Film Score Daily: Composeronymous: Vancouver 2010

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Composeronymous: Vancouver 2010

Posted By: Todd Richards on March 1, 2010 - 9:00 PM

The 2010 Olympics are finished as well as our piece of the same title! I hurried to get it done before my self-imposed deadline and succeeded! I'm thrilled about that too, because I kinda think it came out better than the actually closing ceremonies. I felt bad for Neil Young's voice cracking like an old screen door in the breeze, and I personally can't stand Buble, but I digress.

I really enjoyed opening up my little world to you all on this and think I will definitely do it some more. Are you up for that? So, I apologize for this one being short but I'm in the midst of packing for vacation and flying up to Maine for some skiing. I will try to post some goodies or something for you while I'm gone, depending on the Internet availability. Yeah, I'm going to a part of Maine I like to refer to as Area 52, and they for the most part are still on the dial up tip.

So here's the deal.... Since there'll be a little more down time between posts this week and we are gearing up to do another piece together, I pose three questions to you.

1) Which of these choices do you like for our next piece? The Sands of Morocco; A "Creepy Carnival"; or A Chinese Epic

2) Is there anything in particular you might like me to cover in the videos?

3) I would love to know more about all of your backgrounds. I am curious as to who is looking in here and what to give you here.

So sit back, relax, and write me a note. Either here or on the You Tube Channel or even my email. I hope you all have a great, safe week. I'll be thinking of you all while dodging trees on the slopes! Take care and enjoy OUR first composition together!

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Comments (5):

Posted by ian642002 on March 2, 2010 8:12 AM

I will forever never take Michael Buble seriously. Not for the standard of his musical talents and output, but for his surname, which I can never really say without the inner Sid James prodding me into a session of snickering lunacy.

Posted by bryan2449 on March 2, 2010 12:36 PM

You already know how I feel about the music. I like the video though too. I feel like it adds to the overall feeling of the olympic spirit. It's interesting too that you edited film to music instead of vice-versa. For your questions ...

1) Which of these choices do you like for our next piece? The Sands of Morocco; A "Creepy Carnival"; or A Chinese Epic

A Creepy Carnival, definitely.

2) Is there anything in particular you might like me to cover in the videos?

A few ideas:

* Sketching and composition
* Setting up templates / DAW configuration
* Post-processing, ie. anything you do between sequencing and release of a project. This could include dynamics changes, mixing, bouncing to audio, reverb, fx sends, eq, dithering, mastering, etc, etc, etc. In other words, for example, what happened between your videos Vancouver Part 3 and the final Vancouver 2010.
* Business aspects of what you do. How did you start your studio. How do you go about finding clients? Setting up a website. Any discussion of finances that you are comfortable sharing, etc.

There. Lots of possibilities!

3) I would love to know more about all of your backgrounds. I am curious as to who is looking in here and what to give you here.

I am 25, married, no kids, one dog, living in Indiana currently but will be moving soon. I am a bioengineer professionally and do music in my free time. My dream (like so many others, I guess), is to be able to compose full-time but I am not sure how to make it all work. Obviously I didn't go to school for music but I took many music classes while in school and I continue to study on my own through independent courses, books, online resources, and lots of practice. I play trombone and piano proficiently and I am currently playing trombone in the top orchestra at the university here in town.

That's all I'll say at this point I guess. Somewhere down the line when we get together for a barbecue we can discuss our ambitions, fears, religion, and politics ;) So that's me. Just another amateur bum working hard and hoping that I can someday turn my dreams into reality.

Posted by Nils on March 2, 2010 3:33 PM

Nice piece! Very.... olympic! :-)

Posted by Mark Ford on March 2, 2010 4:41 PM

1) Which of these choices do you like for our next piece? The Sands of Morocco; A "Creepy Carnival"; or A Chinese Epic

The Sands of Morocco.

2) Is there anything in particular you might like me to cover in the videos?

I'm very interested to see how you orchestrate and any comments about why you choose specific instruments or combinations of them to achieve what you're looking for in a work. I'm not too interested in the minute details of how the electronics and software work, but wouldn't mind learning about them at a higher level.

3) I would love to know more about all of your backgrounds.

I'm guessing you're talking about musical background so I'll cover that. I started playing flute in band in 6th grade and stayed with the band program all the way through public school. I then went on to college as a music teacher education major playing one of the marching version of the French Horn in the marching and basketball bands and playing flute then percussion in the concert band. Decided I didn't want to teach so I switched to being a pure music major, but never finished my studies for a number of reasons.

I later went to film school at NYU and focused on editing and cinematography but found I had a thing for sound design, but didn't finish there either due to running out of dough.

I ended up becoming an IT Network Analyst/System Engineer, but I never left my music roots behind. I grew up with jazz and instrumental music at my house and as a kid got into film music thanks the music of Henry Mancini and Bernard Herrmann's scores to Journey to the Center of the Earth and Mysterious Island which eventually lead to me becoming a big classical music fan, especially in college. I later returned to film music after Star Wars exploded on the scene becoming a big John Williams fan which eventually gave way a couple of years later to becoming a Jerry Goldsmith fanatic which I've remained to this day.

I'm definitely more of an orchestral music guy despite having collected electronic music a lot in the 70s, but my ears are open to anything that I find interesting or strikes a chord in me.

Posted by Bob Bryden on March 9, 2010 11:33 AM

I absolutely abhor Michael Bubblehead. He is personally setting music back about 1,000 years.
(He's not even fun like Harry Connick Jr. used to be resurrecting the 'crooner' image.)
I've heard Bubblehead sing so off-key that it makes your head spin that he's got the 'rep'
he does. Makes me ashamed to be a Canadian - however - that is completely offset by
Neil Young. I was floored by Neil's appearance at the Olympics. When he came up out of
the trap door just sporting his acoustic guitar and harmonica amidst all the overkill hoopla
of the other 'presentations' - the sheer unpretentiousness of his performance blew me away.
And what a great song choice! I was watching the show with a half dozen young people who
are not particularly aware of Neil's history - and they all watched in amazement. It stood
in such grand RELIEF to the rest of the proceedings. Without any prompting from me - my
young friends acknowledged that here was 'something real' (and good.)