Week 25 - The Sleep of Kings

The great director debacle has come to an end. It took 3 weeks, but it is resolved. After 10 revisions and many sleepless nights, the director finally approved my cues. Did he arrive at the decision of his own volition? 

Not really. 

As the deadline drew nearer, I became increasingly agitated and embarrassed at the situation, not only was I the only class member who didn't have an approved cue, the entire scoring project was delayed a week so I could figure out how to make this guy happy. With 3 days left to the new deadline, I met with the incoming school program director and told her of my frustration. I asked her if they ever had a student not get a cue approved for a film. She replied that yes, it happens more frequently than you might think. I told her I felt that I have gone above and beyond reasonable expectations. 

When my own material failed to enthrall the director, I sought feedback from others on my team who have cues approved by the director. After much discussion, we concluded that my music matched theirs, is well written and supports the onscreen action / emotion as well as any of theirs, our team of three had created a unified sound for this film (Which is actually quite good, it's very similar to episodes of the X-Files). 

I met with both the outgoing school director, (program founder, respected 40-year veteran of the film score industry, and amazing mentor) as well as another trusted composition advisor who both felt there was nothing more that could really be done to improve the way the music supports the scene. To alter it anymore not only risks producing a sub-par cue, but also betrayed my original musical ideal. He told me to move ahead without receiving approval from the film director, but to write him an email explaining the deadline was rapidly approaching and I had no alternative but to start the next step of the process for his cues. 

Within 2 hours the film director had replied, apologized for taking so long to make up his mind, approved my cues as is, and is now excited about the next steps. 

I slept very soundly last night thank you.

Here is my workload for the next week:

• Prepare deliverables for this session:
• For cue #1
• Proofread score and all parts
• Create mockup for Harp only
• Create mockup for the rest of the musicians
• Create an audible click track
• Create a MIDI file
• Have another student double check all my work
• Double check at least one other student's work
• Repeat the entire process for cue #2
• Create a realistic orchestral mockup of the first 55 bars of Mars from the Planets using Logic
• Recreate PRECISELY a 24 bar piece for solo Harp using Dorico notation software.
• Create a mix down of a 12 track drum set recording using Pro Tools
• Compose, create, mix, edit, and master 2 minutes of original music for a video game trailer using Pro Tools. The trailer has ecisting sound FX and the music must fit without covering those FX
• Compose and produce 5 20-second long pieces of music where each subsequent 'branch' is more intense than the last using Logic
• Branch 1 - not at all intense --- Branch 5 - VERY intense
• Place these branches into a piece of software development 'middle ware' and build a storyboard that tells the software what branch to play depending on how intense the onscreen action is
• Write a set of lyrics
• Start writing an original song for voice and piano for Songwriting final

In my free time I get to be husband and father.  

The next 100 days will be intense and exhausting. However, this experience leads to my dream and I do it gladly (and maybe a bit begrudgingly)