Getting the Score

Alain Mayrand is now offering private on-on-one film composition lessons over Skype.
Alain has a master’s degree in composition, is composer in residence for the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, has composed for over 20 productions including the full orchestral score for the animated feature film “The Legend of Silk Boy” starring international star Jackie Chan.
Find out more [...]

Pixar is doing something right, we all know that. I mean, 9 movies in a row that are big financial hits?
So what are they doing? Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3 put it best right here.
“It’s important that nobody gets mad at you for screwing up,” says Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story [...]

Here is a video that will explain what it takes to get the most out of your composer, and any other creative type you hire.
This is one of the most exciting videos I have seen in a while. It explains things that goes against the common approach of more money=better results.
Actually, it was found that [...]

One thing that became clear while working on Silkboy was that melody and the function of a scene are intertwined.
Some scenes are more important than others in a movie: some scenes are big, important, flashy scenes, while others are transitory, functional scenes that take you from point A to point B so [...]

For the next little while I will write about what I learned working on the project I recently completed: The Legend of Silk Boy.
First item will be something I learned from the director, David Liu.
David truly left me to my own devices during this project. He had a very different approach than most directors in [...]

Hey there, I got offered to write a guest post at the popular film composer website Score Cast.
I wrote a post about finding form during spotting.
So check it out here!
Alain

Guess what, M Night Shyamalan doesn’t use temp scores! He gets the composer involved before they shoot.

That’s what I like to see!

One thing that music can do is voice the reaction of a character or even the audience.
Generally speaking, whenever we experience an event it usually takes a second or so to register and then form a reaction.
Being scared has two steps: First we are startled and process the information, then we scream and run. These [...]

How often can you change moods and how quickly?
That was the question that I posed myself as I worked on this film, and so I looked at the master John Williams for advice, especially his cartoony Indiana Jones scores, including my favourite of the four Indy scores: The Temple of Doom.
The answer is: pretty damn [...]

A new article in Variety online hits the nail on the head about the modern state of film scoring. One of the best, most succinct pieces I have read on the subject.
Read it.
The I ask you, what kind of director are you? One that realizes the power that music and melody can have on the [...]