Part II... a few days late, but not a dollar shorter!

Hey there. I feel like we haven't spoken in a few days. That will sometimes happen when I get a call to finish up projects for clients. That's a "good" problem. Let's get back to LA...

My first focus is the session titled: The art & craft of composing for indie films.

A few key points worth mentioning:

1. Stretching your music budget.

Money is always tight, but you don't want to get all "cheap" in your audiences face. All of the panelists use a combination of live and sampled instruments in their scoring. Berklee alum Sharon (pronounced Sha-rone) Farber was able to pull off believable string parts by putting a live violin over several instances of Viennna Sympony Orch. patches. To the casual (and no-so-casual) listener, the music sounds like it was made on a soundstage.

So........ Sampled instruments + one or two live instruments = Good work

2. What is this movie/spot/trailer/commercial trying to say.

Though this expo focused on composing for film and games, the above question is applicable anywhere you might plan on putting music. Big budget, small budget, how do you translate what you are seeing on screen into a musical statement? Does the scene require a Wagner-type sound, or maybe a non-traditional, spatula-against-a-metal-pan type cue. One clue-in is to ask as many questions as you can to the director/client/agency. If you chip away at the block in the beginning of the creative process, you can save days and weeks of editing and re-editing at the end of a project.

Stay tuned for part III of "It came to LA"