As I get a little more “edumacated”, however, I am finding that all of those things, as cool as they seemed when I was little, aren’t the least bit cool now. And why? Well, sadly, most of them were a product of the consumer machine that much of our society is still chugging away at today, it’s just that back then it all looked a little more unsophisticated, a little more raw and rough. But still, it’s the same machine, and because I was younger I bought into it. In reality, most of that stuff has not stood the test of time, and now, when the opportunity comes to try and get back into it, I can’t go there.

Here is a sad, very sad example: Commando was on a few days ago on Cinemax Action. Now, I’ve always loved old Schwarzenegger movies. They’re a complete riot. But after I finished laughing at Ahnold’s silly one-liners, the weight of just how goofy a film like Commando is nowadays was too much for me to bear. I was crushed. “Dammit,” I thought to myself. “This movie was so damned’ cool! Sully’s demise was so much funnier on Laserdisc than it is on Skin-emax! What the hell happened?”

Time, man. TIME happened. Time is the “cool” killer—the cool disintegrator. The recipe that made shows like Commando so cool back in the day consisted of one cool effect after another, layer upon layer of “cool”. Now, though, layers and layers of what was cool no longer make any sense in the context of our “economy of cool”. Again, it’s a time thing. The film is dated now, to the point of it literally being just one big fat gigantic ridiculous mess of “uncool”.

The same happens today, only with CGI. Films like G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra and the remake of Clash of the Titans might have been amazingly creative had the filmmakers not gone for the cheap thrill by just stringing together one CGI set-piece after another, until the film finally feels like one big giant ridiculous mess of, yes… uncool. In twenty years, movie-making will have gone through several more incarnations of “cool”, and we’ll be having this conversation again, except we’ll be talking about Avatar. Is it cool? Of course. But, emphasis on “is”. “Is” is current. Will it be cool? is a question that can only be answered later on.

The question, then, becomes, “What kinds of things remain “cool” no matter what time has to say about them?” Well, one could argue that “story” is still cool. Personally, I don’t like animated films, but the storylines in most Pixar films are unarguably at least half of what makes them so successful. Toy Story 3 might not look as amazing in twenty years as it did this summer because the technology will have changed so drastically by then, but my bet is that the storyline of the film will still be cool enough to choke up a new generation of viewers.

In the context of film music, we could observe the same effectual deterioration of our artform. Harmonic theory and melody have given way, in a lot of cases, to drones and the recently popular, yet musically ambiguous “ambient music design”. It takes a little doing these days to find a score for a popular tentpole that isn’t reliant on pads and drones—”atmospheric” is the buzzword I keep hearing around the studio I work at. It feels like people are a little more concerned sometimes with being “cool” with their choices of sounds and atmospheres (there’s that word again!) and less “cool”, or “creative”, in making sure that they figure a unique way to write for a character or story point. All but lost is the art of creating something uniquely suited to a character or story point in the narrative from a “aural” perspective.

I wonder what would happen if we, as composers, focused less on being “cool” and more on being “creative”? Would we need to give the “Best Picture” treatment to composers at the Oscars and expand the “Best Score” category to ten nominations as well? Would there be so many killer melodic scores with outstanding orchestration that we’d have trouble choosing? Would the line between “sound design” and “score” become even more clear, as sound designers would be more free to create without fear that the composer was going to cover it all up with atmosphere?

What does that mean to you in your work? How can you be less cool and more creative? What are YOUR personal definitions of “uncool” and how do you carefully navigate around them in your work?

COMMENTS are open below. Lurkers: Time to come out and play!

But the giant elephant in the room is something that was recently discussed in a private community meeting that A-list Hollywood oboist Tom Boyd and SCO founder Deane Ogden put together in late September.

The original topic: How to get more film scoring dates to come back to Los Angeles.
The NEW topic: Does anybody care?

In the spirit of  discussion which makes SCOREcastOnline.com what it is, we go to YOU—the actual people being affected here.

Read this article (and the associated links therein) and tell us what you think if it all. Are musicians living in a fantasy world? What’s YOUR take?

COMMENTS are open below.

Basically, I suck.

I’m terrible at promotion. What I am great at, however, is returning calls, responding to emails; all of the things that are required to do business. I can handle those tasks with no problems, but when it comes to these social networking tools that are the rage right now, I’m the last guy you want advice from.

And so… I’ll do the opposite. I’m going to give you the antidote to all of those things; the secret weapon; the Kryptonite to what everyone else is telling you. I’m going to tell you what works better than any Tweet, Facebook status update, or MySpace Bulletin will ever work. This one single piece of advice will change your life, I promise.

Shut up and score.

This town—Los Angeles—is full of crap… and I’m not talking about content, I’m talking about people’s lines of BS. Vigorous self-promotion and self-aggrandizement the likes of nothing I’ve ever seen. Everyone has a spiel. Everybody has a schtick. I see many composers online talking about this and that on Twitter or Facebook—what they’ve done, what they are doing—and I think, “But how is your music?”

There seems to be two types of people in this particular area of focus: The composers that talk about everything that’s going on but have nothing actually going on, and the composers who talk about the stuff they actually do have going on. The second group I will “follow” or “friend”, and the first I absolutely will not.

There is another group of people that I will not be associated with who just gather follows or friends. I cannot tell you how many friend requests I get from people that are just out looking to build up their number of friends on Facebook or their followers on Twitter. If you are one of these people—and it is easy to tell who you are because either we have tons of friends in common but have never met or spoken, or worse yet, we have zero friends in common and have never spoken!—I will decline you without hesitation.

Here’s the thing, and then I’ll give you SCOREcasters the floor to tell me why I’m wrong or right… If you are a great composer, PROVE IT. Let us hear this amazing sound that’s coming out of your head. You don’t need to self-promote. Your music should do that talking. Your work should be your promoter. If you feel like you need to self-promote (which, given the fierce competition out there, you very well might), then do it with your work. Post some of your cues every once in a while. Have some guts! Let us hear this amazing music you keep talking about. Risk a little and put yourself out there. Let the world experience the creativity you have pouring forth. I seriously doubt your producers/directors will care. If you think they will, then ask them! I think you’ll be surprised as to what they say.

Quietly promote yourself, and back it up with evidence. To put it bluntly… Shut up and score.

FACEBOOK EXAMPLES WITH CLEAN, QUIET PROMOTION… WITH THE GUTS TO BACK IT UP WITH MUSIC:

Neal Acree
Mark Brisbane
Bill Brown
Shawn Clement
Mark Mosher
David Newman

Although the actions of the AMCL Steering Committee—the eleven men who have taken it upon themselves to spearhead the effort to unionize composers in Los Angeles under the Teamsters Local 399 banner—have run a somewhat confusing gamut from ill-prepared to scatter-brained to misinformed to moderately victorious, one thing is particularly clear: The AMCL and the Teamsters Union have zero intentions of unionizing ALL composers. They only want the “working ones”.

What does that mean? AMCL Steering Committee member Mike Post, one of the most successful (if not THE most successful) composers in television history, said at the last AMCL meeting at the WGA that he will not “be part of a union that is run by non-working people”. Well, so far, the Teamsters have not been too picky about who has turned in one of those all-important orange cards that Steve Dayan makes certain to mention every time he speaks into a microphone. I’d like to meet the poor bastard that the AMCL is paying to make sure that each one of those orange cards was turned in by a composer who is… working. He must be one hell of a researcher!

Which leads me to my first of many questions: What IS a “working composer”, anyway? Is it someone who is doing commercials? Working on a short film? Is it someone who only composes a feature film score once every 18 months… maybe in-between concert music commissions? What is the AMCL’s definition of a “working composer”? Because let’s face it—there’s “working” like Mike Post works, and then there’s “working” like the rest of us work. Pretty different stories, methinks.

The AMCL has stated that they are “in the process of” determining what they deem is a working composer. They’ve stated that they are in the midst of “looking into how many composers are currently working”. Who are they kidding? That’s not even possible. Laughable, yes, but possible? No. They’ve also stated that the way in which they are going about documenting the number of productions that are potential union signatories is to scour through IMDb and single out every production that has a casting director attached. “If there is a casting director working on a production, surely those productions will also have a composer”, said Steve Dayan at the first AMCL meeting at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank.

In that case, I hereby make it public that I’ll buy a pizza for the first person to go over and educate the Teamsters on how movies are being made these days in Hollywood. They seem to think that each film being made has the budget to hire someone to come in and set up a process by which they will audition actors for their roles. Oh. My. God.

These things seem to me—you know… ME: The guy that doesn’t currently have a primetime network franchise that he’s composing for—to be Unionizing 101. A clarified mission, realistic goals, and attainable objectives all seem to me like things you might want to hammer out BEFORE you get a large number of people together and pitch a union to them. But, that’s just me.

The recent “confusion” over the AMCL’s focus when they start negotiations with the AMPTP is another thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s like the Bush White House every time we all get together in a group in front of the AMCL dais: They tell us one thing, and then a week later, they circulate information that stands in contrast. Benefits only… wage minimums. Benefits only…. wage minimums. Benefits only… wage minimums. I feel like I’m at the World Table Tennis Championship.

As far as the Teamsters involvement? I thought that it would be a complete disaster, but honestly, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. That is until the two big ballbusters from the Teamsters got up in front of everyone at the last meeting and proceeded to tell us things like “we know how to inflict misery”. Throughout this process, Steve Dayan has only alluded to the history of the Teamsters via a few well-placed jokes, yet it has remained one of the elephants in the room out in the community. After the display of Teamster support at this last WGA meeting, I found myself giving a little more credence to some of the stories I’ve heard about our Teamster “friends”. Try as I might, I can’t seem to reconcile the concept of pencil-on-manuscript with the image of tire iron-on-kneecap. But again, that’s just me.

There’s just too much cloak-and-dagger, secret-society bullshit going on with these two groups, and it’s starting to make this composer (I’m STILL not sure if I’m considered a working composer, or just a regular guy yet) a little uneasy. I’ll oblige with yet another example.

In recent months, mysterious letters and reprints of emails sent by Steve Dayan to other professional film industry unions were popping up around our community like heads on a Whack-A-Mole at Chuck E. Cheese’s. These letters and emails outlined a request for support from these unions on the basis of several criteria that the AMCL would negotiate for with the AMPTP, including, but not limited to, working conditions and wage minimums. Shortly after that, the AMCL issued numerous statements (both verbally by Bruce Broughton at the WGA meeting and through a mass email sent to his AMCL mailing list) telling us that an underground rogue group had been disseminating false information in an effort to screw with everybody’s heads on this Benefits Only vs. Wage Minimums issue. Ummm… okaaay. Who could that possibly be? Who could possibly have access to the AMCL’s mailing list, other than the guys running the……..WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!

ALAN ELLIOTT.

The guy who started the AMCL and then mysteriously “resigned” right after Mike Post and Co. signed on to the committee. The guy crying at the top of his lungs at the initial meeting about how minimums would “get us back to the way that things used to be 30 years ago when film music was a respected art form.”

This is just my opinion, and there is no evidence—zero, zip, zilch—that Elliott was behind leaking those emails, but it makes sense that the guy who is asked to leave his own organization because he’s too much of a loose cannon retaliates by sending confusing messages to the constituency. Steve Jobs, eat your heart out!

Even so, what the hell is going on here? Not many people are making public mention of the fact that it looks as though the AMCL is saying one thing, yet doing another. At the WGA, someone brought up the question as to whether or not this new AMCL stance of “Benefits Only” was a Trojan Horse—that the committee was using that as a catalyst to build the union, and then start piling on the non-starter issues that everyone is embarrassed to even talk about anymore, seeing as they made no sense from the get-go. After those leaked emails from Steve Dayan, how can you NOT wonder the same thing?

The members of the AMCL Steering Committee want “pro” composers ONLY. I get that. I completely understand why, and I see that it makes perfect sense. I really do. Nobody wants a government run by non-taxpaying citizens, either. Unfortunately, despite the interest of the committee in the “pros” in our community, I could fill twenty pages with examples of the “un-professionalism” that is leading this effort from the dais. Having said that, I DO believe that the intentions of the committee are of the purest. I REALLY do. I totally believe that. I do not think for one minute that the men on this committee desire to see anything but good come of this possible union with the Teamsters Local 399.

However, until this committee starts showing us composers—working and non-working—that they are capable of acting professionally in the deep water that they now want to swim in; until they can clearly identify the TRUE reason for their wanting to unionize composers, with no interference from “rogue” groups and no mysterious letters to other industry unions popping up left and right; until they can give us a clear and honest reason as to why they blatantly and openly solicited orange cards from young, emerging, student composers in an effort to get the first seedlings of their grass-roots effort off the ground, yet are now avoiding that particular demographic like the plague—my little orange card is staying right where it has been since the first meeting back in November… in my dresser drawer.

***Note — What started out as an article about the role of assistants in the spotting process turned out to be a little more than that. I’ll cover some aspects of spotting from a composer assistant’s perspective, but you’ll find more of an overarching description about what assistants should and shouldn’t do overall in this particular column. End disclaimer.

When you assist a composer, which I have spent the majority of my time in LA doing, it’s hard to get excited about the “spotting session”. It is only on Spotting Day that I know several things are about to take place for me: I’m going to be fetching a hell of a lot of coffee and I’m going to repeating the phrase, “Can I get you anything else?” a whole helluva lot, too.

Oh yes… as an assistant, Spotting Day is all about making people comfortable. You are responsible for setting up the room, getting the refreshments prepared and arranged, making sure the equipment is working properly, and a whole host of other boredom-inducing tasks that will literally make you wish upon a star that you were at home in your bathrobe… pulling your fingernails out one by one.

But that’s if you aren’t paying attention.

If you are a learner, you will find your composer’s spotting sessions to be of great educational value now as the assistant, but especially later as you move on to develop your own business and start to make inroads as an independent composer. The things I’ve learned while watching my composers (and their teams) spot films are some of the best lessons in cinema one could ever ask for. You’ve undoubtedly heard it said many times, but “there’s nothing better than being there”.

Gatekeeper

When I’ve sat in on spotting sessions, my job has been to be the gatekeeper for my composer. If the spotting session is happening at the composer’s studio, it is very important that there is someone who is running interference by eliminating any and all unnecessary distractions. For the composer, keeping everyone’s focus on the task of agreeing on the places where the music will go is the most important part of the process at this juncture and will set up the way that this project will go from here on. If the director is uncomfortable in his chair, the editor is looking around for something cold to drink, and the music editor is worried that his parking meter is going to run over out on the street in front of the studio, then your composer is the only one truly watching to see where music should go, and that, as we know, is a recipe for disaster. Not because a composer couldn’t spot the thing himself, but only because we’ve all been in the place where the composer decides where a musical statement should be only to have the director change it all at the last minute. Had he not been distracted at the session, chances are slimmer that a change would need to be made later.

If you assist, this is the time when you are going to want to try and anticipate when and where people are going to feel like they need to take their attention off of the spotting and put it onto something else entirely. The absolute focus of the director, editor, composer, sound designer, and music editor is key in this process or mistakes will be made. You must do everything you can do to keep the attention on the film. I used to keep a roll of quarters in my desk at a studio I worked at for while so that I could go feed parking meters and make sure that when the director came out to get his car, it wasn’t sitting on the bed of a tow truck. These are the kind of things that you are supposed to be thinking about when you assist a composer during a spotting session.

Environmental Inspector

Another part of your job as an assistant during a spotting session is to anticipate and correct technical errors. Is the picture not showing up? Is there audio coming out of the speakers? What is that hum that you are hearing? I promise you, when you get a room full of important people together to watch a movie and your composer is feeling the stress of the meeting, anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong! It’s Murphy’s Law. Make sure that you fully test everything prior to the spotting session. There is nothing more embarrassing, for you or your composer, than to have people sitting there ready work without the ability to do so simply because nobody checked the cable connections or the picture before the session started.

In my experience, it has been the simplest things that have ruined entire spotting sessions. One time, I was working as an intern at a studio in Santa Monica. The guy who was actually assisting the composer at this spotting session had plugged in a power strip to wire everything up with. As the attendees took their seats, I could not help but notice from the back of the room that the cord for that power strip was left running out into the middle of the room, in perfect placement for someone to come along and trip on it. I mentioned it to the assistant, and he casually brushed me off and told me not to worry about it. Sure enough, about 30 minutes into the film, the director called a break and asked the composer where the restroom was. He headed off in that direction, turning back quickly to look for his cell phone. As he whirled around to head again to the restroom, he tripped over that cable and almost ate it headfirst into a glass coffee table. Very embarrassed and also visibly upset, the director stumbled into the hallway and down towards the restroom.

What returned was a very pissed off and annoyed director monster. From that moment on, he didn’t like a single idea the composer came up with, and actually begun to side very publicly with the film’s editor on almost all music placement decisions.

You never know what is going to change the vibe in the room. It could be an idea that is not given credence, a chair that the someone finds uncomfortable, the soda that is being supplied is not what anybody likes to drink, or someone leaves a cord plugged in where people can easily trip and fall.

The lesson here is to make sure that people are positioned in such a manner that all ideas presented can be heard and discussed without physical discomfort, provide comfortable seating, make a phone call to the director’s assistant and find out what he/she likes to drink, and run cables where people can’t get hurt.

Pretty simple.

Welcome Wagoneer

On the first film I worked on as SCOREcast founder Deane Ogden’s assistant, we were prepping for a simple spotting session at Deane’s studio with the director, the editor, and the executive producer. As conversation pieces, Deane keeps a lot of gadgets and goofy toys in his studio—things like Slinkies, PEZ dispensers, and miniature rock gardens. Throughout the spotting session, the director of that film kept fiddling with the Maharajah PEZ dispenser that Deane keeps on the upper tier of his workstation desk. Deane and the director disagreed many times during the spotting session, and decided to table a few particular places until Deane had a chance to really go through the film a few times and play with themes. But all the while, the director kept monkeying around with that PEZ dispenser, flipping its head back and forth and holding onto it for all dear life, as if it gave him some sense of security that everything would be okay… if we could just get through this spotting session! Once or twice, I caught Deane’s eye and we both silently acknowledged that we noticed the directors fascination with the toy.

After the spotting session was over, Deane had me make a call over to the director’s office at the production company and find out what their mailing address was.

Two days later, Deane received an elated call from the director saying what a wonderful surprise it was to open a package in his office to find that PEZ dispenser wrapped up with a card. After that day, Deane and that director saw eye to eye on virtually every other issue that came up during the scoring of that film, and the process of delivery was flawless and event-free.

As an assistant, you are the musical equivalent to the town Welcome Wagon. You can be a good assistant by just showing up everyday and doing your job—humping cable, cutting demos, installing software—or you can be a great assistant by noticing the things that might make your composer’s relationship with his/her director better and more relaxed.

Do some research and find out about what the people in your room are into. Do they like a certain band or artist? Send them an iTunes gift card before the spotting session. It really doesn’t matter what it is, just as long as it is something that you know they will really be in love with. Sending them something non-personal will have the opposite affect and will not make them feel welcomed into your composer’s circle of trust. Also, you don’t need to send a gift. That is simply only one example of something my composer did at one time that happened to work in our favor. You might want to just familiarize yourself with anything that these people have been involved in recently so that you can make conversation with them on common ground. You could apply this tip to any point in time with one of your principals. It doesn’t just pertain to spotting time.

These are just three of the little things I try to do as an assistant for my composers in or around the time we are spotting a film. To all of you assistants out there who have better and more specific ideas as to how we can better prepare our composers for a winning spot, COMMENTS are open.

What I will offer today is a sneak peek into the creative habits of some of the composers that I’ve worked with over the few years that I’ve been assisting. From these great composers, I’ve gleaned many secrets, tricks, templates, skills, and techniques – some that I use in my own work, and others that I don’t, but might someday. The thing that I’ve always noticed about each composer though, no matter who they were or what they were working on, is that these tricks and secrets were really “habitual” in their work flows. These are things that they do EVERY time they sit down to conceptualize or write through a film score. And I believe that is the key to the whole thing. You need to develop “habits” that will invite the Muse to the right time and place for a creative collision.

Since these are from different composers, I will present some here in no particular order. Hopefully, you’ll find one or two of these habits (or all of them if you are just getting going) useful.

The Overture Blueprint

Several composers I’ve worked for use this principle as an overarching guide to how they score a film. They’ll watch the film many times (and I mean MANY times; sometimes in upwards of thirty of forty viewings), and then they’ll sit down at the piano or guitar and write an “overture”.

In traditional terms, an overture is a piece of music that “comes before” or “precedes” something else. A typical example would be the music the symphony plays before the opera starts. But inherent in almost every overture are the main themes of the opera or of the piece that follows the overture. The overture is sort of a large format rendering of every main theme within the whole work and addresses each theme with as much fullness and bravado that can be pulled from it – a fully fleshed out thematic linear string. Each theme and motif is represented in the overture. Upon completing the overture, the composer then has a veritable blueprint from which he or she can create the score and work the cues around in order to not stray far from the original thoughts behind the music.

Many composers use or have used this method, from Jerry Goldsmith to John Ottman.

Research and Ethnomusicology

When I was at Media Ventures, I watched Hans and crew research the hell out of most films they were charged with scoring. In fact, much of the first weeks were consumed with me and my fellow interns fetching books and Web clippings about certain instruments, even to the point of sussing out the foremost experts in the fields of these instruments and asking them questions, or sometimes inviting them to play on scores. These exercises in research gave me an awareness of the breadth of our musical vocabulary that I never learned in school or in private study. Once you really dive into the process of researching, from an ethnomusicological standpoint, you will understand just how much you have to learn about global musics. Talking to those who play these instruments will also teach you how to better write for that sound, and as a composer who most likely doesn’t play that particular instrument, this is vital to the quality of your music.

Templates and Maps

One of the things I never can stomach in certain scores is when you are watching along and are really into the film, and then POW! Out of nowhere, a sound so AGAINST anything else in the film score whomps you upside your head, taking you out of the film completely. More often that not, you hear this on smaller, lower-budget films. And I’ll tell you why.

Not always, but typically, the lower the budget the less experienced the composer and director. The above problem is usually two-fold. First, the director let that choice go unchallenged, or in some cases came up with the idea himself! Secondly, the composer was working without a “template”.

A template can be defined here as a “DAW instrumentation map for the duration of a film score”. Essentially, you take your arrange window in your DAW and load up every articulation of every instrument that you deem necessary for the film’s score… and you DON’T DEVIATE from that template as you write your cues. This way, the entire score, from beginning to end, is cohesive and complimentary of its parts.

As I mentioned before, nine times out of ten, this is a rookie mistake. Most seasoned pros have already learned from the consequences of this error. When a score travels outside the lines of its own conceptualization, it causes severe cinematic problems. Take some time and be thorough in setting up your templates. If you practice the method of the “Overture Blueprint”, as outlined above, you might already have the makings of your full template by the time you are finished with the overture.

Sound Mining, the “Favorite Bank”, and Go-To Sounds

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen composers sit at their desk and scroll through plugin presets with one hand while eating a carton of Chinese food with the other, I’d be a very rich man. The best composers I’ve worked with are those who know their rigs inside and out, and the only way to know what you have sitting on those precious drives is to “mine for sounds” as much as possible. One of my duties as an assistant has been to set up a “favorite bank” for my composer so that when he or she finds a killer sound that catches the ear, we can throw it into the bank and recall it later when we are looking for something interesting in a particular situation.

Time is precious. There is often no time on a film score schedule to sit and try to “find” the right synth patch or MIDI drum sound. You have to have it at your fingertips, or your creative flow will eventually slow to a stop. Make sure to have all of your “favorite” sounds readily accessible so that you can recall them at will when you need them the most.

This also goes for “go-to sounds” — those sounds that you use all of the time. These may already be in your template, but if they aren’t, you should have them in their own sampler bank so that you can get at them instantly. These days, with Kontakt 4 and Machfive being as powerful as they have become, you can pull virtually any sound into your sampler in most formats. There is no reason to not have everything loaded into your sampler in a “favorite bank” or “go-to bank”. Just do it. Trust me.

As elementary as some of these things might seem, they are the habits of some of the best composers working today, and those composers are adamant that these habits be as easy to maintain as possible.

But what about you? Log into the COMMENTS below and tell me what you think your Top 3 best habits are in the conceptualization phase of scoring a film. Tell me why these habits work in your particular case and why you think they are most important to you.

Budgeting

It seems the higher up the food chain you go in the film music world, budgeting for recording sessions gets more involved and a lot harder. In fact, I would say that the more legit your recording session is, the tougher it is to pay for. An example would be a union scale production. If you are working on an independent film where YOU are the orchestrator, the copyist, the contractor, and ultimately the player, then it becomes quite clear how the music budget should be planned because YOU are the only one getting paid. However, on a studio budgeted film where there are hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars to be played with, there is obviously a lot more to consider.

Hiring union musicians can cost you anywhere from $261 to $315 per player, per hour… depending on if you are overdubbing or not, but you also have to figure in your concertmaster and your contractor (they make double scale), cartage fees, studio assistants, room costs, engineers, ProTools operators, specialty musicians (The George Doering’s of the world), and whatever else your score needs to get recorded. Room costs are very important to consider, because if you are recording a 60-piece group you are going to need a stage versus a “record room” (a studio typically set up to record smaller orchestras for rock and pop performances) that will better accommodate an orchestra — the latter of which will cost you considerably less.

A couple of years ago, I was assisting a composer who had been handed his first major studio assignment. I was only doing production work on source material for the film, but I was close enough to see some of the ins and outs that this guy had to go through as a fairly new player in the game. It was interesting, to say the least, but the biggest thing I learned while on that job was that, for whatever reason, this composer had no idea of how to budget for musicians. You would know the name of the movie if I told you what it was, so we aren’t talking about a little independent flick here. No, this was a full-fleged studio film in the 170 million overall budget range (and that’s just what was reported publicly).

About three weeks before the delivery deadline, after all of the orchestral sessions and pre-records were in the can, the composer realized that he had not budgeted enough money for an adequate final mix of the score. He was about $30,000 short. Everyone on our team of six went to work calling in favors and figuring out how we could divide up the mix in hopes of getting it done, handed in on time and under budget. After we all spent the last week of production with zero sleep and a constant ringing in our ears because of no breaks, the score was finally delivered. Needless to say, it was a rough final week.

I remember being so excited to go see the film in the theater. That score was hard work and we all were looking forward to premiere night. As the opening scene whizzed by, another assistant on the team leaned over to me, jaw on the ground, and whispered, “Thank God for the effects or we’d be thrown out of this theater.” The mix was atrocious. Absolutely unlistenable. And now, when I am at someone’s home and their children are watching the film on BluRay or DVD, I can hear each painful note coming through loud and… distorted.

Schedules

Isn’t it always the schedule that kills ya? In my experience, the best composers spend as much time writing music as they can, and as little time screwing with computers as they can. It really is *that* simple! The schedule is the schedule is the schedule. It is what it is. There’s often no changing it, no making it better. With that in mind, write! Spend every minute you have writing. Forget tweaking sounds or getting the computer to respond quicker, or cleaning your studio. (By the way — if you are one of those people who say “I cannot function in a cluttered studio”, then you have clearly never worked on a studio feature! I haven’t been in a studio production hub yet that didn’t look like a Level 5 hurricane swept through it!)

And before we go any further, let me clarify something:

“Writing” does NOT mean:

· Sequencing mock-ups. This can be hired out and it is well worth the expense when you consider how long it takes to accomplish. Ask yourself how many man-hours you spent on your last project sequencing the MIDI versus how much you actually spent fleshing out a lush score for the film? (Go ahead… I’ll give you a minute or two to cry like an old granny.)

· Upgrading studio gear. This, too, can be hired out at best… OR… at worst, done during “dark” time when you are so exhausted from writing that you just can’t write another note today.

· Face time. And by this, I mean with your principals. While this is not something you should hire out, it is important to educate your directors and producers early to the fact that the more time they want to sit and bullshit about how great John Williams is, the more time they are going to need to allot you to make their score great as well. Sometimes, creative people think they are the only ones that need space and solitude to create. It’s weird, but it’s true.

On sequencing, most composers I’ve worked for have people in their studios that do all of that for them. Chill out! They oversee it ALL, so nobody is ghosting or taking liberties with lead lines and harmonies. But what *is* happening is the composer is able to multiply himself/herself in such a way that all of this work gets done and the project stays on schedule. I know composers whose studios run 24/7. Harry Gregson-Williams, for one, has a crew come in when the “day crew” leaves so that production can run throughout the night – like a musical 7 Eleven!

Look, you can talk about it however you want to talk about it and you can have whatever view on it you want to have, but I’ll tell you straight up how it is: Big-budget studio films do not get done with one guy anymore. It just doesn’t happen. This business is a business of teams – and it has nothing to do with the talent of the composer, whether he is lacking or she is amazing. It has to do with the schedules imposed by the studios to get these things finished on time and without overrun.

And it’s only going to get worse. The music team’s technology used to be the leader in the movie-making industry. We used to have the coolest toys. That’s not necessarily true anymore. Special effects digitization, motion-capture technology, and CGI animation has eclipsed the coolness factor of any music-related software that is out there, and in turn, has created ever shorter schedules and timeframes for getting things done in post-production. Like it or not, we *have* to keep up with that – and so we find whatever way we can to cope. One of my mentors last year at school said, “More dotties equals more bodies!”

Creative Finance

One last thing on money: Use it as a tool. Too many composers who are just starting out think of money as a “consumable resource” instead of a “tool”. Just because you are being paid from one job this month doesn’t mean that you need to use it to go on vacation next month. Instead, use it to pay for a little bit better group of musicians on next month’s gig. Further your career with whatever money you make.

When I was working this last year for SCO founder Deane Ogden, we worked on a picture that had a very small music expense budget — well under what was necessary to complete a solid dramatic score with a live ensemble. After negotiating the creative fee, Deane trusted his instincts for the legs of the project and took the gig. As it turns out he was right – the film is in negotiations to be picked up by one of the big four and could be on its way to theaters… but not without a score that involved star international soloists, a live 30-piece orchestra, live group percussion of monumental proportions, and a professional mix and master by a top Hollywood engineer. AND we all got paid and ate great throughout the entire process! (Mmm… I love me some yummins!)

We cut no corners on this score. Everything was top-notch. But what we *did* do was use left-over budget from a prior package deal where Deane had taken a smaller cut home in order to save dough for a bigger, badder orchestra on that next project.

We made that few extra G’s work in our favor in ways that you wouldn’t believe. Our soloists were all international, so they recorded their parts in their respective studios live in realtime, and were able to communicate through each session over iChat AV. We also rented certain instruments we didn’t have access to, as opposed to sampling them, so that we could record nuances and articulations that are not always present in sampled form, thus giving the sampled performances that much more of a realistic edge.

Towards the end of the recording process, we ran up against a situation where we needed to hire a player who was not in the union. I called the union and was able to work out a deal to “Taft Hartley” the player onto the project. Not only did we get the player we wanted, but also now that person is enjoying a great relationship with the Local 47 as a full-fledged member.

There are many more secrets and techniques that made this particular score special, but at every turn we forced ourselves to think outside the box.

Is This Doable?

You CAN do this stuff. You just have to think. Most of what I’m talking about here has to do with putting away your fear and really hanging your musical ass out there on the line. It *really* does. Is it scary to think about possibly sacrificing your take for the sake of a better sounding score? Yes! Is it tough to schedule time away from the sequencer in order to really conceptualize a killer idea for the overall musical arc? Yes!

But see… it is these things, when you really dig out the info, that separates the pettily little Jai Meghans from the gargantuanly ginormous James Newton-Howards. And it’s the risk and foresight of the James Newton-Howards that make these kinds of decisions a no-brainer for us emerging futurists.

Deane and Lee have asked me to stay on as managing editor of SCOREcastOnline.com, a position I accepted with a big fat smile on my face. One of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my life is have a hand in the creation of such a fabulous community of people as SCOREcast. We should not take lightly the generosity these two guys have shown in building this resource for all of us.

Last night, I was thinking about my career thusfar and how far I have come, and it was pretty overwhelming. Sometimes when you feel like you aren’t moving forward as quickly as you’d like to be, and then you write down everything you’ve accomplished so far, you realize you’ve done a lot. I’ve had people ask me why I haven’t struck out on my own yet as a composer and the truth is I just feel like I’m not ready to fly solo quite yet. I’m giving it another few months.

Because of the importance of the day, I’m in a bit of a sentimental mood. I wanted to get some thoughts down to you guys about my experiences so far. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, so it might not follow any kind of formal format, but they are my thoughts, nonetheless. I think they are worth something.

I’ve been a studio scoring assistant for several years now, all while working my way through school at USC. My advisers have told me that the way I’m doing it is right – to take it easy while I’m in school before I get out there on my own, instead of trying to squeak by and scrimp and save as a student. Instead, I’ve decided to learn as much as I possibly can from people who are actually making a living in the film music business – composers who have “hit it” in terms of finding a way to live comfortably and stay successful over the long haul.

But man… it has been a long journey. Under my current composer, SCOREcast founder Deane Ogden, I’ve learned a ton. I also worked at Remote Control for quite awhile and that was an education all in itself. I work hard at learning this craft, and I would heartily recommend that anyone who is considering a career in film music assist a composer for a time before you launch out on your own. It will give you a head start that can not be obtained in any other way.

It kind of sounds mean, but the truth is that you can short-cut a lot of bullshit by watching someone else find their way through something. However, that is the essence of assisting – yes, you are there to help pull off something that maybe cannot be pulled off as a solo act, but for YOU, there is an education in front of you that should not be taken for granted. The fact that you can learn by seeing every possible situation come about without getting any of it on you, per se, is priceless.

Here are a few things, and a few stories, from my experience.

Compensation

First of all, do not expect to make a fortune working as an assistant. I started out as an intern at Remote Control working for school credit, assisting several A-list and B-list (several who are now A-list) composers. I spent a lot of time orchestrating and programming. The first time I made any money was toward the end of my first year there working on the music team for the film “The Island” with composer Steve Jablonsky. I wrote several arrangements for some of the source music on the film, not a very glamorous first job, but I was so happy to finally be making some cash doing anything musically related.

The first time I earned a solid wage (and by solid, I simply mean consistent) as an assistant wasn’t until a year after “The Island” when I began working on the music team for “Pirates of the Caribbean II and III”. I made $15 an hour working on those two films as an assistant to several composers under the Remote Control roof.

Basically, there is no good answer to the question of compensation since the art of “assisting” is still relatively new in our business. It’s odd, but even though technology has supposedly made things better for composers, the learning curve has created an entirely new role that is now necessary for film composers to fill – programmers and assistants.

Schedules

The hours on the “Pirates” gigs were ridiculous… sometimes 16 or 17 hour days for weeks straight. I was paid every other week. Sometimes I’d work in upwards of 20 hours a day, only sleeping an hour here and an hour there. It was brutal. Since working for Deane, I might work 30 hours a week. BIG difference. Truth be told, working at Deane’s is completely different work than working anywhere else I have worked. Laid back, clear cut, no drama, precise. I know what my job is and I know what is expected. That is important when you are assisting. It still amazes me how most composers have zero idea what to have their assistants do every day, and a lot of time is wasted daily because of that. Since I started working for Deane, I’ve been able to write the scores to a few of my pals’ student films, experience that I wouldn’t have been able to find if I was still working a job that required 90+ hours a week of my time.

I have a family and balancing home with work has been tough, but I think I’ve done well. I have a beautiful wife and a sweet 1 year-old baby girl. We have plenty of time together even though I am in school and working a full-time job. This year, I will only have school to finish up, and I’m really looking forward to major time at home. Deane has been great, and during his downtime, he has given me blocks of time off that I’ve used to my advantage with my family.

Sometimes I come in at 8AM, other times I don’t get in until after lunch. Deane doesn’t care as long as I get my work done. I have a punch list, and if it is done by the end of the day, what time I arrive doesn’t matter. If he has a meeting in the morning, I will start work earlier so that things are covered while he’s gone. If it is crunch time, well… we are in for the long haul until the project is finished. My family just knows that I’m under it for however long it takes.

Duties

I’ve done so many things for composers: studio rewires, software upgrades, additional composing, car washes, clothes shopping (yes!), and more. I’ll tell you, I even was asked once by a composer that I was working for to go pick up the dog doo in his yard while he took a phone call. This composer happened to be known for his practical joking, so I innocently asked, “Really? Are you joking or are you serious?” He put his hands in the air and yelled, “Do I look like I’m f*cking joking? GO!”

I did go… and after I was done picking up after the dog, I just kept going and never went back. The icing on the cake was months later, and I had moved on to working for Deane. Deane took me with him to a BMI event and we ran into Poop Guy at the bar. He either didn’t remember who I was, or he was too embarrassed to say “hi” to me. Deane said it was probably the latter… and to not worry… “I don’t have a dog… or a yard!”, he said with smile.

Professionalism

I’ve also had the opportunity to work with a lot of great directors while assisting composers. Directors can be very difficult to work with, or they can be easy as hell. I’ve dealt with both, and I’ve seen how composers deal with them, too. Some do a great job at appeasing directors and getting them what they want, and some don’t do so hot.

One time, I was working for a composer who was doing a cue on spec for a film that he really wanted to score. The film was a huge one (you would know it by name), and he was very excited that he was even being considered for the job.  After demoing for the job with this spec cue, we received word that we would not be working on this film. My composer was pissed. He got up after the call came in, picked up a chair that was next to his desk, and threw it into a rack of (luckily) old defunct gear. The rack fell over and everything cascaded onto the floor. Guess who got to pick *that* up?!

I’ve always found it interesting that even to the big guys, not getting the gig is as frustrating as getting it is exciting. Unfortunately, often times acting like a dumbass comes just as easy as acting honorably and professionally does to others.

In contrast, I worked for Graeme Revell for a time. I was in the room when he found out he didn’t get a gig he was up for. After hanging up the phone, he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well… that one’s out of our way!” Pure class.

With all of these variables at play in the current TV landscape, and given the fact that most people would still rather recline in the comfort of their own living room than brave cellphones, babies, and teenagers with laser pointers in a theater setting, TV is 2.0 these days.

As a film composer, you might be wondering how to tap into this luxurious stream, and how to start looking for TV gigs today in the crowded river of television composers?

Well… Not so fast. TV is pretty different from what you might be used to.

#1) TV is not film.

Scoring for television is nothing like scoring for film. Not in the least bit. There are some similarities, but not many. First, the schedules on television shows are insane. The hours you have to put in are completely inhumane. A typical season might stretch from September to May, literally with no break, and your weekly schedule often doesn’t allow for any downtime during score production. If you are used to hanging out with your family on weekends, keeping your composing time as “banker’s hours” during the week, you probably aren’t cut out for television. The truth hurts.

#2) TV is not cheap.

Television is very transparent. Because of the shorter runtimes that TV shows naturally have to cater to, music is often looked at to carry more of the story than it would during a 90-minute film. In addition, HD and digital cable have upped the ante in regards to audio resolution, and now, even people with hearing issues can hear their favorite shows – and everything in them – better than they’ve ever have been able to before. Bottomline… your music has to be amazing. Television is no place to cut corners, skimp on audio quality, or rest on your laurels by using a quick and dirty methodology of loops and patches. You have to put time, attention, and detail into it or you are simply eventually going to get that call that nobody ever wants to get.

#3) TV is not for egomaniacs.

Most of us are probably not at this level yet, but with film there comes a certain level of opinionated ego that you can get away with, and frankly, that most producers and directors who are worth their salt will even invite. After all, why would they have hired you in the first place if not for your musical opinion? Conversely, in television, you are rarely working with a director, as their job is finished once principal photography wraps. Instead, you are joined at the hip with either the producers or the “showrunner” — that person possibly being anyone that the producers deems responsible enough to handle the show and all of its components. There are bound to be lots of changes, suggestions, requests, demands, and mandates from the showrunner, because they are responsible to the studio to bring quality and consistency week after week. The pressure is really on them, therefore everyone on their team must perform at an optimum level. There is no room for you to allow your feelings to be hurt over someone on the creative team demanding that you make a change or rewrite a cue to fit the scene differently than you had first interpreted. The time constraints often do not allow for any other communication style other than directness, and you must have the kind of thick skin that can tolerate that.

#4) TV is not for the uneducated.

This last point is two-fold. The first part is appropriate for everyone working in TV or film, but I’ll relate it to TV in this way: If you want to work in television, you have to know what works in television. If you have no idea what has come before you, how can you compete? A case could be made that you can be more original and have a fresher perspective if you are naive to what has been done before, therefore possessing zero knowledge of the limitations imposed by history. However, in television, some things just do not work. Again, often because of the medium, if you think like a film composer while scoring a TV show, you are going to get yourself into some serious trouble at some point. Very often, motifs and themes that you would develop over time on a film will not work on a TV show because again… there isn’t enough time. Similarly, since you are working within an episodic framework, you have to remember that you are relatively blind to what is coming from week to week. Therefore, your anticipatory skills need to be razor sharp. I’m probably not being clear enough here, but there are just certain “rules” by which TV works. Breaking them is certain death, and any showrunner will agree.

The second part of my point here is that when I say “you cannot be uneducated if you want to work in TV”, I mean that you… wait for it… need to watch TV! If you aren’t a fan of TV or if you are one of those who hasn’t seen a dramatic television show since the 1960′s, forget it. You + TV writing = FAIL. Period. TV is a medium that has captivated audiences since 1929, so it has had a lot of practice at getting certain things right. If you do not watch TV, then you do not know what works on TV. TV has changed over the years, and you have to keep up on trends, current sounds, dramatic chops, just like film or video games or any other medium that you might want to write for. Not everyone can cut the mustard in television. Many people try, and many people die. Be a fan, get on the bus, and start studying. There is no other way. Learn by immersion.

What’s the Point?

I want to end this by telling you that my experience with all this is highly subjective. I have never scored a TV show in my life. On the other hand, I have been on teams that have scored plenty. I’ve written additional music for TV and have had my music placed in dozens of primetime TV shows. I’ve seen it done over and over and over and over again as an assistant to several great TV writers. I’ve watched and I’ve learned so that when the time comes for me, I can have somewhat of an idea of what I should be doing. I know I’ll still be scared to death, but I will have the procedure down in a way that maybe others haven’t had the chance to observe. I hope that you get the same out of my little diatribe here.

Talk to me, SCOREcast! Let me know in the COMMENTS what you are thinking about this. Are you scared of TV? Are you excited to write for this medium? What about television seems foggy or unsure to you as you contemplate launching in? Let’s talk it out!

Jerry Goldsmith was not only a master interpreter of film, but also one of the greatest creators of film music to ever grace the medium. Goldsmith’s music, whether by accident or pure purpose, was a major influence on many of us in our decisions to take on this career and try to reach even a fraction of the height that he was able to during his time at the podium.

I am of the opinion that when Jerry Goldsmith passed, so did something else… the

Jerry Goldsmith via last.fm

matic writing. It will surely be argued that John Williams is perhaps the last “living legend” in film music. However, I felt that once Jerry was gone, even Williams began to rest on his laurels a little, and with the latest Indiana Jones film, trail a bit into what I’ve heard termed as “smash-and-grab” scoring.

I first heard the term “smash-and-grab” in a lecture during my second year at USC. The lecturer was referring to the types of scores that emphasize bombastic and chaotic “noise” over carefully-crafted, thematic writing. You know, the kind that almost every big-budget studio feature has affixed to their tent-pole summer films these days!

It seems that now, more than ever, that the recipe for “scoring” is to hold down a key on a controller to loop a gigantic taiko sequence, then, on the second pass, hold another key down and add the Absynth pad to give the new “cue” some depth. Furthermore, with the advent of things like “Symphobia” and the forthcoming “Hollywood Strings” libraries, it is easier than ever to be lazy and still sound amazing. It seems lately that even with the most effort put forth, a composer might write a bare theme, but nothing that is hummable as you walk out of the theater or attaches any kind of musical memory to the film for the audience.

In the wake of Deane’s question from yesterday about a score’s affect on a film, I wonder what it is that has made the “smash-and-grab” score so trendy lately. Who started the downward spiral and why are the studios so happy to buy in? Is it because audiences have been dumbed down so much that they really do not care if a film’s music leaves any kind of lasting effect? Or is it because we have passed the point of being able to truly enjoy a film for “entertainment’s sake” and we therefore do not have the capacity as humans anymore to appreciate a visual stimuli that has an aural one accompanying it?

When I browse The Reporter or read Variety and see which composers are working on which films, I see a new group of composers who are making a name for themselves as “smash-and-grab” film composers. It saddens me greatly to see poster after poster at the theater with any of these composers’ names in the block because I cannot help but think that once I get my shot at a large feature, their method of churning out these awful scores is going to be the norm. Will that mean that I am going to be asked to imitate a cheap sounding score? What will that do to my value as a new guy trying to get my career out of first gear? There are many composers who are basically not hirable due to that very syndrome already!

In my memory, there has not been a truly hummable theme that has come out of a film score in the last five years. If you can think of one, please speak up, because I honestly cannot. My hope is that someone here, in the SCOREcast community, will be the next great writer to give us a memorable theme along the lines of Goldsmith’s Patton, The Blue Max, or even his later work on the Rambo series and Star Trek franchise.

Is there a market for thematic writing in film today, and if so, for those us who are realistically 5+ years away from entering the industry in earnest, will it still be there when we finally arrive and need it to be?

How do you stay healthy in the studio? It is possible, and most of it has to do with what we are talking about this month: Workflow. Even though you are sitting for the majority of it, life in the studio can be back-breaking work. Any environment where you are spending 14+ hours a day needs to be set up in a way that accomodates a relaxing workflow… one that helps, not hinders.

I’ve spent an incredible amount of carefully thought out time and energy planning and conceptualizing my studio layout for one reason: I don’t want to get hurt. I have worked in some very nice situations in this town as a scoring assistant, witnessing first-hand the most comfortable studios that money can buy along with some of the most poorly laid out studios one could imagine. I know guys that have horrible back problems that stem from sitting in cheap chairs for days. I have seen many composers have to start wearing glasses because of the activity of assailing their eyesight with poorly color-calibrated monitors while trying to get music written. Orchestrator Susie Benchasil said in a SCOREcast interview once that she knows a lot of people in the business that have issues of poor circulation due to simply not moving their legs enough and sitting on their posteriors for days at a time with little to no physical activity happening. Composing, it seems, can be hazardous to your health, so it’s no surprise that any composer worth his or her salt will tell you that health is of optimum concern in the studio. In fact, at my old stomping grounds of Remote Control, a mandate was handed down by the Lion King himself that every composer use the same brand of desk. Hans believed that a particular desk from a particular company kept back fatigue to a minimum, so everyone was supplied with one, whether they liked it or not.

I spend a lot of time watching how pro composers do things when I get invited into their “inner sanctums”. That is a rare treat and I never want to squander the opportunity. Since not having to re-invent the wheel is priceless knowledge to have, I’ll attempt to outline a few of the things that I’ve picked up along the way. It might take me a few posts to get in everything that I want to, but I’ll get it done. We’ll call this the first in a series for this month from me.

Musical Chairs

In our studio, Deane and I listen to a lot of podcasts. When we are wiring, assembling demos, or some other menial task that doesn’t require us speaking to each other for lengths at a time, we listen to what others are doing in various fields and try to apply those new ideas to our own craft, if applicable. We recently heard Stephen King say that he likens “writing in your studio to ‘creative sleep’.” What he meant by that is this: Everything in your bedroom is engineered to help you fall asleep so you can dream. It’s dark, the doors are locked, and the temperature is right. The pillows are the perfect softness, and comforter is just the right thickness, and the bed doesn’t have any lumps in it. Your studio should be the same way. When you close the door to your writing space, you should now be completely free of any discomforts so that you may “dream” the right score for the film.

The cornerstone to making this happen is the chair you are sitting in. You are in your chair for up to 14 hours a day, so you need to have one that is not good, but great. Your task chair is not something you want to be cheap about, believe me. It is one of those things where you are either going to pay now, or pay later. But you will pay. (Preferably in the form of dollars to a place that sells chairs and not dollars to a chiropractor!)

Your chair should be first of all, sturdy. These chairs that you see at places like Staples and Office Depot — those aren’t going to work. In the office furniture business, there is a lingo… much like what we have as composers. There are chairs that are specifically designed for “tasking”, and this is a paraphrase, but it basically means “jobs that are done while hunched over a workstation desk”. That’s us! When searching for the right chair for your studio, you want to be looking specifically for a “task chair”.

My advice would be to look at two “task chair” companies: Steel Case and Herman Miller.

Herman Miller is what Deane and Lee both use in their studios. At Deane’s place, we have a couple of Herman Miller Aeron Chairs. These chairs are the bomb.

Image via Wikipedia

They are a little expensive, but again, you cannot skimp on this part of your studio. Remember what I said: You’ll either pay the price now or pay the price later. Your choice. Aeron Chairs are completely adjustable and come in several different sizes. They also have one of the best warrantes in the business and Herman Millr is a trusted name in seating and has been for decades. This is not some fly-by-night mom-and-pop that will be gone tomorrow. HM chairs are everywhere — even Donald Trump sits in one!

Herman Miller also makes a chair called the Celle Chair. Celle Chairs are less expensive than the Aeron Chair, but provide many of the same features such as adjustable lumbar support and adjustable armrests. The major difference between the two is that the Celle lacks the total adjustability that the Aeron Chair is famous for, but if you don’t need that or you are fairly average sized, the Celle will work great for you. Plus, it is considerably less money — about $400 for a brand new Celle Chair.

I get Deane’s HM chairs from a company in Chicago called The Ultimate Back Store. These guys often have great deals on HM products and sometimes even have floor models they’ll sell for less, but still have the same warranty as a brand new one. They also will ship the chair for free and have service centers that will come to your studio and fix the chair should anything ever break or go wrong. (When does THAT happen ever?)

Herman Miller Task Chairs
Fully adjustable, comes in various sizes to fit your body type, 12-year “no-fault” warranty
Price range: $400 USD (Celle) -$700 USD (Aeron)
Herman Miller.com
The Ultimate Back Store

Steel Case is also another company that makes amazing task chairs. Their Leap Chair is a favorite at several studios I’ve worked in like Capitol Records and the Power Station in New York (which is where I first sat in one). They are a little more expensive than the Herman Miller Aeron Chair, coming in at around $850, but they are well worth the money and come with a full lifetime warranty.

Steel Case also makes a handful of other models that sport several other configurations to accomodate both your price range and feature set requirements. I would suggest checking out their company website to see what they have to offer. The Ultimate Back Store also carries Steel Case, and as the Herman Miller stuff, they regularly offer floor models for sale at heavy discounts. The best thing to do with UBS is call them and talk to a human being. They are great to deal with.

Steel Case is a great alternative to Herman Miller on many levels, especially price.

Steel Case Task Chairs
Fully to semi-adjustable, comes in various sizes to fit your body type, limited lifetime warranty
Price range: $300 USD (Uno) – $900 USD (Leap)
Steel Case
The Ultimate Back Store

So, obviously there a hundred different ways to go with a task chair, and these are only two of my favorites. Of course your studio has certain requirements that we don’t have in Deane’s studio — every space is different. Maybe you turn to the side to play your keyboard controller or perhaps it is centered under your desk in front of you. Maybe you use an outboard mixing console, so you need to be able to “Alex Keaton” your way across the room and roll to where your outboard rig is set up.

Whatever the case, your chair is the epicenter of your whirlwind. It has to be great, not just good. It will be the one piece of gear that sustains you over time and keeps you from pain.

Now, I want to shift our focus from the 60′s to the 70′s and 80′s. This interview is priceless, and if you are looking to learn from someone who has done more television than anyone else on the planet, look no further than the great Mike Post.

LA Law, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, Magnum PI, Hunter, Quantum Leap, Doogie Howser MD, NYPD Blue, Law and Order… I mean, you tell me another guy who has had the success of Mike Post.

This is a 6-part oral history of Post’s career. Do yourself a favor: Take two hours today or tonight and write down everything you can from this interview. This should really be a film music school class all by itself. Pay particular attention to Parts 3 and 4 of this interview to *really* hear how scoring for TV works on the professional level.

Click here to start learning…

There was a time when I thought my boss (Deane) was an idiot (sorry dude! because he regularly schedules time to be with his family. I used to think to myself, “How can he expect to maintain his success if he constantly gives up time in the studio to hang out at the beach?” But then, after months of observing how he spends that time in the studio, I began to understand that he doesn’t “give up” anything to the benefit of anything else. Instead, he carefully plans out each hour of the day so that he can be home when he needs to be home and at work when he needs to be at work. For him, no moments in the studio are wasted. Everything has a purpose and a reason, the ultimate goal being balance and harmony between home life and work life.

In my former life as a “Remote Controlian”, this was a foreign concept to me. At that job, the success equation looked a little different. It was more like Time at RC – Your Life = Success. For a lot of us, this is how we are used to working – abandoning every other aspect of our lives in favor of the studio’s demands. In some cases, this cannot be helped, and I’ve learned that working with Deane as well. Best intentions be damned, deadline week is always deadline week, and you might as well face that you are going to be there late into the night – possibly overnight – and sometimes on multiple nights. But it *is* possible to carefully map out your time so that you allow for every part of your life to have a rightful place.

Here are five things we do at Deane’s studio to help us get home to what matters most and keep our significant others from setting our laptops on fire.

1. Do the tough stuff first. When I get to work, I have a list of stuff I need to get done for the entire week. Sometimes it is prioritized, and sometimes it is not. Some things are simple projects that I know will take me an hour to accomplish, while others are long term projects that are going to take months. No matter what, I first select the things I’m not looking forward to but are short term projects and I do them first. Doing this allows me to knock out half the list in the first day or two of the week, which is a great feeling, and gives me an early sense of accomplishment before the crush of the week kicks in.
2. Engage “Stealth Mode” when necessary. Ever since being tasked with getting SCOREcastOnline.com up and running, I’ve taken this method from Deane and made it my own. Deane will sometimes say to me, “Okay dude, I’m going into “Stealth Mode”. This basically means that he is not going to answer calls, emails, or questions from anyone unless someone has been shot or killed, and even then, he’ll think about it. “Cloak Mode” drives his manager crazy and makes people mad sometimes, but if he *told* everyone to leave him alone for 7 hours, they simply wouldn’t. People are like little kids – when you tell them NOT to do something, it makes them want to do it even more. For Deane, only Susie and the director/producers of our current film are the kryptonite for “Stealth Mode”. For me, it’s Deane or my wife. Everyone else has to wait.
3. Remove all distractions from your workspace. If you do not want to be a slave to your studio, then you really need to do this. At Deane’s we have the “List”. The List contains things that are available to do, but completely non-beneficial to our work at the studio. Some of the goofy ones are things like “checking your Facebook” or “playing Warcraft”. But we also say that “getting involved in other people’s crises” is a List item and can be a huge time-sucking distraction from work. So are “emails that take longer than 5 minutes to write”. If they do, they are considered a distraction, and you should probably just pick up the phone and make the call. It’s quicker and it leaves less room for confusion anyhow.
4. Learn and live the Covey Quadrant System.
   I’d never heard of this system before I worked at Deane’s studio, but it kicks all kinds of ass. Basically, it starts with the basic understanding that you can categorize everything that happens in a work day into one of four quadrants: Things that are important and urgent (Q1); important but not urgent (Q2); urgent but not important (Q3); and finally, not urgent and not important (Q4). Q4 items can just immediately be thrown away – stuff like junk mail, spam, and stuff you absolutely hate doing and don’t have to (like mowing the lawn – just hire a gardener!). Q1 items are things that are life and death issues and must be dealt with immediately (your spouse gets in a car wreck, picture edits while on the scoring stage). Q3 items are things that are crises for others, but not necessarily for you (“tech’ing” someone over the phone on computer stuff – this happens to me almost daily!). And Q2 is where you want to try and spend the majority of your time. Learn this system, memorize it, and most importantly, use it. It will change your life and save you hours upon hours of precious time.
5. Get to bed early and get up to go to work earlier. I know… this sounds sacrilegious to most of you studio rats, but trust me, it is better for you. Your mind will work faster for it and you’ll get more done working in the first part of the day than you will the last part. The argument against this principle always goes something like this: “I can’t get up early. I’m just not a morning person.” I bet if there was an earthquake at 3am, you’d be up and out of bed with no hesitation, coherent and soberingly aware of what needed to be done. That is because it is important to you. Therefore, if you wanted to, you could get out of bed at 4am rather than getting into bed at 4am. Most doctors will tell you that if you miss out on the sleep hours of 12am-3am, you might as well just stay up all night. Those are the average critical deep sleep pattern windows for the human body. If you are staying up until the wee hours of the night and then sleeping until late morning, you are fooling yourself into thinking that you are being the most productive. Try it. You’ll thank me later.

There are hundreds of other ways I could mention that will help you live a more balanced life between studio and home. The honest truth is that it all simply comes down to choices. Do you want it, or do you not? You have to decide that for yourself. The bottom line is that there are about 14 healthy work hours in every single day. Are you *really* redeeming every single minute of every hour that you have been given?

I hope you were able to catch at least half of the interview from yesterday with Jerry Goldsmith. If you ever want to have a solid grasp on the history of the CBS Television era of the 50′s, 60′s, and 70′s, do yourself a favor, pop open a cold one, and check it out here.

So, I saw the new Star Trek this last week with my wife. While I won’t comment on the film or the score until I know most of you have had the chance to see it for yourself, I will say (and this won’t spoil anything for anyone, so chill out!) the best part for me was the Star Trek theme that Michael Giacchino rearranged over the end credit crawl. That brilliant theme was written by legendary composer Alexander “Sandy” Courage, who also wrote the famous Star Trek series fanfare, the first two pilot episodes, and subsequently many more episodes of that incredible television series.

Beam into this…

I assist a composer. It’s what I do. You can dress it up all you want – Scoring Assistant, Technical Score Consultant, Assistant to Composer, whatever – but the fact remains that I do what I’m told and I’d damned well better like it!

I know what you are thinking. It sounds so glamorous. I know. “Ooh! Aww! You get to work on movies!” Actually, I ride herd on studio racks, install plugins, go get takeout… I totally just do what I’m told.

And it kicks ass. I have learned more doing this than I have in three years of music school (and my boss pays me, which is also something they don’t do in music school!) I’ve read a ton of books on film composers and sat through countless hours of lectures at school on theories of orchestration and compositional technique, but I’ve learned more in one afternoon of watching how a cue comes together at my composer’s writing desk. Therefore, my appetite for knowledge has become insatiable. As an assistant now, I consider this to be my time to soak up as much as I can so that when I get my big opportunity, I can hit the ground running. In the simplest of terms, I’ve essentially become an information whore… and I likey.

The biggest thing I’ve learned from my composer is the importance of knowing film music history. He’s big on that. Annoyingly so, in fact. But adopting his habits in this area has tipped the scales for me in terms of depth of knowledge and understanding of what we do and why we do it.

I’m gong to spend Launch Week sharing with all of you some things I’ve found online in my research that have been extremely beneficial to me in learning more about what we do as composers. Some of them will be links to articles, some of them will be videos, and some of them will be interviews with other composers or sites that you ought to be aware of.

As I post these this week, drop me a line in Comments and let me know what you think. And of course, if you have anything you can share, by all means… let’s have it!

Let’s start with something amazing….