COMPOSING—SONGWRITING

JOB OVERVIEW

Composers/songwriters for film and television compose music, write lyrics, or both, and often produce the music recording.

SPECIAL SKILLS

Many composers are adept at playing piano, sequencer, synthesizer, or a combination of the three, and most have the ability to produce the music they write. Success requires the ability to compose memorable melodies and lyrics.

“Writing a score is a different skill than songwriting, where you come up with a melody and you either write a lyric yourself, or you collaborate with another person, and you write a song,” says Steve Dorff. “Writing a score for a film is an integral part of the post production process, where you're musicalizing every moment of the movie with orchestral or some kind of music, generally without lyrics, that underscores the action, whether it is romantic, action-adventure, scary, or exciting. The creative process is the same with television as it is with film. The only difference being, there is a much smaller budget for television than for film.”

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Steve Dorff is usually in his studio by ten each morning. “I generally co-write, so I'll usually set up an appointment once or twice a week with a co-writer.” When not booked with a co-writer, he works on his own ideas or may demo out a song. “When I'm working on a film or television series, my time is much more scheduled. I'm usually writing and/or orchestrating, looking at the film, from nine in the morning until two or three in the afternoon, everyday. It generally takes six to eight weeks to complete a film score. I'll work four to five days a week, five to six hours a day, looking at the film and creating motifs for the different elements, orchestrating, or putting thematic ideas down on tape.”

POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH

To gain some experience composing songs or scoring for film, contact film schools and make yourself available to student filmmakers.

“Really try to understand the business. When you read books and manuals, know what the games are and know what the pitfalls are. Know that just writing a song is only half of it. Knowing what to do with a song after you've written it is maybe even more than half of it. You need to know how to demo it, how to pitch it, how to present it. I'm not going to open the hood of a car and try to fix a carburetor without knowing what I'm doing.”

The transition from songwriter to film composer for Will Jennings came through a request from his publisher to write a song for a movie. It took another two years and a change of publisher before he got another film opportunity. In the interim, he continued to write songs for various recording artists.