Should I move to L.A.?

[kevinmathie]

Hi all,I have a question that's been on my mind for the past couple of years, and I want to run it past you: Would it be worth it to move to Los Angeles? And, if it is worth it, when in my career should I consider making the move?Here's the thing: After the feedback I've gotten from Taxi and this forum, it seems like the niche that will probably eventually suit me the best is orchestral film music. I still have a lot of work to do before I get there, but if I want to make it as a composer, I think that's where my natural composing style will best fit in. But, what are the realities of the business in regards to location? Obviously, thanks to Taxi and the internet, we can go a certain distance while living in our current locations scattered throughout the country. But am I going to eventually hit a brick wall by not being in L.A.? Or, with the internet is this a moot point now?A couple of the problems I can foresee are: 1) How do I develop film maker contacts while living in a state that's not a film center? And, 2) How do I deal with spotting sessions -- where I would imagine most film makers would expect to watch their film with a composer and discuss the music cues face-to-face?One of the ways around this problem may be to visit L.A. often. It's only a 12-hour drive from my house, or a 1.5 hour flight, and I could maybe stay with a relative in Orange while I'm there. So, it's not an unreasonable thing for me to visit on a regular basis, but is that good enough? It'd be great if it is, because the cost of living is so much cheaper in Salt Lake City, but not if the cost of jobs is more.Anyway, these are some things that I've been mulling over without any good answers for some time now. But now that I'm single again, gambling on a move to L.A. is suddenly more feasible than it was when I was a married guy.Sorry for the length of this post. But I had to get these thoughts out. Thanks in advance for weighing in on this issue.Kevin

[sgs4u]

Do you have kids?Taxi is located in LA. There's gotta be more than a coupla good reasons for that. Quote:Hi all,I have a question that's been on my mind for the past couple of years, and I want to run it past you: Would it be worth it to move to Los Angeles? And, if it is worth it, when in my career should I consider making the move?Here's the thing: After the feedback I've gotten from Taxi and this forum, it seems like the niche that will probably eventually suit me the best is orchestral film music. I still have a lot of work to do before I get there, but if I want to make it as a composer, I think that's where my natural composing style will best fit in. But, what are the realities of the business in regards to location? Obviously, thanks to Taxi and the internet, we can go a certain distance while living in our current locations scattered throughout the country. But am I going to eventually hit a brick wall by not being in L.A.? Or, with the internet is this a moot point now?A couple of the problems I can foresee are: 1) How do I develop film maker contacts while living in a state that's not a film center? And, 2) How do I deal with spotting sessions -- where I would imagine most film makers would expect to watch their film with a composer and discuss the music cues face-to-face?One of the ways around this problem may be to visit L.A. often. It's only a 12-hour drive from my house, or a 1.5 hour flight, and I could maybe stay with a relative in Orange while I'm there. So, it's not an unreasonable thing for me to visit on a regular basis, but is that good enough? It'd be great if it is, because the cost of living is so much cheaper in Salt Lake City, but not if the cost of jobs is more.Anyway, these are some things that I've been mulling over without any good answers for some time now. But now that I'm single again, gambling on a move to L.A. is suddenly more feasible than it was when I was a married guy.Sorry for the length of this post. But I had to get these thoughts out. Thanks in advance for weighing in on this issue.Kevin

[ciskokidd]

Hi Kevin,I work in the LA area (live in Ventura County) and can tell you that for what you are doing I would concentrate on writing/composing and staying put in Utah until you have a relatively sufficient catalog.As you mentioned, with the Internet and TAXI you have the advantage in your style of music to stay in your area and still make a presence for yourself. I would reach out to someone like Dave Walton here on the forum who does what you are trying to do from where he lives in the midwest. He can tell you what he feels about living outside LA and still making his way into film and TV.I believe you are better suited saving yourself the money you would pay to live down here and spending it on more and better sound libraries and demo costs. As you also mentioned you could make trips to LA a few times a year while setting up appointments with publishers, supervisors, filmakers, and other contacts in advance to fully take advantage of your time here.The cost of living here just makes things difficult for you especially when you are getting started. My good friend Matto and I are a testament to how much you have to sacrifice down here in order to make ends meet and still be able to concentrate on a musical career.If all this fails to convince you and you still feel you want to live the SoCal lifestyle come on down and join us on the 405.Best of luck with your decision.Cisco

[trentoliphant]

In order to do the type of film composing it sounds like you want to do, I would think you need to be in contact with the people who are actually making the films. Salt Lake has quite the film scene, but it seems to me that most of it is just the filming not the overall production - which is where I would think the decisions of who to score a film would be made.I have a friend of mine (probably more just an acquaintance) who is a film composer and lives in Utah. He gets fairly regular work, but he told me that if he really wanted to do it more he would need to move to L.A. He didn't want to move his family there, so he is doing it the hard way. At one point he went back to school and became a lawyer to supplement his composing income. Maybe things have changed in few years it has been since I talked to him about it (about 5). As of a year ago, he has so much composing work that he isn't doing much lawyering.There are few "regional" film makers here in Utah that you could try to get experience with, including student film makers. I'm not sure if the University of Utah has a film program at all, but I know that BYU does. I could be wrong, but my understanding of the film/TV listings that are here on TAXI is that they aren't really for the scoring of the film itself. I think that is a different path than the library path. That's not to say you can't do them both simultaneously, but my impression is that they are different. Anyone that has actually experience in this, please correct me.I don't know that Salt Lake is that much cheaper anymore especially in the housing arena. Of course you wouldn't have the local gigs when you first get there that you have had here, so that would be tougher. (Maybe the rest of us locals would have a chance )I wish you luck in your decision.Trent

[Casey H]

Quote:After the feedback I've gotten from Taxi and this forum, it seems like the niche that will probably eventually suit me the best is orchestral film music. I still have a lot of work to do before I get there, but if I want to make it as a composer, I think that's where my natural composing style will best fit in. KevinHi KevinThis is the key to your answer. You are developing a niche but know that you still have a lot of work to do to make it. (Kudos for the honest assessment!! )... Your word, "eventually", is important... People like our own Dave W. here are breaking into film/TV composing and live in states such as MO... The internet has changed so much these past 10 years. That doesn't mean face-to-face isn't highly desirable. I would just keep getting better every day at what your are doing and use every imaginable outlet to pitch your work including TAXI. There are some people right here on the forum that can provide you so much assistance-- feedback, production advice, how to present your music, etc, etc... Folks like our Hummingbird (Vikki) have been masterful at listening and learning from successful folks here... And LA is sooooo freakin' expensive to live in (forgetting the earthquakes for a moment)... Casey

[kg]

Hi Kevin,All great answers from everyone. I think it's good that you stay put for a little longer and build your catalog. Exhaust every means you have to become the best you can be and make contacts right where you are and then, like you said, eventually if you really really have to, then think about moving. You are definitely close enough to LA to fly in whennecessary to network. Have you thought about making trips to film festivals to meet peole as well? You never know how it will work out. LA, San Fran, Toronto, New York, London...they are all places that have a sufficient film creating population. Just something to think about. You may have done this already and I just don't remember, but have you thought about scoring for student/grad student films? Who knows who's going to get to score the next "Blair Witch" type thing. Just spouting off the top of my head...as usual...hope it helps. K

[jamienelson]

Hi Kevin,It may be worth your while to make a trip up to Park City, UT in Jan. for Sundance too. You may be able to make some contacts there.For the cost difference of living in LA I can make several trips there a year from Wisconsin to conferences like ASCAP and Taxi and make a lot of contacts. I think the way to go is catch the up and coming film makers and get in with them. Everyone started at the bottom.

[davewalton]

Hey Kevin,"Listen to Cisco about listening to Dave". I see the possibilities of starting another line of t-shirts. The general answer based on what I've experienced so far is that you can do films and television from any location and that you won't be hindered by that location until you start getting into the real Hollywood Studio films. You'd have to be local, for the most part, in order to be a Hollywood "A" list composer. I think that has to do more with the "networking" part of it than anything else. It's all about personal relationships and you have to build some really nice ones to be the guy that scores a $60 million film. You can't build those kinds of relationships over the Internet.However, you can do a wide variety of scoring projects from anywhere in what I'd consider to be "mid-level" composing. These are things like projects for the History Channel or National Geographic, stuff like that. Maybe even Oprah. Also there's a whole slew of Independent films that fall into that "mid-level" category. If you can do those and also have a nice catalog of music in various music libraries (good ones), you can make a nice living. I'm at the very tippy tip of starting to see that for myself.The higher up you go, the more it is about personal relationship building. "Copy/credit only" films are happy to get anyone who's really good and other than requiring credits, it's not far from the same thing for short films that pay anywhere from $1000 to $3000. That isn't much but sometimes you're only doing five minutes of music for an eight minute film. I picked up a project recently that's paying me $10,000 to write a 40 second theme song so the good stuff isn't just limited to "locals". I don't know where that will lead beyond that but I know it won't be a dead end. Once you get things rolling, build up better credits, things kind of piggy back themselves to other things. So far, no one has cared about my "Cape Girardeau MO" location. I even did a low-budget Independent short produced in Hollywood where I replaced the composer when he got called away to be the orchestrator and conductor for the film "300". No kidding. It's not like there weren't any other LA composers available. Just being prepared when the "right place at the right time" kind of thing popped up. The location issue never really came up. Think of it this way... "locals" probably use FTP and email rather than driving everything across town anyway so the playing field for everything other than high budget studio films is almost level.There's a lot of truth to the thing where if you want to be a Country musician you move to Nashville and if you want to be a film composer you move to LA. Because of the housing cost that's a BIG commitment. I could fly round-trip every week and still not pay more than I'd have to pay if I moved there. So I stay here for now and work things as best I can. However, if you said "Heck, I'm going for it!" I'd be a little jealous and it wouldn't be a "crazy" move to me... at least not crazy in comparison to some of of the stunts I've pulled over the years. Happy Thanksgiving!Dave

[matto]

I have to agree with Dave. I would say moving to LA is a good idea for two categories of composers: 1 - Young kids who are willing to live at poverty level for a few of years trying to land and benefit from an internship with a well-established film or tv composer and get their foot in the door that way, and 2 - Well established composers with significant pre-existing film/tv scoring credits who want to try to take a shot at the big time.There is such fierce competition in this town that, IMHO, there's no real point in coming here under other circumstances. There are a ton of working composers here who already have the connections, and a ton more who have the dream to score big time tv shows or movies waiting in line for every new opening, so I think you're better off building your credits and experience in your local market and via the internet.Once you've got significant credits (which would also mean significant financial liquidity), you can always still come on down and give it a shot in La La Land .To be honest with you, if I didn't love it here, I would probably live somewhere a lot cheaper. Like...uhmm...in your neck of the woods. I certainly wouldn't have to live here to do what I'm doing...unfortunately I seem to have fallen victim to the Hotel California curse... matto

[kevinmathie]

Thanks everyone for your great comments! OK, I feel a lot better about staying here in little ol' Utah. Not only is the cost of living less here, but I have a lot of connections here -- personal and professional.Plus, I don't want Trent coming in and stealing my gig at The Grand Theatre! (Just kidding Trent! You'd be fabulous at The Grand. BTW, you did a great job musically directing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I really enjoyed the show! And, it was great that you did it with live musicians, rather than going the minus-track route like so many theatre companies do nowadays.)