Well… can you tell we’ve all been slammed around here? July was a quiet month at SCOREcast due to all of us regular contributors being tied up on beefy projects that have required our 1000% attention. For August, however, we’ll be offering you all some surprises in the way of new content. Watch for some interesting new features coming in the weeks ahead!
For my part (and I’m writing this very far in advance of the publishing date… it’s July 18th!), I’m going to stray from our August focus on “Working as a Team” and devote a few posts to some of the things I’ve observed film composers doing wrong lately. Of course, that statement in and of itself is highly subjective, but I think there are some habits that are starting to trend that, while possibly not evident right away, will prove down the...
For my part (and I’m writing this very far in advance of the publishing date… it’s July 18th!), I’m going to stray from our August focus on “Working as a Team” and devote a few posts to some of the things I’ve observed film composers doing wrong lately. Of course, that statement in and of itself is highly subjective, but I think there are some habits that are starting to trend that, while possibly not evident right away, will prove down the...
- 8/10/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
I’m going a little off-topic here, but bear with me…
If you are anything like I am, you have many different ways in which you create. I think it is safe to say that we are all musically creative. We write, arrange, sketch, play, edit, perform, design, distort, and produce audio for various formats and productions. In my own career, however, I also like to work on my website, which I take care of myself. I love to take certain segments of our podcasts and edit/tweak them as a temporary (and I let me stress the word temporary!) tangent from my current scoring assignment. Though I am in no way, shape, or form a graphic designer, I have a fairly evolved sense of design aesthetic, and I very much enjoyed creating my own logo for my company. I design and create my own demo materials, promotional literature, and to a more limited degree,...
If you are anything like I am, you have many different ways in which you create. I think it is safe to say that we are all musically creative. We write, arrange, sketch, play, edit, perform, design, distort, and produce audio for various formats and productions. In my own career, however, I also like to work on my website, which I take care of myself. I love to take certain segments of our podcasts and edit/tweak them as a temporary (and I let me stress the word temporary!) tangent from my current scoring assignment. Though I am in no way, shape, or form a graphic designer, I have a fairly evolved sense of design aesthetic, and I very much enjoyed creating my own logo for my company. I design and create my own demo materials, promotional literature, and to a more limited degree,...
- 7/8/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
Can you believe that July is already upon us? What happened to the first half of 2010?
This month at SCOREcastOnline.com, we are focusing on “Marketing and Branding.”
I’m excited about finally bringing this topic to the forefront of our discussions at Sco, as many of you have been asking us to cover this topic for a long time.
As a possible timely stroke of genius(!), we are hosting our first-ever Official SCOREcast Mixer here in Los Angeles on July 18th. We will release details on how you can be involved before the weekend, so stay tuned for more on this special event.
To kick off the month, we’ve already read two Killer articles on the subject. Last week, Heather Fenoughty weighed in with an incredible article about Personality Branding, where she essentially lays out how to best promote yourself and run your business through understanding your personality type.
This month at SCOREcastOnline.com, we are focusing on “Marketing and Branding.”
I’m excited about finally bringing this topic to the forefront of our discussions at Sco, as many of you have been asking us to cover this topic for a long time.
As a possible timely stroke of genius(!), we are hosting our first-ever Official SCOREcast Mixer here in Los Angeles on July 18th. We will release details on how you can be involved before the weekend, so stay tuned for more on this special event.
To kick off the month, we’ve already read two Killer articles on the subject. Last week, Heather Fenoughty weighed in with an incredible article about Personality Branding, where she essentially lays out how to best promote yourself and run your business through understanding your personality type.
- 7/1/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
I received this question from a composer in Amsterdam who reads Sco. Instead of emailing my answer, I thought it would be a great topic to bring up here at SCOREcast:
“With all of the commitments you have pulling at you, how do you decide which projects to work on and which to leave on the table?”
Great question. Not an easy one to answer—because everyone is different—but an important one to answer, nonetheless. I’ll give it a shot.
We are all busy people. Some of us have two, three, four, ten, thirty things going at once. I’m scoring three movies simultaneously right now, I oversee SCOREcastOnline.com, I lead a successful, healthy, and happy team at Deane Ogden Music, my home life kicks ass, I rarely miss lunch with the woman of my dreams, and I still have plenty of time to play drums on people’s records.
“With all of the commitments you have pulling at you, how do you decide which projects to work on and which to leave on the table?”
Great question. Not an easy one to answer—because everyone is different—but an important one to answer, nonetheless. I’ll give it a shot.
We are all busy people. Some of us have two, three, four, ten, thirty things going at once. I’m scoring three movies simultaneously right now, I oversee SCOREcastOnline.com, I lead a successful, healthy, and happy team at Deane Ogden Music, my home life kicks ass, I rarely miss lunch with the woman of my dreams, and I still have plenty of time to play drums on people’s records.
- 6/12/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
My assistant and I had a great discussion over an 11pm Taco Bell dinner last night (isn’t composing for Hollywood films just the most glamorous thing ever?). Our topic? Rules. We were talking, specifically, about the boxes we paint ourselves into as composers—those ways of doing that are now go-to methods for us. You know… methods and devices that have worked project after project, over and over, again and again.
At first, our conversation was about identifying these rules. Certain progressions that are used as devices for a particular filmic motion. Certain instrument choices that we might prefer over others. Particular ways of writing or orchestrating that we subconsciously move straight to without regard to how we might approach it differently this time around.
Next, we questioned, “Why do we enforce these rules on ourselves?” Is it laziness? Habit? Insecurity? Maybe it is based on historical success. Or...
At first, our conversation was about identifying these rules. Certain progressions that are used as devices for a particular filmic motion. Certain instrument choices that we might prefer over others. Particular ways of writing or orchestrating that we subconsciously move straight to without regard to how we might approach it differently this time around.
Next, we questioned, “Why do we enforce these rules on ourselves?” Is it laziness? Habit? Insecurity? Maybe it is based on historical success. Or...
- 6/7/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
Looking over this past month of articles about “Going Pro”, our SCOREcast contributors have pointed out some very interesting definitions of what it means to be professional in this business. Some have explained that professionalism is a state of mind — that one must think constantly about being professional in all situations, whether in business, personal life, or public life. Others have suggested that to truly be a professional, one must earn a living at what it is they profess to do. For example, you can’t really call yourself a professional composer if you’re not making money “composing”. If all you’re doing is sitting around and talking about “composing”, then you might be able to say your professional talker, but not necessarily a professional composer.
Ever have a season in your life where it just seems like everything has been a lesson? Maybe you look back and realize...
Ever have a season in your life where it just seems like everything has been a lesson? Maybe you look back and realize...
- 6/1/2010
- by Deane Ogden
- SCOREcastOnline.com
Welcome to the new and improved SCOREcastOnline.com!
Our inaugural year has been a total blast! I knew that if we could do something to more carefully connect our professional film music community, amazing things would happen. What I didn’t count on was this community getting behind SCOREcast in the way that it has. Kudos to each and every one of you for building this community and really making this professional film music family an amazing group to be a part of. This website is for You!
Our first year online has been spent on Google’s awesome Blogger platform. However, with the expanding number of community-members posting relevant commentary and rich content, our daily readership is reaching into the 40,000′s, and we needed to make a change… badly.
We are now self-hosting the site on our own servers and have migrated to the more robust WordPress platform. For the last six days,...
Our inaugural year has been a total blast! I knew that if we could do something to more carefully connect our professional film music community, amazing things would happen. What I didn’t count on was this community getting behind SCOREcast in the way that it has. Kudos to each and every one of you for building this community and really making this professional film music family an amazing group to be a part of. This website is for You!
Our first year online has been spent on Google’s awesome Blogger platform. However, with the expanding number of community-members posting relevant commentary and rich content, our daily readership is reaching into the 40,000′s, and we needed to make a change… badly.
We are now self-hosting the site on our own servers and have migrated to the more robust WordPress platform. For the last six days,...
- 5/10/2010
- by SCOREcast Online
- SCOREcastOnline.com
As the first full year of SCOREcastOnline.com (Sco) draws to a close, I’ve found myself reflecting on all of the great things that makes our community of film music professionals shine. Much of it can be found in the hundreds of pages of articles, podcasts and tips that make up this online forum, but even more of it shows in the hearts and minds of You—the composers, orchestrators, writers, lyricists, executives, programmers, mixers, editors—all of you that work so hard to make this business a joy to be a part of and Sco the rich resource that it has become.
My goal in starting this website and podcast has always been to make our professional film music community “smaller” as we naturally grow “larger”. Over the past year, our website has undergone many alterations and we’ve experimented with various ways to communicate and interact as a community.
My goal in starting this website and podcast has always been to make our professional film music community “smaller” as we naturally grow “larger”. Over the past year, our website has undergone many alterations and we’ve experimented with various ways to communicate and interact as a community.
- 5/4/2010
- by SCOREcast Online
- SCOREcastOnline.com
As the first full year of SCOREcastOnline.com (Sco) draws to a close, I’ve found myself reflecting on all of the great things that makes our community of film music professionals shine. Much of it can be found in the hundreds of pages of articles, podcasts and tips that make up this online forum, but even more of it shows in the hearts and minds of You—the composers, orchestrators, writers, lyricists, executives, programmers, mixers, editors—all of you that work so hard to make this business a joy to be a part of and Sco the rich resource that it has become.
My goal in starting this website and podcast has always been to make our professional film music community “smaller” as we naturally grow “larger”. Over the past year, our website has undergone many alterations and we've experimented with various ways to communicate and interact as a community.
My goal in starting this website and podcast has always been to make our professional film music community “smaller” as we naturally grow “larger”. Over the past year, our website has undergone many alterations and we've experimented with various ways to communicate and interact as a community.
- 5/4/2010
- by noreply@blogger.com (Deane Ogden)
- SCOREcastOnline.com
Lee usually occupies this weekly space with some incredible tips to keep you rethinking your method of madness, but this week I begged him to let me have a crack at it. Luckily for me, he obliged.
There are so many things to be thought through when you are delivering a project. The importance of solid organization at the dub sort of goes without saying. Thankfully, there are many automated procedures one can put into place to insure that very little goes wrong—OMFs, ProTools sessions, hard drive backups, laptops with mirrored contents of the entire score, massive amounts of Xanex, etc. (Just kidding on that last one!)
On the other hand, many of you are working on independent projects, and there isn't always a "dub stage"... at least, not in the traditional sense. On small to medium-sized projects, the "dub stage" is somebody's home, maybe their garage or converted den.
There are so many things to be thought through when you are delivering a project. The importance of solid organization at the dub sort of goes without saying. Thankfully, there are many automated procedures one can put into place to insure that very little goes wrong—OMFs, ProTools sessions, hard drive backups, laptops with mirrored contents of the entire score, massive amounts of Xanex, etc. (Just kidding on that last one!)
On the other hand, many of you are working on independent projects, and there isn't always a "dub stage"... at least, not in the traditional sense. On small to medium-sized projects, the "dub stage" is somebody's home, maybe their garage or converted den.
- 4/9/2010
- by noreply@blogger.com (Deane Ogden)
- SCOREcastOnline.com
What a terrific month at Sco! With so many perspectives and so many amazing discussions about "spotting a film", there is a veritable masterclass swimming around in these pages. (Hmmm… Sco online classes. Hmmmmmm!!!!!!!)
I'll admit, this month I fell a little behind on reading the articles everyday. Usually, I get up early, get ready for the day, and then settle into the Musicave to check my email and peruse all of my morning news sites to get my bearings for the day. However, this last week has seen a ton of meetings about projects and upcoming speaking engagements (good problems to have, mind you!), and so I've been running since the second my feet stepped out of the shower every morning. I'm just now finishing reading this month… and boy, was it a doozie!
Obviously, the common denominator in "spotting" is knowing when to musically shut up or speak up.
I'll admit, this month I fell a little behind on reading the articles everyday. Usually, I get up early, get ready for the day, and then settle into the Musicave to check my email and peruse all of my morning news sites to get my bearings for the day. However, this last week has seen a ton of meetings about projects and upcoming speaking engagements (good problems to have, mind you!), and so I've been running since the second my feet stepped out of the shower every morning. I'm just now finishing reading this month… and boy, was it a doozie!
Obviously, the common denominator in "spotting" is knowing when to musically shut up or speak up.
- 4/1/2010
- by noreply@blogger.com (Deane Ogden)
- SCOREcastOnline.com
Your first meetings were all raging successes. The call has come in. They like your stuff, they like you. You've been hired.
You watch the film, make your notes, and prepare to meet with the filmmakers for the first time to spot the film that will occupy your creative headspace for the next several weeks. You pack your creative notes, maybe your laptop, and for sure your initial spotting sheet which contains your knee-jerk reactions to multiple viewings of the film into your bag... and you are on your way.
Up to this point, you have presented the strongest case as to why you would be the perfect person to score this director's film. And it worked — you are the composer now. At this juncture, however, the next step is absolutely crucial. It is a step that will either set you up for a month of victories with this director...
You watch the film, make your notes, and prepare to meet with the filmmakers for the first time to spot the film that will occupy your creative headspace for the next several weeks. You pack your creative notes, maybe your laptop, and for sure your initial spotting sheet which contains your knee-jerk reactions to multiple viewings of the film into your bag... and you are on your way.
Up to this point, you have presented the strongest case as to why you would be the perfect person to score this director's film. And it worked — you are the composer now. At this juncture, however, the next step is absolutely crucial. It is a step that will either set you up for a month of victories with this director...
- 3/16/2010
- by noreply@blogger.com (Deane Ogden)
- SCOREcastOnline.com
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