10 Lessons on “Breaking In”

I often get asked for a checklist of things one can do to break in to the business. Here is my personal “top ten” of lessons learned.

Heather Fenoughty: Ten Tips for Getting into the Composing Game

There is no magic bullet to getting a foot 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. However, there are many tried and true methods as well as some proven principles that most of us here at SCO can safely say we’ve built our working careers on. While there would never been enough room to list them all, here are ten things that I’ve learned about getting a foothold and gaining some traction as a composer for film and television.

Thoughts On Assisting Composers: Part II

Last time, in this space, I walked you through some of the scenarios I’ve seen as a composer’s assistant, and how I’ve either learned from them or eschewed them as personal practices in my own career. Let’s look at a few more, these ones having to do more with money and time. 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…

Thoughts On Assisting Composers: Part I

Tomorrow, I start my final year at USC. Because of that, today is my last day of full-time work at my current place of employment, Deane Ogden Music. This has easily been the best job I’ve had since moving to Los Angeles in 2004 and I will miss it greatly. Deane has generously taught me things about how to be a great composer and how to treat the people that you work with like royalty, and his influence on me is deep – I will miss hanging out with him, working alongside him, and watching a master craftsman accomplish his work. Deane and Lee have asked me to stay on as managing editor of SCOREcastOnline.com,…

Houston Haynes: Object lesson – what’s *your* take?

I found this listed on a site today – submitted here without comment for your consideration. ________________ HOUSTON HAYNES was born an raised in the southeastern United States, and moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a career as a composer. You can find his SCORECast bio (and links to his other sites) here.

Jim Well: The Journey

This monthly column, Inside The Outside, takes you inside one man’s ongoing journey to a composing career. I’ll be thinking out loud about challenges as they hit. I can’t say for sure I’ll arrive intact. But if you’re a fellow traveler, we’ll confront the same demons. May The Farce be with us. “Who is this Jim Well guy?” you wonder. I didn’t start out to be a composer. As a kid, I longed to be a music guy. Dad said, “Son, be an engineer instead. Do music on the side.” Taking his advice, I went to the Dark Side, while Muse took a nap. Can’t say I regret my eons as an engineer. It put…

“Luck” Has Nothing to Do With It

I’ve been on my back for the last 24 hours with the flu. I don’t know how I got it, except to say that lately I’ve been running pretty hard on very little rest, and so I think it was just my turn. When you’re sick you can’t do much, which is a real pain in the ass for guys like me who hard time sitting still for five minutes. I’m pretty sure it’s God’s way of telling me that I need to take a break. Today, I got that chance, and it provided me with an opportunity to share something with all of you that I thought was pretty cool. In one of my…