The Score: Summer 2014

VOLUME XXIXNUMBER TWOSUMMER 2014

Licensing Songs To Music & Dance TV SeriesBy Todd Brabec and Jeff Brabec

Continued on Page 19

Women’s Work: Film, TV & Game Composers 5

C O N T E N T S

It is important that

you understand what

you are getting into as

well as all of the future

financial possibilities

that can come from a

single performance of

one composition in a

single episode.

T H E B U S I N E S S S I D E

Tech Talk: A Tale Of Two String Libraries 9

A third example (America’s Got Talent) separates the categories into actual “contes-tant performances” and “non-contestant per-formance music beds” (the latter defined as “background instrumental and/or vocal for contestant bio package, montage, act open, story package, or judges deliberation package”).

The contestant performance price structure has separate fees for “up to 0:30,” “0:31-1:30,” and “1:31-2:30” (plus 0:10 recaps in the same episode). There are additional fees for a short additional recap up to 0:25 in the same episode and multiple recaps in future episodes up to 1:30.

As for the non-contestant performance bed timings, there are increasing fees starting at “up to 1:00,” then “1:01-2:00,” and finally “2:01-4:00.”

As for The Voice, there are four different timing categories which are also based on how the song or master is used in the episode.

The first is the actual on-camera per-formance by the singer. The two fee categories are “up to 1:30” and “over 1:30.” These are both aggregate timing categories.

The second category includes package clips (including auditions), finale retrospective re-use clips in other episodes (including “pre-viously seen” or “coming next week” clips). Fees are based on “up to 0:10,” “0:11-0:25,” and “over 0:25.”

The third category is “impromptu vocal-izing of songs not to exceed 0:10” (for example, in rehearsal or on stage during dialogue with coaches, host, or other persons).

The fourth is “snippets of contestant per-formances being reviewed by the contestants, coaches, and/or host in short after-show interviews to be streamed/posted on NBC.com and Hulu.com for six months.” Fees are dependent on the use, being “up to 0:10,” “0:11-0:25,” and “over 0:25.”

Things You Didn’t KnowAbout Miriam Cutler 12

Musical Shares 23

W ith the proliferation and popularity

You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars, Sing-Off, and America’s Got Talent) and the present and future needs of the producers of this type of programming with respect to delivery platforms and distribution media, a number of options have been inserted into the music synchronization license for this genre of series.

But with all these options (which usually relate to downloads, streaming, ringtones, ringbacks, expanded territories, expanded distribution platforms, out-of-context pro-mos, etc.), it is essential to understand the primary considerations which are involved in the initial licensing of a song (or master recording, if applicable) for use in one of these series, since many of the options and the additional fees may or may not be exercised by the television production company.

1. Timing and UseFirst of all, the initial synchronization fees

themselves for the use of a song or master are often based on either timing or manner of use in a particular episode.

For example, one show (So You Think You Can Dance) has four categories of timing (i.e., “up to 0:30,” “from 0:31-1:00,” “from 1:00-2:00,” and “2:01 and over”) with different synchronization fees attached to each. Obvi-ously, the longer the use, the larger the fee.

Another show (American Idol) uses two categories for use in the initial episode (“up to 1:00” and “over 1:00”), but has two other categories for “results episodes” or “subsequent episodes” (“up to 0:45” and “over 0:45”). All categories have different fees with the prices for the initial use larger than the other episodes mentioned above.

of music- and dance-centric television shows (The Voice, American Idol, So

Stand Up And Be CountedBy Lori Barth

I

2

F R O M T H E E D I T O R ' S D E S K

t seems like there is a lot of buzz going through our music community these days. In one week I went to three meeings from three separate groups forming to take on our artistic battles regarding the copyright

For information contact SCL Executive Director Laura Dunn by email at [email protected]. g

PLATINUM MEMBERS

GOLD MEMBERS

GOLD SPONSORS / SPECIAL FRIENDSEdie Lehmann BoddickerTodd BrabecLes BrockmannJonathan BroxtonJon BurlingameJerry CohenRay CostaTim Davies

DIAMOND MEMBERS

PLATINUM SPONSOR / SPECIAL FRIENDS

PresidentASHLEY IRWINVice PresidentsARTHUR HAMILTONCHARLES BERNSTEINRecording SecretaryJONATHAN DAVID NEALTreasurer/CFOCHRISTOPHER FARRELL Executive DirectorLAURA DUNNThe SCORELORI BARTH, Senior Editor

Advisory BoardALAN BERGMANMARILYN BERGMANCHARLES BERNSTEINBILL CONTICHARLES FOXJAMES NEWTON HOWARDQUINCY JONESALAN MENKENTHOMAS NEWMANLALO SCHIFRINMARC SHAIMANHOWARD SHOREALAN SILVESTRIPATRICK WILLIAMSCHRISTOPHER YOUNGHANS ZIMMER

In Memoriam Advisory Board MembersELMER BERNSTEINJOHN CACAVASJERRY GOLDSMITHMAURICE JARREPETER MATZDAVID RAKSIN

DirectorsRAMON BALCAZARLORI BARTHFLETCHER BEASLEYJOEL BECKERMANRUSSELL BROWERDENNIS C. BROWNMIRIAM CUTLERJOEL DOUEKCRAIG STUART GARFINKLERON GRANTBENOIT GREYIRA HEARSHENLYNN F. KOWALBILLY MARTINHéLèNE MUDDIMAN ADRYAN RUSSGARRY SCHYMANELIZABETH SELLERSAUSTIN WINTORY

Past PresidentsJOHN ADDISONRICHARD BELLISBRUCE BROUGHTONJAY CHATTAWAYRAY COLCORDJAMES DI PASQUALEDAN FOLIARTARTHUR HAMILTONMARK WATTERS

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Jeffrey Hartman

away score and special payment problems. It’s easy to stand back and be overwhelmed and do nothing. Now is a time to speak up or the value in what we do will be eroded and washed away forever. At a time with so much energy focused on the future of our craft and business, don’t sit back idly on the sidelines. Write whomever you need to write, speak out wherever you can, let your voice be heard. Now is the time to stand up and be counted. g

act, piracy, protecting intellectual property, the musicians’ union and run

Time ManagementBy Ashley Irwin

T

Unlike musical

talent, effective time

management is not

always innate but it is

a talent nonetheless.

Fortunately it can be

learned and should be

actively developed.

ime: 24 hours, 7 days, 52 weeks. Every-one has the same amount but some people use it much more efficiently than

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

How good does the mix need to sound—how much time can I afford to spend on it and still make my delivery deadline? All these decisions, and many more, we prioritize within every project we do.

RelegationYears ago, I determined I was wasting

far too much time reading trade magazines during the week, so I relegated them to the weekend. I caught up on all my reading each Saturday. Later, when online articles became the norm, I would send an email to myself with a link to the article and had a folder in my mail program where these emails would reside until Saturday, when I would read them just like I’d read the magazines before them. It was this habit of mine that eventually led to the creation of the Weekly Wire.

DelegationThose of you who are fortunate enough

to have assistants or staff had to learn how to delegate. I know how hard it has been for me to learn delegation and I’m constantly trying to improve in this area. So long as you have reliable people, delegation is a wonderful thing. I love to orchestrate my own compositions and do so whenever possible, but there are times when I simply have to hand the orchestrating over to someone else if I’m going to make the downbeat. Even though I know full well that my orchestrator will do an outstanding job, it stills hurts a little. Nonetheless, my priority must always be the quality of the composition and the comfort level of the client.

As president of the SCL, I (and you) have the luxury of a stellar Board of Directors made up of people to whom I am able to delegate with absolute confidence. As you have probably noticed over the past year, their efforts have allowed the SCL to expand its horizons and move in new directions. Our relationships with other creator organizations in the U.S. and around the world have never been stronger. This is a direct result of my having the time to nurture these relationships secure in the knowledge that the Board is “taking care of business.”

Elimination How many hours a day do you spend

on Facebook? Could you spend less? What

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others. Why? Unlike musical talent, effective time management is not always innate but it is a talent nonetheless. Fortunately it can be learned and should be actively developed.

We all know people whose time man-agement skills we admire more than our own. So what are they doing differently than you? Are they sleeping less? Do they have less of a social life? Do they have less family commitments? Do they spend less time on the phone? On Facebook? See the common thread here: they’re doing less of something because we’ve already established that we all have the same amount of time to apportion. The key is to identify those things that are less important and relegate, delegate or eliminate them altogether.

PrioritizeThose of you who know me well know

about my “yellow pad”. I always have a yellow pad beside me when I’m working—my “to do” list—and I’m constantly adding to it and crossing things off over the course of a day. For me, this serves several functions: 1. I don’t have to try and keep track of

things in my head, freeing up my brain for more creative tasks.

2. A list allows me to see all the things at one time that I need to accomplish— much the same way a score lets me see what all the instruments are playing.

3. As tasks are completed and items crossed off the list, the sense of fulfill-ment grows—by the end of the day I can easily see how much I’ve accomplished.

4. Seeing all the items on the list at one time helps me to...prioritize.

We are constantly prioritizing within every project while we’re working because we generally have a delivery deadline. We have to turn out “x” minutes of music a day or we won’t make it—so that’s our first priority. How dense am I going to make the orchestration? The more instruments (or synth layers) the longer it may take to write (or program). How many hit points do I need to catch? The more there are the longer it may take to find the right tempo. Do I mix each cue as I go or leave the mixing till the end?


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SCL New York DiaryBy Mark Suozzo

N O T E S F R O M N E W Y O R K

n Tuesday, April 29 the SCL NY in association with Tekserve (one of our Premier Partners) held a

The Day—from composition through orchestration through remote record-ing from Bratislava. Most informative were the descriptions of the organiza-tion of files, demos and instrumental stems—meticulous organization within the Logic environment through which the composer adapts to the changing film edit while retaining a consistent overall sound for the director and pro-ducers. Chris’ work method allows the orchestrator to have a good idea of exactly how he expects the indivi-dual sections and instruments to con-tribute to the final orchestration. Chris and Bill led us seamlessly through the process from demo to (very funny) final product.

Peter Nashel of Duotone Audio gave us an overview of his work process. He

spoke a bit about the sample libraries and sonic tools that excited him, but acknowledged that it was best to look past those details in order to create. He explained how much of his process was finding the right tone for a long project—thinking deeply about the characterization and story first, then playing around with ideas from every imaginable source—electronic, textur-al, melodic and rhythmic to generate a unique statement for the show. He showed us the layers of development of the Rubicon theme from conception to execution to final music with ani-mation.

It was interesting to observe the contrasting work methods, and the broad palettes that we are all working with nowadays. g

Oseminar on the “Tools of the Trade.” The event featured Chris Hajian(First Position, The Little Rascals Savethe Day) and Peter Nashel (Rubicon,Lie to Me) talking about their work-flow—how technology helps them cre-ate their music. We were treated to anin-depth look at the origin of two dif-ferent types of scores, one a traditional orchestral score within a broad comedic genre, and the other a conceptual TV show using an electronic/orchestral hybrid.

Chris and his assistant and engineer Bill Sullivan took us through the steps involved in the music production of Universal Pictures’ The Little Rascals Save

ASCAP Day at BerkleeApril 2 was ASCAP Day at Berklee College of Music

in Boston, MA. TV and film composer Mark Snow head-lined the day, speaking at several classes with ASCAP executives, and appearing in a one-on-one interview with Bereklee’s Chair of Film Scoring, George S. Clinton. Another highlight of ASCAP Day was the presentation of two ASCAP Foundation scholarships to students Khiyon Hursey (songwriting) and Steve Winarto (film scoring), who were selected by Berklee faculties.

L-R: Film composer Steve Winarto accepts the Foundation’s Film Scoring Scholarship from ASCAP’s Nancy Knutsen

L-R: ASCAP’s Sue Devine, songwriter Khiyon Hursey, Berklee Chair of

Songwriting and ASCAP songwriter Bonnie Hayes, Chair of Film Scoring

George S. Clinton, guest composer Mark Snow, Associate Chair of Film Scoring

Alison Plante, ASCAP’s Nancy Knutsen, and composer Steve Winarto

BMI & Sundance PresentComposers Lab: LA

On April 12, BMI continued its support of the Sundance Institute by partnering to present “Composers Lab: LA.” The day-long program offered film composers valuable insight into the process of creating music for film through informative conversations, presentations, and networking opportunities with renowned BMI composers, includingThomas Newman,

L-R: BMI composer and Sundance Institute Film Music Director Peter Golub, BMI composer Adam Smalley, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross, Ray Costa/Costa Communications Inc. and BMI composer Anton Sanko

Anton Sanko, John Frizzell and Blake Neely.

L-R: Jeff Beal, BMI composer and Sundance Institute Film Music Director Peter Golub, Trevor Morris, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross and BMI composer Blake Neely

L-R: BMI composer and Sundance Institute Film

Music Director Peter Golub, BMI’s Doreen

Ringer-Ross, BMI com-posers Thomas Newman

and John Frizzell

5

Film, TV & Game ComposersBy Elizabeth Rose

“W

“Although I believe

that the industry has

stepped up and is

slowly changing for the

better, the fact remains

that currently, women

composers, based on

a recent study, are

only 2% of all film

composers...”— Sharon Farber

omen in general rarely get any press within the film and televi-sion industry, which contributes

W O M E N ’ S W O R K

to the perception that there are no women composing for film and television, which contributes to the perception that there are nowomen to hire for the good films that get the press and eventually the awards nominations, extending the decades-long lack of women getting awarded in the industry, which feeds the perception that there are no women composers, and the cycle continues. I hear it and see it all the time.”

A woman executive in music fired off these passionate words in a recent exchange. We had already set out to explore gender issues facing female composers in a two-part series for The Score. The first article (“NY Women Composers and Lyricists: Musical Theatre Edition,” Winter 2013) launched the conversation. For this second article, we turn to women who compose music for film, TV and games. Running this quote past our selected screen music queens heated up the discourse: Do they agree or disagree? Herewith the ladies weigh in.

Continued on Next Page

wanted to meet us because they were Prince fans. I guess that was to be expected. What was most frustrating was the preconception that we couldn’t possibly know anything about real music, or writing for strings…orchestration…etc., even though I had done many string arrangements for the band, but even that was never really known. As we got deeper and deeper into the business, and we were having some good success with some shows and a few films, we started to wonder why all these other guys were getting press, releasing CDs, getting awards…where were we in all this? We had already been working and making a good living, and writing for strings! Thank you very much.”

“Yes, I agree. I’ve been com-posing music for a couple of decades and it still feels as if I am one of a relatively small group of women scoring films. From credits to awards, it feels substantiated that we are still among the few.” Wendy

WendyBlackstone

Blackstone, who’s created over 130 stylis-tically diverse film scores including seven films which have been nominated or won Academy Awards, feels the pinch. “I just think because of the lack of publicity about the work we’re creating, those hiring are not giving us a shot at the higher profile films.”

Former member of Prince’s band, now a successful composer, Lisa Coleman tells us, “I have to whole-heartedly agree. I have never been a big horn blower, and I didn’t know what to expect as my partner, Wendy Melvoin, and I moved into a career in scoring films

Lisa Coleman

and television. We had come from a pretty big commercially successful band, Prince and the Revolution, and although we did well it was a very curi-ous process. We had a lot of meetings with people who just

Hélène Muddiman

“People, even women com-posers, have trouble naming more than ten women compos-ers, and we take more of an interest than most! So it is un-doubtedly an issue,” says Hé-lène Muddiman, multi-award- winning composer and hit song-writer whose recent credits include Happy Feet 2 and Ice Age 4. Indeed, in setting out to compile this article, the most daunting task was to identify women, first in NY and then in LA, to include. An owner of the largest post production studio in NY had difficulty naming one woman who composes for TV and film. Eventually, with the help of women such as Erin Collins at SESAC, we found them. Unsurprisingly, the first women composers we contacted began sending us names. “You must interview____,” their emails proclaimed. As highly competitive as this field is, this is evidence that the sisterhood not only exists, but there is pride in each other’s accomplishments. Now’s the time to get the word out.

Laura Karpman

“The truth is that women composers are perceived as be-ing non-existent,” states LauraKarpman, four-time Emmy win-ner (seven nominations) and named “one of the most im-portant women in Hollywood” by Variety Magazine. “Just the

other day I heard from someone who was looking for a woman composer for an utterly feminist project [who] had the perception that we weren’t out there. This happens all the time and I can name ten women who are not only capable of scoring this project, but

6

Women’s WorkContinued from Page 5


have the credits to do so. That’s what adds up to sexism — when we actually have the appropriate credits, and the music of course, and we still don’t get considered.”

I could. I’m not of the opinion that being a woman has held me back in any way except perhaps for, as a mother, wanting to be with my kids and not wanting to score eight films a year,” she states. When asked about her first break she replied, “My first big breakthrough was Used People for Largo at Fox. It was my first Hollywood film and was directed by a woman, Beeban Kidron, who fought to have me score it. It was her first feature too.”

experiences myself where I didn’t get to score a film for the sole reason of being a woman. But a change is coming and we look forward to it. I believe that the challenge might be in proving that I, as a female composer, can do the job as well as any male composer. The problem is that we are not always given even the opportunity to do just that. It seems that many times we are categorized by our sex, and not by our abilities. I don’t think of myself as a ‘female composer.’ I’m simply a composer, who happens to be female.”

LolitaRitmanis

“I have been a full-time working composer in this industry since around 1990. I have won an Em-my Award and been nom-inated ten times.” Lo-lita Ritmanis, who won for Batman Beyond, has composed music for Warner Bros. animation and concert halls in North America and Europe. “Prior to that, I began my career working in an array of jobs—proofreading, composing ad-ditional music, and eventually orches-trating for composers Michael Kamen, Mark Snow, Basil Poledouris, and Shir-ley Walker, to name but a few. Look at my credits on IMDB. The question really goes back to you: Have you heard of me? If I were a man, would that be different? When you look at my list of credits, do you think: ‘Wow! That’s impressive for a woman!’ I am part of an already extremely elite group of the population who can honestly say that I earn my living as a composer. I am a woman. So what? What difference does that make? The reality is that the average person still seems to put the job of ‘composer’ in a category of male-centric professions. People are surprised when they ‘hear’ that a woman is a successful composer.”

Rachel Portman

Not all the women in-terviewed share these con-cerns. Composer Rach-el Portman, Academy Award winner for her score for Emma and nominee for Chocolat and The Cider House Rules,

has worked with directors like Roman Polanski, Norman Jewison, Jonathan Demme and Robert Redford, to name a few. She’s also received Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. A UK native, we ran the opening quote by her. “I’m not sure I do agree. Certainly I think I’ve had a fair share of press over the years though, as I much prefer to be writing than doing press, perhaps I don’t do as much as

Pinar Toprak

With over 30 feature films credits to date, composer Pinar Toprak (The Challenger, The River Murders), the Istanbul-born LA resident, places the responsibility on wo-men to feel equal. “I think it’s a vicious cycle. Once anyone (a man or a woman) works on a project that is noteworthy they will get press. It’s not like the press is specifically avoiding women even though there is good news for them to publish. In fact, nowadays it makes an even bigger story when a woman gets hired to work on a big project. I personally think that the first step for women is to stop thinking that some outside force is holding us back. Sure, there will be roadblocks along the way no matter what… but ask any men, they also encounter those roadblocks. The difference is most of them don’t take it personally, they keep on forging ahead. Unfortunately many women I know immediately blame rejection on gender. That’s not how we will evolve. Evolution has to start inside us; we as women need to forget about the gender differences ourselves so that when you sit in a room with ten men you feel equal first.”

Winner of the 2013 SCL Award for Excellence in the Art of Film Music, composer Sharon Farber is cautiously optimistic. “Although I believe that the industry has stepped up and is slowly changing for the better, the fact remains that currently, women composers, based on a recent study, are only 2% of all film composers and in 86 years of Academy Awards only two(!)

Sharon Farber

women have ever won. We need to change this cycle. Women can score a film as well as men do; it’s just the misconception that still exists that is the main obstacle. I’ve had

Sarah Plant

Perhaps a “boys’ club” mentality is becoming a thing of the past…? NY-based composer Sarah Plant (PBS, ITVS, Bravo, Canal+ Hallmark plus) feels her musical niche is free of such pre-disposition. “Possibly because I’ve gravitated toward inde-pendent film, documentaries, public TV and international museum instal-lations, including the American Mu-seum of Natural History, I haven’t felt I’ve been the target of sexism,” states Plant. “I’ve always loved quality foreign and independent films and documentaries, given their focus on story, character and diverse cultures. I decided to write chamber-size instru-mental scores. Decades before ‘World Music’ was a genre, my passion for Latin and Brazilian rhythms, South Asian, Middle Eastern and other styles tended to steer certain kinds of di-rectors my way. Another factor: in the beginning, I decided I’d rather do part-time work in magazine publishing than accept composing jobs that involved musical styles or projects I didn’t really feel I connected with.”

Or not…? “I do very much feel like I am often the ‘girl’ navigating the ‘boys’ club’ in this business,” songwriter and

Carly Robyn Green

performing artist Carly Robyn Green opines. With over 80 TV placement credits, she’s up for the challenge. “From the song production stage in private recording stu-dios to the post-produc-

tion stage in the editing bays of film studios, it is true that this seems to be a male-dominated profession. In some ways, I think this drives me to achieve success among them and prove myself as a viable colleague in their world. In

7


my experience, I’ve been well received as a songwriter in the film and TV worlds. I believe my colleagues on the supervision side do not hear male/female when they hear a song pitch—I trust that they choose the music that most appropriately suits their projects.”

The Angel

Placements notwith-standing, the lights gen-erally shine on the award winners. The Angel, com-poser (New Line Cinema’s Boiler Room, Miramax’s The Heart of the Game)

would like to see women composers in the spotlight. “Having come from being in the minority in the record producing world, where I generated a lot of press early on in my career, I feel a distinct lack of media support for female composers. Year after year I attend an annual performing rights, composer awards ceremony only to see the same ten or so male composers win every award…and the reason for this is that the awards are not based on creative merits, they are based on the highest grossing film and TV projects…and guess what? They are all being scored by men…this is what really feeds the cycle.”

Penka Kouneva

Sundance Composer Fellow, composer and or-chestrator Penka Kouneva (film: Ice Spiders, game: Transformers—additionalscore) follows the money when looking at under-representation of women composers. “To create a ‘big’ score, the composer is entrusted (by the studio) with a large score production budget, up to mil-lions of dollars. The composer must deliver and satisfy the expectations of the studio. It’s a ‘high-risk’ industry; hence, the studio heads want to work with trusted composers who have delivered in the past, and won’t blow the budget, or get fired.”

Deborah Lurie agrees. “My biggest challenge has been gaining the trust of studios and filmmakers with whom I haven’t worked in the past. I’m sure many composers can relate. So much is at stake when they hire a composer, and becoming one of those safe bet composers is the greatest and most


BMI and Women In FilmCelebrate Female Composers

BMI and Women In Film collaborated on an evening celebrating the Alliance of Women Film Composers on April 23 at BMI’s Los Angeles offices. The event, which served to raise awareness and publicly cele-

brate female composers in the film industry, was co-hosted by BMI Vice President Film/TV Relations Doreen Ringer-Ross and Women in Film board member and music committee chair Tracy McKnight.

L-R: BMI composers Claudia Sarne, Kristen Baum, Kathryn Bostic, BMI’s Anne Cecere and BMI composers Miriam Cutler, Penka Kouneva and Heather McIntosh

L-R: Women In Film Board President Cathy Schulman, Women in Film Board member and music committee chair Tracy McKnight, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross and composer and Alliance of Women Film Composers steering committee member Laura Karpman

L-R: Alliance for Women Film Composers steering committee member and composer Lolita Ritmanis,

BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross, composers and Alliance for Women Film Composers steering committee members Miriam Cutler and Laura Karpman, and Women In Film board member

L-R: Manager Renata Kanclerz Coleman, composer Lisa Kanclerz Coleman, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross, composer and Alliance of Women Film Composers steering committee member Laura Karpman and composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum

L-R: Women in Film board member and music committee chair Tracy McKnight, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross and Partner, Kraft - Engel Manage-ment Laura Engel

and music committee chair Tracy McKnight

L-R: BMI composer Hayley Moss, BMI composer and vocalist Sussan Deyhim, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross, BMI composers Lili Haydn and The Angel

8

Siedah Garrett: Looking At The Girl In The MirrorBy Lori Barth

Academy Award- and Grammy-nomi-nated Siedah Garrett is a well-known singer and songwriter who more recently has begun writing lyrics for films. We stopped by her Santa Monica office to hear some of her stories about her adventures in her career.

Difference Between Pop Songs And Film Songs

When you’re writing for film it’s important to immediately follow the instructions of the director, that’s the first thing. For me, the music really dictates what needs to be said. As in the case with the Oscar-nominated song from Dreamgirls, the director told me that the song in that scene would be the third actor between Jennifer Hudson and Jamie Fox.

The lyrics for Jennifer Hudson’s character was supposed to speak to Jamie Fox and really tell him how much she loved him. It really conveyed emotion in the scene.

On Working On Rio 1 and 2 When I was writing with Sergio [Mendes] for the songs in the films Rio 1

and Rio 2, initially the music and lyrics and all the songs were in Portuguese. They realized if they wanted to have a hit in the U.S. that they were going to have to put in English lyrics to these beautiful Portuguese songs. The melodies were fantastic Carliños Brown and Sergio Mendes created this beautiful bed of melodic undertones and melodies that I could translate into English lyrics because I had to replace the Portuguese lyrics. A literal

translation hardly ever works, but the lyrics that I had to replace had to kind of sound like the Portuguese lyrics that had already been recorded, the round sound like the Portuguese. It was like a game, it was kind of fun. Puzzle pieces to put in order.

When I came back with my songs very little was changed because I had very long specific meetings with Carliños, Sergio, the composer, John Powell, and the director. It was very specific and I listened very carefully because I know it’s my job to give them what it is they asked me for or my song won’t be in the movie. They’ll find somebody who will give them what they want.

Rules That Guide You When You Are Writing A Song

Every song is as different as my co-writer because I co-write everything since I don’t play any instruments. I can get a track with all the music and the melody, I can get a track with no melody, I can get an idea for a lyric, I can get together in a room with a musician, write the song together with


challenging thing, in my opinion. It takes a brave person on the studio side to allow new talent into the pool, and I’m incredibly grateful for those who

fred Phillips is inspired by the words of Kim Swift, the lead designer for Portal, a smash-hit video game. “In her blog (InTheBaseCase.com) {Swift}wrote that if we as women want to bring positive

Winifred Phillips

Deborah Lurie

out for,” Lurie has worked with Danny Elfman (additional music for Wanted, Spiderman 3). “Personally, I’ve always been very comfortable working as a composer in this industry and I haven’t experienced any particular challenges related to my gender. I tend to forget that I’m outnumbered even in a room full of men.”

Game composer and author Wini-

change to our industry, we should do it in a very simple and powerful way.‘So ladies, my call to arms is this: Be visible. Be outspoken. Be strong. Be smart. Be kind. Be everything that the younger versions of us could’ve pointed to and proudly said: ‘Girls make games too.’”

NY-based composer Caren Cole sees change as she builds her body of work

how many of us still subconsciously feel that we are ‘guests in the boys’ club?’” she asks.

Miriam Cutler

Lack of diversity in theentertainment business has been capturing theheadlines of industry press all year,” says Emmy-nominated documentary composer Miriam Cutler. “The numbers for women

Caren Cole

scoring film, TV and interactive media. “In the practical sense, I perceive that if ever there was a time in history where this can change, it is now.” It’s an inside job. “I wonder

in creative positions in Hollywood are abysmal. According to labor statistics, a woman has a greater chance of being hired as a coal miner than a film director.”

Happily, Karpman, Ritmanis and others have just announced the for-mation of The Alliance for Women Film Composers. Look for a series of concerts, the establishment of The Shirley Walker Memorial Film Com-poser Scholarship, regular gatherings and lobbying to include women in concerts, panels and festivals. g

have banked on me. I have a great track record for repeat business, so I remain optimistic about getting more companies to trust me.” Named by The Hollywood Reporter as a top composer to “look


9


A Tale Of Two String LibrariesBy Fletcher Beasley

T

The audio quality of

both these libraries

is excellent and

CineStrings stacks up

very well against most

sampled string libraries.

Nevertheless, I have to

give the sonic edge to

Mural.

wo sampled string libraries have been released recently that are worthy of a closer look—Cinesamples’ CineStrings

T E C H T A L K

zicato, col legno and the holy grail of string libraries — monophonic legato with fingered overlap, allowing for convincing legato pas-sages.

All of the patches allow the user to choose from multiple microphone positions (spot, close, room, surround or full mix) or any combination of them using an intuitive mixer interface. CineStrings provides prefigured mix combinations that can be selected with a button push and customized with the move of a slider. The more microphone positions one uses, the more memory is used and it should be noted that both these libraries use a lot of RAM. A single True Legato microphone position takes almost 1 GB of RAM. For many purposes, the default full mix settings sounds just fine. Neither CineStrings nor Mural re-quire reverb as the user has control over the reverberation levels with the different mic positions.

British Modular Library Mural Vol. 1Spitfire Audio is based out of London and

was started by composers Paul Thomson and Christian Hanson to provide sample libraries for media composers. Spitfire has a range of libraries available in Kontakt format ranging from individual instruments to their new British Modular Library series. All Spitfire’s libraries are recorded at Air Lyndhurst, one of best sounding orchestral recording stages in the world. The sound of the Spitfire’s libraries is always fantastic and Mural is no exception.

BML Mural Vol. 1 is Spitfire’s latest foray into a large sectional orchestral library. Mural is downloaded after purchase from Spitfire’s website and is approximately 34 GB in size. Mural requires the full version of Kontakt 4 or 5 to run and, therefore, will not work with the free Kontakt player. Unlike CineStrings, Mural cannot be added as a “library” in Kontakt so the files must be loaded through Kontakt’s files tab. It is easy, however, to add the Mural folder to the Quick load tab in Kontakt for fast loading.

In Mural, each string section gets its own patch that includes all articulations, although Spitfire provides patches of individual arti-culations for smaller memory loads. You can also unload articulations you don’t wish to use by clicking on the black rectangle underneath the symbol that denotes the articulation to save memory. Included articulations are fin-

Core Library and Spitfire Audio’s British Mod-ular Library Mural Vol. 1. Both companies are SCL Premier Partners and offer a 10% discount to SCL members. CineStrings retails for $499 and Mural is just under $700.

CineStrings CoreCinesamples is a Los Angeles-based com-

pany founded by composers Mike Piatti and Mike Barry that makes sample libraries geared toward media composers. CineStrings Core is the latest library in their orchestral series that started with CineBrass and has been filled in with CinePerc and CineWinds. CineStrings Core represents the remaining orchestral section to be covered by Cinesamples and will be supplemented with a Pro upgrade in the future, which will add articulations not covered in the Core edition.

Like all Cinesamples libraries, CineStrings is a Kontakt library and features a few basic patches named “Articulations,” “Harmon-ics,” “True Legato” and “Pizzicato and Col Legno” for each of the five string sections. For users who wish to load a single articulation in order to save memory, single articulation patches can be found in the split patches folder.

CineStrings features an attractive and well- laid out interface that is clearly explained in the tutorial videos found on Cinesamples’ website. Installation is accomplished by downloading the library to your hard drive, opening Kontakt or the free Kontakt player and choosing “add library”. The library is about 50 GB in size so it takes a long time to download, even with a fast connection.

The Articulations patch features sustain, spiccato, staccato, marcato, tremolo (normal and sul ponticello) and trills. Each articulation can be accessed via keyswitching, MIDI con-tinuous controllers, or velocity levels. The user may change the way the articulations are accessed by going into the mapping section and selecting one of the preconfigured map-ping buttons. The mappings have been well thought out by the programmers and provide enough options so that every user can make CineStrings work in the manner he or she likes best.

The other patches feature harmonics, piz-

10

Oscar-winning composer Steven Price discusses his acclaimed score to Gravity with film critic

W h a t ’ s H a p p e n i n gBy Lori Barth

Elvis Mitchell while a giant-size Oscar looks on. Congratulations Steven for your Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Gustavo Santaolalla per-forms during “We Create Mu-sic” a conversation between Gustavo Santaolalla and Paul Williams at the 2014 ASCAP Expo at the Loews Holly-wood Hotel on April 24 in Hollywood, CA.

Owen Pallett conducts a suite from his Oscar-

nominated score to Her (co-composed

by Arcade Fire’s Win Butler)

duringThe Oscar Concert

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For the first time ever, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences included a celebratory night of music in its Oscar Week with an 80-piece orchestra performing suites from each of the nominated Best Original Score pieces, conducted by their composer. Following the scores, the nominees for Best Original Song hit the stage, at UCLA’s Royce Hall Thursday, February 27th, 2014. Keep an eye out next year for another unforgettable pre-Oscars night of music that is open to the public.

In celebration of his many Oscar-nominated scores, including this year’s nod for Best Original Score for the moving film Philomena, Alexandre Des-plat spent an intimate conversation on composing and performance of his music on Sunday, February 23 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The conversation was moderated by SCL President Ash-ley Irwin.

BMI composer T. Griffin (left) and director Darius Monroe (right) gather for a photo with BMI’s Anne Cecere at the BMI Film Dinner during SXSW at Cantina Laredo on March 9 in Austin, TX. Griffin composed the score for Monroe’s film Evolution of a Criminal, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film festival.

Back row, L-R: SCL President Ashley Irwin, Alexandre Desplat, BMI’s Doreen Ringer-Ross, and Partner, Kraft - Engel Management Laura Engel. At the piano: Randy Kerber

AMPAS Celebrates Oscar Week

L-R: BMI’s Assoc. Director Film/TV Relations Philip

Shrut, BMI’s Senior Director Film/TV Relations Lisa

Feldman, composers Charles Fox and John Williams,

composer Alexandre Desplat, songwriter Richard Sherman

and BMI’s Asst. VP Film/TV Relations Ray Yee

L-R: BMI’s Asst. VP Film/TV Relations Ray Yee, BMI’s Senior Director Film/TV Relations Lisa Feldman, songwriter Richard Sherman, composer Alexandre Desplat, BMI’s Assoc. Director Film/TV Relations Philip Shrut, 2014 Oscar-winning songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez and 2014 Oscar-winning songwriter Robert Lopez

11

W h a t ’ s H a p p e n i n gBy Lori Barth

g g g

S

Joseph Trapanese attends the premiere of The Raid 2

g g g

ESAC’s SXSW 2014 Showcase in Austin once again featured some of music’s most exciting new acts.

SESAC’s packed event held at Austin’s Lambert’s Barbecue featured riveting performances by Milo & Otis, John & Jacob, Fever The Ghost, Diarrhea Plan-et, Leftover Cuties and Jonah Tolchin. The showcase has become one of the event’s most anticipated, once again proving that SESAC continues to sign and feature the industry’s most pro-gressive music. SESAC also hosted the annual “Green Eggs & Band” Brunch during the SXSW festivities at Austin’s elegant Driskill Hotel. The event drew a gathering of SESAC-affiliated artists, songwriters and publishers along with a large gathering of journalists and music supervisors.

L-R: SESAC’s Erin Collins,

composer Chris Tyng, Kris-ten Tyng &

SESAC’s Tim Fink

Composers, sound designers and music executives gave a play-by-play analysis of the business of integrating music and sound into popular video game franchises during BMI’s “Game On! Music & Sound in Video Games” panel, held at the 2014 WonderCon in

L-R: Disney’s Gwen Bethel Riley; BMI composer & Video Games Live creator Tommy Tallarico; composer & Senior Director of Audio, Blizzard Entertainment, Russell Brower; BMI’s Director of Film & TV Relations Anne Cecere; sound designer Charles Deenen; BMI composer Inon Zur; and moderator Thomas Mikusz

Anaheim, CA. Panelists included: BMI composer David Buckley (Call of Duty: Ghosts, forthcom-ing Batman: Arkham Knight); BMI composer Inon Zur (Fantasia: Music Evolved); composer & Se-nior Director of Audio at Blizzard Entertainment Russell Brower (World

of Warcraft); sound designer Charles Deenen (Need for Speed series); and Head of Business Affairs Music, Dis-ney Interactive, Gwen Bethel Riley. The discussion was moderated by motion-capture and voice-over actor Thomas Mikusz (Red Dead Redemption) with a special introduction by BMI composer and creator of Video Games Live, Tom-my Tallarico.

Jeff Beal, SESAC’s Erin Collins and actor/director Ed Harris at a special showing of Pollock at the Getty Center to dovetail with the museum’s restora-tion of one of Jackson Pollock’s paint-ings.

AIMP Panel Creative Elements of Sync was the featured topic at their monthly meeting held at Lawry’s. This panel discussed the true nature of what works creatively in Film & TV music, specific styles and trends that work as well as how covers, re-records and re-mixes add value. Before and af-ter samples of music were played.

L-R: Wendy Levy/Middlepaige Music, Steven Vincent/Disney Channel, song-writer Michele Vice-Maslin and Marty Silverstone/Primary Wave Music

g g g

Pictured at the SXSW composer dinner hosted by ASCAP are, L-R: Carl Thiel, Dierdre Muro, Derek Muro and David Perlick-Molinari , composers Hanan Townshend and Patricia Hontoir, Jed Palmer director/co-producer of The 78 Project Alex Steyermark, ASCAP’s Jeff Jernigan, co-producer of The 78 Project Lavinia Jones-Wright and ASCAP’s Mike Todd

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12


Miriam Cutler has been an SCL Board Member for over 10 years. Starting out as a musician and songwriter, going on to be a pivotal member of Danny Elfman’s Mystic Nights Of The Oingo Boingo,she later moved on to scoring the music for documentaries and indie films and has continually played an important role doing workshops for The Sundance Institute. There’s probably a lot of things you didn’t know about Miriam, but now you will after you read this interview!

Score: What’s your main instrument?

Miriam: I started off on piano like most kids then quickly went to clarinet. Uncle George had one in the attic. I just wanted to play everything—piano, guitar, strings, horns, and of course, sing. I didn’t really have a preference. From an early age I started making up music. It’s always really been about writing. I write on keyboard and some-times guitar, but I performed on vocals and clarinet for many years. I was a good musician and a good performer and I tried really hard to play bee bop but just couldn’t. I knew I wasn’t really a player. So I would say my main axe is writing.

Score: Where did you study? Where did you learn all this?

Miriam: I happened to luck out. As a kid, I had a really great piano teacher who was a big band trumpet player, so while my friends were all playing silly little pieces, he had me playing sonatinas, teaching me to play with cardboard covering the keys. I would make up pieces and play them for him and he encouraged me. From a very young age I played and wrote songs to get me through the day. So music has always been a huge part of my life, but I never expected to do it professionally.

Score: Talk about Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman and a few of your recollections.

Miriam: While studying anthropology at UCLA, I’d see the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo do amazing street theater on campus. Fire breathing, acrobats, marching gorillas playing brass and drums… I became a huge fan and followed them to their other performances. Coincidentally, Steve Bartek and I lived in the same dorm

Things You Didn’t Know About

MIRIAMCUTLER

INTERVIEWED BY LORI BARTH

13


and we played in ethnic ensembles for ethnomusicology courses together while in school. Sometime after college, Steve joined the Mystic Knights. I left grad school to become an activist and worked as a public interest investigator at a legal aid clinic. During the day I was doing my job, but at night I was playing in bands.

I had my own band called Alice Stone —an all woman theatrical ragtime band formed around the Women’s Building, and the feminist art movement in the ‘70s in L.A. It was really fun and I was writing topical songs and arranging them for tuba, clarinet, trombone, violin, piano, banjo and drums. We were very popular, playing clubs and colleges all over the West Coast. We were one of the first bands to put out an independent record. But all this was part time. One night Brad Kay, a friend of Danny Elfman’s, came to hear us. A collector of old ‘78s, he loved doing take-downs and was putting together a band to play them. He knew that Danny was looking for female musicians for the Mystic Knights. I was invited to a rehearsal and Steve was there. It was a great reunion! The first thing they did was put a tenor sax in my hand, I’d never even touched one, you know, I was a clarinet player. We started playing and then we sat down and played the balaphones, then gamelan. They could see I was a quick study on any instrument and had enthusiasm for music from all over the world; I was in heaven. I had a great time at the rehearsal and they asked me to join the band. When I think back, I was game for everything—especially the gorilla suits! I was with the band about three years and loved it. The quality of the musicianship and challenges of the show inspired me to commit to doing music full time.

From around 1975-79, we played all over the place to a large and enthusiastic fan base. Danny was very ambitious and wanted to produce an unusual and exciting stage show. So he took out a bank loan and got all these amazing artist friends to create sets and costumes and interstitial films, hired a director/choreographer, and booked the Las Palmas Theater in Hollywood. About a week before we were set to open our extravaganza we were at a rehearsal at a loft down on Washington Blvd. We took a break and everybody

said, “Let’s go up on the roof and watch the sunset.” We climbed up the ladder, everybody walked around this tarp and I walked onto it—and fell through the roof about 14 feet onto a concrete floor in a tool closet. What was I thinking, everybody else walked around it. Turned out there was a hole in the roof and I stepped in it. They had to call an ambulance, I couldn’t move. Needless to say, Danny was freaked out because we were supposed to open so soon. We had a manager then, and she was wild and crazy about the group. She said, “You have to get up,” but I couldn’t move. We got to the hospital and Danny was concerned about me, but really stressed out because I was supposed to sing and/or play in almost every number.

I went home to convalesce. Our manager, kept calling me saying, “You have a week to get better—you can do it in a wheelchair, you have to get up.” But I still couldn’t move, I had sprained my back badly. A few days later, just before opening night, I heard the Las Palmas Theater had burned down. So we were saved, but it was the beginning of a hard time for Danny and the band. We did get our theatrical runs and for the next couple of years we performed in a lot of theaters. Eventually, Danny decided to take the band in a more scaled-down ‘80s rock direction. That’s when we parted ways. I was ready to get back to writing and performing my own music.

Score: You carved out a niche with festival Indies and music for documentaries. How did you do that?

Miriam: I made the transition from performer-songwriter to writer/pro-ducer because I wanted something more. Now I was making a living — playing in bands, writing, producing, and pitching songs, and eventually scoring low budget films, industrials, and circus. I was getting songs into movies and as the studio technology evolved it made my project studio much more professional. I was amazed when Fostex came out with an analog recording system that included full-synchronization for my home studio and it boosted my capacity to score films there.

Although things were going well, after about ten years of constant work, I began to question my direction. I

put my heart and soul into the music but too often the films weren’t good. I love music but I wanted to serve some higher purpose.

The turning point came in 1997 when I met a filmmaker at one of my screenings who was making a film called License To Kill. When he told me that he was going into prisons and interviewing men who had murdered gay men to find out why they thought that was ok, I was floored. “OMG, I have to work on this film.” He was a very respected documentary film-maker and this was a project I could really be proud to be part of. We went to Sundance, and a whole new world opened up to me. The film won two awards, and I was introduced to this amazing community of passionate doc-umentary filmmakers. I felt like I had finally found what I was looking for.

From then on I became very fo-cused. I started meeting more people and I went to Sundance every year. I made it my goal to become part of the doc community, and I have. It’s the kind of work I’m inspired to do and I’ve worked on many award-winning documentaries that I am proud of. The Sundance Institute has been a huge part of that. I go to the festival, I have films there, I’m a lab advisor, they include me in a lot of wonderful things which has led to many other amazing opportunities. I co-produced a documentary called One Lucky Elephant and am embarking on another later this year. Last year I was invited to join the Documentary Branch of the Motion Picture Academy, and this year I was invited into The American Film Showcase—a cultural exchange program run by the U.S. State Department and USC. They send documentary filmmakers all over the world for “people to people diplo-macy.” I’m off to Borneo at the end of May.

As far as ensembles—I am absolutely committed to working with live musi-cians. Electronics are fine if that is what you are going for, but I stopped doing midi orchestrations (except for mock-ups) a long time ago.

Score: How are you scoring these, small ensembles, programming? What are you asked most for?

Miriam: It’s always different. I’m known for organic small ensemble

14

Cutler InterviewContinued from Page 13

scores. I start with the relationship between myself and the filmmakers, and that informs the scoring process. As far as I’m concerned, we’re doing the score together. Not all filmmakers want to be that collaborative. But if they are inspired to participate, it really takes me to some new and interesting places artistically. Budgets are a challenge, and are definitely smaller than they are in television and fiction and so I’ve developed a way of working to maximize efficiency and instrumentation.

For this kind of work, I believe in the power of a natural, well constructed, holistic approach to the music. We collaborate to conceive it, I compose it, they approve it, the players come in and bring some quality and humanity and you get a cumulative effect of feeling in the tracks. Sometimes my mock-ups are really good, and this is a struggle because there can be pressure to save time and money. For me there is no point putting all the work into creating the score if I’m just going to record midi. It doesn’t satisfy my artistic goals. I want to hear it played and I believe it’s better for everyone if it’s played. So I’ve really stuck to my guns. I’ve managed to figure out ways to use small ensembles and techniques to overdub to sound bigger if I need it to sound bigger. I’ve never had a film project writing for an orchestra. But last year I did get to hear my “Ethel” score played by an orchestra, which was very exciting.

For my purposes, small ensembles are great. I like to hear all the parts in music. Not a wall of sound washed in reverb; I like to hear all the instruments, I want to hear this violin player, hear the guitar sparkling, and so I write music with details, I mix it so I can hear the details. Documentaries are a great match for me. I have been surprised to discover that I’m a purist. I think documentaries are sort of a pure form of filmmaking in the sense that ethics are very important, content is very important, not just the film but how you got the film, how you treated people in front of and behind the camera. It’s all a part of it so I feel like I share values with these filmmakers. That

we have to maintain respect for our own artistry. I know I spent many years abusing mine. I cranked things out and settled for less and wore myself out believing that was the only way to have a career. Musicians are notorious for waiting for the phone to ring. But you have to create the right rings. Envision what kind of life you want to live. I mean, I don’t want someone else’s career—I want my career and my career has to satisfy me. So I think it’s really important for people to think about that when they are starting out because no matter which career path you pick, it’s all going to be hard. So pick something you actually want, otherwise when you get there, you won’t be happy. All through my career I’ve gravitated towards what feels right. I constantly ask myself: do I feel good about what I’m doing. If I’m not feeling comfortable, it’s time for a change. You have to be willing to let go of lots of things.

Now is an interesting time for me, because I feel so reflective. I always remember being young and wondering where it was all leading and would it work out. I would have hated to get here and look back and think: what did I do with my life? I think it’s so important to know that someday you’re going to be looking back and wondering and isn’t it going to be nice if you think, “Wow, I stuck to my guns, I didn’t know where I was going but I knew where I didn’t want to go, and finally found what I was looking for.” We live in such crazy times, things are changing so fast and no one really knows how it will all turn out anyway. Even if you follow the well-beaten path, when you “get there,” there might not be any “there” there! So we must all be incredibly flexible, resilient, imaginative, and resourceful.

Score: Do you think we’ve crossed over a time when it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman? Is it an even playing field in your opinion?

Miriam: It’s really amazing that you are bringing this up. Laura Karpman, Lolita Ritmanis, Doreen Ringer-Ross, myself, and some others are putting together this Alliance for Woman Film Composers. We like to think that there’s no longer gender stereotypes or a glass ceiling but I recently read in the trades that “a woman has more

includes the real, natural, emotionally performed music. That’s not to say that I don’t love electronics because I do in their place, but not instead of. I become obsessed with replacing every midi string, every midi piano, everything that can be real. Sometimes it’s hard to hear the difference because in a film music may be mixed low. But to me there’s a feel, and there’s transparency in the tracks that allows the production sound, the voice over, etc. to come through naturally without complicated mixing. It’s about how it feels in my gut. I rely heavily on my instincts and first reactions.

I think it’s very important to teach film students how to direct composers. I want filmmakers to understand the power of a well conceived and executed score and what it can mean for their film. I really respect and admire them and believe that once they understand what we have to offer, they will benefit from a great collaboration with their composer. No more slapping music on at the end when you are out of time and out of money.

Right now I’m starting a film, they haven’t even got an assembly, they have some scenes. They’re very early in it. That’s my favorite way to begin a project because I can start composing themes, immerse myself in the material, and give them music to temp with. I mean, right now they’re temping with my music from other projects. That’s hard. I want to replace that with this film’s music ASAP.

The way I work is always evolving as is who I am and what I want to get out of the experience. Now that I’ve been doing this for many years, I’m not into wasting my time or just cranking stuff out. When you’re young you want to prove what you can do like saying, “I can stay up for three nights and I can meet your deadline no matter what you throw at me and it will still be good.” I’m not interested in any of that anymore. I’m interested in doing my best work, devoting my energy to things I care about and this focus has led to great outcomes. Now we’re getting into the whole philosophy of how you build your career. This is what I talk to young composers about. I’m not going to teach them music theory. They already have that. We all start out as artists. Somehow we get beat up by the business, and I feel like


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Cutler InterviewContinued from Page 14

of a chance of being hired as a coal miner than she does as a film director.” Statistics don’t lie: 4% of the directors that release feature films are women, and 2% are woman composers. It’s the lowest of the low so the statistics tell us that there’s no diversity in terms of who’s getting the major opportunities in the composing field.

Score: Do you think that there are fewer women who think they can go for it or do you think it is discrimination?

Miriam: I think there are more young women who see themselves as any-thing they want to be than ever before. They’re ready to do it. I walked into the Alliance for Women Film Composers gathering and saw some 30 working female composers, and that’s just L.A. Before this, I’ve known a few other women composers, but you don’t really hear much about many of them. So now with this new awareness of our actual numbers, I can’t help but conclude that even though there are more woman composers eager and ready to work, they are rarely hired for major films. I thought it was very interesting that when Doreen posted a group photo of that gathering on FB, we got a huge amount of attention. And recently the industry trades have been full of articles lamenting the dire lack of diversity in Hollywood. So maybe we’re getting to a tipping point.

Gender bias in our profession is uncomfortable to talk about but it comes up in every interview I do, and everywhere I go people always want to talk about this. I hope we can someday level the playing field where women aren’t better or worse. Let them succeed based on their talent and commitment.

Score: We’ve got a lot of problems facing us now: Copyright issues, pi-racy of intellectual property, scoring leaving L.A. There are a lot of splinter groups such as the Council for Music Creators, the work that SCL is doing; all over the world all this buzz is hap-pening. Do you think it will amount to anything? Do you think we can make a difference to our profession?

Miriam: I think the entertainment industry is a good example of what

happens when we focus on short-term economic gain, with no regard for how this affects the long-term sustainability of a system. The SCL is taking a for-ward position in the ongoing global battle to protect the rights of creators. It turns out that the U.S. is actually out of step with the rest of the first world on protecting the rights of creators. Those countries already understand that to sustain a healthy marketplace, you need to ensure fair compensation and create supportive atmosphere for those who “make” the product. And with the latest news that some publishers want to pull out of the PROs and direct license, creators and PROs overseas are resisting. It’s actually very exciting to see how international our community is and that together we have a much larger voice.

I think it’s safe to say, the traditional ways for musicians and music creators to make a living are rapidly changing and I think that it’s important for all of us who are music creators to keep bringing to the attention of the public that quality music will stop being cre-ated on a large scale if there’s no way to earn a living. Eventually there will be less people that know how to do it, less people that can get it out there. We are already losing some of our best recording facilities because so much recording is being outsourced overseas. Once they are all gone, we won’t be able to compete at all for that business.

But then again, with the Internet, I could write a song and put it up on YouTube and immediately have a global audience. So my expenses are a lot lower but I don’t know how I would support myself, except by allowing annoying ads and getting a low-wage job at McDonalds or Walmart. We have to be more conscious of the long term and I think that needs to be the message from the music creators to the public —that they need to understand the consequences of eliminating income streams by expecting music to be free.

The music business and its revenue systems of copyright, performance royalties, recordings, broadcasts, live venues and all those things, it hasn’t been perfect, but it’s created a thriving musical community and a dynamic music industry for many years. Now you take that away and what would we have to replace it? You’d better have something that works. g

them from nothing: It’s all organic.I keep titles and ideas and phrases

and sentences.

Where Do You Start On The Song? The Story Behind “Man In The Mirror”

It depends. Sometimes it just starts with the first sentence of the song like “Man In The Mirror.” I was at John Beasley’s house and we were in a writing session and he was on the phone and said the phrase, “The man, what man, oh the man in the mirror. Two years later I’m at Glen Ballard’s house after just having had a meeting with Quincy Jones about the song that he wanted to complete Michael Jackson’s “Bad” Album. I took some copious notes, went back to Glen’s house and told him Quincy wants this, that and the other as far as being a pop song and not a ballad. Glen said, “Let’s just see what we come up with.” Glen gets up to go over to his desk to turn on the keyboard and I’m flipping through my lyric book and as he’s finding chords and just finding sounds on the keyboard he just starts playing this chord (sings…) and the phrase I wrote two years ago at John Beasley’s popped off the page. I started writing and I couldn’t write fast enough, and in like ten or twelve minutes we had the first verse and chorus for “Man In The Mirror.” It’s crazy. g

Siedah GarrettContinued from Page 8

SESAC hosted a cocktail recep-tion at the Double Helix in Las Ve-gas during the 2014 National Asso-ciation of Broadcasters (The NAB Show®) conference, the world’s largest event covering filmed en-tertainment and the development, management and delivery of con-tent across all mediums.

L-R: Dan Weniger, Brian Brasher, SESAC’sErin Collins and Veigar Margeirsson

SESAC Hosts NAB Mixer

16


Oscar Reception2014

he Society Of Composers & Lyri-cists in association with the Acad-emy of Motion Picture Arts and

Bottom Row L-R: John Williams, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Alexandre Des-plat, Thomas Newman. Back Row L-R: Charles Fox, SCL President Ashley Irwin, SCL Vice-President and Oscar Reception Chair Charles Bernstein, William Butler, Stephen Price, Owen Pallett, SCL Vice-President and Oscar Reception Chair Arthur Hamilton

TSciences’ Music Branch Governors, along with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, presented a Champagne Reception honoring the Music Nominees for this year’s Academy Awards on March 1 in Beverly Hills, CA. SCL thanks Bonnie Cacavas for opening her home up to us once again for this event.

L-R: Oscar Committee Chairs Charles Bernstein

and Arthur Hamiton

L-R: SCL Board Members Adryan Russ and Jonathan David Neal, Richard Sherman and Leonard Maltin

L-R: Kristen Anderson Lopez, SCL President Ashley Irwin and Robert Lopez

L-R: Cheryl and Dan Foliart,

Darice Richman and Jay Cooper

L-R: ASCAP’s Michael Todd, Steve Erdody,

Past President SCL Jim DiPasquale and

ASCAP’s Shawn LeMone

L-R: Lynn and Dan Carlin with our hostess Bonnie Cacavas

L-R: Steve Winogradsky, Leonard Maltin, Julie Kirgo and Jon Burlingame

L-R: BMI’s Anne Cecere and SCL Board Member Miriam Cutler

17

Time ManagementContinued from Page 3

about Twitter? Is it really important to have your creative flow interrupted with some celebrity’s inane ramblings? What other things are there in your life you could cut back on? We all have them. I enjoy reading historical novels and biographies. I’ve eliminated this guilty pleasure from all but the sum-mer months. I love watching rugby and follow the professional compe-titions in both Australasia and the U.K. However, as much as it pains me to not know the results, I’ve set my DVR to record all rugby games so as I can watch them at a later date, if I can manage to find 90 minutes in amongst my other commitments—and some mornings, if I wake early, I can.

Now It’s Your TurnWhen I became president of the SCL

I immediately had to find enormous amounts of time to devote to the office. It had to come from somewhere. So I identified areas of my life on which I was spending (i.e., wasting) too much time and made the necessary adjustments. This was nothing new as I’ve been consciously addressing and improving my time management skills for as long as I’ve been in the business. That’s not to say I’m a master at it—far from it. But just the awareness of its importance to your productivity will improve your time management immensely. I guarantee it. So grab a yellow pad (or an electronic equivalent) and start scribbling. g

SESAC Promotes Scott Jungmichel

SESAC has announcedthe promotion of ScottJungmichel to Senior VP,Royalty Distribution & Re-search Services. Former-ly Vice President, Jungmichel will be responsible for the planning, organ-izing and directing of the operations of the Royalty Distribution & Research Services department. He will oversee all department functions, including Content Registration and Optimization, Royalty Administration, A/V Client Services and Research & Analysis. g

L-R: SCL Vice President Arthur Hamilton, BMI’s Anne Cecere and Alexandre Desplat

L-R: Nominee Owen Pallett; Arcade Fire Member Régine

Cassagne; SCL Board Member Lynn F. Kowal;

ASCAP’s Jennifer Harmon; Nominee and Arcade Fire

Member William Butler

L-R: SCL Treasurer Jonathan David Neal, Eric Palmquist (VP-BMG/Chrysalis), Tracey and Vance Marino

L-R: SCL President Ashley Irwin, Ellen Page and Spike Jonze

L-R: SCL Board Member Garry Schyman, SESAC’s Erin Collins and Chris Klatman

L-R: William Butler with ASCAP’s Michael Todd

L-R: Ray Costa, ASCAP’s Jeff Jernigan, Steven Price

L-R: SCL Board Member Ron Grant and ASCAP’s Shawn LeMone

18

gered legato (this is the equivalent of CineStrings’ True Legato), long (for polyphonic legato playing), sordino, harmonics, spiccato, pizzicato, Bartok pizz, col legno, tremolo, flautando and sul ponticello. Flautando and sul ponticello are rarely found in sampled string libraries, so these are a welcome addition. The flautando samples notab-ly have a lovely ethereal quality that is great for delicate melodic passages.

The Mural interface is well thought out and once you understand the way it works (I recommend reading the section in the PDF manual) it is quite flexible and easy to work with. Mural allows for a considerable amount of real time control through the use of MIDI continuous controllers. Dynamics, vi-brato, legato speed, intensity (used to adjust note transition start), release time and tightness (for fine control of note start time) can all be modulated through predefined MIDI ccs. Each MIDI cc can be redefined if you wish to use a different one.

Multiple microphone positions are included and are assignable to different outputs in Kontakt. The mic arrays are close, tree, ambient, outriggers and leader, all of which are explained in depth in the manual. The patches load by default with the tree mic setting. The samples have a big RAM footprint at around 1.25 GB, but the sound is fantastic. Spitfire’s website includes videos giving a walkthrough of the

interface and allowing one to hear the different sounds in action.

Legato ReleasesThe releases of string samples often

sound unnatural to my ear and I spend an inordinate amount of sequencing time editing the volume control as a note dies out to simulate the natural decay of a real string section. Both Mural and CineStrings do a great job of producing realistic releases when ending a note. Mural includes the ability to modify the release time in real time using a MIDI cc (set by default to cc47), allowing for additional flexibility.

Dynamic ControlBoth libraries use the modulation

wheel (cc1) for dynamics, allowing for smooth dynamic transitions from pp to ff. Of the two libraries, I found Mural to be a bit smoother with its dynamic tran-sitions and I was able to copy and paste parts between sections without having to do additional controller editing.

CineStrings features a hairpin crea-tor, which allows one to create tempo or time synced crescendos and decres-cendos while holding down sustained notes on the keyboard. I have never seen this feature before in a string library. It sounds great and allows for a lot of customized control over the dynamics of held notes. I think the user may want to load a separate instance of the patch (this doesn’t take any more memory) for hairpins as the hairpin creator is a feature of the True Legato and Articulations patches and has to be turned on with the click of a button. This could be achieved by assigning a MIDI cc but I found it easier to load a

separate instance of the patch for the specific purpose of creating hairpin dynamics.

Playability and SoundThere are two primary factors I use

for assessing a string library: program-ming and sound. Both CineStrings and Mural are intelligently programmed and play well directly from the key-board. Care and consideration has been given to the needs of the com-poser so that good sounding results can be achieved quickly with minimal need for extensive editing. As a test, I sequenced short selections from Tchai-kovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” and found I was able to get good results quickly with both libraries. Of the two libraries, I found Mural required less editing and was faster at creating a balanced and realistic sounding string section. Though I liked the results I got with CineStrings, Mural absolutely floored me with how great it sounds with minimal effort.

The audio quality of both these libraries is excellent and CineStrings stacks up very well against most sam-pled string libraries. Nevertheless, I have to give the sonic edge to Mural. Mural is simply the best sounding string library I have ever heard. It has a lush full quality that is inspiring to play and is the closest I have heard samples get to the real thing. The sections blend seamlessly together and the reverb is gorgeous. Mural sets a new bar in sampled string libraries. Though either library would be a great addition to a media composer’s library, I recom-mend spending the extra money to buy Mural. g

A Tale Of TwoString LibrariesContinued from Page 9

SCL At The ASCAP Expo

F or the first time The Society of Composers & Lyricists had a presence at the ASCAP I Create Music Expo.

Meeting and greeting many new composers and lyricists in all arenas of film, TV, video games and miscellaneous outlets of music, all were very eager and curious to learn about our organization. We signed up over 34 new members and there are already plans in the works for a booth at the next 2015 event. All in all you could call our participation in the EXPO a real success.

L-R: Lynn Kowal and Ashley Irwin

L-R: Lynn Kowal, Ira Hearshen and an attendee inquiring about the SCL

19

Licensing Songs To Music & Dance SeriesContinued from Page 1

With respect to the Sing-Off series, four categories of use are used with fees based on timing.

The first is “performance uses” (ag-gregate within the episode including package clips) with different fees based on the use being either up to 1:30 or over 1:30.

The second is “package clips” in-cluding auditions, home story pack-ages, finale retrospectives, re-use of clips in subsequent or prior episodes including teaser recaps and precaps (e.g., previously seen or “coming next week”). Fees are based on uses up to 10 seconds, 11 to 25 seconds and over 25 seconds.

Impromptu vocalizing of songs (in rehearsal, during dialogue with judges, hosts or other persons) not to exceed 10 seconds is the third category.

And bumpers (a cappella perform-ance leading into or out of commercial spots of songs not performed in the episode) is the final category with separate fees based on uses up to 35 seconds and uses over 35 seconds.

And finally, there is Dancing With the Stars. Because of the multiple ways and options as to how songs and master recordings are used, there are six usage and timing categories, all with separate fee arrangements, as follows:

a. “visual dance” up to 1:45 plus a 0:10 recap or single use up to 0:55

b. “extended dance” (2:30 aggregate timing) plus a 0:10 recap or single full use

c. “short recap” which is a single recap up to 0:25 in a future episode

d. “single/multiple recaps” up to 1:30 in a future episode

e. “extended recap” (single/multiple recaps not to exceed a full repeat in a future episode)

f. “last dance” in the closing creditsIt should also be noted that these tim-

ing and usage categories may change from season to season but the changes are usually not that substantive.

2. Music Cue SheetsBecause of the various timing and

manner of use categories in the initial synchronization agreement, it is very

important that the music cue sheet for the particular episode be checked since all the life of copyright back-end performance royalties (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, foreign societies, etc.) are dependent and based on the descriptions and information contained in the cue sheet.

For example, you might have des-ignations such as “preview from up-coming episode on-camera perform-ance by __________,” “tease on camera performance by ____________,” “recap from episode ___ on-camera perform-ance by _________________,” “recap of episode ___ video clip of relative performing song,” and “on-camera performance by _____________”.

Another type of music cue sheet may just have the following designations as to timing and use:

cue identification, if applicable), the identity of the composer and lyricist, the name of the publishing company/copyright owner with respect to each of the writers and performance right affiliation (e.g., ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, BUMA, PRS, SACEM, GEMA, IMRO, SGAE, SIAE, etc.). It is essential that all of these items be correct since attention to detail is the key to receiving proper performance royalties. Obviously, if there are any mistakes and/or inac-curacies in the cue sheet, such should be corrected immediately since these cue sheets are distributed worldwide.

It is also customary for the pro-duction company to provide a copy of the music cue sheet to the music publisher within a certain number ofdays after the initial broadcast or other distribution of the episode as this is virtually always part of the license. The production company should also trans-mit the cue sheet to the performance right organizations so they can input it into their systems as well as distribute it to societies in other countries.

3. On-Screen CreditAn important issue in all of these

licenses is whether credit will be given on screen; a factor which some shows provide and others do not. In many cases, the judges, host, or the performer will verbally announce the title of the composition, but, in some cases, the title and recording artist are actually shown on screen at the start of the performance. For example, So You Think You Can Dance gives on-screen credit for the title of the composition and recording artist at the start of each dance performance. The Voice also gives on screen credit for the composition before a singer’s performance.

4. Download AvailabilityAn additional significant issue is

the iTunes (or other download site) availability of the song and perform-ance featured in the episode, and the reference on-screen with the specific link information during or after the per-formance. Once again, certain showsprovide this and others do not. Exam-ples of shows that provide the link information for downloading of per-formances are American Idol and The Voice.

Timing0:350:310:202:10

Inst./VocalBVVVBIBV/BI

A third type of cue sheet may have the music identification information structured as follows:

Timing0:300:452:100:20

UseBknd. Inst.Bknd Vocal/Visual DanceVisual Voice/Visual DanceEnd Credits

Another series uses the following type of language which describes how the composition was used and its duration:

UseOT(Opening Theme)BV(Background Vocal)BI(Background Instrumentals)CT(Closing Theme)BI(Logo)

Timing0:20

0:15

0:20

0:55

0:03

In addition to the timing and use information, the music cue sheet also provides the song title (or Continued on Next Page

20

Licensing Songs ToMusic & Dance SeriesContinued from Page 19

5. Performance Royalties And How Values Are Arrived At

An important aspect of any synch license negotiation is the backend royalty consideration…how much a musical work will earn from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC when it is performed in an audio-visual context (broadcast television, cable, Pay-Per-View, online streaming, etc.).

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) and SESAC are U.S. performing rights or-ganizations which negotiate license fees with the users of music, collect those fees and distribute them to songwriters, composers and music publishers who have performances in specific media. It is important to keep in mind that all three organizations have different payment formulas and rules for each type of use and media resulting in different payments from each organization for the very same type of performance (e.g., a network television prime time episodic series theme song, score in an HBO series, etc.)

There are many factors determining the royalties due a performance in the audio-visual area including the type of use (theme song, visual vocal, on camera instrumental, dance routine, score, etc.), the time of day of the per-formance (prime time, afternoon, morning, overnight), the duration of the use, the audience viewership of the program, the specific Nielsen rating of the series episode, the past history of radio and television performances of the song, the number of airings in a quarter, the license fee of the station or service, the type of performance survey being employed and the spe-cial payment and bonus practices and rules in effect at each performing right organization at the time the per-formance occurs.

Further, the payment rules and practices of each organization are subject to change at any time, many times without notice to writer and publisher members and affiliates. In addition, license fee negotiations (whether industry-wide or specific

user only), Rate Court decisions, settlements, litigation and legislation all can have a major influence on past, current and future performance values. All of these factors should be continually monitored.

6. Performances In Foreign Countries

It should also be emphasized that a major source of backend royalties for many songwriters, composers and music publishers comes from perfor-mances in “overseas markets.” Every major country of the world has a per-formance right organization (PRO) which, via reciprocal agreements with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the U.S., collect for performances of U.S. music in audio visual works in their respective territories(movie theaters, broadcast stations and cable services, satellite, online streaming and downloads, etc.). Each of these foreign country PROs though have their own payment and distribution rules which are many times very different from the rules employed by the U.S. organizations.

For example, PRS for Music in the UK pays every type of use on television with only duration being taken into account in addition to one time of day factor. SOCAN in Canada, on the other hand, has payment distinctions based on whether the performance is a theme song, score or an individual singing

a song on camera. Also, just as in the U.S., foreign societies do periodically change their payment rules and practices thereby affecting royalty payments. Foreign country litigation and legislation also affect what is actually licensable as well as what a performance is worth.

7. Final ThoughtsAs you can see, there are many

considerations one must take into account when you are granting a synchronization license for this genre of television series. Duration, type of use, credit, accurate cue sheets, subse-quent uses, back end royalties both in the U.S. and foreign countries and the exact meaning of the multiple types of options that are included in these deals are all factors that need to be considered and hopefully understood.

The reality of many of these types of shows is that there is little negotiation as to the initial upfront fees as many are on a “most favored nations” basis and the only response the producers are looking for is a “Yes” or a “No” (“Yes” you are in the show; “No” you are not). Despite that trend, it is important that you understand what you are getting into as well as all of the future financial possibilities that can come from a single performance of one composition in a single episode. g© 2014 Todd Brabec, Jeff Brabec

ASCAP and SCL Meet & GreetThe Board of SCL had a meet and greet dinner at the ASCAP offices in

Hollywood, CA. This event gave members of both groups a chance to meet and get to know each other better. It was followed by an SCL board meeting.

Front Row L-R: Yvette Martinez, Lori Barth, Elizabeth Sellars, Adryan Russ, Jeff JerniganMiddle Row L-R: Christopher Farrell, Miriam Cutler, Garry Schyman, Mike Rubino, Jim Di Pasquale,Craig Stuart Garfinkle, Ira Hearshen, Nancy Knutsen, Charles Bernsterin, Jonathan Neal, Patrick ClancyBack Row L-R: Fletcher Beasley, Jennifer Harmon, Ramon Balcazar, Lynn Kowal, Shawn LeMone, Ashley Irwin, Arthur Hamilton, Michael Tood, Billy Martin and Rachel Perkins

M U S I C & T E C H N O L O G Y

I knew that the new

Mac Pro would be a

beast but for me the real

question is what about

all those expansion

cards in which people

have invested big-time

money?

21


I Hate It!By Gary Woods

drives me nuts. It seems they’re always tak-ing something away and leaving me with something I have to figure out how to use. I remember when they took away the floppy disk drive on their computers. I heard that little piece of news and looked over at my shelves brimming with floppy disks and thought, “Now what do I do with these?”

The next little bump in the road was the iPad. I was okay with the iPhone, it seemed to have its place but a pad? Tablets had been around for a long time and they were definitely a “who cares” affair for me so when I heard about the iPad I took a huge yawn and said wake me when Apple comes up with something I can use.

After that I was getting ready to replace my old MacBook so I started to look into a MacBook Air and guess what? They left off the CD/DVD drive. So what am I supposed to do with all those CDs I have which sit right beside all those old floppy disks?

But enough about hardware, what about software? When Mountain Lion arrived with claws fully extended I made the discovery that they left off the “Save As” command for all the iWork stuff. I use “Save As” all the time instead of starting off everything with a blank page which always gets me nervous. Was there really a problem with “Save As” that made it go the way of the Dodo Bird?

What this is all leading up to is the an-nouncement for the new Mac Pro. I’ve worked with computers for almost 35 years and this thing isn’t a computer. A computer has panels that can be taken off to reveal slots where you can stick add-on cards. It has hard disk drive bays that you can put extra drives in. The Mac Pro looks like a wastepaper basket only it isn’t big enough to hold anything.

If you haven’t looked at the new Mac Pro yet, it’s about ten inches tall and when you take into account its whole area it’s about one eighth the size of the current Mac Pro tower. It’s constructed of modern aluminum based around what they call a “unified thermal core” which helps keep the whole thing cool.

The central processing unit is a Xeon E5 processor with configurations up to twelve cores available. It will have dual AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs and it will be able to run three 4K displays at one

time. If you’re not up to speed on 4K it has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 for an 8.3 megapixel aspect ratio of 16:9. 4K was displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and it is visually stunning. What Apple says on this point is that the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times faster than its predecessor in graphics performance.

Okay, this is starting to sound like a computer. A blazing fast CPU coupled with spectacular graphics works for me. So, what about the RAM for all those memory hungry tasks like video and audio editing? The Mac Pro includes a four-channel DDR3 memory controller running at 1866MHz and delivers up to 60GB/s memory bandwidth which means you shouldn’t be seeing your video stuttering to a stop any time soon.

Alright, a fast processor, great graphics and zippy RAM is cool, so what about storage? The new Mac Pro instead of using traditional SATA hard drives or even the newer solid-state drives will use the next generation PCI Express flash storage. This technology will move data up to 2.5 times faster than the fastest SATA-based solid state drive and up to ten times faster than a 7200 rpm SATA drive.

With all this data flying around you know that a lot of heat is going to be generated particularly in that small space. So, instead of using multiple heat sinks and fans to cool the processor and graphics cards they constructed a single piece of extruded aluminum to maxi-mize airflow. The system works by pulling heat away from the CPU and GPUs and dis-tributing the heat uniformly across the core.

I knew that the new Mac Pro would be a beast but for me the real question is what about all those expansion cards in which people have invested big-time money? There are no expansion slots on this computer, so now what? To accommodate this issue the unit has built-in Thunderbolt 2, USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet and HDMI 1.4 ports and almost as an afterthought for those addicted to trying to keep their studio as wire-free as possible, Apple included 802.11AC wireless connectivity and Bluetooth 4.0 in the package.

If you haven’t looked at Thunderbolt 2 it is the latest iteration of Intel’s Thunderbolt technology and supports data rates of 20 gbps. Each of these Thunderbolt two ports supports up to six daisy-chained devices so with six ports the Mac Pro can handle up to 36 peripherals. What this means however is that

lright, it’s true confession time. Being Aan old curmudgeon, every time Apple comes out with a new product it

22

Music & TechnologyContinued from Page 21

in order for the user to employ those spiffy and pricey legacy cards, they will have to invest in an eternal Thunderbolt external expansion chassis which will house the cards. It’s pretty obvious to me that we’re moving in the direction of Thunderbolt sooner rather than later so investing in this technology should make sense for the foreseeable future.

Okay, there are my thoughts on the new Mac Pro and like most of what Apple puts out after I originally hate it I think it’s a great step forward and I love it. Also, just for the record I got over missing the floppy disk drive and haven’t used a floppy disk in about ten years. As for the iPad I’ve got an iPad 3 and when I’m home it’s never more than an arm’s length away. In addition I just bought an iPad Mini for when I’m on the road. On the missing CD/DVD player on the MacBook I bought a MacBook Air and use it when I teach and for some speaking engagements. I also bought an external CD/DVD player but after the original setup I never use it and I definitely love the small size of the Air without the drive.

The one thing I’m still grumpy about is the missing “Save As” command in Mountain Lion. Ah well, three out of four is good in anybody’s game.

If you have any questions or suggestions for me I can be reached by email at [email protected]. g

VAN ALEXANDERBURT BACHARACHALAN & MARILYN BERGMANCARTER BURWELLRAY CHARLESGEORGE S. CLINTONCHARLES FOXDAVE GRUSINARTHUR HAMILTONJAMES NEWTON HOWARDJOHNNY MANDELRANDY NEWMANMIKE POSTLALO SCHIFRINRICHARD SHERMAN

SCL AMBASSADORS

HONORARY LIFETIME MEMBERS

DAVID SHIREALAN SILVESTRIMARK SNOWMIKE STOLLERPATRICK WILLIAMSMAURY YESTON

In Memoriam:HAL DAVIDRAY EVANSEARLE HAGENJACK HAYESJERRY LIEBERVIC MIZZYROBERT SHERMAN

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

BILL CONTI

JAY L. COOPER, ESQ.CLINT EASTWOOD

DENNIS SPIEGELJOHN WILLIAMS

The SCL presented the seminar “Social Media For Composers” for a large crowd at AFI on April 8, as well as an equally large crowd online through the first ever live webcast of an SCL seminar. Composer Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galac-tica, The Walking Dead, Mar-vel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., DaVinci’s Demons) and publicist extraordinaire Beth Krakower (CineMedia Promotions) together brought real-world experience and insights to guide at-tendees and viewers through the do’s and don’ts of composer promotion. Ques-tions and ideas tackled included: how should composers use the social media tools available to build and interest their audience base, and advance their careers; what tools can best serve composers to get the word out and stay current; work-flows for organizing and preparing posts, blogs, videos and news blasts; how to develop a unique voice and approach to your social media presence.

SCL Recent EventsBy Laura Dunn, Executive Director

L-R: Composer Bear McCreary, Publicist Beth Krakower, SCL Seminar Chair/Composer Joel Douek

On April 22 at AFI the SCL presented a seminar on “The Composer / Orchestrator Collab-oration” featuring Ned Ginsburg who provided an examination of the relationship between composing and orchestrating, as it relates to commercial work in musical theater, film, television and live concerts. Song submis-sions from selected SCL members (Edward Auslender and Carla Partullo) were provided for Ned to demonstrate orchestration.

Front row, L-R: SCL SongArts Chair/Songwriter Adryan Russ, Composer/Songwriter Carla Partullo, Composer Edward AuslenderBack row, L-R: SCL Seminar Chair/Composer Joel Douek, Featured Presenter Ned Ginsburg, Songwriter William Berry

On March 26 SCL presented a seminar entitled Grants and Commissions featuring Peter Boyer, Cora Mirikitani, Rachel Routh, Gernot Wolfgang and Michelle Weger. The discussion focused on where to find opportunities for funding, familiarizing oneself with the guidelines required to apply for a grant and other points of interest regarding this topic.

On March 29th, the KPFK 90.7 FM radio show “Samm Brown’s For The Record” featured a special program on “Female Film Composers” hosted by SCL Composer Samm Brown with SCL Composers Penka Kouneva, Pinar Toprak, and Hélène Muddiman, co-hosted by SCL Executive Director/Com-

g g g

poser Laura Dunn.

L-R: Hélène Muddiman,

Pinar Toprak, Samm Brown,

Penka Kouneva, Laura Dunn

g g g

g g g

Opera And Film Music: The Odd CoupleBY CHARLES BERNSTEIN

F


23

The whole idea of music

and drama intermingling,

unfolding before our eyes

and ears, has some deep

roots in opera. In a way,

operas were the popular

grand spectacles of bygone

days, a bit like the big

movies are today.

M U S I C A L S H A R E S

ilms owe a great debt to opera. So does the art of film music. The whole idea of music and drama intermingling,

breathtaking titles sequence for Raging Bull (1980) and a notable operatic opening to his 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.

But, the connection between opera and film runs much deeper than these homages suggest. The very essence of melding music and drama developed over time in musical theater pieces from the ancient Greeks through to Broadway hits and the lavish opera productions of today. And we are still unwrapping the many gifts that opera has given to film music, such as: the use of individual musical themes to represent vari-ous characters; a running instrumental com-mentary on the dramatic action; establishing and changing moods through musical under-scoring; creating grand melodies that forever represent a particular story. These are a few of the contributions that opera composers have developed and given to film music.

These innovations especially involve the orchestral aspect of opera. The singing is glorious and essential, and like dialogue in films, it carries the emotions of the performer. But, from a film composer’s point of view, it is the orchestra that (sometimes surreptitiously) carries a good portion of the emotional cargo, colorations and connective tissue. The great Claude Debussy once mused, “In opera, there is always too much singing.” And no less than Gioacchino Rossini had joked that “How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.” The French mime artist, Marcel Marceau, offered more soberly that “Even in opera, where plots deal with the structure of destiny, it’s the music, not the words, that provides power.” So, with all due respect for the great singers and emotional arias, let’s look under the hood of opera to that musical machine down in the orchestra pit, where the mysterious accompaniment under and around the singing proves to be so analogous to film scoring.

The radical and musically revolutionary opera composer Richard Wagner may not have been a very pleasant guy, yet he may have had the most profound effect on the future world of film scoring. It was Wagner who articulated the doctrines of “music-drama” that proved so influential and pres-cient for today’s composers. Way back in 1849, he appropriated the hefty German word, Gesamtkunstwerk (literally, “total/complete artwork”). This word spoke to the ancient

unfolding before our eyes and ears, has some deep roots in opera. In a way, operas were the popular grand spectacles of bygone days, a bit like the big movies are today. The affinity between opera and films appears in many ways…

Lots of characters on the screen seem to love opera. Nicholas Cage plays an opera-fan in Norman Jewison’s great romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). He declares, “Opera is the best thing there is!” Later, he tells his love (played by Cher), “I love two things in my life. I love you and I love opera.” Unfortunately, she is engaged to marry his brother, so he proceeds to woo her successfully by taking her to La Bohème at the Met. In another romantic mega-hit, Pretty Woman (1990), Richard Gere’s character falls for an unlikely hooker played by Julia Roberts. He whisks her away in his private jet to enjoy some Verdi at the San Francisco Opera. In the end, he captures her heart to soaring strains from La Traviata. Tom Hanks’ character in the AIDS drama Philadelphia (1993) is touchingly devoted to opera; and in Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction (1987), Puccini’s Madam Butterfly is almost a running subtext to the film. The 1981 French thriller Diva revolves around the world of opera, and more recently, the 2013 British comedy One Time celebrates a scruffy opera fanatic, Paul Potts, who comes from a tough lower-class background to become a sort of national singing hero. Viva opera!

Not only do screenwriters seem to love opera, but so do lots of great directors (and their music supervisors). Entire films have been scored with famous opera tracks, such as the atmospheric 2011 Melancholia (Wag-ner’s Tristan und Isolde), Woody Allen’s 2005 thriller Match Point (Verdi and Donna-zeti), John Boorman’s 1981 classic Excalibur (Wagner), the 1985 mafia comedy Prizzi’s Honor (all Puccini), and so it goes. The great E.M. Forester classic A Room with a View (also 1985) absolutely gloried to the strains of Puccini, while we still remember Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 dark war epic, Apocalypse Now, for its dramatic use of Wagner’s wild “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküres. Martin Scorsese, another great American director with Italian background, has turned to opera in many of his films as well, with his

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Greek practice of combining music, drama, poetry and all the other arts in one unified and exalted production. A word beautifully suited to film! Wagner wanted to get away from the shallow and showy operatic spec-tacles with their “piecemeal” or ca-pricious uses of singing that had dominated operas at the time. He envisioned music as a galvanizing structural force…a thematic, flowing, meaningful and integrated part of the storytelling. (This is certainly a lesson to take to heart today considering all the arbitrary songs and temp-tested cues that get stuffed into so many commercial Hollywood movies!)

One of the ways Wagner achieved his operatic Gesamtkunstwerk was through the use of leitmotifs, or bits of music that become associated with a character or dramatic idea. These thematic fragments can weave through the score with great dramatic effect. Needless to say, the leitmotif has become a staple technique in film scoring. John Williams could famously

conjure the fearsome shark in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 Jaws by simply playing the two-note shark motif. Any number of other off-screen horror villains, from Elm Street’s Freddie Kruger to the devil himself in The Exorcist, could be summoned to the audience’s mind with just a few scary notes. There is even a clever little pop Leitmotif for the mean girls in the Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004). Prokofiev’s ubiquitous Peter and the Wolf is still one of the best demonstrations of this technique where the characters basically live as musical beings. And sometimes these motifs and themes are not just about people, but can evoke locations, moods or ideas. In Gone with the Wind (1938) the main “Tara’s Theme” actually rep-resents a bygone time and place—Tara, a Southern plantation. All of these have roots in the earlier innovations of opera composers.

The influence of opera, Leitmotifs and Gesamtkunstwerk on film music is certainly not obvious to most people, and it goes largely unnoticed by gen-eral movie audiences. Sadly, the only thing many moviegoers seem to know about opera is that “it ain’t over until

the fat lady sings.” Well, that may be a long wait. Most divas these days seem pretty slim, health-conscious and physically fit. The cliché of a chortling overweight soprano bringing down the curtain is mostly a thing of the past. In other words, the miracle of opera (with its influence on movie music) remains lithe, healthy and vital with no final aria in sight. And we grateful film composers are very glad that it still “ain’t over!” g© Charles Bernstein 2014www.charlesbernstein.com

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