Landing a New Feature Film Gig
by Ari Koinuma on May.21, 2009, under Ari's Diary, Film Music
Good news first: this morning I signed on to become the composer of an indie feature film Lost in Sunshine, written and directed by Jentri Chancey. Her producer is my good friend Lorie Marsh.
Bad news: it’ll be at least a year and half before my work starts. Film composer comes in dead last in the process of filmmaking….
But seriously, I’m super excited! I read the script and I’d describe it similar to American Beauty, except it’s set in a small Texas town and the protagonist is a turning-30 woman stuck in a bad marriage, instead of a middle-aged man lusting after a highschool cheerleader. Equal amount of dry humor and vulgarity (sex and drugs, anyone?) but equally profound and classy, too.
In all honesty, it’s so humbling to be chosen to make music for a feature film. People outside of the film industry may not realize this, but it takes years of work on the part of filmmakers to create one feature film. And while the digitalization of tools made filmmaking somewhat more affordable than in the past, it still costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a feature film that has even the smallest shot at being competetive in the market.
I dearly admire my filmmaker friends. The odds are stacked sky high against them. Yet they soldier on, armed only with passion for the story they want to tell. It makes all the whining and moaning of us musicians seem puny in comparison. That’s why, whenever I encounter a project I can believe in, I am happy to contribute whatever I can to their cause.
So — while it’s still a long time coming — and I am sure I’ll score other films before this one — I’ll be talking about this film for the next couple of years. Follow me down the road of what it’s like to make music for an indie movie.
