The
worst career choice I ever made was to become a film composer.
I dropped out of my university and decided to pursue the only
occupation I've ever felt good about doing. I got my start in
theatre, doing sound design for numerous original screenplays,
even before I really understood how to write a note of music.
I think this helped me develop an intuitive sense for the underscore
and it's dynamic involvement with the dialog and overall pace
of the film. In some cases, conventional music notes can be
entirely disbanded and replaced with a minimalist approach of
utilizing atmospherics and modified samples to create a mood
that makes your heart pound faster than any epic score ever
could. I also developed a sense for the effective use of silence,
which is something all film composers have come to know and
love. It often creates a great amount of tension, and can allow
the film to breathe a bit (and it also means less work writing
cues). After theatre work sort of dried up, I decided it was
time to take on some film jobs. I worked for a few years doing
it part-time while I developed my musical abilities and gradually
constructed my studio. After working on some mediocre productions
and doing some very sub-par work, I realized the only way I
could get really involved in it was to make it my full time
job and become completely immersed. Knowing full well that I
wasn't going to get paid for any of my work for quite some time,
I moved to the film production capital of Canada, Vancouver
BC.
In between
my film work, I had decided to continue developing as a musician
and make as many albums of my work as I could. This was often
very good training for meeting time constraints, as I was
commonly able to finish an album back to front in two weeks.
As a media composer on low to mid-budget productions, you
are generally responsible for being as much of an audio renaissance
person as possible. A completed project requires you to take
on the roles of composer, arranger, orchestrator, instrumental
soloist, and also as a sound technician covering all elements
of studio function and utility. You have to be able to mix,
master, and produce your own work, as well as understand how
to effectively record the instruments you're playing. I take
a self-sufficient approach, and have yet to bring in any other
members to cover any of these areas. This can be a definite
luxury when creating a score, but as the scope of productions
increase, and the time allotted for working on the music decreases,
it may soon be a thing of the past.
The most
challenging part about being a film composer is deciding that
you want to continue to pursue it. Sometimes, it can seem
as if it is leading to a completely dead end road, but thankfully,
a healthy chunk of it boils down to good old fashioned luck,
and the fact is, if you pursue anything wholeheartedly, you're
bound to get a break, even if that break does sometimes seem
somewhat prolonged.
Deciding
to be a film composer can also be a very paradoxical venture,
being that it requires an incredible amount of time and study
to become proficient at it. It also takes serious amounts
of money. You must spend endless hours in your studio and
at a training facility or university, honing your compositional
and performance skills, as well as your production quality
and technical adeptness within your studio. The paradoxical
moment occurs when you realize that if you want your production
and composition quality to be anywhere near standard, you
have to buy some really expensive gear and get some really
expensive training. In order to get that gear and training
you have to work, and you don't really get paid to be a beginner-level
composer. This means you need to get a full-time job that
will consume all your time and energy, which may leave you
blank when you sit down and try to work. Thus begins the struggle
of a film composer.
A very
significant part of being a film composer is meeting some
very tight deadlines. Post-production is the final stage of
the filmmaking process, and can often be left with the smallest
portion of the budget, due to financial squandering during
the production process. Music is the last addition to the
film, which means that the composer is often left with the
least amount of time. In some cases, feature-length score
rewrites have been completed in two weeks, which is no simple
feat. Overwhelming deadlines often eat away at your health
and well-being, but can also result in an incredibly musical
experience that leads to what may be some of your greatest
work. So how does one manage to write so much (hopefully)
good music in such a short time-frame? You could compare it
to squeezing toothpaste remnants out of a perceivably empty
tube.
Inspiration
is a very significant part of writing any sort of music. And
thankfully for the composer, some of the most basic elements
of a film (such as the time period, a character, or a loose
plot outline) can become the source of some very rapid and
inspiring musical concepts. It's also a great idea for a composer
to gain as much life experience and general knowledge as possible.
Read and study different cultures and historical periods,
and be sure to experience any great work of absolutely anything,
whether it be architecture or a tattoo parlor. Whether an
idea surfaces instantly or years later is entirely insignificant.
When you need it and you can effectively channel it, it will
be there.
Film scoring
is initially very financially unrewarding, and can actually
put you in debt if you decide to go to school for it (which
is actually a very wise decision). But if you hold on long
enough, and learn to network effectively, you can eventually
get around to earning incredibly large sums of money. A composer
generally earns 10-15 percent of the overall budget, but other
deals based on royalties and soundtrack sales can also be
worked out, leading, in some cases, to much more money than
you'd originally anticipated. It does makes sense to work
a regular job for a while. You obviously don't want to do
anything too overwhelming, but often these regular jobs can
be a welcome escape from the hermetic confines of your studies,
and in some cases, even sources of inspiration. I recall Phillip
Glass speaking very fondly of his part-time jobs while he
was trying to earn a living as a composer, placing his job
as a taxi driver at the top of his list. Still, you will need
some very efficient time-management and multitasking skills
in order to handle a job while still composing.
With the
advent of digital audio workstation and sampling technology
came an overwhelming influx of do-it-yourself composers that
needed neither orchestra nor education to label themselves
as such. High quality loop and sample libraries have enabled
anyone capable of attempting to solve a formless puzzle to
create well- produced and seemingly well-conceived music.
This adds to the challenge of being a composer, as it creates
quite a formidable amount of competition in an already very
flooded market. If you're noble and refuse to use these preset
loop and sample libraries, your alternatives are expensive
session musicians and studio time, your own high end studio
and performance gear, or to let your production suffer and
hope potential clients can hear through it. Despite the amount
of time a composer must spend eating peanut butter and macaroni
dinners, the reward for creating a dynamic and perfectly cued
score far outweighs any roadblocks. To sit unnoticed in the
audience and experience a piece of film come to life, disbanding
all the technical trivialities and the incredible amount of
stress, is one of the most rewarding moments a composer can
have (next only to seeing one's music performed by an orchestra).
Being
a film composer is certainly not the easiest job out there,
but thankfully, being a musician enables you to pursue many
different musical avenues until the industry is ready to accept
you. Whether you decide it's film, video games, television,
theater, or commercials that you want to specialize in, you'll
find that any skills you attain as a musician in general will
assist you in reaching your final goal. Teaching an instrument
is a very respectable way of getting by, as well as touring
with a band (which is something many well-established film
composers started off doing), or working in a studio. I am
presently pursuing a career as a solo electronic artist, specializing
in sampling my performances and composition work into new
and interesting electro-acoustic hybrid pieces, and if I'm
able to attain a well-known artist profile from this venture,
it will increase my chances of eventually working as a higher
profile media composer significantly.
Click
here
to visit Adam Lastiwka's website.
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