Excited to announce A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF ALAN MENKEN written and performed by Menken which I directed and co-produced will be performed at Disney's D2...
There are very few characteristics more attractive to me than being strong and confident while also being honest and slightly self-deprecating.
Being a doorm...
As someone who has spent over 30 years working with composers, I can vouch for this:
YOU CAN MAKE PROGRESS OR YOU CAN MAKE EXCUSES.
All the blather of "...
I recently posted a Composer Challenge to score a sequence in CAST AWAY.
If I counted correctly, 31 composers rose to the challenge.
If I am not mistake...
Have enjoyed reading the threads regarding college education for media composers.
My observations are that formal education can be a wonder and/or a curse.
...
Many of my greatest accomplishments have come about by being the Last Man Standing.
I often "win the race" by the mere fact everyone else dropped out.
How...
Theatre composers Zachary and Weiner told me they had an idea for a musical episode of the fantasy TV series. I set up a meeting with Dawn Soler at ABC who spar...
A number of live-action remakes of animated musicals are in the works including THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN and SNOW WHITE.
What opportunities do these creat...
You know your own fears, doubts and struggles. They brew within you.
You also know very little about what truly exists within others.
We are all basically...
Today I decided to look back at clients who, over the years, have decided, for a variety of reasons and circumstances, to fire me.
COMPOSERS WHO HAVE FIRED M...
As soon as I got off the phone with writer-director Danny Strong I called Bear McCreary.
"The guy who created EMPIRE and wrote THE BUTLER, the last two HUNGE...
The journeys of the composers nominated for Best Score this year are quite varied.
JUSTIN HURWITZ (LA LA LAND)- Third film. All with director Damien Chazelle...
Bear McCreary's meeting with the director of Anne Hathaway's new film, COLOSSAL did not go well.
Granted, it's hard to describe what any composer would do wi...
Years ago, when I was discussing upcoming potential film projects with Jerry Goldsmith, he directed his focus on one in particular, THE LAST CASTLE starring...
A key member of many music teams on media projects are the Music Supervisors.
So, what sorts of things do they do?
1. Work with filmmakers and studios in ...
Communication is music.
It has a rhythm, a tone, a theme, variations, a flow, a build, a performance.
Like with music, practice is part of discovery, lear...
NO.
PROACTIVE:
Purposeful, causing something to happen vs responding to something after it happens, deliberate, with a plan, taking charge, taking respon...
When I was 21 I worked at a low budget film company, Cannon Films.
Most of the other employees there loved bitching about how crappy the films were (yes, the...
Not-so-humblebrag...
So delighted to be part of this movement with so many clients involved in the films mentioned in this article:
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oLamUpdyhs&feature=youtu.be
Watched this video and am convinced this composer is never going to have a career in film. He ea...
If you are in the media scoring industry you or someone on your team better know your numbers.
In another thread someone made a lot of assumptions about the ...
Retaining publishing is definitely preferable to giving it away. It has value. Sometimes great and sometimes nominal.
The question for this thread is, "IF yo...
After three decades of media music negotiations, I would like to offer a few of my key rules on deal making.
1. UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE IN ...
Before you spend one more moment of your precious time grousing about how difficult it is you to land film scoring gigs, take a hard look at this list of the 69...
Just by searching IMDBpro there are 4,046 feature films slated for release next year using the following filters:
type: MOTION PICTURE
status: PRE-POST, PRO...
AND THERE IS A SURPRISE GRADUATION GIFT!
Back in July, I offered a Masters Degree in Comedy Scoring.
To receive this certification, students must watch/li...
Composer Joachim Horsley could have post the audio of his outstanding arrangement and performance of BEETHOVEN IN HAVANA and received a little notice.
Howeve...
As the Three 6 Mafia lamented in their Oscar-winning song, it's hard out here for a pimp.
It is also hard for composers and bookkeepers and writers and schoo...
We all hear a lot of ideas, complaints, opinions, gripes and theories swirling around us day in and day out.
What is frequently missing after them are the ma...
I am frequently approach by composers whose careers have lost steam, stalled or plummeted over the long haul.
With a handful of very specific and quite amazi...
There are a lot of composers out there. If I were a filmmaker, how might I go about picking one for my project?
1. WATCH A LOT OF MOVIES.
Start discovering ...
Composers need to allocate their resources (time, money, focus) on a wide variety of gambles that have a wide range of odds of achieving favorable outcomes. The...
Media composers almost always write for characters very different than themselves in situations far beyond their own personal experiences.
They get into the ...
Right now think about all the different people who support you in making your music, running your operation, and encouraging you through your career.
Next, s...
Winning the Oscar for Best Score can be a wonderful personal accomplishment for a composer.
It is a nod from peers to get nominated and from the industry to ...
LA LA LAND lyrists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul talk to Entertainment Weekly about how they landed that gig via flying to LA on their own dime, pretending to alre...
I received a nice shoutout in this article for getting Benj Pasek and Justin Paul involved in LA LA LAND.
I highly recommend any Millennial breaking into fil...
I recently attended the Society of Composers and Lyricists screen of MOANA.
I got there early and sat on the aisle. About a half dozen composers (all of them...
Always remember, you are the product that is being sold, not your music.
You are selling the concept that you are the greatest choice for the buyer to entrus...
A few months ago music editor of over 100 projects, Shie Rozow , shared some personal observations about his experience of composers sending him music for poten...
Without getting into any of the pros and cons of their being an affirmative action program for media composers, it would be interesting to discuss how such a pr...
This can apply to almost all aspects of being a successful composer.
It is a common mistake to project onto someone else a problem you are having and trying ...
I once asked a client to put together a reel to submit on an edgy comedy. I listened to what she assembled, which was perfectly fine, and asked her, "If you wer...
Among the films grabbing awards attention this year are JACKIE scored by MICA LEVI, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA scored by LESLEY BARBER and ELLE scored by ANNE DUDLEY...
So far Rachel Portman has scored 97 projects including thrillers, animation, dramas, period pieces, romantic comedies, war films, family films, love stories, bi...
If one wants to understand how composers are chosen for the top superhero films, it basically boils down to the same three additional factors beyond their music...
A ruling by the National Labor Relations Board in the 1980's prohibits composers from unionizing. But what if that were overruled?
What do you believe would ...
Quite often I have witnessed composers take on the role of passive victim in their own lives, careers and approaches.
Frequently they see themselves on the r...
In the early decades of the last century Tin Pan Alley songwriters ruled. During that "Golden Age" song composing was typically its own art form, far removed fr...
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.
