THE MODERN FILM COMPOSER – “Welcome To Hollywood”

In most business settings there are guides to how you go about building your business. If you want to open a retail spot you advertise on your building, in local print, direct mailing, fliers, stuff like that. If you want to sell a product there are trade shows, distributors, retailers, and sales reps that you can find to expose that product. If you want to be a composer you… well what do you do? I guess you start writing for films. But where do you find the films? And if you do find films, how do you find the ones that have budgets and will be seen by the people who can help you progress? If I had a magic answer for that I would either be a very successful composer or author of the “How To Become A Composer For Dummy’s” books.

I always like to ask people from any industry how they became successful in their business. At what point did they get that one job that catapulted the growth of their service or company. You can pretty much plug in any business to that equation. If it’s a contractor maybe he got the big housing tract or government contract that linked him to the next big contract. If it’s an actor, maybe it was the little pilot that turned into “The Office” that made him John Krasinski. If it’s a composer, maybe it’s the show with a small music budget but a big deserted island budget that brought him to an Oscar for an animation film.

Unlike other industries though, with composing the bridge is missing from not working, to working. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the people who do get that first job. Some composers were in successful bands. Some were sound tech geeks that a director got a hold of. Some were film editors. Some just met a guy at a garage sale who happened to need a composer at that very moment. How do you make sense of that? For myself, I’ve tried to take on a wide variety of projects from a wide variety of producers. You know, throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall assuming that something will eventually stick. The difficulty in that sentence is the word “eventually”. How long can you hold out before you’ve got to get a job at the local coffee shop? Even in acting one has the ability, the necessity really, to go on auditions. Growing in your confidence, perfecting your craft, building a portfolio, but where can we do that as a composer?

What’s worse is that at this moment in time everything is in a flux. The money is drying up, but ironically there has never been this much content in history. We are in a terrible economic place, but that didn’t stop the highest grossing film EVER to be released. Producers are crying broke while amazing new technologies in 3D and super cars are being thrown into the market place. So doesn’t that mean logically that there is some way to tap into the market that exists and is growing? Maybe the reality is that there’s plenty of work to be had, there’s just a new way of going about getting it. Anyone have any ideas? Let’s hear em! The composer world is listening, because I know there are a lot of very talented people who are hurting for work.

As I talk about often, there is a risk of losing true artistry in an industry full of art, especially when the suits can take advantage of a situation of crying money woes when the lug nut on their Maserati could pay for a couple months of sustenance of a lowly composer. For instance, no one understands how gas prices move up and down so much. They make it really complicated, and when something happens that you would think make them go up, like a catastrophic oil spill, they don’t. But when a terrorist upsets a tiny production in an obscure desert you’re selling off your kids to get to your next gig. Like when the cost of necessities goes up because of the price of fuel for delivery, but doesn’t come back down when those prices drop. Okay that’s enough of that.

Point is, there’s plenty of money and plenty of content, but because of the worlds flex in technology and finance the things that used to work don’t anymore. When I figure it out I’ll let the world know… maybe. At least after I reap some of the benefits for myself. The trick is to keep writing, keep creating, and don’t give up, because as I often quote a good composer and teacher of mine, “the only people who don’t make it in this business are the ones who give up”… I hope.