In the last few months, I've spoken at three events on panels about composing for media. Writing Music for Other People (Ivors Academy/PRS, Leeds) Composing Music for Media at the Yorkshire Music Forum Conference (Ivors Academy, Leeds) Composing Music for Children's Media at the Ivors Academy Media Conference (Ivors/PRS, London) There were many questions in …
Continue reading "Speaking at Three Q&A Panels in 2023"
It seems to me, from my limited experience on this earth (with pinches of salt for you at the ready) that there are a few qualities that really define a great director. These four qualities, taken together in balance, seem to be the essentials. There are other qualites that are definitely nice-to-have, but over the …
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I'm not quite sure how I feel about music composition AI. As a composer for commercial media, it would make sense for me to be against it. And yet, I really want to try collaborating with it. Conflicted much?
The genie’s out the bottle with AI. We’re moving to post-broadcast, streaming-only media consumption. Whether you look at the dwindling royalty system for creators, rights grabs by commissioners, the many dubious ethics of creating datasets, or any other de-valuing of a human's creative output in the 21st century, one thing is true: I’ll say it again, it is all unsustainable.
You know how it feels to send off the final draft, don’t you? I always forget. Leading up to it, I always think of how celebratory and different I’ll feel. How much lighter, but also how accomplished and even… reliable? I feel reliable in a really solid, content way. As if I set out to …
Continue reading "Final Draft – Blogmas #8"
I was thrilled to speak about production music (also known as ‘library music’) on a panel called Production Values last year at Sensoria Festival. I joined Steve Rosie, who's Senior Music Consultant at De Wolfe and Matt Wanstall from the Musician’s Union.
I want to show people how they can make more sustainable choices in their work-from-home offices and studios. I truly do believe there are very few jobs that can't be made more sustainable. Here are 8 areas to consider in your home office or studio to support your career without destroying the planet.
Networking has been weird in the last year or so, hasn't it. At a time when jobs in some media became more thin on the ground - so networking became even more important to freelancers in these industries. It seems I'm a bit in the minority in that I don't mind networking, per se, that …
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Have you joined my newsletter? If so, you may have noticed in my celebration of International Women's Day I attempted to be as inclusive as possible by using any and all words I've seen bandied about on the socials when referring to women. But here's the catch - terms like womxn, womyn, and woman-identifying are not the enlightened and educated terms I thought they were. I should have just said WOMEN.
There is no magic bullet to getting a foothold into this industry… not unless you consider hard work, lots of rejection, or a healthy bent toward self-determination a “magic bullet”. Is there an easy way in? The answer, as with most things in life, is “no”. Most things that are worth doing don’t come easy. …
Continue reading "Ten Tips for Building a Career as a Music Composer for Film, TV and Theatre"