SCOREcast 28: Richard Bellis

Emmy Award-winning composer Richard Bellis hangs out with SCOREcast for an in-depth look at the state of the film music business.

SCOREcast 22: Demoing for Television

Today on our 22nd podcast episode, Lee, Deane, and Houston Haynes talk about how to properly demo for a TV project. From how to find the gigs to how to delivery the materials to the right people, the guys lay it all down in this hour-long talk.

Heather Fenoughty: Credits, Royalties, and Why We Should All Go Live In Europe

As much as I love and live for television drama, I’ve yet to actually compose for a single episode, and though deep down that’s really what I’d love to do, part of me wonders if extreme physical and mental investment required just to do the job, never mind to the job well, is really that enjoyable… so in the meantime (whilst I psyche myself up for it a bit more) here are a few ways I’ve gotten my tunes on the TV without going mental from overwork ;-)… Up until now, I’ve written primarily for the UK market. I’ve scored one-off hour-long documentary ‘specials’, licensed pre-written music for documentaries, and composed scores for television documentary…

Live Recording Mixing

I got my start recording score music for episodic television a couple of decades ago, when the personal studio trend was just getting going in a big way. Among many others, I engineered music for the ABC series thirtysomething with composers Stewart Levin and Snuffy Walden, and then Northern Exposure with composer David Schwartz. Both started out in fairly modest home studio settings with simple gear, and as the shows and composers gained more success, their studios became more sophisticated. They wrote some of the coolest music I’ve had the pleasure of working on, and I still remember those experiences fondly. So, I am way familiar with the “standard” model of how most television scoring…

Houston Haynes: Delays, The Edge & Television Music

I’m designing some factory presets for an audio plugin, and in that process I’ve been considering how effects can impact the compositional flow of a cue. The right compressor settings can turn a flabby bass sound into a snappy, tight groove monster. A bit of soft clipping can transform a mediocre synth sound into a blistering lead. One of the more unique uses of effects to support the core rhythmic structure of a song is The Edge’s use of guitar delay in “Where the Streets Have No Name” and a myriad other U2 classics. And from the evidence of this technique all over today’s television shows and ads, it seems to be far from being…

The Value of Television Music

As a rule I’m not a fan of cold-water opinion columns. You know the kind: “Here’s the hard, bitter truth about [insert choice of profession here].” The way I see it, more cold water (cold ink?) is simply unnecessary. You know the long hours required to improve, to get your name out there, to advance in this career. You’re already aware that the odds of making a decent living as a composer are comparable to the odds of becoming a pro athlete. You know that fame and glamour are overrated; besides, they’re all but non-existent in our little corner of the music world. And none of that is why you write music anyway. You do…

Ghostwriters

Oh…. we HATE to say it! That “dirty word” in composing that we prefer to avoid, yet it comes up in conversation almost daily. Every successful composer says they will not do it, but most of them do it anyway. Most composers, working or not, condemn the idea, but there seems to be no way around it and it almost feels like a necessary evil if you want to be successful at this gig. I recently attended a panel where a group of popular TV and film composers were assembled to talk about their work and answer questions from a hungry crowd made up mostly of new people wanting to break into the industy. The…

Houston Haynes: Producing Tracks You Can Trust Outside Your Studio

This month we’re chiming in with our own insights and observations about and around television, and already there have been some great entries, particularly Jai Megan and James Olszewski cover a lot of valuable ground. As Jai so aptly put it, schedules can be insane – and James provided sage advice on dynamics and how it can make or break a cue. Combine the demands for high production value with incredibly fast turnaround and the pressure can really mount up as a the deadline approaches. I ran into this situation myself when a friend gave me a call on a project a few years ago. He had sold an independent feature to a cable channel,…

James Olszewski: Love Boat in Dolby 7.1?

August is TV month at SCOREcast- so what does a startup home studio have to do with TV? Plenty! For one thing, we’ve heard the stories about the money people make licensing their music for television- think about the guy who wrote those 13 “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” notes. Yes, someone is getting paid for those notes. Why not you? But this article isn’t about licensing. This article is about making your music well-suited for TV. What makes certain music just right for TV? Is it a particular style of writing? Do certain sound libraries work better than others on TV? How does sound and music delivered via television differ from sound and…

How to NOT Compose for Television

It is pretty daunting to look at the TV landscape and the people who are already involved with scoring for television and ask yourself: How in the hell am I ever going to get a shot? So many shows are in production, not to mention the fact that television is not just about the “regular season” anymore — it’s about a fragmented “season” that now runs year-round. The big networks are now starting to show the signs of a marathon runner trying desperately to keep up with the young bucks that are also on the course. These “youngins” are starting to become directly responsible for some of the best drama and comedy on television, with…

Scott Stambler: T.V. Then And Now

We were scoring a film on Newman Scoring Stage last Friday. At take 282 Rick Marvin, our composer, wondered how many takes we would accumulate by the time we finished our fifth session on the day this article posts. Vinny “Smart Water” Cirilli, our Protools Recordist, and software virtuoso of CueChronicle said, “I wonder how many takes “The Simpsons” are up to?” We found out that “The Simpsons”, which had scored mostly at Fox, was at the take thirty thousand mark. Funny thing is, up until a couple of months ago I had no idea most T.V. shows were scored in the box – that’s how long it’s been since I worked in TV. In…

Jai Meghan: Come “Sponge” with Me: Part III

In this series, I’ve invited you to learn with me from some of the masters of television scoring. In case you haven’t been following along, so far we’ve listened to over two hours of Jerry Goldsmith giving one of his final interviews with John Burlingame, and an hour of Sandy Courage talking about all things Star Trek — two giants responsible for some of the film industry’s most respected and memorable music. 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…