Hello all, I am new to the site. I am 30 years old and have been a musician for over 20 years. My whole life consists music and movies. I have been tinkering with the idea of scoring films for years and I am finally ready to take the plunge. I am good with most software but haven't worked much with Audio/Video production.
I am constantly critiquing filmmakers choices in their soundtracks and in a lot of cases feel like I could do better than they did.
My question to the forum is...how do I get started? I have millions of CD's DVD's etc...I am ready to start mixing the arts and fulfill a life time dream of scoring.
By the way, is there a way to "practice" scoring on an already existing dvd? I am currently making an attempt but I am having trouble separating the "soundtrack" with the rest of the audio tracks...HELP!
Great site by the way, I am excited to contribute.
My advice with regards to getting started is to post on different film making forums such as this one, myspace and possibly advertise in directories.
What is your experience of producing music?
Cleary.
www.myspace.com/b31_film_productions
www.youtube.com/yoursayvideos
I can recommend a few ideas.
1. forums and myspace are great ideas. Also look daily in craigslist and past an ad under "services".
2. search engine optimizing your website for terms such as "film score" or "film music" or "music for independent films" etc etc will help bring a lot of international attention to your work. Streaming demos on your website will give people an idea as to your abilities.
3. sign up for "royalty free" music companies as a composer. They will promote and distribute your work and you will profit share with them. You can generally sign up for these companies online and each company will split profits differently depending on composer popularity, content, track length, exclusivity and so on.
Best wishes.
Lights-Film-School
www.lightsfilmschool.com
Lights-Film-School
www.lightsfilmschool.com
This may be a weird idea, but a friend of mine practices creating film scores by simply taking an existing film, one that either has no music track, or one that has a really terrible soundtrack, and creates music for it. He then takes some of these films, and pust examples of his work onto a disc, which he uses as a sort of portfolio... He is also very careful to place a disclaimer across the video, so that no one can use his scenes as mechandise, and to protect the original copyright owner. Last time I was around his place, he had done soundtracks for the subway landing scene in "Cloverfeild" and for the loading dock tentacle in "The Mist." He also has a killer track written for "Earth Vs. Flying Saucers" (1957) but that's more of a "party" entertainment effort.
There are lots of films in the public domain. It wouldn't be hard to find a few with a terrible score.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
One fun project that I did was score the film THE BIRDS. Alfred Hitchcock did not have this film scored (which works brilliantly). As a MFA project, I scored it and compared the scored version and original. Lots of fun. TCM also has an annual contest where they take movie clips and ask aspiring composers to write backscore. All great ways to get in practice.
As far as getting yourself out there. There are usually postings for composers on short films and indie features online. You can do a short or feature for free, get your name out there and some cues under your belt. The paying work will happen, but you usually have to do a freebie here and there to make the contacts.
Oh, there is also the music placement side of things. If you have a lot of existing music, you can try to get it into the hands of a music supervisor of a TV show or film. The royalties help balance out the expenses while you score the first few shorts or feature length projects for free and when the work is slow.
David
David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions
David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions
