SCOREcast 32: Tom Salta

Veteran video game composer Tom Salta stops by to chat with the boys about the art and business of scoring video games during SCOREcast’s 5th Anniversary episode.

SCOREcast 29: Christopher Lennertz

Fresh off Universal’s animated “Hop!”, Christopher Lennertz stops by SCOREcast for a lengthy chat on how he juggles features, television, and video games.

SCOREcast Poll Discussion

In the spirit of this month’s focus on branding and marketing, we wanted to give you all a chance to voice your opinion on what method of marketing you like best. So once you’ve taken our poll in the right side bar, tell us in the comments why you chose your answer. Why is that particular method the easiest for you?

More Bits, More People

Seems like there are a lot of ways to spend your money these days, often more money than may be coming in. What are the right choices to move your career forward? Here are a couple of contrasting ideas, both worth considering in their own context. More bits To start with, here I am wearing my “technical guru” hat. Let’s review some things about digital and computer audio; there’s a new technical trend and product you should be aware of. You probably know that digital audio, in the files we create and the way in the signals can flow from one piece of equipment to another, can be in a variety of different sample rates…

The Brightest Light In The Room

I’m sure you’ve had this experience: you go to a party, a meeting or seminar, or maybe just an informal gathering of people — friends, work colleagues, folks out in the world. Inevitably there is one person there who stands out, the center of attention, clearly the most confident, smartest, most successful. How did this person get to be that way? Blessed with talent, charisma, and brains, they go through life winning every game they play… it seems. If you are one of those people, congratulations. But what about the rest of us? How can we hope to compete and succeed in their world, maybe even become a bit like that someday? Let’s take a…

Jim Well: To Win, Build A Machine

In response to SCOREcast No. 23 – Podcast Shownotes, Mike Danchi recently wrote: “… Given what Deane said about the influence of Zimmer-style production (huge productions, massive & powerful studios, multiple assistants, very short time-frames), what is a practical approach for folks who don’t have all those resources at their disposal? … You’re a one-man/woman show with a great, but not state-of-the-art studio & no army of studio musicians …” Mike’s comment indirectly underscores an important point: while major success as a film music composer obviously requires imagination, creativity, and technical skill, it also requires major attention to building a machine: of the people and processes you’re going to need. Yes, highly successful film composers…

Diversify or Diversi-die?

The role of “Moving Up the Ladder” is to discuss the aspects of being a “newbie” in the film scoring industry, and to look at the different ways to evolve and shape your career. This month, I’d like to discuss the topic of diversifying at the beginning of your career and whether it is beneficial or detrimental – in both the long run and the short run. I’ll be basing these observations mainly on my own experiences, so please don’t feel that anything I say is the “final word” on the subject – I believe you should always try it yourself and make your own conclusion, but there’s definitively advantages to seeing it from someone…