orchestrating a feature

[anthony34]

Dear Lydia - I only joined the forum this week and I've just encountered your thread. How utterly amazing. Since I'm not a music reader, it's a path that I can never tread and I can only read with incredulity of this great circumstance in which you are involved. I hope to find out what the film is called and be able to watch it and hear your work. Good luck with the rest of the project (and watch out for too much coffee). Kind regards, Michael W.

[crystallions]

Sept 30, 2008, 4:50am, anthony34 wrote:Dear Lydia - I only joined the forum this week and I've just encountered your thread. How utterly amazing. Since I'm not a music reader, it's a path that I can never tread and I can only read with incredulity of this great circumstance in which you are involved. I hope to find out what the film is called and be able to watch it and hear your work. Good luck with the rest of the project (and watch out for too much coffee). Kind regards, Michael W.Dear Michael,you never know what the future holds. Hans Zimmer has no formal education and see where he is today... (I don't know if he reads music or not but I know he never went to school to learn how to do it)The film is called "Pendragon, Sword of His Father" and you can watch the trailer on my web sitewww.lydialashton.tvor my MySpacewww.myspace.com/lydialashton(I scored the trailer about one year ago)I promise to not drink too much coffee... ~ Lydia

[crystallions]

I am now finished with my part of the score. I orchestrated about 45 minutes of music for the film. The people who orchestrated the war scenes orchestrated about 30 minutes combined and at the very end they added an extra orchestrator to get everything done in time and he orchestrated about 10 minutes of music.They decided last week to move the deadline from Nov 1st to Nov. 14th so I have still not seen the final product. I have seen bits and pieces and I am very excited about what I have seen so far. As soon as I have the OK from the director I will post some music from the score for you to listen to. (and hopefully some clips from the film as well so you see how the music fits in). It will probably be toward the end of the month.~ Lydia

[flyingtadpole]

Thank you for all this, Lydia. Bookmarked, for sure!And here is a tip I'll gladly run off with and apply it to my own orchestrations of my own initial drafts, without feeling any guilt whatsoever at my own initial incompetence!...Sept 29, 2008, 12:08pm, crystallions wrote:I guess I actually should not say I delete everything and start over because I do keep the tempo map and the "hit" markers. I only start over with the music itself (using the ideas from their original draft as foundation so to speak). At first I tried keeping what they sent, cleaning it up and adding parts, but that ended up taking longer than "starting over". (to save time they don't quantize which leaves it up to me to decide exact duration of notes and where things really fall. Sometimes that gets tricky and it is easier to listen to it and re-record it in time with the metronome than to look at it and try to make sense of what I see)...and as a classically-trained who came late to the popular world, lo these many moons ago, I just love the notion of delivering "stems"... visions of a wonderful bouquet being presented, or even "Strew on her roses, roses..."Thanks again for sharingTim

[crystallions]

Nov 5, 2008, 4:44pm, flyingtadpole wrote:Thank you for all this, Lydia. Bookmarked, for sure!And here is a tip I'll gladly run off with and apply it to my own orchestrations of my own initial drafts, without feeling any guilt whatsoever at my own initial incompetence!...Sept 29, 2008, 12:08pm, crystallions wrote:I guess I actually should not say I delete everything and start over because I do keep the tempo map and the "hit" markers. I only start over with the music itself (using the ideas from their original draft as foundation so to speak). At first I tried keeping what they sent, cleaning it up and adding parts, but that ended up taking longer than "starting over". (to save time they don't quantize which leaves it up to me to decide exact duration of notes and where things really fall. Sometimes that gets tricky and it is easier to listen to it and re-record it in time with the metronome than to look at it and try to make sense of what I see)...and as a classically-trained who came late to the popular world, lo these many moons ago, I just love the notion of delivering "stems"... visions of a wonderful bouquet being presented, or even "Strew on her roses, roses..."Thanks again for sharingTimLove the picture of the bouquet... I'll remember that

[suzdoyle]

Congrats, Lydia! I'm excited to see the movie and hear your wonderful work in it! And thank you so much for generously sharing your creative process about this project. It was very educational!High Five! and Hurrahs!,Suz

[devin]

Wow Lydia...thank you for taking the time to provide this insight into your process! I'm excited to see the movie when it's available.P.S. Good for you for finishing on time! Congrats!

[crystallions]

Thanks Suz! You're welcome Devin. Thanks for the congrats on turning it in on time. It was last minute (finished it the afternoon of the last day - but I did get it to them that day!)

[crystallions]

I have some really exciting news about this film... I just found out that it is nominated for "Best Feature" at the SAICFF (San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival). There are 8 films nominated total. http://www.independentchristianfilms.com/program/ The winner receives a cash prize of $101,000!!! (and while I wouldn't see any of that since I did work for hire - it would still be very cool if it won!!!) I have also been approached by the conductor of the symphony in Tulsa about he possibility of them performing the music from the original trailer for Pendragon during their film score concert in February. (I scored the original trailer about one year ago. There is now a new trailer for the film using music from the film score.) That would be absolutely awesome!!! I will keep you informed... I am still waiting for the OK to post some of the music on my web site and will let you know as soon as that is done. ~ Lydia

[mazz]

Excellent news Lydia. I'm happy to hear that your music is being recognized!!I hope all's well with you and your family.Mazz