Composing : Overwhelmed beginner: where to start. by Jennifer Rose

Jennifer Rose

Overwhelmed beginner: where to start.

I have been a band director and music teacher in the public education system in Oklahoma for the past nine years. Film composition has always been my goal, but with little time and no money (I guess it's all squandered as we all know teachers make serious bank) so composing has been focused on the stage and football field...basically for my own ensembles. Listening to others' work has quite frankly sent my self confidence into a tailspin. I would like to find a way to get started making demos, but I am stuck. Is there a resource where I can find shorts or scenes with no music? The only "demos" I have are mostly live recordings so I would like to get working on something more acceptable to the industry. Thanks and I look forward to your comments.

Jennifer Rose

Thanks. That helps a lot. And that video and music was inspiring for me. An image I would not have imagined with that music, but now it's all I can picture. Wonderful!

Jennifer Rose

Thanks so much! I did fairly recently buy LogicPro and I have used Finale as my notation software for years. I used to use Cakewalk so getting used to LogicPro is a bit...fun. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

CK Barlow

Hi, Jennifer! Some people will poo-poo it as a "pay to play" scam (it's not), but joining TAXI helped me a lot in a really specific way: I was a fine composer at the outset, but my production skills were not up to broadcast quality. So both by submitting to TAXI listings and heeding the resulting critiques, and by giving/getting help from other members, I improved my production skills quite a bit. Their forums (forums.taxi.com, and you don't have to join TAXI to participate) are also a goldmine of tech info as you put your setup together. I can tell you more if you're interested. As for shorts to score for practice and reel purposes, two things: See if there's a 48-Hour Film Fest in your area, and participate. Here in ABQ, it's always in the summer, so it might be compatible with your teaching schedule. Second, for my music-tech students at UNM, I found some silent shorts provided online by Sibelius for its composition competitions and grabbed those... looks like they've been taken down, though. How about this as a starting point? https://archive.org/

Joel Irwin

Jennifer - you just missed your area for 48hr - Kansas City is this weekend. But if you don't mind travelling or working remotely, OKC is next weekend and there may still be teams looking for composers. See: http://www.48hourfilm.com/tour/chronological.php After Aug most of the weekends are foreign cities. Another popular competition here in Houston (perhaps second only to 48hr) is "Splatterfest". You could probably get on a team without having to travel to TX. Its coming up next month. www.splatterfest.com. It is much more fruitful to collaborate in a film competition on a team than just to 'practice. Many of these films end up in other festivals and you will get imdb credit.

Jennifer Rose

Thanks a lot Joel! I hadn't checked those out yet.

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