Composing

The subject line of the email read "I’m so sorry”. It was from one of the Emmy-winning producers I had been working with for several years on my award-wining true crime drama, CONFESSIONS. After multiple rewrites and the involvement of two notable directors, the latest option was expiring and the project had hit a wall. I had been here before – a rocket ride to the one-yard line and the brink of a “go picture” that suddenly gets stalled. October, 2013. I met Joe Burke over a drink, a friend...

Hello 2017!  The New Year is always an exciting time for you as a creative because it's a fresh start and a blank slate to achieve whatever creative goals you have for yourself. For the past four years, one of my favorite things that I get to do is put together our Stage 32 New Years Resolution Series to assist you in achieving your goals.  To help you on your journey, I have brought in some incredibly talented Stage 32 educators to teach about a variety of above the line and below the line...

Do you often intend to check your emails quickly before your day starts and end up sitting with them for longer than you wanted? Do you feel stressed from the massive amount of disorganization in your inbox and are spending more time organizing them than actually working on your goals? You are not alone. Email technology is amazing, I love it, however as much as it can empower us, it can overwhelm us. Staying in control of your emails allows you to save time and focus on other areas of your li...

I'll start by admitting there may be more important lessons to learn while scoring a feature film in four weeks than these, but I wanted to share some of the things I observed while going through the process on the latest film, Sacred Vow. 1. Deadlines Will Change - Except Yours Now that I've said that it's actually not always true. Your deadline can change but usually not in your favor. If it does change it will likely give you less time to complete the score. I remember being hired to scor...

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” ― John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University, September 12, 1962   Filmmaking is never easy and it’s rarely fun, but I love it anyway. I have been making films since I was a child and growing up in LA. My high-school, of course, had a film program with a wind-up 16mm Bolex. My 11th-grade film teacher actually wrote on my report card that I was a “cinematic genius”....

Movies aren’t made with money. They are made with equipment, with artists, with technicians etc. Money is a key resource, but it is something that motivates and facilitates. It is not the movie itself. I like to think of it as energy. When you look at it that way, you begin to realize that there are a lot of ways to generate energy. You might find that even if you don’t have access to large amounts of money, you have more “energy” in a project than you thought.  Last year we shot a movie calle...

On the 30th of October 2016 ten composers in the Film, TV and Gaming industry will be coming together to perform their music live to picture at an event in LA. What makes this event unique is that all of the composers are women. In an industry where only 1-2% of films are scored by women, these composers are forging their way, creating music - beautiful, inspirational, colourful, dramatic, individual music. They work in film, in TV and in gaming, they create concert music and they perform. They...

As a film composer, it isn't hard to recognize that one of the hardest parts in creating a film or video project is finding or creating the right music. When I see filmmakers who don’t have access to a composer sifting through stock music lists, something always ends up getting comprised — whether it’s time, creative control, budget, etc. I love working with filmmakers, especially when the music is an artistic pillar of their project -- when the process of creation and collaboration that goes...

As filmmakers, we all try to move forward and create our films with the talent, materials and tools at our disposal. Some of these we may have in or arsenal and others we acquire through purchasing, hiring, renting, borrowing or simply putting the “arm” on colleagues. However, apart from a great story and script, some of the most important components of our productions are those resources called humans. Whether above the line or below, these critical creative team members are not inanimate objec...

No weekend News and Notes blog this weekend because I'm out of town...However... As we approach the final stretch of 2016 I thought it might be a good time to reflect a little on the creative goals we set for the year. Need a refresher on the goals you set? Here is where we all checked in to start this year. How are you doing? Making progress? Lagging behind? Changing direction entirely? Let's talk about it in the Comments section below. And, of course, if there is the opportunity to assist...