Not being a multitasker has its pros and cons. It allows me to be hyper focused when working on a project, but it also inhibits my ability to see the bigger picture. This does not work well when you are expected to manage several large projects at once. At times, things can get extremely overwhelming for my one- track brain. Even though we were warned several times during bootcamp not to panic, even though I took notes when Brian King told us to not freak out and to stay in the present, even when my wonderful mother told me not to worry....in the face of all of these warnings, I still lost my cool. It wasn't a "lying on the kitchen floor in your pajamas screaming at the ceiling" kind of melt down, instead it was a chronic deterioration of sanity.
(my notes from bootcamp)
In the wake this episode, I've added a new mantra to my current list. You see, posted on my wall, I have a list of qualities I want to project in my life. They include things like: Be Passionate, Be Enthusiastic, and Be Authentic. Tonight, I will add one....STAY CALM!!!!!
As I stumble my way through this program at USC, I can't help but make analogies to my marathon training days. I am quite aware now that composing is mostly an endurance sport with elements of a 100 yard dash! When you train for a marathon, you are warned about the problems you encounter in the race: not pacing yourself in the beginning, eating while running, knowing when to hold it and when to dash for the portapotty, and hitting the wall. All these warnings are well and good, but until you've actually been running for more that 3 hours, you're never going to know what the wall really feels like! My point is this: all the advice I'm receiving this year will help me prepare for the challenges I will need to overcome, but forewarning is never a substitute for experience.
This past week, I finished work a number of new projects. Last weekend, we recorded our romantic cue at Firehouse Studios in Pasadena. We were given the choice of conducting our cues to click or free conducting to picture. Conducting to click means everyone has headphones and gets a steady metronome click so everyone is on the same page. Free conducting is where you, the conductor, watch the film as the musicians play and guide them to the correct timings. This method is more "old school," and used all the time by John Williams. As you can imagine, free conducting gets a more natural sound, but is a lot harder to do! Tyring to follow the "make your weakness your strength" mantra, I opted to free conduct my piece. Surprisingly, It was a lot of fun! Here's my romantic cue, A Bittersweet Affair.
(Me, Daniel, and Jonathan problem solving during the session @ Firehouse)
Another really fun project this week was composing a piece of music in the "Disney Style." Earlier in the semester, we tried our hand at music for animation in the Warner Brothers style. In contrast, the "Disney sound" is much more cute, gentile, heroic, and emotional. Here's a scene I scored from Pooh's Heffalump Movie.
Finally, for Lennie Moore's class on video game music, we had to do an action loop with branching. What that means is the main music piece will loop until an action occurs (like the player dies). At that point a new piece of music will play. The trick is trying to write music that transitions well at any point. Not easy. Here's my rip-off of Tyler Bates from the movie 300. My piece is titled originally enough, 600.
