The game music business is pretty much like the film business, the music business, any business really, in that it is all about relationships. Who you know is really important and it's getting to know those people that takes time and repetition. This year I was able to walk up to some fairly influential folks and have them remember meeting me last year. It is also a pretty small world, and the people who are serious about it are the ones that attend these events anyway.
The GDC is pretty amazing in that it is possible to come out of a talk and instantly be in the hallway with any number of well known and "top of the game" composers. There is also time on the first day for something similar to the mentor lunches at the Taxi Rally and I was able to spend about 30 minutes sitting next to Jason Graves, composer for Dead Space, amongst other famous titles that gamers would recognize. http://www.jasongraves.com/ He is a Digital Performer user as well as a lover of the music of Stravinsky so we had a lot in common and we had a very nice chat.
Some of the composers attending that it was possible to shake hands with and even chat with for a minute or two:
Inon Zur
Jason Hayes
Gerard Marino
Garry Schuyman
Lennie Moore
Paul Lipson
Chance Thomas
Tom Salta
Marty McConnell
Will Roget
Jason Hayes
This is in addition to the audio directors for the big studios (Sony, etc.) that are in attendance. I even had the chance to chat with composer agent Bob Rice who works with Inon Zur, Tom Salta among others and who I am affiliated with due to a Taxi forward a couple of years ago.
I went for a glass of wine at the W hotel just steps from the convention center Tuesday night and ended up sitting next to the director of games from a company in Toronto. We had a nice chat for 30 minutes or so (I bought him a beer, of course!
) and he mentioned that they might need 45 seconds of music for a mobile game they were working on, kind of an Angry Birds thing, musically at least (Oh, BTW met the composer for Angry Birds today too!! LOL) Anyway, he asked me for a ballpark price and I blurted something out. The next morning I sent an e-mail to Bob Rice to see if I could talk to him about the price I quoted since I don't really know these things for sure. He called me back but I was in a session and didn't recognize his cell phone number (DOH!!!). Anyway, it was cool to hear his voice on my voice mail and it turns out I was in the ballpark with my numbers! I don't know if I'll hear from the Toronto guy but I did really try to follow the networking advice of our guru friends Tracey and Vance and others and let the guy just talk about himself, his family, his job, etc., etc. It really makes a difference when people feel that you are interested in them and not just trying to pitch yourself to them. I'm a composer in it for the long haul, not a used car salesman and I'd rather have a few great clients who are friends. It's just continuing to make those connections and practicing the networking skills. I will certainly be following up with him!
I can see that it will take more time to find that little opening in the game business and one of the ways I'll need to do that is by networking with folks that make games. Trying to get hired by the big guys without a lot of experience is kind of like trying to get Hans Zimmer's gig on the next Mission Impossible movie or something, but there are a ton of people developing mobile and social (Facebook) games, particularly in the bay area, where I live. I'll start there and work my way to the top!!
There were some awesome classes where the composers deconstruct their composition processes and play examples from the games they've scored. In one particularly memorable session, the audio director for the game Fallout:New Vegas, which I think is just out or will be out soon, talked about how he interacted with Inon Zur to get the score created and in the last 15 minutes or so, Inon showed up and was able to take questions about the aesthetic decisions they made. It was fascinating to see how they implemented the music into the game so as to give the player the feeling that the music is following them around and changing as they go, but it is still very subtle and tasteful in it's implementation so you don't feel the need to turn it off because it is endlessly looping. EDIT: it's been out since 2010 but it looks like they add to it occasionally.
Jason Graves and Garry Schuyman spoke about using Aleatoric Techniques in composing and demystified it by showing and playing examples from 20th century music and music from their own scores.
I could go on and on. The moral of the story and take home for me:
Continue to study the craft
Network, network, network, it's a relationship business
Followup with all the folks I met, even the composers, who all know each other and folks that are just a bit above me in the business are collaborating and playing sessions for each other, etc. It's a community!
Resting tonight and then back to the studio.
Thanks for reading this long report, if you got this far, you are a good friend!
Cheers and Blessings!
Mazz
