Get the Musical Mojo Back
My latest post for SCORECastOnline is up now: How to Get Your Mojo Back
This month’s theme on SCORECastOnline, the very cool site for film music composers, sound designers, and others in the same line of work, was Creativity, and more specifically the creative process.
There’s some fantastic posts on there on what was rather a tricky [...]
SCORECast Online – Diversify to Get More Work
as a Film Composer
Whilst I’m really busy with several projects on the go at once, the blogging’s gone a little to pot.
Apologies for that
So, in the meantime, here’s a link to an article I wrote for SCORECast Online’s awesome new site on ‘diversifying’ your job description to get more work: One Man Band.
They’ve also a podcast [...]
Silence is Golden
It’s all been a quiet on the blogging front in the last month, and, for this, I apologise.
It’s because it’s been busy busy busy here! I’ve been working on developing the upcoming shows Beyond the Front Line and They Only Come At Night trilogy with Slung Low, and scoring and sound designing a gorgeous short film with [...]
Copyright and Exclusivity
Visit the Music Store here
In going through old music to see what’s available to put up on the Music Store for licensing to picture, I’ve had to go through a fair few old contracts to check what I can and can’t do with the music.
To be honest, even my younger self was [...]
Composing Film Music Tips: Imperfection
In honour of the two more voters on the poll (w00t!) —–>
I’ll continue this series of tips for composing music with a post about imperfection. Don’t worry, all will become clear…
I’ve been trawling through the ol’ music back catalogue to add to the new Music Store. It’s been a real trip down memory lane, [...]
Composing Music Tips: Suspensions
You, the public have voted: 80% of you want more posts about tips on composing music! Vote now in the poll to the right: YOU decide what goes in this blog! ——->
So here’s today’s easy-to-implement tip: suspensions.
Suspensions are an incredibly easy way of adding colour to a series of chords. At their simplest, suspensions ’suspend’ [...]
Composing Film Music Tips: The Pedal Note
Due to popular demand (aka the poll in the right sidebar), my next few posts will be tips on composing music, with an emphasis on writing music for film in particular.
Today’s tip is all about the ‘pedal note’ or ‘drone’. It’s really a very simple concept: a single, sustained note or tone.
Pedal notes [...]
What Kind Of Posts Would YOU Like To See?
Take a look at the poll at the top of the sidebar to the right: I want to know what YOU want to see and read here. You decide what I write about next. ————->
The categories are pretty self-explanatory, but if there’s something you’d like to know about that I haven’t put in [...]
Performance Awards At BAFTA
So here’s the ‘Moth To A Flame’ gang at BAFTA for the Performance Short Film Awards, with our Certificate of Honourable Mention:
right to left: Kevin Tam, the director, John Hunter, the writer, and me!
The evening went very well despite my usual trepidation at networking events (see my previous post ‘What to do when you hate [...]
What to do when you hate Networking
I’m the first to admit it. I’m rubbish at networking. I’m quiet, hate talking in public, have no idea what to say to people I don’t know, feel seriously intimidated by anyone who may been even slightly useful to talk to business-wise. I’m really not built for it at all.
So I’ve developed [...]
Inspiration
inspiration n
stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc., to special or unusual activity or creativity
the state or quality of being so stimulated or aroused
someone or something that causes this state
an idea or action resulting from such a state
the act or process of inhaling; breathing in
From English Collins Dictionary – English Definition & Thesaurus
Inspiration is [...]
How to Compose Science Fiction Music: My Personal Recipe
Image via Wikipedia
If you been reading my posts for the last week or so, then you’ll have noticed that I’ve recently been spending my days writing science fiction-related music.
If you’ve not been reading… why not?
Also, a lot of the search engine terms used that send traffic here are along the lines of ‘how [...]
Translating the Director’s Ideas into Musical Reality
I have to be honest.
It’s day 8 of the 30 Day Challenge to myself to blog a-post-a-day and I was completely stumped on a topic.
So today’s subject comes from John Hunter, my lovely man. Ta!
8 Pointers
When it comes to chatting to the director during the initial meetings for a project, it’s good to keep [...]
Online Drama ‘THE END IS NIGEL’ goes LIVE
‘THE END IS NIGEL’ is an online offbeat comedy-drama about a possible impending apocalypse…
This project was originally commissioned by SCREEN YORKSHIRE and BLINK to be a two-minute film for mobile phones, but [became] a little high-concept but low-budget online world full of webcomics, blogs and dummy websites, following saxophone-wielding deities, shady corporations and facing life after university as Verity tries to find out what happened to Nigel.
Moth To A Flame on Rollem Production’s Website
Moth To A Flame, a short film that I scored back in 2007 (that sounds like it’s ages ago!) is currently being screened on the Rollem Productions (Band of Gold, Fat Friends) Site as winning ‘Short of the Month’.
How to create sound design for a Pixar Animation:
Wall-E and Ben Burtt
Just watched Wall-E again (fab xmas present – thank you!). Have to say that robot is the most adorable thing ever – and in no small way owes this to the sound designer Ben Burtt
Discovered through a post on filmsound.org, these short videos show how Ben Burtt created the physical, sonic reality of a computer [...]
Is Film Music Art or Just Low-Brow Commercial Fluff?
Is any music that is created for a purpose, other than that of it’s own existence, art? Is film music art, or theatre music, or advert music, or music that appears on a CD-Rom presentation, or accompanying a website promo film, or music on a trailer? Even if the music’s primary purpose is purely commercial – to sell that product or promote another – does that preclude its intrinsic value as art?
Looking for a Film Music Composer Job Online?
Try Out ‘Teamscoring’
Any budding film composer really really needs to get involved with The Composer Collective. An online database, forum and resource for film music composers, they’ve just recently started ‘Teamscoring’: there’s a project in the works – the last three projects include a documentary, a drama feature and a sci-fi feature, just in the last week – and there’s the opportunity for every single member of the Composer Collective to get in on scoring it!
Online Music Licensing – How to Make Money from your Back Catalogue
Today I’ve been uploading music to YouLicense and CuePop. These are both sites in the business of online music licensing that will put that back catalogue of unused music to good use and hopefully make you some money! If you’ve also been savvy enough to keep your copyright and licensed your commissioned music non-exclusively, then [...]
10 Top Tips – Writing Film Music
So you’ve got a great commission, composing music for feature film.
Congratulations!
But now what? Here are a few ideas that I’ve learned (often from some pretty tough lessons) make the process go a little more smoothly…
Get involved as early on as possible
Communicate with your director
Communicate with the editor
Be really clear about tone/mood/emotion
Be really clear about [...]
First Post
Hi – and welcome to my new blog!
My first post comes on one of the last few performance dates of ‘Helium’ by Slung Low, performing at The Barbican in London to riotous acclaim (4 stars in The Guardian, same in Metro), and the news that I’ll be off to Florida in October with the [...]
