How Important Is Formal Education To The Film Composer?
How important is a formal, relevant education to the film composer? And specifically media-related music degrees?
Beyond The Front Line – Up and Running
Beyond The Front Line, the Slung Low promenade show, is now playing at the Lowry Theatre in Salford until next weekend (17th Oct 2009)
TOCANLive: The Hunt Goes Live Online!
EDIT: TOCANLive is offline now. It was a wonderful experience to make and so this post is here for posterity. Slung Low, the fantabulous theatrical collective, is launching TOCANLive this Monday, 10th August. TOCANLive is an Alternative Reality Game (ARG) that will expand the world of 'They Only Come At Night', Slung Low's series of …
SCORECast Online – Diversify to Get More Work as a Film Composer
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. This starts a regular column for me called Composer's Tips and Tricks. They've also a podcast which is seriously useful and entertaining stuff. SCORECast Online is fast becoming a …
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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 …
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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 …
Just Because You Don’t Like It, Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Music
I can't begin to count how many times I've heard a friend, in response to a piece of music or film or some other piece of art, proclaim, "It's rubbish," (or use much stronger language 😉 ) when actually what they mean is, "I don't like it." That bugs me a bit. Don't get me …
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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 backup plans, contingencies, or 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 …
Finding Unexpected Inspiration
Inspiration, the source of creativity. I would say that mine usually comes from the film or script that I have in front of me, or conversations with a director. These are, at least, the most obvious source. This morning I drove from Sheffield to Manchester for my final day working with Slung Low at the …
Composer in Residence for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards
I'm very pleased to announce... I'm the Composer-in-Residence for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards! Very exciting. You may have noticed the science fiction theme creeping a little into this blog of late (ok. a lot. a whole massive amount), and this is why. The Arthur C. Clarke Awards 2009 were held on Wednesday 29th March …
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