Ten Tips for Getting Into the Composing Game
No clue on how to get into this crazy composing game?
Here’s an article on Ten Tips for Getting Into the Composing Game I wrote for the fabulous Scorecast Online site.
I talk about finding your niche, networking and relationships, pitching and persistence, things that I’ve experienced and learned from ‘Getting the Gig’ – January’s topic on [...]
What I’m Lusting After: Luis and Clark Violin
Luis and Clark Violin
This is what I’m lusting after right now. A Luis and Clark Carbon Fibre Violin.
Grrrrrr…
At $5539 (or £3427) I’m saving up my pennies, and not holding hope for Santa to do the honours.
This sexy beast is made of a one-piece carbon fibre body and has gears in the pegbox. Save [...]
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 [...]
Requiem for Beyond the Front Line
As promised in my last post, here’s some news about my latest project, the Requiem for Beyond the Front Line.
It’s actually probably better to describe it as a Requiemetta, putting to music five verses of the many-more that are usually part of a Requiem.
The most exciting part about this project for me is that the [...]
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 [...]
Adventures in FTP
I used to think FTP (or file transfer protocol) was an absolute godsend to someone in my position, who was located outside of the central cities of, for example, London or LA, enabling me to work remotely and exchange files with clients all over the world.
Even saving a few hours driving time here and [...]
How to Delegate Work and Do More of the Fun Stuff
So, yeah, if anyone can tell me how that’s done, that’d be ace.
I’m rubbish at delegating. I’m of the school of thought that, if you want something done properly, do it yourself.
To be honest, in my home life this has led to numerous DIY blunders.
But in the case of music composing and sound [...]
Patience and Planning Contingencies
What do you do when your best-laid plans go awry? Do you stress out? Rile against the injustice of it all? Or do you have other strategies to deal with such a situation?
Last week, my car’s back window was smashed in. This irked me somewhat, but mostly because it messed with my schedule. But [...]
Deadlines: Making Music To Order
I live for deadlines. I love the thought that at some defined point in the future, the project that I’m currently working on will be complete, that I will have something tangible to show for all my efforts, and that I can move onto something brand new.
A deadline is wonderfully focussing. For this reason alone [...]
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 [...]
YouLicense White Label Music Download Store Set Up
The poll is still up to the right for what kind of posts you’d like to read on this site for the rest of my 30-day challenge. Let me know what you think ————————->
I’ve been working for a while now on getting my back catalogue of music that’s available to license for synchronisation [...]
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 [...]
What Is The Value Of Your Music?
The more I think about this, the more the strands of the argument grow and overlap and evolve.
I get more questions than answers and I want to know what you think.
So… what is the value of your music?
Or the value of any art you create?
Aesthetic Value
The value given to any piece of music or art [...]
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 [...]
A Day In The Life Of A Composer
Today is going to be a pretty typical day for me. As in hectic. And exactly the kind of work I like.
Although composing is now my bread and butter, I also do other work to keep the roof over my head. Today is a pretty good example of how I live day-to-day. It [...]
SCOREcast
Image via Wikipedia
It’s Sunday so I’m gonna keep this short and sweet
SCOREcast is a podcast series that I’ve just recently discovered, started by Deane Ogden, a fabulous film composer from LA that I recently became twitter-friends with. Why not follow him too: @deaneogdenmusic; and Scorecast is also on twitter as @scorecastonline.
It’s been [...]
Contingency: Planning for the Unexpected
When planning your time, or if you’re asked for an estimate for your delivery, it’s well worth including ‘contingency’ time: this is in addition to the length of time it’ll take for you to actually physically do the work…
Networking on Twitter
Image via CrunchBase
Twitter is an online, micro-blogging site which asks the simple question ‘what are you doing now?’ and you respond in 140 characters or less. I’ve been on it for about 3 weeks now, and it’s value as a networking and collaboration tool is probably what will keep me there.
Initially, I joined purely out of [...]
Film Music Composing – Ten Tips for Starting Up In Business
Register as self-employed no later than 3 months after you’ve made money from a music commission or track sale.
Decide whether you’ll trade under your own name or under a company name (for a corporate image).
Sign up with PRS and MCPS as soon as any of your music has been broadcast, or screened in a festival. Even [...]
Online Music Licensing Follow-Up: YouLicense vs CuePop
Welcome 2009! In this new year, one of my main areas of focus will be on online music licensing, and using online resources to earn money from my pre-composed music.
Back Catalogue of Music
I have an enormous back catalogue of music, in all sorts of styles: classical, orchestral, epic, intimate, pop, contemporary, avant-garde, ethnic, pastiche, sound-a-likes [...]
Ten Reasons to be your own Boss
These are a few of the benefits you get from running your own business and being your own boss…
10 Reasons to Work at Home
Here’s 10 reasons to work from home in no particular order…
Ten Top Qualities of a Great Director
I LOVE working with directors that have any or all of the following qualities.
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 [...]
