Composing

Create what emotionally moves you...regardless the style....chances are it will move others as well and those are always needed in scenes. Create the feel that inspires you and as the composer you then create sections or albums of your library of that theme which you can draw from. For example... Emotional Distant Piano. Dark Dramatic Piano, Uplifting Dramatic Piano etc. Oh so many favorite scenes....

It's almost always about the feeling of the song. I will often play with different genres, tempos, moods, styles. If it's a sad scene, do I want ironically happy music? If it's happy, do I want to try a bit of melancholy? Etc...

Doesn’t it depend on the emotional music scene within the movie? Or are you / we discussing making music without the video, Kat Spencer ?

Doesn’t it depend on the scene which is going on?

In my short example with Harry Potter, the two characters are having a battle talk, so I created a back and forth minor chords before the other fight scenes started. The wand round move was discussed in class for a higher pitched sounds arranged to make it fit the scene. For this effect,

Less than 7– 10 seconds- It took about 1 hour - across the 4-6 instruments I used for this nice orchestration. The emotion is def mystic and

Light in this scene, before the different fight particles start throughout the short.

The very end of this piece … the music seemed off. - not connecting emotionally- and to my sense of finality. Then, I looked at some scores, in which the online teacher gave us from the actual movie .

I made a few corrections and it sounds a lot better.

I know I’m talking about my short example, they trying to share the emotions I put into it, as well as similar tips I had to do to make it decent.

Granted, the sounds are a little thin; this is due creating it within Dorico 5.1 Pro. I did best to use plugins to make it work before combing sounds w video in iMovie.

I thought the music made during the water scene made this moment. I tried to keep same sound into when the glass breaks - since close together.

The Gravity video sounds best over all; it’s on same playlist on YouTube and on my Services page on my website.

You asked to drop a video ! (Smiles)

https://youtu.be/sgyfczoStBA?feature=shared

Hi Kat,

Bill from Tucson. I'm a writer/producer, not a musician or composer. Your question got me thinking about my film. (And The Pudgie Goes To). My term for the film is, music enhanced. There are 15 songs, only one an original. Your question made me realize, when I was choosing the songs, I was just like the composer/arranger. Each song was chosen for the mood and tone of the scene, but also with the overall tone of the film in mind. I don't know if it was easier because all the songs have lyrics, but i believe the lyrics put immediate emphasis on the mood.

The story is about a screenwriter struggling in Hollywood. After six years, he's still driving a beer truck in the shadow of the Hollywood sign. To give an example, the opening song is "I Must Let the Show Go On", by Three Dog Night. The lyrics ring out tragedy, mixed with dark humor, but the music has a playful circus atmosphere and with the background scenes showing the sights along Hollywood Boulevard, it does seem as if the whole thing is a circus.

Thanks to your question, I went back over every song in the film to see if I got the mood I was looking for. I believe I did. Great question!

Great list! I'd love to add a topic or two for next year: How to collaborate effectively for screen scoring and step-by-step guide to protecting your IP for music.

Composing Education for different genres, James Lagrimas, like a webinar on scoring a Comedy movie, a class on scoring a Thriller show, and a lab on scoring an Action movie.

These are great James Lagrimas - aside from education, I'd consider having an AMA hosted by a composer with film experience.

I love the idea of genre specific scoring webinars! I'd like to see those added too.

Something touching on how music scores build tone and atmosphere in the background would slide perfectly into a set of genre webinars.

I bought Terence Blanchard’s video. Good one !

.. from what I went through and seen.

There’s some good detailed information from

Terrence’s video ! I need to get back to this video as well.

I ran across Michael Whittaker’s ScoreCraft program on FB ! He has a once a month hang /

Online class where he shares his secrets from his 30 year career !

He has a few other classes also - his big program is Coming up in February 2026.

He’s made another program where it’s self/ paced and available- and there’s 10 videos to score to.

www.ScoreCraftAcademy.com

Here's mine: Title: Thanks-Viv-Ing Logline: When Vivian, a harried young mother and kindergarten teacher, finds herself juggling the chaos of directing a Thanksgiving-themed play, she must navigate the comedic struggles of creativity, family, and community to create unforgettable memories for her students and children all while navigating her first holiday season after a perilous divorce. Dramady-Musical with lots of upbeat numbers that show the frantic pace of her life. Even when sad, lonely, or in overwhelm, the pace is fast in the beginning. As things resolve, the musical tempo becomes less harried.

I can happily say that I have not lost the spark yet. I am only slowing down with writing songs now simply because I have written more than 450 of them. I am now busy uploading them to sites like Fresh Tunes where people can actually discover them. It takes time when there are hundreds of songs to list.

Wyman Brent This is true! Best of luck with all of the uploads!

Two years ago I walked away completely from composing, from playing the guitar, all of it. I was burned out from working so hard and Covid wrecking some good things I had going after school, I had just had it, completely. But that only lasted for about 6 or so months... a friend of mine called me one evening and asked me if I wanted to be in a.good local rock band that the founder was leaving, who was also a friend, so I said I would think about it. I have to admit I was happy where I was, the pressure was gone, the long hours all of it, I could do things I wanted to but didn't have time, which was great. But something was also missing so I said yes, I would join. At first all I wanted to do was play the guitar live and enjoy that, not go back to the composing gig but all it took as a little Rock and Roll guitar to light that fire again and here I am back at it. The wife said it was meant to be.... :-)

The spark wanes quickly if you stop working, simple as that!

There was a time during the years 2013 to 2015 when I didn't write as much. A lot happened during that time, most tragic was my aunt died of leukemia and I just didn't want to write or vlog. It wasn't until 2016 when I started attending open mic nights that I met people who also loved to write and that made me want to get back into writing songs. I think covid really wrecked lots of potentially good things, though. Having everything close or shut down for a few years didn't help. While I was still songwriting with a friend during that time in which we emailed lyrics back and forth, we haven't had time since the pandemic ended to get together and record because my friend is having problems finding people who are serious enough about the music to want to collaborate in writing melodies. Joining online communities in 2021 really helped, but I feel like I lack the creative space in the real world. I feel like the world hasn't been the same since 2020.

I will be watching this!! Ashley Renee Smith thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for sharing the conversation, Ashley Renee Smith. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is my new favorite movie of the year and my favorite Frankenstein movie. What stood out to me most about Alexandre's approach is he explored/dug to suggest ideas for the music and bring a new voice to the film.

Fantastic!!! (I had the honor of working with Alexandre Desplat on 'The Upside of Anger'. Such a professional talent!)

Every time one faces the blank sheet of manuscript paper or a new file in your DAW....

Justin Wildridge for sure!!

The scariest situation was when we suddenly got Peter Jackson's King Kong dropped in our laps at James Newton Howard's studio. 4 weeks to write and record a 3 hour film. Cue the 2 AM meltdown I had in the parking lot basically sounding like Bill Paxton's character from Aliens.

Creatively I've had to wear so many hats over the years. The hardest stuff for me to adapt to was animation.

Till now, the scariest risk was to contact a professional film composer to get his feedbacks on my work. I asked him to give me a sharp answer : either it's unworthy, or it's way far from good and need much work, or it's pro and I should keep on doing it. Guess what, I'm still here, I had the best answer ever but I was ready to give up everything if his answer was negative.

Nice to meet you Julien CLÉMENT - fun fact, Clement is my maiden name.

Libby Wright I started in 1996, right after I stopped taking piano lessons, which I started when I was 6 years old. That's when I discovered I could compose. I had to be away from the "structured learning" and expectations to find that it naturally comes to me if I don't think about the "rules."

At about 13 when I suddenly realized it´s possible to play by ear. And yes, Kat, I dropped piano lessons too!

Guitar Instrumental music and Songs for to many years. Orchestral film type compositions for about ten or so years!

Started on guitar as a child in the late 70s. Played rock for years but in 2000 I started working for a composer in a commercial post studio in Sacramento. 2003 moved to LA and been doing film work ever since.

Composing seeded into my mind at teenage (~ 90's), then stayed dormant for decades. I've listened to thousands hours of musics of any style since then and never stopped playing the piano that I started at age 6. But in 2023 I felt a strong need to come back to composing in a serious manner. The seed has now turned into a little tree ! My main goal is to me a full time music composer for cinema and documentaries.

I enjoyed the story, the acting, the cinematography, the music, and more, Geoff Hall! It's hard to pick a favorite thing. The music made me feel like I was back in that time period. The story, acting, etc. did too.

Maurice Vaughan agreed, Maurice. It was a totally immersive experience. In fact, we talk a lot about immersive cinema and I think we should use ‘Sinners’ as an exemplar when we talk about this.

Did you mean Trish B’s piece, Morgan ?

It is nice !

Kerry Kennard When I was in school the think was and still is I think, but is changing because of the Expression Map technology, to have one midi track per articulation for all instruments groups. So once you get two or three string, woods, brass, perc, choir, etc. blares and you add all the inputs, a few VCA's to help balance all the different libraries out in the mix, you end up with a huge template. With the Expression Map stuff you can once again run one track per instrument for all articulations.. I like the single track per instrument workflow much better myself, even thought the template still has a lot of tracks it's not near the 2000 numbers. Some of the A list guys I've heard have 8 and 10 thousand with banks of VEP servers in a server racks. Crazy, but they have assistances to help the manage those behemoth templates.

Morgan Aitken Yea, the Omnivoice plugin is pretty cool for sure! I haven't messed with it yet to much I will say though.

Kerry Kennard , I'm kinda musically illiterate... so, who is Trish B?

Morgan Aitken , the link you have above brought up Trish, ... some last name starting with B.

Now, it's right ... hearing the thin voice from OmniVocal. Yikes, ... it's def. thin to me.

Glad it does some words !

Music and sound can really enhance shows (like Fallout), movies, etc., Ashley Renee Smith. I add music in my scripts. It's just something like "Classic Rock plays on the radio." I've also been focusing on sound more in my scripts.

Ashley Renee Smith I’m looking forward to Fallout 2, how about you?

https://youtu.be/ECI3eCAxRGw

Is anyone using AI to generate MIDI or an original score? What was your experience?

I haven’t , but this was in the new this morning..

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/ai-generated-country-song-topping-billboards-country-digital/story?id=127445549

there has been some push back by artists and some in the entertainment industry, but..

Rick puts it in a better perspective as always!!

https://youtu.be/rGremoYVMPc?si=FQzXAINPM12MoLgU