to get home without her parents knowing she had the car (at least I hope). She was 16 at the time.
Anyhow, this was about the only thing that went to plan today besides getting the bass and guitar tracks for Steve's music recorded in the morning. At 8 am, I got a call from my boss to cover the overnight tonight and tomorrow, which means overtime pay and overnight premium, but which also means lack of sleep. I ended up having to cancel plans with another friend at night, cancel my volunteer session at Learning Ally and rearrange my afternoon so I could pull off a mini rock star nap (2 hours, not bad).
Luckily, I have work I can do here on the overnight, music work. It's adding a few more hours of wakefulness and productivity so, in a way, it's a bonus. With that said, I think the next thing I'm going to work on is the music for Steve's promo and then, possibly, a new newsletter…it's about that time.
In addition, to running into all those Greensboro friends, I had coffee with an old friend today from the UNCG days (Masters degree days around 2005), a fellow musician friend I met while I was still working at Tate Street Coffeehouse. Caitlin recently moved to Brooklyn and we've been trying to catch up for a few months now. The East Village and Mud Coffee on E 9th Street is usually my go to spot to meet people who are new to the city, as it was one of the first good coffee shops that I went to when I first moved here and it quickly became one of my favorite spots in the E. Village. Strangely, Caitlin had walked past Mud a few days ago and wanted to go there but didn't get the chance. Now Mud has a new fan.
We have a great story of how we met, involving me helping her break into her mother's car because she locked her keys inside, while I was supposed to be closing Tate Street Coffee. She came in asking if we happened to have a coat hanger and then when we produced one, she admitted that neither her or her friend knew how to jimmy a lock with one. So, I assisted as best as I could, joined shortly after by two younger guys who were trying to help as best as they could. When they got desperate and started trying to open the trunk with a pocket knife though, I realized I'd better do something quick. The car, a late 90's model Chrysler Sebring convertible, had its front door handle on the inside on the top of the door, so I grabbed a sturdy branch off a nearby tree and slid it in between the roof and the driver's side window, wedging it under the door handle, opening the door from the inside. Having saved the night, Caitlin was able to get home without her parents knowing she had the car (at least I hope). She was 16 at the time.
Anyhow, this was about the only thing that went to plan today besides getting the bass and guitar tracks for Steve's music recorded in the morning. At 8 am, I got a call from my boss to cover the overnight tonight and tomorrow, which means overtime pay and overnight premium, but which also means lack of sleep. I ended up having to cancel plans with another friend at night, cancel my volunteer session at Learning Ally and rearrange my afternoon so I could pull off a mini rock star nap (2 hours, not bad).
Luckily, I have work I can do here on the overnight, music work. It's adding a few more hours of wakefulness and productivity so, in a way, it's a bonus. With that said, I think the next thing I'm going to work on is the music for Steve's promo and then, possibly, a new newsletter…it's about that time.
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