It is important to identify what you enjoy and are good at when pursuing a career.
For me, I excel in focusing on taking newly emerging or underutilized matu...
When I started representing Bear McCreary he was a very successful and prolific TV composer who wanted to do films. We discussed that objective in great detail ...
First Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner pitched ABC to do a musical episode of ONCE UPON A TIME. The network went for it and aired it last season.
Now, they to...
I normally pride myself on being a fairly good communicator. My recent post about diversity was a poor example.
In hindsight, by bringing up the issue within...
I think it is human nature to aggrandize the past and complain about the contemporary.
Selective memory allows us to cherry-pick the cream and skim past the ...
I love contributing to this forum for the benefit of our composer community. I prefer not to get private messages asking me to listen to music, go to screenings...
While it is exciting to take on new endeavors, it can also be a bit overwhelming and frightening.
At 56, I have gotten pretty good at a lot of things within ...
Folks working in films and tv come in contact with a flood of people. There is a very good chance they aren't going to remember you.
Don't take it personally...
I was just private messaged by a composer. Take a look at what he wrote and please share the reasons why this is probably not an effective way to make a submiss...
I was pondering this question and put together a list of 278 composers who have been nominated or won an Oscar for Best Score.
HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW?
HOW MAN...
Just read this comment to Lukas Kendall buried in a long thread.
It deserves to be read and savor by every composer
______________________________________...
OK, so you've posted a ton of memes/threads/comment about how awful it is that other composers, the industry and the universe are devaluing composers and are ru...
Someone (I believe Andy Hill) made an excellent point on a separate thread, that different people have different personal constitutions.
What is tolerable to...
Here are my first two bosses at a film studio.
Do you think they cared if I slept well?
Do you think they respected me as a human being?
Do you think t...
I personally had some poor experiences with AVENUE Q songwriter Jeff Marx and walked around holding them against him.
Recently my client Justin Paul, who won...
It is amazing how much time and how many brain cells we can waste in fretting about what might happen, when that exact same time and energy could be devoted to ...
I grew up in this home in Bakersfield with my school teacher parents who strongly encouraged my brother, David, and my passions for soundtracks, Disneyland, Fam...
For me, the highlight of last night's John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl was when David L Newman spoke.
Newman put everything about film music into ...
I recently signed Arturo Cardelus based on his masterful score to the YouTube animated sensation, IN A HEARTBEAT.
In brainstorming of things to do to promote...
Getting a business lunch or meeting circles back to answering the same basic question, "What are you offering the other person that they want or need?"
Diffe...
I am among a tiny handful of people who have had the most conversations over the past 30 years with heads of music, music supervisors and producers regarding se...
Composing can be somewhat of a solitary activity. Composing for film and television is not.
Scoring for film/TV means being part of a team of producers, dire...
Had a few interesting conversations today while looking for recommendations for an upcoming show that has an important position for which I am hiring.
While ...
Do the costs of education, equipment, demos, packages, promotional materials, travel, employees, support teams and other expenses make media composing a field o...
WHAT IS THE REAL VALUE OF PUBLISHING RETAINED FROM PROJECTS EARLY IN A COMPOSER'S CAREER?
I frequent read on this Forum a VERY strong sense that composers wo...
Over the last week my Facebook feed has been flooded with links to a 4-minute animated short, IN A HEARTBEAT.
In just a week, this YouTube sensation has had ...
Most of would agree that finding the best solution to a problem starts with properly identifying what that problem is in the first place.
It's mighty hard to...
FOR 20 YEARS THE MAESTRO SCORED AN AVERAGE OF 19 FILMS PER YEAR!
Some of those films were quite good. Many were not. Most of his scores were utterly innovati...
Ok, Bernard Herrmann's first film was CITIZEN KANE.
However, most composers cut their teeth scoring films slightly less prestigious in the early stages of bu...
While a few stinkers can torpedo the career of a director or set a movie star's ascent into a free fall, composers can typically dodge the stench of a film disa...
Opportunities, relationships and decisions take place in rooms that rarely have obvious welcome mats paving their way.
For those with little or no prior expe...
Roaming Comic-Con, I am reminded how much love there is for superhero films... and how few opportunities there are to score them.
Of the 359 films released s...
I recently started working with Emmy-winner, three time Tony-nominee David Yazbek (THE FULL MONTY, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, WOMEN IN THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREA...
I am addicted to the book ART & FEAR by David Bayles and will be sharing excerpts from it.
Here is a quote about PERFECTION
"The ceramics teacher anno...
Let's assume very few people outside your narrow circle of family and friends knows who you are and what you are capable of doing.
That's not the world's fau...
In Prague with DANNY ELFMAN at the World Premiere of his VIOLIN CONCERTO.
Elfman is a true genius who keeps pushing himself into uncharted creative territori...
Unless your are independently wealthy, you probably need to create a budget for creating demos in the pursuit of work.
The starting point of this should be d...
A Great Deadline podcast with songwriters Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner about their musical episode of ONCE UPON A TIME which they willed into existence.
(...
Landlords demand rent. Bills need to be paid.
The reality for the overwhelming majority of composers, actors, writers, dancers, singers, bands, comedians, ph...
I often read about how composers "should" value themselves and about how they value themselves impacts the larger community of composers.
So, let's get into ...
Like with most things in life, compensation in not a binary equation. It isn't just "did I get paid/did I not get paid?"
Compensation, itself, is infinitely ...
"I NEED TO..."
All of our minds are racing with thoughts, littered with clutter, and overwhelmed with options.
Far too many of those painful and unprodu...
A favorite sport among many composers is the game of "Can you believe how stupid this filmmaker I worked with is because he/she...
a. Used a musical term inc...
I seek out fascinating people.
I love those with colorful histories who have creatively navigated their lives through unexpected twists and turns. My life is...
I am the first to admit that when it comes to the "music business", I have always elected to live in a bit of a silo.
My 30 years of experience have focused ...
We frequently read about how music is being "devalued" nowadays. And I question how this generalization has been measured, studied and reached.
Among my ques...
A CHRISTMAS STORY and RENT up next...
It really is a magical time to be composing musicals.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, coming off their Tony-nominated Br...
I struggle with finding the balance between encouraging new talent and being straight and honest with them.
I remember the importance of those early voic...
The answers for almost everything you need to know are available if you learn how to find them.
I recently had a Composer reach out to me for career advice. ...
Richard Kraft is the co-owner of Kraft-Engel Management, one of the world’s leading agencies specializing in representing film, theatre, television and video game composers, songwriters and music supervisors.
