I just want to bang on the drum all day

This week started off with a BANG! Monday we went to Fox Studios and saw John Powell record an orchestra for the new Disney animated flick called Bolt. What a thrill! As great as it is to hear an awesome score in the theater or on a CD, NOTHING, nope, NOTHING compares to a live orchestra. It was magical to see the very first moment when music and picture are married together. 

During the session we also got to meet Michael Mollo, John Powell's assistant. Michael actually graduated from the USC SMPTV program (Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television) a couple years ago. He's doing extremely well for himself and he is very inspiring. With a little luck and some hard work I could be working for an A list composer in a couple years too! What a thought.

Even though it started off with such an inspiring experience, this was a very trying week for me. On Wednesday, my computer decided it didn't want to work anymore. This happened right before a major project was due. I stayed up for two nights in a row trying to fix things and I just squeaked out a solution before the deadline. All I can say is that I'm happy it happened now and not before a final project! 

Towards the end of the week, over 4 days I only slept for like 7 hours. NOT something to be proud of. What you want to do instead is to "golf on fridays." Let me explain. There are some composers who cram, make last minute changes, obsess, etc. Then there are others who get their work done early and are golfing on friday before their Saturday recording session. I was definitely not golfing on friday. Maybe my goal should be to sleep on friday : )

Anyways, I managed to get my work done and I got a great recording of my piece. The assignment was to score an action scene from the movie The General's Daughter with only percussion. We had some amazing players and I got the thrilling but rewarding experience of conducting my own music. Here's the scene I scored from The General's Daughter.

I've caught up on some very much needed sleep and I'm gearing up for next week's onslaught...