Help me define success

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Casey H
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Re: Help me define success

Post by Casey H » Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:14 pm

Thank you Nomi for starting this thread! (I better go post some more jeopardy questions so my thread stays in front, LOL)...I've said this before but some of the things that happened for me the past 2 days made me want to chime in again. For me personally, I am glad that I don't measure success in financial terms. (If I did, I'd have to call myself a miserable failure). Three "successes" came my way these past few days, none of which paid a penny. A song was used in an Internet racing car video, and songs were placed in rotation on 2 more podcasts/Internet stations. I step and back and remember that those songs came from my head and my guitar- creations from my inner soul. So, just seeing one of my creations played anywhere except my living room is a success for me. Someone posted on another thread, asking what our dreams were. I started writing songs when I was about 16 (the year 1970) and dreamed my whole life about doing something with them. It wasn't until the year 2000 that I started pursuing the dream. And now 7 years later, I've heard my music used in many places. The money from that has been almost infinitesimal. But I consider myself a success. I'm thinking what I'm doingI'm thinking what I've doneI'm thinking about my motherWho never thought I'd comeQuite this far from nowhereTo hear myself be sung ** Casey** 10 points to the first person who can identify the artist and song for those words...

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Re: Help me define success

Post by squidlips » Fri Aug 17, 2007 4:50 pm

Quote: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,DaveFirst off, thanks nomi for asking so many questions (and so persistently and politely) that I was too shy to ask! And a special thanks to matto, dave and beatsbygc for all the welcome info.......Dave, I have a couple of questions.......1. You mention that finding films to score is one of the easier venues? Could you be more specific? 2. I'm very curious about the five-year plan you mention. I'd really like to have some solid goals, since I'm an infant to this new way of doing music. My old way was simply do CDs and live gigs to sell units (or make cash) and go home, only to start the process all over again. I'm in school full-time now, two kids, negotiating a divorce, jes finished rebuilding my house after Katrina, after I survived breast cancer. You'd think I could figure out what it is I want from Taxi and from music. Any ideas on how to narrow down what I want? Did you just know or did you have to sit down and figure it out?Thanks for any info on this and of course, if you feel I'm infringing on your privacy, please feel free to sic sexy matto on me. BTW, warm-hearted women are not that hard to find, gentlemen. I agree with nomi and hummingbird on that. Well, maybe warm-hearted women who look like JLo or Angeline Jolie are.

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Re: Help me define success

Post by squidlips » Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:44 am

Quote:I'm thinking what I'm doingI'm thinking what I've doneI'm thinking about my motherWho never thought I'd comeQuite this far from nowhereJust to hear myself be sung ** Casey** 10 points to the first person who can identify the artist and song for those words... Safka Melanie......Tuning My Guitar. Swish! 10 points!

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Re: Help me define success

Post by Casey H » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:13 am

Quote:Quote:I'm thinking what I'm doingI'm thinking what I've doneI'm thinking about my motherWho never thought I'd comeQuite this far from nowhereJust to hear myself be sung ** Casey** 10 points to the first person who can identify the artist and song for those words... Safka Melanie......Tuning My Guitar. Swish! 10 points! Wow! I'm impressed!! That's one almost nobody gets!! I've always been a big fan of Melanie's music and don't think she gets credit for being an excellent songwriter (as well as performer). I wish she never released, "Brand New Key" because a lot of people associate her with that sort of bubblegum song and don't realize how many great songs she wrote. I have her double-album, "Live at Carnegie Hall"... She performs for about 2 hours-just her and her guitar... nothing else... no backup singers, musicians, pre-recordings, etc... Who could pull that off today? Casey

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Re: Help me define success

Post by squidlips » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:24 am

Quote:Quote:Safka Melanie......Tuning My Guitar. Swish! 10 points! Wow! I'm impressed!! That's one almost nobody gets!! I've always been a big fan of Melanie's music and don't think she gets credit for being an excellent songwriter (as well as performer). I wish she never released, "Brand New Key" because a lot of people associate her with that sort of bubblegum song and don't realize how many great songs she wrote. I have her double-album, "Live at Carnegie Hall"... She performs for about 2 hours-just her and her guitar... nothing else... no backup singers, musicians, pre-recordings, etc... Who could pull that off today? CaseyOh, there's a few who could. But we'll never know who they are. Sadly.

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Re: Help me define success

Post by davewalton » Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:35 pm

Quote:Dave, I have a couple of questions.......Hello,I read your post about the forward for the jazz stuff and I started looking through your posts for a web link or something and ran across your questions below. I was gone for a while so I guess I just missed them. Quote:1. You mention that finding films to score is one of the easier venues? Could you be more specific? I think I meant easier as compared to getting a record deal. It's especially true for getting music into film/tv. There's literally millions of slots where music is used on tv but there's only a handful of record deals available. On their own, film score deals and film/tv deals are still VERY competitive and certainly less predictable than any business I've ever been involved in.Quote:2. I'm very curious about the five-year plan you mention. I'd really like to have some solid goals, since I'm an infant to this new way of doing music. My old way was simply do CDs and live gigs to sell units (or make cash) and go home, only to start the process all over again. I'm in school full-time now, two kids, negotiating a divorce, jes finished rebuilding my house after Katrina, after I survived breast cancer. You'd think I could figure out what it is I want from Taxi and from music. Any ideas on how to narrow down what I want? Did you just know or did you have to sit down and figure it out?The five-year plan is probably more of a frame of mind. I came to Taxi in 2004 after a L-O-N-G time away from music. I originally figured that I'd have something happening in about eight months. When the eight month mark arrived and I was still struggling with sounding "current" I figured I should revise my expectations. When I think "five years" I'm a lot more patient than when I'm expecting things to happen overnight. Kind of a Jedi mind trick on myself I guess but it works. I started getting a better sense of "what I wanted", honestly, by hanging around this forum. I think my original idea was to do a New Age CD and then hopefully figure out what to do with it. I eventually decided that's not what you'd call a well developed plan. My wife especially will tell you I'm a dreamer. I went through all kinds of crazy ideas. I don't know that there's really any way to narrow down the options other than trying some of them out. The film thing for me was something where the first project I did was for free, a trailer for a horror flick. After I saw the end result, how much difference the music made, I was hooked on the electric feeling I got by breathing life into films through music. I also saw Matto and others being very successful using music libraries to get their music placed into films and television. For right now at least, my goal is to strike a balance between the immediate gratification I get from the films and the long term security and enjoyment that can come about through royalties paid out as a result of television placements.For performers, it's hard I think to get that balance between what you described (playing out, selling CD's, etc) and doing non-performing stuff like providing music for tv shows or whatever. If all this raises more questions than it answers, ask away. Dave

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Re: Help me define success

Post by squidlips » Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:16 pm

Thanks for answering my questions, I appreciate it. I understand the opps better now.And yes, we're of like minds.....music makes film (or sometimes the lack of it). It must be so amazing to hear your music and see it in motion. That's so cool!I'm forced because of my situation (age, weird voice, you know) to seek out film/tv and besides, back in 1989 when I first heard Carly Simon's Let The River Run at the end of Working Girl (was that the movie? Who cares what it was! The song was GREAT), I was hooked on the idea of doing that.....being able to write instrumentals (too shy to submit mine to all y'all yet, you'll smack me) and to have songs on film somehow. Maybe one day. Meantime, I jes keep trying to restrain myself from wandering completely off the map musically. I should jes get an invisible fence and give up all the self-maintenance. Anyway, if you lookin' fo me, I'm here:http://www.getnitahope.comhttp://www.br ... .comThanks again, so much. Us dreamers........we make the world pretty. If only in our minds.

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Re: Help me define success

Post by michael11 » Fri Sep 07, 2007 4:44 am

Quote:Thanks for answering my questions, I appreciate it. I understand the opps better now.And yes, we're of like minds.....music makes film (or sometimes the lack of it). It must be so amazing to hear your music and see it in motion. That's so cool!I'm forced because of my situation (age, weird voice, you know) to seek out film/tv and besides, back in 1989 when I first heard Carly Simon's Let The River Run at the end of Working Girl (was that the movie? Who cares what it was! The song was GREAT), I was hooked on the idea of doing that.....being able to write instrumentals (too shy to submit mine to all y'all yet, you'll smack me) and to have songs on film somehow. Maybe one day. Meantime, I jes keep trying to restrain myself from wandering completely off the map musically. I should jes get an invisible fence and give up all the self-maintenance. Anyway, if you lookin' fo me, I'm here:http://www.getnitahope.comhttp://www.br ... .comThanks again, so much. Us dreamers........we make the world pretty. If only in our minds. "wierd voice"????!!!!!!!!A beautiful, beautiful voice I am still listening to Nearer My god I haven't got on to your other stuff yet!!This is from across the pond (UK) so you are becoming an international star.
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Re: Help me define success

Post by squidlips » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:36 am

Michael,Thank you. That's so sweet of you. Wow, all the way across the pond, eh? Made my day!

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Re: Help me define success

Post by michael11 » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:45 am

Quote:Michael,Thank you. That's so sweet of you. Wow, all the way across the pond, eh? Made my day! Thanks for the thanks Nita.Your post prompted me to have yet another listen.A world class performance.Absolutly beautiful.
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