We are in the Golden Age of recognition and mainstream appreciation of film music!
First, John Williams gets the AFI Award (and telecast) and now JERRY GOLDS...
If you are looking to meet filmmakers, producers, game developers and show runners you need to get out of your studio and head out to where they are in the real...
Since I struggle with my weight I have found myself in a number of Weight Watcher meetings. They operate on a "point" system where every food is assigned a cert...
I am extremely proud to announce the launch of a project designed around the concepts of getting new music heard, fostering creativity and helping oth...
Beyond composing, the single most important aspect of having a career as a Media Composer is RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS.
You can be the greatest composer in t...
I am currently in Shanghai for the opening activities of Shanghai Disneyland.
The park is filled with music. Attractions, parades, shows, and area background...
We all make up stories in our minds of how things "should" be.
Some of us are elaborate storytellers in this department filling in imaged outcomes in great d...
Composer John Morris composed an original score for this final sequence of David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN. That got replaced by Samuel Barber's ADAGIO FOR STRIN...
Live performance of music with Film/TV/Games is a relatively new genre. As it evolves the possibilities and opportunities will explode beyond anything we can cu...
It is very tough to want something, pursue somethings, fight for something and have it not pan out.
There are tens of thousands of people wanting to be media...
I have only hung one inspirational quote on my bathroom wall in my entire life.
I return to it over and over.
Because I believe this is of the greatest re...
We all want to be compensated for our efforts.
Identifying the wide spectrum of forms of compensation can expand our ability to see the multiple layers of po...
It is hard enough to get anyone to show interest and devote any of their time to listening to your music.
Don't add an additional layer of difficulty by tell...
A composer trains. Prepares for the big event. Gets their shot. Runs hard. Pushes off. Flies high. Clears a mighty goal. Lands triumphantly. Wins. Soaks in the ...
My favorite interview I have ever given.
Got to include a number of my prepared "Elevator Pitch" quotes along with a strong sense of telling the story I want...
Thought it would be fascinating and informative if composers on this forum wanted to tackle scoring some film sequences that never had music.
Our first chall...
The James Bond films were my first exposure to the art of John Barry.
My father bought my brother and me the soundtrack to THUNDERBALL. For days on end we wo...
I’m curious: what’s your favorite Elmer Bernstein score, the one that really made you want to hire him?” I asked the director of MARIE WARD as we sat dining on ...
"Mr. Poledouris, you don't know me, but I am a huge fan of your score to CONAN and have already gone through two copies of the BLUE LAGOON soundtrack."
Those ...
I was in high school and I discovered the original cast album of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. By the time I saw the show at the Westw...
"I WANT TO WRITE SONGS, SCORE MOVIES, DO THEATRE. I WANT TO BE FAMOUS. I WANT TO BE A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. I WANT TO BE THE GAY MARVIN HAMLISCH." -- M...
Jerry Goldsmith completely scared me when I was a child.
My brother, David, and I had been collecting his soundtracks at thrift stores, flea markets and used...
Imagine an accidental meeting in an elevator with a potential employer such as a filmmaker, producer, show runner or game developer.
What are you going to sa...
If you want to catch fish you have to go where the fish are.
If you are looking to meet filmmakers, producers, and show runners you need to get out of your s...
Getting jobs as an actor is tough.
Lots of auditions. Lots of rejection. Lots of tiny parts. Lots of gaps between gigs. Lots of competition. Lots of waiting ...
As Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote in HAIRSPRAY:
You Can't Stop Today
As it Comes Speeding Down the Track
Child, Yesterday is History
And it's Never ...
At a recent USC graduation speech Bear McCreary described a time in 2010 when his career slowed and began to languish. He was replaced on a television series, f...
Composing is a solo sport. Media composing is a team sport.
Learn how to play on that team.
Literally.
Take the time to work on the crew of a film, any...
After three decades of trying (and frequently succeeding) to persuade people to see things from my point of view, I have learned, the hard way, that I have to h...
It really sounds like the world's shittiest job.
Unless you were serving out some awful court-offered sentence of Biblical proportions, why would anyone volu...
When Walt Disney looked at an orange grove he saw a castle.
With the heart of a great dreamer he created in his head all that the castle could be.
And wit...
While music teachers teaching music can obviously help composers develop their compositional/orchestral/conducting skills, are courses from them about career bu...
A major trap to avoid is the phenomenon of fixating on relatively minor details and letting them lead the way.
Of greatest importance is to identify "the dog...
When I first heard that, I thought "Great advice... If you are a selfish dick."
Only later did I discover the logic behind this is that you can only really a...
When selecting music for perspective customers make sure it is compelling, entertaining, interesting and makes its point in its first 24 seconds.
Music submi...
Here is another prediction of industry trends to discuss.
Composers are increasingly coming out from being somewhat anonymous, behind-the-scenes types to bec...
Another industry trend prediction for the future involves an explosion of live performance of media scores.
The awareness and appreciation of media music and...
Here is another prediction regarding industry trends to discuss.
There are going to be many new agents.
The top agents (myself included) are in their 50s ...
Few things sound less professional than bragging that you are a professional.
In our industry it is assumed that everyone working within it aren't amateurs.
...
The composers in this photo are DANNY ELFMAN, JOHN WILLIAMS, JERRY GOLDSMITH, JAMES NEWTON HOWARD, HANS ZIMMER, ELMER BERNSTEIN, JOHN BARRY, QUINCY JONES, MAURI...
Here is another industry trend prediction for further discussion:
As games continue to expand in size and scope, the desire for great scores will continue to...
Five years ago I wanted an arranger/programmer to take a piano tune composed by my son when he was 16 and write and record a score for a music video I had put t...
Back in the days when John Williams performed his masterpiece E.T. live to picture it would have been difficult to foresee the explosion of this art form that w...
Really? Why are you here?
I feel life becomes much clearer and decisions much simpler to make when there is clarity on what our purpose is.
When I was con...
My next industry trend prediction to discuss centers around opportunities.
The has NEVER been a time with more opportunities for media composers. And those o...
The next future industry trend prediction to discuss involves packages.
Composers being responsible for packaging the recording costs of their scores has bec...
Here is another prediction of industry trends for further discussion:
Melodies are going to make a big comeback.
After a rather long stretch of the emphas...
Here is my next prediction for a future trend in our industry for further discussion:
The current trend toward multi-disciplined composers will be become eve...
It is not uncommon to hear composers gripe about how "they" (producers, studios, filmmaker) don't respect them.
This has become a popular mantra in conversat...
Here is the next industry I predict for the future for further discussion:
Currently, entry-level scoring jobs almost never pay.
That will become even mor...
Another prediction regarding future trends in our industry to discuss further:
Many more under-represented groups such as women and minorities will be diving...
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.
