Monthly Archives: September 2009

Animated Feature – Scheduling Stress

With this diary it was my goal to write about the process of composing the score for Silk Boy, including all the ups and downs in such musical creation. Here’s the thing; I have not started the orchestral underscore yet. I am still waiting on the first act to get going, and have not seen [...]

Animated Feature – Mistakes and Fluency

If fluency comes in part from making your share of mistakes, then I need to factor that into my writing. Actually, any time kept for editing and rewrites is a good idea, and too often I have not factored that in to my daily schedule. But now I am doing that. Here is how I [...]

Animated Feature – themes approved

Well, I talked to David and the first bunch of themes have been approved. I had sketched them using piano only and given him options, (including pointing out my favourites) for the following three themes: The bad guy’s theme The main theme The family theme He agreed with them and that was it. On to [...]

Animation Music

As I continue this journey into animation scoring, I am very thankful for the internet! Here as some things I have been reading: Music Timing Rediscovered: from the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive and Malotte on Music Wow, things have changed…

Film composition requires fluency

What is fluency? You have to be in touch with your muse, of course, know how to call her at will, and have the musical knowledge, skill and experience to do something with it. Like Brahms said: “Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind” But an important and seldom discussed aspect [...]

Animated Feature – deadline is set

Note: I will be writing shorter more frequent posts to keep track of what is happening. It’s official, the orchestra is booked for January 18, 2010 for one week of recording! We will be recording with the Evergreen Orchestra in Taipei Taiwan! This will be a unique experience, for sure! But that means I have [...]

Animated Feature – writing blind

Themes, themes, themes. I am days away from embarking on the score (I hope…), so I am now finding the final versions of my themes, when possible. You see, it’s been really, really hard to write themes that match the film with any kind of certainty, because all I have to go on is the [...]

Animated Feature – Melodic Bounty

The animation is supposed to arrive any day now. I have spent the time since I completed the  pre-production music studying related scores and classical pieces, writing tons of melodic sketches and also scoring a short film called “Lazy Susan”. But now that the time is coming to start writing the underscore for ‘The Legend [...]