Help me define success

[marineer]

DO YOU THINK, THAT MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT ...SEX & DRUGS & ROCK´n ROLL .... Hmmm ... yeah .... pretty much ! watch out : WWW.WIDGEONHOLLAND.COMthis guy rox !!!

[hookstownbrown]

Nope, sorry Marineer... It's all about good-hearted women, beer and country music...

[matto]

Quote:When you create music custom for soundtracks, how does it work? Do you submit a variety and let them pick, get told themes or moods or products, get exact number of seconds, work with film clips or scripts or cue sheets, get invited to movie premiers?First let's not use the term "soundtracks" which typically refers to soundtrack albums. The music in tv/film normally falls under one of 3 categories: theme, underscore, and source music. Underscore is the music that, ahem, underscores the happenings on screen, and is in most cases (but not all), written to picture, by the composer attached to the project. Source music is music the characters in the film/show would hear, weather it's coming from a car radio, the juke box in a bar, elevator music, atmospheric music in a restaurant etc. This is normally not written by the composer but comes from music libraries.The theme is...kinda obvious, and often written by the same composer who does the underscore.I don't really write to picture, it's not an avenue I've pursued or am pursuing for the forseeable future.So I normally don't write custom music for a specific TV show or film. The custom music I write is mostly written for music libraries.They typically give me parameters such as number and length of songs, style, mood, instrumentation in some cases...some are quite specific and supply me with examples, others pretty much let me do whatever(within the agreed-upon stylistic direction). Some will want to hear demos and approve the songs on a case by case basis, others just "trust" me once the concept has been established.It is then up to those libraries to market the music and find appropriate homes for it.Some ends up as source music (particularly my Latin and World music), some ends up fulfilling the function of underscore on shows that are not scored to picture, such as Spanish soap operas, smaller reality shows (such as "America's Next Top Model", which has been using one of my pieces fairly regularly this season), various daytime programming and of course a lot of cable tv shows where there's no money to hire a composer.The only case in recent time where I have written for a specific show is with the stuff I'm now doing for Oprah, but even there it is library music which is edited into the show, the shows are not scored (as is the case with most if not all daily shows; there just isn't enough time).In this case we're basically given a bunch of moods and some other parameters, and the cues are subject to approval on a track by track basis.Quote:The artist in me has always dreamed of composing with actual film clips. I’ve seen it done in movie and television studios and high end music studios. Is this feasible in a home studio and if so what is good equipment/software?It's definitely feasible. Most of the underscore you hear on TV is produced in someone's home studio. So are the smaller indie movies. Most of the big Hollywood productions are still recorded with live orchestras, but a lot of time the score is written and "mocked-up" in home studios (meaning it is written using orchestral samples to let the director hear and approve it before the samples are replaced by the real thing at a major studio). All the major sequencing programs (Protools, Cubase, Logic, Digital Performer, Sonar) offer music to picture facilities; with the advent of digital video it's gotten quite simple.The technology part is the easy part...getting the work is MUCH harder...if you're talking about paying work.Oh...I NEVER get invited to movie premieres, I'm just an insignificant cog in a giant production machinery. I'm lucky if I find out ahead of time when one of my songs gets used in a TV show...a lot of times I don't find out until I get the royalty statement.I do get a screen credit in movies though, which is actually quite nice .matto

[davewalton]

Quote:The artist in me has always dreamed of composing with actual film clips. I’ve seen it done in movie and television studios and high end music studios. Is this feasible in a home studio and if so what is good equipment/software? Or do you prefer to leave this kind of work to others?Hi Nomi,Chase those dreams! I'm starting to do what you describe and I can say that there is nothing more electrifying than bringing a movie to life with your music. Because the music is so important, you are really branding that movie with your personal touch. There's really nothing like it the first time you see it all put together.I'm a regular guy with a midi-based home studio. I invested in good equipment so that I wouldn't be at a disavantage with my competition. The really big change I made within myself, is to consider the orchestra to be the center of my universe and to add electronic and/or ethnic instruments as necessary. We're talking midi orchestra of course, but the high end midi orchestra packages can fool most of the people most of the time. For film scoring you have to be able to produce fairly realistic orchestral music. The more realism you can produce, the higher you can go in terms of movie quality. I'm strictly talking about independent film here, not Hollywood. My personal opinion is that finding films to score is one of the easier avenues. Compared to getting a record deal, even from an indie label, finding an indie film to score is a piece of cake. Case in point: In 2005 I've done a feature horror/suspense film and a reality show TV pilot. I never could have landed two record deals. But if it were easy, I would have fifty credits not just two. Payment is another issue. I'm in for the long haul and I have a 5 year plan to become profitable. A lot of low budget indie films are low or no pay upfront with deferred payment if the film turns profitable. Composer credit is the form of currency that gets you to the next level. If I have two credits and Fred Smith has ten credits, Fred has the upper hand if we're competing for a nice film project.Having said all that, there are a lot of home based composers making a good living. I'm two years into my five year plan. I'll let you know how it turned out at the end of 2008. Good luck,Dave

[nomiyah]

matto,oprah? ok, that's it, i'm officially one of your groupies. i have a song for her. i watch america's top model, which song is yours? congratulations on all your successes.i have to say it again, thank you for sharing your experiences. i learned so much from your last answer. writing for a music library sounds great.i've been invited to premiers (Blade 2 and SWAT) as a performer for after parties. performers get all the fun but i'd rather stay home and be a songwriter and producer.You are very inspiring. Thanks for mentoring.Nomi

[nomiyah]

dave,right, it does look like fun! what software / hardware are you using for audio and what for video? does it allow for video editing as well? not that i'm a film editor, but if i decide to get into this stuff, i'd like to work on music videos as well as scoring.i love orchestra. i have a classical training and have performed in orchestras. such as the Karamazov Brothers circus orchestra, regional Gilbert and Sullivan productions, community chamber orchestras.i wrote a song based on pachelbel's canon, very orchestral and choir like, called Time It Takes.http://www.broadjam.com/artists/artisti ... D=24323btw is there a secret to linking to an mp3 so you can just click on a link and hear the music? i don't like sending someone to my site for a song because then they have to navigate to hear it.thanks for your comments.nomi

[davewalton]

Quote:what software / hardware are you using for audio and what for video? does it allow for video editing as well? not that i'm a film editor, but if i decide to get into this stuff, i'd like to work on music videos as well as scoring.I use Sonar as my main platform. Instruments are basically Symphonic Orchestra Gold, Stormdrum, Atmosphere, Trilogy, Stylus RMX, and Virtual Guitar. Sonar, like other packages in its category, allows you to import a video file and score music to that video.I use several video converters, Xilisoft and AVS video converters, to get video from one format to another (DVD to AVI or whatever). For splitting up the converted videos into individual scenes I've just been using Windows Movie Maker. Beyond splitting a video into sections, I don't have the need to do video editing so I can't comment much on that.For working with Indie films at the level I'm at, this all seems to work pretty well.

[nomiyah]

dave,thanks for the shop talk. i'll check out the ones i haven't heard of yet.nomi

[matto]

Quote:oprah? ok, that's it, i'm officially one of your groupies. i have a song for her. i watch america's top model, which song is yours? congratulations on all your successes.Hehe, well it's not like I've ever met Oprah or anything...remember: insignificant cog. Sadly, I've never met the Top Models either ...the song is during the "elimination scene" where Tyra hands them the photographs. It's not on everytime that scene occurs, but about half the time...including, supposedly, tonight's season finale .

[nomiyah]

Dear Insignificant Cog-oWatched Top Model tonight. I listened to the music during the finale and took notes (just call me Grasshopper). There were five distinct parts in the final few minutes.1. Judges talk, background, percussion / keys2. Tyra makes decision, prominent, gong / toms / keys3. Models come before judges, guitar / synth / piano4. Winner announced, rock pop, guitar / keys / bass / drums5. Montage about winner to end credits, dramatic power rock.Were any of these yours? Did you watch? I guess 3 would be the elimination scene.Do you think this music was most likely provided by a music library? What are the most successful libraries in LA? Does one person provide the little clips all together or does the library provide little clips to the tv sound editor to mix into the video?When you spoke of making custom music, what kind of length do they ask for, full length songs, 45 seconds, 30, 25, 10? (When I did background for cable commercials, I was asked to make 30 second clips, 5 seconds for a custom answering machine recording.)Your insignificant other.Nomi