TropFest/TropScore Finalist

[SteveL]

Not sure if anyone here is into the whole Tropfest thing (short film festival on at the Domain, Sydney this Sunday) but I cracked a spot as a Top 3 Finalist in the film scoring section, TropScore, which gets featured from 6pm this Sunday. Crazy bit of animation to have to score... if you're curious to check it out the TropScore link with the 3 finalist entries is below (although for some reason the whole score does not play):

http://www.maxtv.com.au/tropscore/final ... 3_2011.php

Steve Lindsay

[DwaneHollands]

Steve,

Sounds great! I would vote for you!

What instrument libraries did you use?

[SteveL]

Cheers Dwane - most of the score was done using instruments from EWQLSO Platinum Plus Symphonic Orchestra, Project Sam Orchestral Brass and Heindrik Schwarzer's Orchestral Strings libraries. It was done in Logic.

Steve

[DwaneHollands]

I like the Sam Brass. I think I might have a cut down version in Garritan GPO4, but they're nice and clear and have a great resonance.

If you don't mind sharing - fine if you'd like to keep it to yourself - how did you approach scoring the piece? Issues you found daunting during the process.

(I know I'm a broken record, but I like to know how others write and approach composing/orchestration)

[vanderlae]

Good luck Steve. I think out of the three finalists, you are the one who best nailed the cues. The first submission (Sam Wyatt) sounds a little too much like a song (Jayhawks anyone?) - which is fine, but it didn't pay much attention to what was happening I thought. The other one (Jack) was reasonably sympathetic to the visual but I think yours is more interesting and solid in its composition. Hope you win it! Funnily, I put in an entry a couple of years back which didn't do anything but ironically it was what got me through the door for a UK commercial (read: TVC) score. So I took it all as a learning curve.

Keep us all posted.

[SteveL]

how did you approach scoring the piece? Issues you found daunting during the process

Hi Dwane - I usually just start by loading the film into Logic (I have now learnt to set the right frame rate AND the right sample rate right at the outset!), sitting at my Kurweil piano and just noodling initially as the film runs to try and find a melody, theme, phrase, whatever really at the outset that will resonate in some way with me and the image, and go from there. Finding the right feel/theme/tempo is what I look for at the outset before I start digging into cue/hit points in the film, though I don't leave them too long before marking them out once I have an over-arching theme sketched out. Finding a way into the image (musically speaking) was the hardest part with this one, as it took a while to really connect with me. Once it did, it probably took me 2-3 weeks to really get the score down I guess allowing for diversions that didn't work etc.

In this case at least you don't have a client/director at hand explaining the vision or complaining about cues, which would probably have helped speed things up no end (maybe)....

Good to hear about the break you got from it Dave, I get to go schmooze with the film-makers at some Finalist drinks on Friday night and then again at the Festival on Sunday so I know I'll at least get to meet a bunch of filmmakers that I may be able to hook up and do something more with in the future hopefully... Do you know one guy spent $150,000 on making his Tropfest film and it wasn't selected (apparently he rang the organisers and had a real go at them...... just goes to show it's not the money but the idea that's important...

Steve

[waitup]

Congrats mate!

[DwaneHollands]

thanks for that Steve! Appreciate it!

What was it like getting selected as 1 of 2 composers to have their pieces recorded by LSO in Abbey Road!? That would have been awesome! Did you get to go there and watch it happen? Did you have to convert your midi to score, or had you already scored it?

I mean it must have been an awesome privilege to have your piece recorded by the most iconic symphony orchestra in the most iconic studio!

[SteveL]

What was it like getting selected as 1 of 2 composers to have their pieces recorded by LSO in Abbey Road!? That would have been awesome! Did you get to go there and watch it happen? Did you have to convert your midi to score, or had you already scored it?

I mean it must have been an awesome privilege to have your piece recorded by the most iconic symphony orchestra in the most iconic studio!

That was a great experience..... I did go to the recording session at Abbey Road which was done in Studio 2 (where the Beatles did most of their work), took most of the day as the various sections of the orchestra (brass/percussion/woodwinds/strings) were recorded in separate sessions. I gave the LPO arranger my score some time prior which I produced pretty much via the score editor in Logic, he then re-scored arrangements for some parts of the orchestra as some of my original instrumentations were not available in the LPO (eg cimbalon, which I think from memory became a woodblock/xylo part).....wished I could have stayed in there for a week!

[DwaneHollands]

haha. Wow, sounds amazing!

It's certainly something to put on your resume!