AriKoinuma.com

Yow, over a week went by quickly since the last entry.  I’ve been hard at work on the sound track for America’s Next Felon (ANF).

The truth be told, sound track work is always very stressful to me, at least some of the phases in the process.  It’s always nerve wracking before the 1st meeting with the director to show my first sketches.  And it stays stressful after that, as inevitably I hit the right tone on some cues and not on other cues.  There’s always a nagging voice in my head going “what if I can’t get it right? what if I can’t hit it after 20 more tries?”

But I always do hit it on the mark sooner or later.   The 1st phase is always like choosing the color palette for a painting.  There are millions of colors to choose from so the choices are rather overwhelming.

The next phase is more fun, though it can be stressful in a not-so-bad way.  Once the palette is put together, I usually experience a great increase in my productivity — I can just nail cue after cue without struggling.  It’s because most of the themes and motifs are written at this point, I know the range of instruments/sounds that work for the project, and it’s now just the matter of pulling in the right pieces, arranging them to fit a particular spot.

A film doesn’t usually have myriads of moods and pacings.  They all have a limited range — a thriller will be suspenceful, a comedy will be light-hearted most of the time.  So once all the material is prepared, fitting them into all the places aren’t as hard.

To illustrate, get this: ANF is a spoof on reality TV and there are 6 “episodes” within.  I spent the first 6 days composing the first episode.  Then in the next 4 days, I scored one episode each.  See?

I hit the stride on this project, and now I’m having fun.  This is the reason why I love making music for films.

I got a really good start on America’s Next Felon this morning.  Came up with a crushing guitar riff for the main theme and some cool beats for the cue #2 (titled “an upbeat music” ).

The thing that’s daunting about scoring a feature length film is just the sheer amount of music needed.  And every single one of them has to be loved by the director.  I mean, not for the music itself but for what the music contributes to the film.

But you know what?  No matter how much music I need to compose, I do the same thing as always.  Write it one note at a time.  Well, it may be one riff or one groove or whatever.  But you build it little by little.

I get overwhelmed if I’m constantly trying to take in the big picture.  It’s good to have the view from above, of course — but when I’m working, I need to look down and see what’s on my hand.  That’s really all I can do.

I’m about to start working on my next project, the sound track for an indie film “America’s News Felon.”

I always get this when I start a new project — particularly a film project — a slight trepidation of sorts.

Basically, the question is always this: will I be able to make music that the director will like?

I have been making music long enough to know that given enough time, I can always careate good music — at least in my book.  But the tricky part of film music is that I’m writing to someone else’s taste, to serve a different purpose than just plain “make good music.”

Add to the trepidation the pressure of budgets and deadlines — meaning, I’ll have to achieve the desired outcome within constraints of time and money.  Of course, this is nothing new, either — all real world production has limits.  Limits are good — limits are what makes me creative.  Unlimited options scare me.

The only cure, really, is experience.  I have done this before.  And it came out fine, just about every time.

This time will, too.