Tools for Studio Organization

Today’s composer needs to be balanced as a businessperson and writer. Here are some tools to help keep it all running smoothly.

Jim Well: Get Smart With SmartSheet

This month’s theme is Gear and Software. I’ll bet you think I’m gonna talk about the latest and greatest library, synth, hunk of rack gear, or atomic banjo tuner – but I’m not. Instead, we’ll explore a game-changer that addresses something you might be overlooking: glue. The kind you can use to keep your projects well-organized and the members of your film music team on the same page through the obstacle course of score concept development, cue prototyping, orchestration, and production, in the face of a barrage of revisions, even at the last minute. Previous SCOREcast Online articles have mentioned a few tools and services that fit into this category. Deane Ogden, for instance, has…

James Olszewski: Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick Two

One of the common conversations around the office in my day job revolves around the phrase “Good, Fast, and Cheap: Pick Two”. This is a classic project management conundrum that plagues stakeholders in all industries. The idea behind it is: You can have a high quality product quickly, but it will be expensive. You can have a high quality product cheaply, but you won’t get it quickly. You can put out a product quickly and cheaply, at the expense of quality. Of course you have stakeholders (and in this context that would be Directors, execs, etc.) who would look at the above and say “Nonsense. Give me all three.” Even so, I’d like your tips…