The SCORE - Fall 2018

VOLUME XXXIII NUMBER THREE FALL 2018

I N D U S T R Y T R E N D S

Video Game Appreciation and the Shifting Tides of the Game Industry

By Kaya Savas When talking about visual storytelling media, it typically splits into three major categories: Film, TV and video games. Video games have probably one of the most exciting histories a medium can have, because it truly is so tied to technology, and technology changes so rapidly. Yet, when it comes to talking about the prestige and art of video games, there seems to be a lacking appreciation for what this format can deliver to audiences. Now that all depends on which communities you are asking of course. Since the medium is relatively new when compared to film and television, there seems to be a gap in people who consume and appreciate passive visual storytelling and active visual storytelling. As we enter into the fall months of cooler temperatures, foliage changing color and students heading back to school, we are also entering the months where the game industry releases its biggest titles to the world. It’s important to appreciate what is happening in video games, especially in video game music. How have video games changed? Do age and gender play any role in this gap in appreciation of the medium? Is there truly a gap between audiences who appreciate film and TV as a higher art form than games? To examine these questions and more it was important to speak to some of the industry’s leading video game composers.

Through the insights of Jesper Kyd, Sarah Schachner, Cris Velasco, Austin Wintory and Inon Zur we can hopefully gather some insight into this rich medium and how unique and special it really is.

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ith technology continuing to evolve and game developers pushing gameplay and storytelling into new areas, we have seen video games overtake every other medium as the most popular and highest-grossing. Gamecrate reports that in 2017, the gaming industry grossed $116 billion compared to TV’s $105 billion, film’s $41 billion and music’s $17 billion. Grand Theft Auto V has now become the single best-selling release in the history of entertainment, ever.

This single game grossed $1 billion within its first three days of release and now sits comfortably with a lifetime gross of around $6 billion.

Now, we all know that popularity doesn’t always equate to quality despite some recent decisions from a certain awards organization.

So, how was Grand Theft Auto V received critically? I’m sure most parents know Grand Theft Auto as the overtly violent game series their kids should never play, but in reality it was received as one of the greatest games ever made. IGN described Grand Theft Auto V as

“an intelligent, wickedly comic, and bitingly relevant commentary on contemporary, posteconomic crisis America.” And this is just one example. We won’t go down the path of quoting reviews to prove that there is depth in gaming. Yet amongst industry circles it isn’t uncommon to encounter people who don’t game, who don’t stay up to date with games, or even fans and critics who may listen to a game score but never experience the game itself.

Before we examine things a little deeper, it’s good to get a sense of what there is to love about this medium. Video games offer up so many creative avenues, especially to composers. “For lack of a better way to put it, there is a ‘reckless youth’ quality to working in games that I am totally addicted to. I don’t mean the people themselves, but the industry as a culture,” says Austin Wintory. How relatively young the medium is becomes a big draw, but also how new and fresh it feels.

Because we get new game systems and new technology every seven to ten years, video Continued on Page 19

While the goal of a score in a video game is the same as a film or TV episode, it’s this idea of not being locked to picture that creates the biggest difference.

C O N T E N T S

Ellis Island: A Composer’s Journey 5 Common Works Registration 101 7 New Gear 9 Germaine Franco: Becoming Part of the Story 12 Musical Shares 23

F R O M T H E E D I T O R ' S D E S K

Springing Forward into Fall

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By Kaya Savas

President ASHLEY IRWIN Vice Presidents ARTHUR HAMILTON CHARLES BERNSTEIN Recording Secretary JONATHAN DAVID NEAL Treasurer/CFO CHRISTOPHER FARRELL COO MARK SMYTHE The SCORE KAYA SAVAS, Editor Advisory Board ALAN BERGMAN MARILYN BERGMAN CHARLES BERNSTEIN BILL CONTI CHARLES FOX JAMES NEWTON HOWARD QUINCY JONES ALAN MENKEN THOMAS NEWMAN LALO SCHIFRIN MARC SHAIMAN HOWARD SHORE ALAN SILVESTRI DIANE WARREN CHRISTOPHER YOUNG HANS ZIMMER In Memoriam Advisory Board Members ELMER BERNSTEIN JOHN CACAVAS JERRY GOLDSMITH MAURICE JARRE PETER MATZ DAVID RAKSIN PATRICK WILLIAMS Directors RAMÓN BALCÁZAR LORI BARTH FLETCHER BEASLEY RUSSELL BROWER DAVID DAS JOEL DOUEK IRA HEARSHEN LYNN F. KOWAL MICHAEL LEHMANN BODDICKER MARK MCKENZIE HELENE MUDDIMAN GREG PLISKA MARK ROOS ELIZABETH ROSE ADRYAN RUSS GARRY SCHYMAN ELIZABETH SELLERS KUBILAY UNER Past Presidents JOHN ADDISON RICHARD BELLIS BRUCE BROUGHTON JAY CHATTAWAY RAY COLCORD JAMES DI PASQUALE DAN FOLIART ARTHUR HAMILTON MARK WATTERS

s the temperatures cool down and the colors of the leaves change, we are already shockingly heading towards the end of 2018. I always found the fall months to be the “spring” of our industry. It’s when new TV shows make their debut, and continuing series return to tell more stories. In the world of film we will begin to see more of the “Oscar bait” dramas hit theaters, and less of the tentpole sequels. And in the world of video games, all the publishers will be releasing their tentpole AAA title games. There’s so much new that it always feels weird that the year is already starting to wind down. Usually we save resolutions for New Year’s, but I think it’s important to push ourselves to continually try new things. So Continued on Page 4 DIAMOND MEMBERS Kristen Anderson-Lopez Lori Barth Richard Bellis Barend Bendorf Alan & Marilyn Bergman Bruce Broughton Dennis C. Brown Carter Burwell

Ray Charles Jay Chattaway George Clinton Bill Conti James DiPasquale Clint Eastwood Dan Foliart Charles Fox

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David Paich Mike Post J. Peter Robinson Lalo Schifrin Richard Sherman David Shire Alan Silvestri Mark Snow

Dennis Spiegel Mike Stoller Mark Watters Patrick Williams John Williams Maury Yeston

DIAMOND SPONSORS / PATRONS Jay Cooper

PLATINUM MEMBERS Jack Allocco Gene Back John Beal Marco Beltrami Amin Bhatia Nicholas Britell Anthony Chue

Will Jennings Michael Levine Derek Machann John Massari Bear McCreary Peter Melnick Mariella Nelson

Alf Clausen Joseph Conlan Alexandre Desplat Kurt Farquhar Randy Gerston Michael Giacchino Tira Harpaz

Thomas Newman Mark Petrie John Powell Damir Price Mac Quayle David Schwartz Carlo Siliotto

Edward Trybek Kubilay Uner Angela Rose White Austin Wintory

PLATINUM SPONSORS / PATRONS Javier Garcia

Bonnie Cacavas

GOLD MEMBERS Cato Michael Abels Josh Alexander Elik Alvarez Amy Andersson Tammy Ari Alexander Arntzen Sebastian Arocha Morton Spring Aspers Melissa Axel Steve Barden Nathan Barr Joe Barrera Jr. Jeff Beal Jonathan Beard Joel Beckerman Arbel Bedak Charles Bernstein David Bertok Kevin Blumenfeld Peter Boyer Stephen Bray William Bray Richard Bronskill Russell Brower Benedikt Brydern Kenneth Burgomaster Dennis Burke Byron Burton Jeff Cardoni Kristopher Carter Denver Casado Sacha Chaban Dongliang Chen Michael Choi Shawn Clement Jerry Cohen Kaveh Cohen Brian Curtin Imre Czomba Mychael Danna Jana Davidoff Tim Davies Alberto de la Rocha

John Debney John DeFaria Arhynn Descy John Dickson Scott Doherty Dennis Dreith Bruce Dukov Robert Duncan Laura Dunn JC Dwyer Erich Einfalt Jarryd Elias Laura Engel Del Engen Joel Evans Evan Evans Sharon Farber Shelley Fisher Pablo Flores Attila Fodor Andy Forsberg Alexandre Fortuit Pam Gates Grant Geissman Scott Glasgow Evan Goldman William Goldstein Joel Goodman Jens Groetzschel Gordy Haab Eric Hachikian Christine Hals Wayne Hankin Bruce Healey Reinhold Heil Lee Holdridge Scott Holtzman Trevor Howard Russ Howard III Wei-San Hsu Frank Ilfman Giovanna Imbesi Asuka Ito Joel Iwataki

Marco Valerio Antonini Todd Brabec Les Brockmann Jonathan Broxton Jon Burlingame Savina Ciaramella

Ray Costa Lisa Dondlinger Kevin Estwick Arlene Fishbach Scott Freiman Susan Friedman

ISSN 1066-5447 Society of Composers & Lyricists 8306 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 512 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 Ph (310) 281-2812 Office@thescl.com

Elliot Goldenthal Arthur Hamilton James Howard Mark Isham Robert Lopez Johnny Mandel Blake Neely Randy Newman

Lynda Jacobs Ken Jacobsen Michael Jay Garrett Johnson Quincy Jones Federico Jusid Seth Kaplan Laura Karpman Taisuke Kimura Dave Kinnoin Grant Kirkhope Christopher Klatman Jasha Klebe Kevin Kliesch Rebecca Kneubuhl Christopher Knight Lynn Kowal Raashi Kulkarni Michael A. Lang Didier Lean Rachou Michael Lehmann Boddicker Edie Lehmann Boddicker Christopher Lennertz Tori Letzler Paul Lipson Angela Little Joseph LoDuca Charley Londono Sterling Maffe David Majzlin Tracey Marino Vance Marino Billy Martin Richard Marvin Benjamin Mason Arlene Matza-Jackson Michael McCuistion Mark McKenzie Joel McNeely Robert Messinger Jeffrey Michael Bruce Miller Bryan Miller Tricia Minty

Brian Moe Sandro Morales Helene Muddiman David Murillo R, Jonathan Neal Rhett Nelson David Newman Matt Novack Cindy O’Connor Greg O’Connor Anele Onyekwere John Ottman Nathan Pangrazio Isabel Pappani Hannah Parrott Carla Patullo Justin Paul Orlando Perez Rosso Art Phillips Mark Phillips Stu Phillips John Piscitello Kim Planert Judi Pulver Daniel Raijman J. Ralph Ron Ramin Nick Redman Trent Reznor Allan Rich Lolita Ritmanis Carlos Rivera Dan Romer Earl Rose Lior Rosner Atticus Ross William Ross Enis Rotthoff Adryan Russ Brenda Russell Christine Russell Jeff Russo Steven Saltzman Paula Salvatore

Kaya Savas Jeremy Schieffelin Roxanne Seeman Elizabeth Sellers Batu Sener Rochelle Sharpe Ryan Shore Michael Silversher Helen Simmins-McMillin Mark Smythe Curt Sobel Henry Stanny Sally Stevens Candace Stewart Karen Tanaka Dara Taylor John Tempereau Justin Timberlake Jeremy Tisser Pinar Toprak Trey Toy Jeff Toyne Tyler Traband John Traunwieser Sarah Trevino Vasi Vangelos Jake Versluis Daniel Wakefield Jack Wall Diane Warren Jason Webb Harold Wheeler Frederik Wiedmann Alan Williams Allee Willis Chris Wirsig Jonathan Wolff Gernot Wolfgang David Wood Catharine Wood Christopher Young Rendra Zawawi

GOLD SPONSORS / PATRONS Clark Germain Jeffrey Graubart Ken Helmer Shari Hoffman Sabrina Hutchinson Richard Kraft

Tom Lee Jehan Stefan LeGros Dustin Liggett Patty Macmillan Chris McGeary Jake Monaco

Stacey Neisig Chandler Poling John Rodd Jeffrey Sanderson Robert Townson Alexander Vangelos

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

Buyouts—Friend or Foe?

By Ashley Irwin

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ne of the questions I’m most often asked, particularly by young or inexperienced members, is “why don’t composers have a union?” Virtually every other craft in the film making process has a representative organization empowered to collectively bargain for wages and working conditions on their members’ behalf. The reality is that in days gone by, composers did have a union—the Composers and Lyricists Guild of America (CLGA)—the forerunner to the SCL. For those who don’t know the story of the CLGA’s demise, I urge you to read our resident music historian, Jon Burlingame’s account of the chronology on the SCL’s website (http://thescl.com/about).

While it can’t set minimums or conditions, I believe the SCL remains a media composer’s best resource to remain apprised of the prevailing state of the business, through its advocacy, education and exchange of pertinent information by its members.

With the advent of the many new delivery platforms, digital service providers and production companies, there come new business models to which we have to adapt, without the shelter of a trade organization, if we want to remain relevant. But unfortunately the practices some new players are attempting to implement are far from new. Rather, they’ve been around since time immemorial. I’m talking about “buyouts”—the practice of paying the writer an upfront fee to forgo any future royalties. Many composers consider buyouts to be insidious and to be avoided at all times but like any negotiation for services, acceptance should be a business decision best made at the time by the individual concerned.

Because the proposal of buyouts appears to have become commonplace among the newer content providers, it’s imperative that music creators are informed of the ramifications before they commit, and because of the constraints imposed on ASCAP and BMI by the consent decrees, they are unable to even discuss any aspect of direct licensing with their members. The SCL is under no such restriction; so let’s explore the pros and cons of buyouts.

For those of us who have had long careers writing music for film and TV, we recognize the importance of an ongoing royalty stream and continue to appreciate it more and more as we grow older. Unlike the other craftspeople with guild or union representation, composers have no pensions being generated

when we work, outside of our royalties— performance or otherwise. Over the course of a career, an established composer will work on numerous projects, but just as the songwriter has no idea which song will be a hit, so too the media composer, who can only hope that some of the projects that include their music strike a chord with the public and enjoy continued popularity for years to come.

During a recent conversation with a colleague whose 20-plus years in the business have afforded him a very healthy royalty stream, he reminded me that only a handful of the projects he’d done over those years paid the seriously big bucks. The others were just filler. Of course this is the problem with buyouts. It’s a lottery, and you may be giving up the winning ticket.

We all know how hard it can be when you’re starting out, and I’m not just talking about getting gigs. You might want to marry, buy a house, raise a family and so on; the cost of just living. Then of course there’s the gear you need to stay up with the technological demands of the occupation. It all costs money.

So when you finally get a show and you’re offered an additional chunk of change to buy you out of future royalties, it may look like a great deal. Hey, you’re getting your money now rather than having to wait for it. Right?

The problem is, until your show hits the market you have no idea whether it has long term earning potential. Your decision could mean the difference between a payday of $30,000 now and $3 million over time...no I’m not kidding. Are you willing to play the odds?

So far we’ve only considered the effect your decision will have on you, personally.

But there are wider ramifications that an increase in buyouts could have for the entire profession if they become the norm rather than the exception.

Let’s create a fictitious content provider/ streaming service. We’ll call them Faceflix.

Faceflix starts out by licensing existing content to stream from traditional sources and in so doing, acquires the appropriate performance licenses from the PROs. Since Faceflix is introducing a new means of delivering content, a reduced license fee is negotiated to help the startup find its feet, in much the same way as the cable industry began. Faceflix begins to gain favor, its popularity grows and soon it’s producing its own original content.

Unlike the other craftspeople with guild or union representation, composers have no pensions being generated when we work, outside of our royalties— performance or otherwise.

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President’s Message

N O T E S F R O M N E W Y O R K

SCL New York Events SCL NY Seminar: New and Innovative Gear

Moderated by Adonis Tsilimparis with panelists Christopher North, Ruben Dax, Niko Paterakis and Ben Harrison Wednesday, June 6th at Alchemical Studios, NYC

L-R: Niko Paterakis and Ruben Dax demonstrating ROLI products L-R: Allison LeytonBrown, Christopher North, Ben Harrison, Niko Paterakis, Adonis Tsilimparis, Ruben Dax, Elizabeth Rose and Mark Roos

Annual SCL NY Community Picnic

Wednesday, June 13th at Central Park L-R: Ron Passaro, JoAnne Harris and Danny Gray at SCL NY Community Picnic

SCL NY Seminar: Beyond the Box with Wayne Hankin

Tuesday, June 19th at Turtle Bay Music School, NYC L-R: Lura Johnson and Wayne Hankin

Continued from Page 3

In the guise of this “new” business model, the genius minds at Faceflix determine that they could reduce the license fees they pay to the performing rights organizations as they increase the amount of original content, so long as they own all rights in the music. For example, if the proportion of original content increases from 5% to 30% and Faceflix has bought the music rights from all the composers on those shows, Faceflix will most likely seek a reduction in licenses fees it pays the PROs, citing the fact that 30% of their content is not included in the PROs repertoire. Additionally, the cue sheets Faceflix files with the PROs now require more scrutiny as licensed and unlicensed works may be co-mingled in the one show. More man-hours means more administrative overhead for the PRO and ultimately less money to distribute to its members.

Time stands still for no one. Likewise technology, and I dare say that five years from now terrestrial broadcasting of entertainment will have taken a back seat to streaming, if it hasn’t disappeared altogether. There will be new business models, and we will have to learn to embrace them if we want to remain in the game. But we must always remain mindful of what benefits our profession, or it could simply become a hobby. Whether or not to take a buyout is a personal decision, and currently you still have your PRO to represent your others works. But imagine if the day came when there was no PRO to keep those checks coming, in your old age, for shows you did decades earlier.

Discount the lottery at your peril. g

Editor’s Desk Continued from Page 2

SCL NY & ASCAP Present: The Art of the Lyric

A Cross-Genre Seminar Moderated by Elizabeth Rose with panelists Johntá Austin, Chris Dimond, and Michael Kooman Wednesday, June 27th at ASCAP

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L-R: Mark Roos, Chris Dimond, Michael Kooman, Elizabeth Rose and Johntá Austin

maybe as a fall resolution, seek out something new. Watch a movie with a subject matter that maybe at first didn’t interest you. Instead of watching reruns of The Office, maybe try a new series. Or perhaps research some video games you might like, and pick up a controller to lose yourself in a new experience. Let’s spring forward into fall and find something new that may g surprise us.

G R E A T P E R F O R M A N C E S

Ellis Island: A Composer’s Journey from Concert Hall to PBS

By Peter Boyer

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hen PBS broadcast the national tele-vision premiere of my work Ellis Island: The Dream of America with Pacific Symphony as part of the Great Performances series on June 29, it was in many ways the culmination of a personal journey as a composer which had begun more than 17 years earlier. With immigration in the headlines and the subject of controversy on a daily basis, many who had watched the broadcast commented on the timeliness and relevance of Ellis Island with respect to current events.

This timeliness seems undeniable, and yet I could never have predicted that many years ago, when I first embarked on the creation of this project. Indeed, I couldn’t have imagined the major impact that this work about Ellis Island and the historic American immigrant experience would have on my work and career.

My personal journey with this piece has taken me from the archives of Ellis Island to concert halls around the United States, and finally to a nationwide PBS audience, and I’m glad for the opportunity to share this musical journey with my colleagues in The SCL. The origins of Ellis Island: The Dream of America date to 1999-2000, when I began to contemplate a major work exploring this aspect of American history. Like so many Americans, I grew up with an awareness of the immense importance of immigrants in

building this country, the role that Ellis Island played as the “gateway to America” for so many, and the profound symbolism of the Statue of Liberty. The famous words of Emma Lazarus which can be found on the statue’s pedestal—including “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”—had resonated with me since childhood. Also, one of my very first orchestral works had been a tone poem about the sinking of the Titanic (composed as a student in 1995, two years before James Cameron’s film); and thinking about the fate of the many third-class immigrant passengers who perished in that tragedy was another factor that drew me to the subject matter of Ellis Island.

As I began researching this topic, I learned of the existence of the Ellis Island Oral History Project (EIOHP), a remarkable collection of nearly two thousand first-hand interviews with immigrants who had come to America through Ellis Island, recorded decades after those experiences. I quickly realized what a treasure trove these interviews were, and the stories I found became my work’s foundation, and the inspiration for its music. Though artists from various disciplines had made use of stories from the EIOHP—in children’s books, paintings, plays, song cycles—I could find no work that used these stories in an

I couldn’t have imagined the major impact that this work about Ellis Island and the historic American immigrant experience would have on my work and career.

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Ellis Island Continued from Page 5

orchestral context, which gave me confidence to pursue my idea of a work for actors and orchestra.

After a period of seeking a commissioning entity for this project, in early 2001 I secured a commission from The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford to create Ellis Island for its 2001-02 season. This project was in partnership with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, which invited me to conduct its premiere in April 2002. This commission provided an opportunity for me to devote a year of my life largely to creating this major work.

Early on, I decided that I would create the script myself, based entirely on materials from interviews in the EIOHP, prior to composing the score.

This involved the selection, arrangement and editing of texts from these interviews into a sort of dramatic narrative. This proved to be a huge task, not least because of the huge amount of material that exists—much more than I could ever realistically canvas for material. Ellis Island processed immigrants from a great many countries over a span of more than 60 years, and so I wanted the stories chosen for inclusion to be widely representative of both geography and historical period.

And of course, I wanted to use stories that would say something important about the American immigrant experience—stories that were poignant, gripping, or even humorous. I examined over 100 interviews, and eventually I settled on a structure which includes seven stories, four female and three male, of immigrants who came through Ellis Island from seven countries (Poland, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Ireland and Russia) between 1910 and 1940.

One of the great challenges in composing this score was balancing the spoken word with orchestra. There are relatively few works for narrator and orchestra that have found a place in the standard repertoire (Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait is probably the bestknown American work), and I believe that one reason why so few such pieces have become “standard rep” is that this a very tricky thing to make work on the concert stage. One challenge

is simply volume and balance; even with sound reinforcement for an actor, it’s very easy for a full symphony orchestra to overpower the spoken word. So keeping the music relatively transparent during Ellis Island’s spoken sections—which are all monologues, until the final section—was crucial.

A key part of my solution to finding this balance was the overall architecture of the work. There are 15 sections, beginning with a six-minute Prologue for orchestra alone, followed by a sequence of seven stories, each of which is separated by an orchestral interlude, and finally an Epilogue in which all the actors join in a recitation of Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus.”

The Prologue introduces the work’s principal themes, including a main theme in which I attempted to evoke something of the nobility and hope of the immigrant endeavor, a fast-moving secondary theme with pulsating accompaniment, which I think of as “traveling music,” and other motifs.

All of these recur and are developed throughout the work. During the seven stories, in which the actors tell the immigrant stories in the first person, the orchestra plays a supporting role— much like underscoring a documentary that’s unfolding on the concert stage— amplifying the emotional character of these tales. During the interludes, the orchestra assumes the primary role, and accordingly “speaks up” with fuller orchestration. The interludes serve as commentaries on the stories they follow, and transitions to the stories they introduce. The music is continuous throughout the work’s 45-minute duration.

The creative process for Ellis Island

stretched over nearly a year, with several months of work researching and script editing before beginning the musical composition, which took about six months. As this was composed just before sophisticated orchestral mockups were becoming commonplace, I composed a short score with only a piano sound and a bit of percussion for playback, reading every line of the script aloud repeatedly to determine tempos of the accompanying music. I orchestrated the score, which is over 1,000 bars of music, in the last four weeks before my deadline, completing it just a few weeks before the premiere.

Work on this piece was begun in the months before September 11, 2001, and completed in the months that followed.

During my research trips to Ellis Island in the summer of 2001, many times I had imagined what it was like to be an immigrant sailing into New York Harbor, and seeing the skyline of lower Manhattan. As the world mourned those devastating events, I often reflected on how that skyline had tragically changed.

Ellis Island was premiered by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra under my direction, with a cast of actors directed by Martin Charnin, at The Bushnell on April 9, 2002. At that first performance, it was my great pleasure to welcome to the stage Lillian Galletta, the only one of the seven immigrants featured in my work who was then still living. This delightful moment was made even more poignant by the fact that her four older siblings, all in their eighties, who had traveled with her from Sicily to America in 1928, joined us that evening.

The audience response to the preContinued on Page 17

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P E R F O R M A N C E R I G H T S

Common Works Registration 101

By Abby North

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ne of the greatest obstacles music publishers face in royalty collections is proper and comprehensive registration of all their works.

Within the United States, there are several performance rights organizations (PROs), two of which (ASCAP and BMI) expressly allow publishers to register works by providing data files using Musicmark’s Electronic Batch Registration (EBR) standard. SOCAN, the Canadian PRO also accepts EBR files.

EBR data is delivered as an .xls file, which makes the format accessible to all publishers.

Outside of the United States and Canada, societies are called Collective Management Organizations (CMOs), and they often collect mechanical royalties, and sometimes collect synchronization fees in addition to performance royalties.

To batch register works at the CMOs outside of the United States and Canada, publishers must deliver their data via Common Works Registration (CWR), a “standard” that is not truly standard because of each society’s unique data and naming requirements and because most publishers do not have the tools required to export data in CWR format.

While the CWR data specification file is readily available, examples of correct CWR files are not. CWR files are text files that must be specifically formatted per the CWR standard. (Current CWR files have a “.v21” suffix, which indicates CWR version 2.1.)

Those publishers with the means and inclination to license Vistex’s Music Maestro royalty administration software are able to export CWR files from Music Maestro.

However, even these exports are often fallible, due in part to each CMO’s specific data requirements, which Music Maestro’s software is not always programmed to deliver correctly.

Matija Kolaric (www.matijakolaric.com) is a software developer and music publishing expert from Croatia who has built a set of subscription-based CWR tools that give music publishers that do not use Music Maestro the ability to create valid, accepted CWR files. Kolaric’s tools include an “EBR to CWR” converter. Except in some unusual cases, EBR files contain enough data to create a CWR file that will be accepted by many CMOs and most sub-publishers. The tools are able to accommodate additional data, should it be necessary.

Even with access to CWR tools, the raw data must be clean and it must be comprehensive. Without clean data, the CWR files will be rejected and the works will not be registered.

Publishers that create their own royalty administration databases must be aware of how EBR and CWR work, and specifically, what fundamental data fields are absolutely required. Data that is entered into one’s own database must be exact and confirmed upon ingestion, or the result is likely to be “garbage in, garbage out.”

When estimating the time required to develop royalty administration tools, ample time should be allowed for development of the CWR and/or EBR export tools within the publisher’s database. Because of the differences in each society’s requirements and interpretations of the “standard,” ongoing trial and error is required. Sometimes this process can take months or years.

Some of the CWR specific requirements are: • Within each work registration in a CWR file, every controlled publisher must have a clear relationship with at least one writer.

• The publisher’s database should create and store a unique “Submitter Work ID” for each work, and that “Submitter ID” should be included in the CWR file.

• Many foreign societies use society-assigned agreement IDs to identify publishing agreements. These agreement IDs reference information about the relationships among the original publisher, administrator and sub-publishers in various territories. ICE, a licensing service created

by PRS, STIM and GEMA, monitors these agreements and generates the IDs for those societies, as well as for Koda, Teosto, Tono, Buma/Stemra and Sabam.

When registering works at any society that uses agreement IDs, that agreement ID must be included in the CWR file.

Each ICE society represented in the agreement ID will also receive those works registrations. All of the party names and international identification numbers assigned to songwriters and publishers (IPIs) represented under that agreement ID must be included in the file, and the data must be correct, or the CWR file will be kicked back.

• The territories represented by the

While properly filling out an EBR or CWR file is not rocket science, many publishers find that their data is not ready for export to EBR or CWR.

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L-R: SESAC’s John Josephson, Christophe Beck, SESAC’s Erin Collins

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L-R: Erin Collins and Danny Lux

The 2018 SESAC Film & Television Composer Awards

ESAC hosted its annual Film & Television Composer Awards at the Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, California on June 6, 2018. The annual event honors music composers in the categories of film, both network and cable television, advertising and streaming media. In the film category, both Christophe Beck (American Made) and Randy Newman (Cars 3) were honored for their work. More than 40 television composers, including Dennis C. Brown, Jon Ehrlich, Evan Frankfort and Danny Lux, also were honored with awards celebrating their work, among g many others.

Erin Collins hosts the 2018 SESAC Film & Television Composer Awards

L-R: Devin Powers and Erin Collins

L-R: John Ehrlich and Erin Collins

L-R: Erin Collins and Gabriel Mann

L-R: Evan Frankfort and Erin Collins 8

N E W G E A R

Zynaptiq Intensity & Sinevibes Complete Collection Reviews

By Jack D. Elliot Zynaptiq Intensity

Sinevibes Complete Collection

Zynaptiq is the company known for plugins that morph two sounds together and reverb removal. They sell high quality plugins that are great additions to your arsenal. Their new plugin “Intensity” does not fall short from the quality of their past plugins.

Intensity is a new kind of audio processor for mixing, mastering and sound design.

Built on techniques typically found in facial recognition algorithms, Intensity brings out a sound’s inherent detail, increases its perceived loudness and density, and adds insane amounts of clarity. The unique algorithm carves out important signal features—making sounds sound more like themselves— and is operated with essentially one control.

Between the proprietary algorithm and an optional soft-knee saturating limiter in the plugin’s output stage, Intensity also excels at attaining maximum loudness and creating a beautifully aggressive tone. Zynaptiq claims their proprietary algorithm will latch onto the most important features of the input signal, which can then be enhanced using the Intensity control. There are additional controls— including wet/dry mix, a frequency-dependent bias control and a saturating limiter. Not a whole lot of controls but the plugin does a great job enhancing the sound. Definitely works great on synths, drum bus, bass and for mastering. It will probably sound great on any source.

A nice simple quality plugin. It costs $379, but keep your eye out for holiday sales. You usually can buy most plugins these days on a substantial discount. I give it 9/10.

Sinevibes Complete Collection consists of 27 awesome plugins. Usually it will cost you $953 but they are having a sale for $349. The collection is full of a variety of plugins like bit crushing, sound mangling, gated effects, sequencing riffs, filtering, a chaos system processor and a ton more. If you want to have fun with audio and come up with unique sounds or just screw up your audio, Sinevibes is for you. Almost all their plugins are tempo synced. There are so many plugins to choose from in this collection. I want to concentrate on one individual one called Fraction, which is a blast to use.

Fraction is my favorite. Fraction is a plugin for deep on-the-fly remixing and mangling of sound. It features 8x independent slicers that record and repeat short pieces of incoming audio at defined points in time, either mixing with or replacing the original input. Each slicer has options for variable trigger probability and intelligent randomization for producing infinite variations in the arrangement instead of repeating the same loop over and over. The fun never ends with this plugin. Fraction also includes as many as 24x multi-effect processors (three for every slicer) with a diverse collection of finely tuned algorithms, plus effect parameter animation hard-linked to the slicer’s timing. Here are your choices, 16 types: low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and bandreject filters, phaser, barber-pole phaser, positive and negative flangers, chorus, bit depth and sample rate reduction, analog drive, circuit-bent filter, frequency shifter, pitch shifter, ring modulator. Fracture takes time to work

If you want to have fun with audio and come up with unique sounds or just screw up your audio, Sinevibes is for you.

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A

The 33rd Annual ASCAP Screen Music Awards

SCAP held its 33rd annual Screen Music Awards on May 23, 2018, at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. This year John Powell was honored with the Henry Mancini Award for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music.

Germaine Franco was also honored with the Shirley Walker Award, which honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music. The ASCAP Composers’ Choice winners were also announced. Dave Porter (Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, Preacher) won TV Composer of the Year, Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk) and Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread) tied for Film Score of the Year, and Gordy Haab (Star Wars: Battlefront II) won for Video Game Score or the Year. The Composers’ Choice Awards are voted on by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community.

L-R: ASCAP’s Shawn LeMone, Laura Engel, John Powell, ASCAP’s Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP’s Paul Williams, ASCAP’s John Titta

L-R: Adrian Molina, Germaine Franco, ASCAP’s Elizabeth Matthews, Erin Scully

Germaine Franco performs selections of her music and songs after accepting the Shirley Walker Award Germaine Franco and John Powell celebrate the evening together

Michael Abels held the world debut performance of “Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga” with the Selah Gospel Choir from his score to Get Out John Powell decided to celebrate his ASCAP Henry Mancini Award by performing his favorite Henry Mancini tracks with the orchestra 10

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What’sHappening

n July 21st, BMI’s 21st Annual Conducting Workshop culminated with eight film and TV composers completing a two-week workshop with a finale performance at Nathan Barr’s Bandrika Studio.

By Kaya Savas

Front Row, L-R: Cindy O’Connor, Ben Bromfield, Lucas Richman, Andy Forsberg, and Genevieve Vincent Back Row L-R: Timo Chen, Alex Bornstein, Peter Karr, BMI’s Ray Yee, BMI’s Evelyn Rascon, David Low, BMI’s Philip Shrut, Chris Ledesma, Oumi Kapila, Nathan Barr, Mark Robertson, and BMI’s Chris Dampier

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On July 31st, the 2018 ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis culminated with aspiring composers getting to record their original cues at the historic Newman Scoring Stage at Fox Studios.

Project leader Christophe Beck, composer Chris Bacon and SESAC’s Erin Collins pose with this year’s workshop participants

In July, SESAC held the first workshop as part of SESAC Scores: The Beck Diversity Project. This project is a collaboration between composer Christophe Beck and the SESAC Film & Television team and is designed to make an impact on the historically low numbers of women and people of color hired in the film and TV composer community.

Workshop leader Richard Bellis and ASCAP leadership pose with this year’s workshop participants g g g

Nathan Barr attends the premiere of The Americans.

Joan Beal and Jeff Beal performing with the orchestra

On July 5th and 6th, Jeff Beal performed selections of his work among other TV composers at MOSMA in Màlaga, Spain.

L-R: Quincy Jones and Robert Townson L-R: Actress Keri Russell, Nathan Barr, and actor Matthew Rhys

On May 21, Varèse Sarabande’s Robert Townson and VIP guests including Quincy Jones celebrate the life and music of Marvin Hamlisch at the Residence of Belgium in Los Angeles.

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Ronit Kirchman attends a special screening of The Sinner.

L-R: Actress Jessica Biel and Ronit Kirchman

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Composer Vivek Maddala

Vivek Maddala celebrates his Daytime Emmy Award win for his work on Tom and Jerry.

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Germaine Franco Becoming Part of the Story INTERVIEWED BY K A Y A S A V A S

Germaine Franco has built an amazing career path for herself by embracing her inner voice as a storyteller and working her way up to where she is today. With roots as a musician who studied abroad and performed with international orchestras, Germaine absorbed the knowledge of how music connects with people. This led to her path as a film, TV and game composer. By working with composers like John Powell and Hans Zimmer, she built skills that would become essential to her own solo career. In the past few years Germaine has shown her versatility with projects such as scoring the TV series Vida, the buddy comedy Tag, and Kung Fu Panda — The Emperor’s Quest at Universal Studios Hollywood. Germaine’s talents as a storyteller and her warm personality make her a real inspiration. It was amazing to speak with her about her journey and gain some insight from her experience.

Score: To start, I would love to know a bit about your background, and what was your path to becoming a composer? What led up to that point, and where in your life did you decide, “Okay, I want a career in this field?”

Germaine: The path to becoming a composer started with me as a musician and a performer, a percussionist.

I started playing drums in the concert band in grade school, in a public school in Texas. My teacher was from North Texas State, which is a really great school. I had great teachers. We used to play in many ensembles from jazz, stage band, and orchestra. Then I also took private piano and percussion lessons and played in the El Paso Youth Symphony. I wound up getting a scholarship to Rice University, and that’s where I started to take theory, harmony, and orchestration classes and start writing for my own group.

Score: Oh, did you have a band?

Germaine: I had a Latin jazz band.

And in school is really where I started to write, taking all the traditional conservatory classes. I performed a lot in orchestras, music ensembles, and all kinds of groups. I decided that I really enjoyed when I would write out charts.

I loved hearing people play them. It was so exciting!

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ple of European orchestras and playing in Italy and Germany. I played in the Spoleto Festival Orchestra and the World Orchestra in Berlin. I loved doing that, but I had this huge passion to continue studying Latin music. That seemed to be where the road was taking me, because I was getting a lot more engagements with my own group at jazz festivals and music festivals.

So, I came out to LA and I met with Luis Conte, who is a fantastic percussionist. I really wanted to get more into hand percussion, as I had started doing it in college. During that whole time in college I was traveling all over Mexico just playing with musicians and studying music, and the more I found the time playing with ensembles on my own, I loved it.

I wound up getting work at the Los Angeles Theater Center when I first moved here. They also had the Latino Theater Lab, which still exists, and I was the music director for several projects. Through that job, I started to meet theater directors who were also making films. I had been writing music for theater, and so I was asked to write for film. I wound up doing the Universal Hispanic Film Project, where they would sponsor two shorts a year and then pay for all of the production.

I scored my first film at the Fox scoring stage with Armin Steiner mixing.

Score: Wow, that’s amazing. It seems you were building so many great relationships very early on.

Germaine: Well, Federico Ramos, who is the guitarist that I worked with on Coco, he was on my first film. We have this really great working relationship, and we have continued to work together for quite some time.

One thing led to another, and then I got another film project through PBS American Playhouse called La Carpa, directed by Carlos Avila. All this meant that people started hearing about my work. I was doing independent films and some television specials, but not really working up to the level that I am now.

Score: In all these things that were happening was there ever like an “aha moment”?

Germaine: I really had the “aha” moment on the scoring stage with Armin Steiner. That was quite an amazing ex-

perience. I also met Jeanne Weems who was at ASCAP years ago, and Armin actually called her up and said, “You need to hear this woman.” I was really starting to get my foot in the door.

You go into a huge theater and you see this film, and you’re hearing your music. You’re thinking, “Oh my god, this is truly amazing.” So that’s how I got the bug to want to do more. I thought it was so exciting. I was inspired by the visuals, and I just wanted to continue.

that’s Mr. John Powell. How did you meet John and what led to you building this amazing collaboration with him?

Score: You mentioned collaboration, and of course working with directors and producers. The director/composer relationship is, you know, very important. When you work with a director for the first time, what are you looking for? I feel like composers have to be adept at analyzing different people and personalities. For instance, you could end up working with a very high-strung director, or maybe someone who’s, I don’t know, maybe too relaxed and too hands off.

How do you adapt to the different personalities that you work with in terms of directors?

Germaine: My brother actually wrote the lyrics to one of the choir pieces in my score for Tag as well. So, Michael was working with John and Gavin Greenaway in London while John and Gavin were still at Trinity College. My brother had a performance art group called Media Arts Group. They used to do some crazy performance art.

So, I had been hearing about John for many years before I actually met him. Then when he moved to L.A. John was working with Hans Zimmer at Media Ventures, now known as Remote Control Productions. I was introduced to John and Gavin. I was just so amazed at what fine musicians they were, and also how talented they were.

They were very much into technology, and that was very exciting to me.

I knew John socially, but I didn’t start working with him right away. A couple years passed and I had moved out of L.A. and then I moved back. My brother encouraged me to meet with John to see if I could be an intern with him. It really was an amazing opportunity. I was so happy when John wrote me back. I sent him some of my previous work and he listened to it. Then he said, “Why don’t you come by?”

My first job I did with him was The Italian Job. He was super busy and there was so much going on. He didn’t have a lot of time to explain things. It was one of those situations when you’re just learning, training on the job. So I just jumped in and looked around to see what needed to be done. As time went by I was able to do more creative things with him. I played on his sessions, programmed, arranged, orchestrated sessions, and did additional writing for him. Later on, we performed live in Ghent at the World Soundtrack Awards, in Althorp, and at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the

Germaine: That’s a good question. Everybody is telling a story, so that’s the most important part. There are always different personalities, and I just try and find something that I have in common with them.

I want to find out what their intent is in the story and the film, the arc of the story, the characters, and the transformation. I ask all those things to get to what they’re thinking about, and then all the different personalities are just part of the process.

The best way to deal with it is to communicate well. Generally, there is quite a bit of discussion that goes on and feedback coming from multiple sources, the director, the producer, the studio, and the editor. You play ideas and go back and forth. I think that’s what helps to get a creative relationship going.

Sometimes it’s not talking about music, but just talking about their interests. It’s important to find out what they like, what inspired them, or what kind of art they like. What kind of music do they like to listen to?

Score: Let’s talk about an important person in your life and career, and

Germaine: I met John through my brother, Michael Petry, who is an amazing artist. He lives in London. He’s a curator, a writer, an art historian. He’s a Renaissance man. He’s also a librettist.

Michael wrote the libretto for John’s Prussian Requiem.

Score: Ah yes, that’s right.

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Franco Interview Continued from Page 13

composer’s band for the DreamWorks Animation in Concert.

We have this wonderful relationship. John is very understanding, giving, and helpful. He pushed me to ­really learn the technology, to improve my programming and writing. I was given all kinds of experiences that you don’t get in college or through a class that you take on the internet.

Score: And I’m sure all this provided a nice launching pad for more opportunities.

Germaine: Absolutely, I worked with John for many years, and through him I met so many other people. I met Hans Zimmer through him. Hans was very generous. I worked with John and Hans on producing all the overdub sessions for Kung Fu Panda 2, and then Hans asked me to come back for Kung Fu Panda 3. There’s a whole circle of people that you meet in this profession that have been incredibly supportive.

This allowed me to get the chops that I needed to move forward on my own.

Score: Were you able to juggle your solo projects while juggling everything else?

Germaine: From the very beginning I was doing my own projects on the side and in the mornings. Every time I got one, John would allow me the time to do my project and come back.

He was always helping me develop as an artist and was the most amazing human. He’s such a good person. I really learned from watching him too, I just loved working with him. We have a nice rapport. My son basically grew up there at the studio, and John was very accepting of having my son around.

It was a really generous and exciting place to be. So much so that I probably stayed longer than most assistants do.

I had no reason to leave because I was quite happy. After a while, I had multiple projects going. He encouraged me to take the leap. We planned it together, and I knew when I would leave. We talked about it months in advance so I had time to prepare for that.

Score: Looking back at that whole experience, I’m sure you could write a book of everything you learned from

him, but are there a couple highlights of things John taught you that you still carry today in your professional career?

the very beginning. Once you get started you don’t have time to just sit at the piano all day long since you’re under major deadlines.

Germaine: Well I think one of the main concepts was to develop fast work habits, not necessarily just fast but also efficient. It’s being efficient in planning and learning how to solve problems musically. Another lesson was to always experiment. He always created new sounds. We were always making new sounds for every project. That’s one aspect of what makes his music so amazing, besides his genius musical talent. Also, he encouraged me to just to sound like myself, not like someone else, but to have my own personal sound. I think that’s really important for artists to find that place. I’m still finding that within myself.

Score: I want to talk about some of your projects that you’ve done lately, which have been really amazing. You did a documentary called Walk With Me. What was the approach there, and does scoring a documentary differ from fiction?

Score: That’s interesting. So, you’re still searching for your specific sound?

Germaine: I wouldn’t say I’m searching, I think I’m developing it. I don’t feel like, “Oh, well I have to sound like this,” on every single song or score, you know? It’s about making it a little bit more of what I would do, and not what somebody else would do. There are a lot of people who want to sound like someone else. I want to sound like me, because that’s all I have. I’m not going to be good at sounding like John, because John is John. I don’t think anyone sounds like him.

Score: So now just looking at your process overall. I always like to ask composers where does the first note come from? Is there a particular process that you have, where you look for inspiration? Do you like to just talk with the director, do you like to watch a first cut, do you kind of focus on the plot or something you really gravitate towards? What typically pulls that first note or idea out of you?

Germaine: I watch the film several times, and I talk to the director. I start at the piano just putting ideas down, and not trying to write to picture at the very beginning. This is just working more on themes and developing different ideas just to show, “Okay, here’s what I think.

What do you think about these?” Just so you give them options.

Once I have something, I go back to putting it to picture. This happens at

Germaine: That project was really great. It was a wonderful experience being around this amazing Buddhist Zen master, Thích Nhat Hanh, and the directors Marc Francis and Max Pugh.

Marc and Max are British filmmakers who have a lot of experience in working in documentaries for the BBC. Entering into this community, I wanted to learn about their intention of what they wanted. In the end, to tell you the truth, the music is sparse in the film because they really wanted the film to feel like a meditation. You hear some chants and a bit of cues, but there’s not a whole lot of music throughout the whole thing.

Then there’s a nice really long cue at the very end, which is a chant from an ancient Buddhist text that was really beautiful. It was actually arranged by one of the monks and I just helped to produce that. But I actually went to the monastery and recorded all the monks and the nuns singing these ancient chants, and it was a very meditative experience.

Score: You also worked on Coco, which must have been a dream project, because the music was so baked into the DNA of that story. What was that process and experience like?

Germaine: It was a great experience.

I have to thank Tom MacDougall for that, because he’s the head of music at Disney Animation. I had met Tom working on a couple films. My agent, Laura Engel, put me up to help out on some arrangements. That job grew exponentially. At first, I just was producing demos, making arrangements and orchestrating songs for Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. It was really great to work with them. I enjoyed that very much. It was a real long process. It was four years of work.

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Franco Interview Continued from Page 14

showing of any of the animation at D23.

I actually got to score that trailer. It was amazing because I was able to use all this history that I had learned through my travels in Mexico and growing up on the border. It was a dream project.

I love the music of Mexico, and I really wanted to show people that it’s not just mariachi music.

While working together with Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina and Darla K. Anderson, we would have many discussions about what they wanted and what they needed. They were so open and let us explore different types of Mexican music that are not often heard.

I started doing these arrangements and assignments here and there. Later, I got asked to write some songs with Adrian, who also is the co-director and the screenwriter. I was so happy to do that. Everyone was very supportive.

We’d do one, and maybe it was a ditty, and then there was another song, and it became this long process. Adrian and I did five songs and then they asked me to do the “La Llorona” arrangement, sung by Alana Ubach.

I was working with also the actors such as Anthony Gonzales and Gael García Bernal, and it was so great.

Looking back, if I had not worked for John Powell, and not seen him do it, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I had been in all of those sessions, all the meetings, all of those experiences gave me the knowledge I needed to learn and know my craft.

It prepped me to know what to do.

If you are not familiar with a singer’s range, be ready and have multiple Pro Tools sessions prepped; one prepped a whole step lower, and then another a whole step higher. So, you’re prepared for as many situations as you could possibly perceive might happen on a session.

Mexico has a huge rich history of music, and some of it is now becoming more known. For a long time, you know, it was not commercial. One of the most fun things I got to do was to go to Mexico and record 50 Mexican musicians with our friend Camilo Lara who helped find all these amazing players. So, their sound is in the film.

This true Mexican sound is there, and it’s so authentic. It’s really beautiful to

have been able to put something like son jarocho music into the film. “Un Poco Loco” is in the style of son jarocho.

Every project is a new project. It’s about scratching my head and thinking, okay, how do I get them what they need for their story?

Score: It sounds like you look at it as a puzzle that needs to be solved, is that the kind of approach you take?

Germaine: Either a puzzle or a cloth that you’re weaving, because you’re weaving your music in and out of the story, and with other music that’s on both sides of it. My job is to help them get what they need, to get the right tone and to help serve the story. And that’s why Coco was so wonderful, because I got to do that, and I got to celebrate my culture at the same time.

Score: It must have been a challenge to make sure everything was seamless on Coco, so that all the songs felt part of the fabric of the score as well.

Germaine: Yes, I was able to help Jeff Kryka, who’s Michael Giacchino’s assistant. Jeff and I co-orchestrated the score for Michael. Michael was very supportive and allowed me to make suggestions while recording in the booth. I really enjoyed working with him and learning his process as well.

Score: You also scored an amazing television series for Starz called Vida, which is a very character-based story.

It’s about two Mexican American sisters in Los Angeles. What was the approach on something more characterfocused and a bit more intimate?

Germaine: That was actually a super collaborative project as well. I worked with Tanya Saracho, she’s one of the few Latina showrunners in TV. Vida takes place in Boyle Heights. The show is about gentrification, and it’s about families and searching for one’s identity within the city of Los Angeles, specifically Latina women. There are multiple issues covered on this show. Tanya has really strong ideas about what she wants and what she doesn’t. She’s really collaborative in her approach. I love how she gives me freedom to experiment. She wanted the score to be a mix of contemporary music, beats, grooves, electronica mixed with Mexi-

can elements, like guitars and some accordions. It is not purely traditional, because that’s what most Latinx people prefer.

A lot of Latinos listen to a variety of different styles. They listen to everything, not just Latin music. There’s that influence of contemporary culture with in the latin syncopated rhythms.

We have some thoughtful and emotional cues as well as some hip hop mixed with Latin beats. It’s really exciting to work on that show with Tanya.

Her creative team is made up of mostly women and people of color. The producer Stephanie Langhoff was amazing as well. Starz and Janine Scalise Boyd were exceptionally supportive. I loved doing that show.

Score: Recently this year you also scored a really fun comedy, Tag, which is based on a true story of lifelong friends playing the same game of tag for over 30 years. How did you approach scoring an ensemble comedy with a bit of an of over the top concept like that? Was it about playing the seriousness of it, and then that kind of enhances the comedy of it?

Germaine: Well, that was the directive from Jeff Tomsic, who’s a really great director. He wanted to emphasize how serious the guys are about playing the game. He didn’t want the traditional comedy score. Jeff was really encouraging me to go over the top with the action cues. He just loved the brass, low brass with lots of percussion and strings.

I think those type of cues enhance the comedy because it is a contrast to what you are seeing on the screen.

So I mixed live orchestra with synths, even the strings sounds. He just felt that if we played it too traditional as far as a comedy goes, we wouldn’t know the urgency of what these guys felt when they’re playing the game.

At the same time, these characters are having fun doing it.

We wanted to make it feel lively too.

I had a great rhythm section. We had Alex Al on bass, Andrew Synowiec on guitars, Luis Conte on percussion, and Matt Chamberlain on drums. We have these groovy moments where it was just amusing. They’re just being boys and having a great time. Also, there were the moments when the guys would just go nuts trying to catch each other. That’s where Jeff wanted the ac-

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Franco Interview Continued from Page 15

tion cues. I was able to put in a few emotional cues as well.

Score: It reminded me of my childhood, playing pretend, pretending I was in an action film or a car chase or something like that, it kind of put me in that head space.

Germaine: Oh, good! It was exciting to find a voice for the characters. Towards the end of the film, during the wedding scene, we added a live choir. Edie Lehmann Boddicker was our choir director. We had some great session singers. A lot of the singers I had worked with either on Coco or through John Powell’s projects. It was just wonderful to be able to work with friends.

Score: I really love that about our industry, how you build up these collaborations and friendships that just take you through the years. Then a decade or so goes by, and you’re still working together. I think that’s such testament to what we do and what everybody does, whether it’s directing or composing or editing. All these circles of friends and collaborators picking each other up and carrying each other towards the finish line every time. I really love it.

Germaine: It’s really great. We develop working relationships through various projects. Then, we create a team that knows how to work together well, and how to get the work done quickly and effectively. I couldn’t have done many of the large projects without having the support of a really great music team including Booker White, Bruce Dukov, Dave Giuli, James Carroll, Alvin Wee, Soya Soo, Drew Jordan, John Chapman, David Boucher, Kevin Harp, Charlene Huang, Gina Zimmitti, Whitney Martin, and most recently Alexa Borden.

Score: Changing topics, recently you won the Shirley Walker award at the ASCAP Screen Music Awards, and by the time this interview will be published you’ll have performed at The Future Is Female Concert, sharing the stage with many wonderful and notable female composers. I wanted to gain your perspective about being a female composer in this industry. It’s 16

2018. What has changed since the start of your career in terms of opportunities for female composers, and how much further do we still have to go?

Germaine: We have about 49 percent to go, I think. There are many women who are working on a movement called “50-50 Day,” where women gather one day a year to discuss the idea of having equal opportunities in all fields. Composers are not the only professionals that are underrepresented in the world.

We’re talking about CEOs, writers, directors, producers, mathematicians, scientists, and many other jobs who have a dearth of inclusivity.

According to Dr. Stacy Smith at USC, from 2007 to 2016 only 1.7 percent of films were scored by women. I started working for John around then.

We haven’t seen much movement in the actual numbers for several years.

When we get the numbers back from the Annenberg Foundation and they tell us that it’s gone up to 10 percent, then, 20 percent, and one day to 50 percent, then I think we can say, “Oh, something’s changing.” When we keep getting the same numbers every year, it’s hard to say that change is happening at the pace that female composers would like to see.

Score: From your point of view, how do we help this change happen?

Germaine: We want to be included on composer lists, in the room, and working because we are competent, dedicated, and professional. When looking for a composer, it would be great if there were many options on the list of possible composers. The question is how do you get on the list?

I think one of the things we need is a whole paradigm shift. We just need to look at composers as composers, as humans. Music is a universal language.

There’s no gender in the language of music. There’s no masculine or feminine. When you’re writing, you’re just writing music. What should it matter if a male or a female wrote it? There are a lot of barriers that have been in place for many years. It’s time to work together and include more voices in the mix.

I don’t have all of the answers for the industry on how to become inclusive, but I know that having a mentor changes lives. Having someone who

believes in you, whatever your gender or race, that’s what gives people the tool to develop as artists. Some people have those tools and some people have the opportunities. Others are excluded.

Thousands of women and people of color are available to be hired as composers. It’s not hard to find us.

Being hired as a composer is a big deal. For example, when Hans Zimmer and Steve Kofsky gave me the film Dope to score, that opened many doors for me. Thank you, Steve and Hans! Also, I have had the support of the Sundance Institute, which is a ­really excellent model. The Sundance Institute is now selecting a mix of 5050 men and women of all composers for the Music and Sound Design Lab. That’s true support. When you put a composer in that type of situation you are developing their musical talent. Organizations like ASCAP and BMI have these programs as well. Let’s open up doors to include many voices in the mix. When you have one percent out of 100 percent, that’s not a very inclusive sound, is it?

Score: Not at all.

Germaine: There are many organizations that are helping women and women of color. For example, there are Women in Film, Women in Media, The Alliance for Women Film Composers, everybody’s trying to make some racket and say, “We love what we do, and we want to be part of the story.”

I am grateful to everyone who gave me a chance, because I could never have had this conversation with you if many individuals and organizations had not given me a chance.

The answer to your question is such a long one. I feel that the best thing I can do to help move the needle forward is to do the actual work. I do the best I can. I have another assistant named Alexa Borden. We want studios to hire us as composers, so we’ve got to be part of that too. We should give back and hire women and people of color as well. I mentor several women of color, not specifically composers. We meet and talk on the phone. I can’t do it all the time because I’m working, but I do my best and hope that others will do the same. I also speak at many universities and on industry panels. I love to do that!

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Ellis Island Continued from Page 6

miere of Ellis Island was tumultuous, with very positive reviews; and quickly NPR selected the premiere performance for a national broadcast on its SymphonyCast program, which introduced the work to a much larger audience, and began to generate interest from other orchestras. I felt that it was imperative to have a commercial recording of the work available, and began to plan that project. I decided to invest the entire commission fee I’d received (and then some) into that recording, and engaged the great Philharmonia Orchestra and Air Studios in London. I conducted the Philharmonia in a single day of sessions in February 2003, recording the entire orchestral score, with Geoff Foster engineering.

Engaging a great cast of actors to record the stories on a limited budget proved challenging, but I was very fortunate that Martin Charnin, who had worked with me on the premiere, managed to get a marvelous group of actors into a studio in New York later in 2003, including Olympia Dukakis, Eli Wallach, Barry Bostwick, and Bebe Neuwirth. The finished recording of Ellis Island was eventually picked up

by Naxos Records for its prestigious American Classics series, which includes hundreds of recordings of

American repertoire, by such composers as Copland, Ives, Barber, Bernstein, Adams, and many more. My Ellis Island recording was released in 2005, and I was thrilled when it was honored with a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

The Naxos recording, Grammy nomination, and word of mouth in the orchestral community, as well as my own promotional efforts, helped lead to a steady stream of performances of Ellis Island around the U.S., which happily has continued to this day. As of this writing, the work has had 185 performances by almost 90 different orchestras, and is on track to reach its 200th performance early in 2019. Several years ago, the League of American Orchestras’ Symphony magazine profiled Ellis Island as one of “a handful of recent works by living composers becoming orchestral standards.”

It seemed to me from the time of Ellis Island’s premiere that this work was very well suited for PBS, particularly its flagship performing arts series Great Performances, and I made efforts over several years to bring that to fruition, including a development deal with a television production company. My concept was that the work would be performed on Ellis Island itself, with a hired New York orchestra which I would conduct. Though the idea met with much interest, the significant

funding required simply wasn’t there, and those television production costs were far out of reach for me as an individual composer. So the idea of an Ellis Island PBS program had to wait— for what turned out to be a decade.

In early 2015, I was approached by Orange County’s Pacific Symphony about a special project for Ellis Island.

I had developed a relationship with that orchestra and its brilliant Music Director, Carl St.Clair, over a number of years, including composing a major work for its 25th anniversary season in 2003-04. Since that time, the orchestra had built its world-class Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, a truly stunning hall that opened in 2006. Carl is a passionate advocate of contemporary American orchestral music, and I’m very fortunate that he has championed my work over the years. In fact, he had conducted Ellis Island with Pacific Symphony at an outdoor concert in 2005, but hadn’t yet programmed the work on the orchestra’s main subscription series.

A key partnership that helped bring Ellis Island with Pacific Symphony to PBS was with the Ellis Island Honors Society, which for more than 30 years has awarded the annual Ellis Island Medals of Honor. Two members of Pacific Symphony’s Board of Directors are also closely involved with the Ellis Island Honors Society, and are themselves medalists — community leaders Jo Ellen Chatham and Charlie Zhang, who is also a major arts philanthropist in Orange County. They helped conceive a project to honor Ellis Island medalists in Southern California, with my work to be performed as the centerpiece of a one-night-only gala event. Jo Ellen is the former Chair of the Board of PBS SoCal, and she helped make the connections to PBS to pitch the concert for Great Performances.

As planning for the Ellis Island project continued, I received the great and unexpected news that Carl St.Clair would honor my work by making it the centerpiece of its 2017 American Composers Festival (ACF). I felt quite stunned by this news, having attended many of these marvelous ACF events since the first one in 2000.

Composers celebrated by the ACF have included Aaron Copland, William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, Richard Danielpour, James Newton Howard, Continued on Next Page

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Ellis Island Continued from Page 17

Duke Ellington, and André Previn, as well as four major film composers for one festival (Williams, Shore, Horner, Goldenthal), and other luminaries in the field. I couldn’t quite believe that my work would join this list—and that it would share the 2017 ACF with works by Frank Ticheli and John Adams. Even better, this meant that instead of a single performance, Ellis Island would receive three subscription performances; and then a fourth was added.

After months of waiting, at last we received word that David Horn, Executive Producer of Great Performances, had given the green light for an Ellis Island production with Pacific Symphony. Of course we were all thrilled—but then the hardest part began, which was the fundraising. A very large amount of money needed to be raised in a rather short time. A crucial initial major gift was pledged by Nasser Kazeminy, Chairman of the Ellis Island Honors Society, which got the ball rolling. Many people were involved in the fundraising efforts, including John Forsyte, Gregory Cox, Gary Good, and several others from Pacific Symphony, who outdid themselves to help secure important gifts from several generous Orange County donors. This would be the first-ever national telecast both of Pacific Symphony, and from Segerstrom Concert Hall, so it was a great achievement for the orchestra.

The Great Performances series, which is produced by PBS flagship station WNET/THIRTEEN in New York, is known for its first class production team, and Ellis Island proved no exception.

The show’s producer was John Walker, with 14 Emmy nominations and two wins over decades of producing these shows; and the director was Matthew Diamond, whose vast credits range from The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD to The Wiz Live! I was especially pleased that the audio engineer for the show was Shawn Murphy, renowned for his work for John Williams and James Newton Howard, among others.

Another aspect of these performances which was very special was the visual one. Pacific Symphony commissioned a terrific team, led by Chase Simonds and Perry Freeze, to create 18

all-new, full-length visuals to accompany these performances of Ellis Island, which drew on hundreds of historical photos, as well as abstract backgrounds tailored to the individual immigrant stories. I’d always hoped for this kind of elaborate, artistic visual element to the work, but never had the resources to create this myself. These visuals helped bring the performances to an even higher level, and they were captured for the Great Performances broadcast.

A wonderful cast of seven actors was engaged for the production, including Camryn Manheim, Michael Nouri, Barry Bostwick (the one Ellis Island veteran), Lesley Fera, Samantha Sloyan, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, and Kira Sternbach. Each brought talent and insight to their roles, and it was rewarding to see how deeply they were affected by the music and orchestra.

The marvelous Pacific Symphony— whose members include many studio musicians who regularly record for film and television—was at full strength, with 90 musicians. Carl St.Clair brought his customary passionate leadership to the endeavor, and it was my great pleasure to work with all of these artists on their interpretation of the piece.

The full-scale Great Performances production, with ten cameras around the beautiful Segerstrom Concert Hall, captured two evenings of Ellis Island performances in April 2017, from which to draw for the final television show. For the second of these performances, there were no less than 37 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, which added a palpable energy for the audience. The combination of orchestra, conductor, actors, and visuals was very powerful, with all giving their best for the full houses of patrons, and the cameras. The audience responses were simply tremendous, with the powerful standing ovations captured for the broadcast. For me, it was overwhelming, to say the least.

Both the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register ran positive reviews.

With the live performances over, the post-production process for Ellis Island unfolded slowly, over more than a year.

Given an opportunity for input in the editing process, I found it informative to see just how much video from the performances had been captured for television. The ability to see actors’ faces and orchestral musicians in close-

ups at appropriate moments brings a level of detail to the television audience experience of this work which exceeds what can be seen from any single seat in a concert hall, and enhances its impact.

Finally, the PBS Great Performances premiere date was set for June 29, 2018—more than 17 years after I’d begun work on the piece! The leadup to this generated considerable publicity, including coverage in Variety and many newspapers. I was thrilled that Ellis Island was carried by 96% of PBS stations around the United States, with 740 broadcasts in its first week, including the lead-in to A Capitol Fourth in several cities. Pacific Symphony and PBS SoCal sponsored a screening of the show at the Musco Center for the Arts, which was attended by some 800 people. Among many memorable moments, it was very gratifying to receive e-mails from complete strangers who felt compelled to reach out and tell me how moved they were by the program.

Now, with the PBS show finally “out in the world,” I find myself reflecting on this remarkable journey, and also looking to the future. In addition to repeat broadcasts on PBS stations, Ellis Island will be available for streaming for PBS Passport members for the next three years, and a DVD is in the works.

There are 20 live performances of the work scheduled over the next season, including ten performances by three different orchestras in a single week in late September. Interest in Ellis Island seems to be greater than ever.

I’m often asked if I was seeking to make a political statement through creating this work. The answer is no—I have always thought of Ellis Island as an historical piece, not a political piece. It tells real stories of real people through their own words, and the emotional power of music. I think of the piece as a celebration of historical American immigration, and I find it difficult to hear these stories without being moved, even after all this time. If audiences can find in these stories something that has relevance to contemporary discussions, and if therefore art can contribute to a meaningful dialogue, then I do think that’s a positive thing. But first and foremost, this is a work of the performing arts, to be enjoyed and felt.

I’m deeply grateful for all who have made this journey possible. g

Jesper Kyd

Sarah Schachner

Video Game Appreciation Continued from Page 1

games are continually evolving.

Games also share a lot in common with animated films and TV series, mainly because there is no live-action.

While there are motion capture performances, everything within the frame is created from scratch just like in animation. But unlike animation, the narrative is not fixed. Composers are not writing to locked picture unless it’s a cutscene. That opens up a new world for composers. Garry Schyman explains, “Most [of the music] is not locked to any specific images, but accompanies the player as he or she makes choices and therefore the length of time the player is playing a particular part of the game varies for each player.

Therefore you’re writing music that is not locked to a specific image, and in that sense it more nearly resembles writing program concert music. I love the freedom and responsibility that permits.” While the goal of a score in a video game is the same as a film or TV episode, it’s this idea of not being locked to picture that creates the biggest difference. You can’t find that in any other medium, and it seems to be a big reason why composers gravitate towards games. Inon Zur feels that by not being dictated by locked picture “You can create a piece of music that will follow a more organic development.” This unlocked way of writing that Cris Velasco also describes as “the closest experience to writing concert music I feel,” illustrates why people are attracted to this form of storytelling.

Games build worlds better than any other visual medium; in fact it’s the goal of a game to absorb you so you can lose yourself.

Cris Velasco

Austin Wintory

Games typically can take from anywhere from a few hours to hundreds of hours to complete, which means the player is in this world for a very long time. “As the composer, you’re transporting people to a new world and creating a soundtrack for their life as they experience that world. That’s such a cool concept,” says Sarah Schachner.

Music is one of the most integral parts of this world building, and people underestimate just how much music is needed typically to make a world come alive. “It’s not unusual to write three to four hours of music for a game, and I often find myself writing longer tracks when composing for open-world games since exploring a city or an underwater planet can mean longer periods between the narrative driven sections,” says Jesper Kyd. Like animation, the imagination of the game creators can take us to worlds we could never even think of. Jesper Kyd continues, “A lot of games takes place in some interesting worlds such as sci-fi and fantasy, and in different time periods of history. So I enjoy writing for the actual world and the location a game takes place in.” It takes incredible planning to build a game where a player will be immersed for dozens if not hundreds of hours.

Games today have some of the most complex and layered narrative storytelling in visual media as well. Players can sometimes take on multiple characters with interweaving storylines, some games adapt to your choices and the story unfolds based on how you play, and some games focus more on challenging gameplay mechanics.

No matter how you look at it, it’s important to see how fast video games have evolved.

When it comes to music in games, we have come a long way from the looping 8-bit chiptunes of the 70s and 80s. One of the most famous pieces

Inon Zur

of chiptune game music is the “Super Mario Bros. Theme”. The “Super Mario Bros. Theme” may be the best way to track how game music and game technology has evolved. Go ahead and look up the original theme that was composed for Super Mario Bros. in 1985 by sound designer Koji Kondo and see how it has evolved over the years all the way to last year’s Super Mario Odyssey. While film and TV scores have certainly evolved and have had to overcome technical limitations, it doesn’t compare to where video game started and where it is now.

From music to graphics, games are evolving at the speed of light. When we focus on the music side of things, we can see just how new avenues of creativity are constantly opening up for composers. Sarah Schachner has scored games that are massively open such as Assassin’s Creed: Origins, but also more focused and linear such as Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Schachner says, “The systems that trigger the music get more dynamic each year, and this allows for more artistic freedom. Instead of having to write individual linear loops for every specific moment, composers can write long-form thematic suites of music with lots of dynamic range that will much more closely match what a player is doing in real time.” And we see this more and more, where how a composer works is now blending into the way the game’s mechanics work.

Jesper Kyd has also seen technology change the way stories are told in games.

“Video games have always aspired to be cinematic but today the narrative is stronger and the comparison to film from a production standpoint is much closer. More CPU power means that focus on production values has gone way up. This includes recording with live orchestras, choir, solo performers, scoring mixers, mastering of music, Continued on Next Page

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Video Game Appreciation Continued from Page 19

etc,” says Kyd. While this evolution is pushing us continually into the future, our love for nostalgia is also keeping the past right up front as well.

Retro gaming is a huge part of the industry too, and not just older games from past generations becoming digitized for the newer consoles, but capturing that old aesthetic as well.

Casual gaming is also big business, as gamers who may not want to sink 60 hours into a game are embracing the medium more and more. One of the most emotionally powerful and universally accessible games was Journey, which Austin Wintory scored.

The game featured no dialogue and a simple visual story of getting from point A to point B, yet the journey became an internal reflection of whomever picked up that controller to play.

The game erased any differences created by gender, age, language, race or background. If you were human, it was impossible not to feel something deeply powerful from this elegant two to three hour narrative. Austin Wintory observes, “Generally speaking there is an increased appreciation for, and depth of interactive approaches. It started far more linear and, very often, far more deferential to Hollywood norms. But I’m finding more and more that games don’t want to just copy what they see happening in film, and let themselves experiment more.” And that is what we see with more and more smaller game developers entering the space. Game systems and platforms like Steam allow indie game developers to explore so many different styles and genres.

While we still have our AAA games, which are the equivalent of a studio tentpole, it’s the smaller and even more casual games that are showing the most creativity in storytelling.

One thing to note too is that gaming is not limited to sitting at home in front of a monitor or a TV. Games have become more portable and more accessible than ever, allowing players to pickup and enter into these creative worlds quickly and pretty much anywhere. Virtual reality is also making a resurgence, we see it popping up 20

more and more, and it’s amazing to see where this technology may take us in the next decade or so. Garry Schyman whose scores to the BioShock series among others have garnered critical praise, has entered into this world of virtual reality. Schyman explains, “I just finished a virtual reality game that is like stepping into a film. You’re there in the middle of it, participating like the star of your own movie. These hybrid games are just a taste of the future that I believe will become a new and important art form. My score for the game was recorded with a live orchestra here in LA, and I think the sound of it and how it underscores the game is very much like a film score.

Though it does require the music to be adaptive at times. So it’s still a game score in that sense.” VR is still in its very early stages, but it has come a long way from the Nintendo Virtual Boy of 1995. In time the bulky nature of helmets and wires will give way to less intrusive technology and hopefully

make things more accessible to all.

So that’s video gaming in 2018 in a nutshell. A few very notable composers have illuminated why this medium appeals to them, and how exciting it is to see where video games are today compared to just a few years ago. We are seeing so much creativity from both a technical standpoint and a narrative one. Yet it seems gaming is in its own world, away from film and TV in terms of appreciation and cultural significance. But, there is plenty of crossover in terms of talent because at the end of the day it’s all visual storytelling.

Video games fare much better today than they did 20 years ago, even for composers.

One reason for the divide might be the most obvious reason, and that’s age. The baby boomers just didn’t grow up with video games as part of their culture. Generation X might be the first generation who got to experience the boom of gaming. Of course it’s the millennial generation that has known Continued on Page 22

C D R E V I E W

Ambient Café Composed, Programmed and Mixed by Lori Barth Cherimoya Records One of my favorite things is hearing artists cross into other genres where newfound creativity truly inspires them. Such is the case with Ambient Café from Lori Barth. Barth’s extensive career as a musical artist includes titles such as singer, songwriter, lyricist and producer. However, this venture into electronic ambience is something new for her, and the result is something exciting.

The 15-track album is a wonderful listen to get lost in. Barth takes us into a new world with each track. Each track has its own personality and tone, but you can tell there’s a singular voice behind all of them. Barth utilizes wonderful electronic textures to craft soundscapes that envelope you. The most appealing part is that Barth’s background as a songwriter bleeds into this album. While there are no vocals, it’s in the structure of the tracks that you feel a sense of narrative build. By having this song-like structure, we as the listener never feel lost or wandering in a sea of shapeless sounds. The way she crafts each track to carry the listener gives a sense of forward progression.

By the time we reach the end, we feel as if we have ventured into a handful of different worlds that have each left an imprint on the listener.

Ambient Café is a wonderful exercise in ambient electronica from Lori Barth. The intricate textures, rhythms and melodic structures are all woven together to create this engaging sonic journey. The synth sounds have a retro feel, but nothing feels dated. Ambient Café is a great listen for anyone looking to get lost in a world of sounds and to see a musical artist successfully venturing into new territory.

— By Kaya Savas

Common Works Registration 101 Continued from Page 7

CMOs must be indicated in the CWR file. Different societies have specific territory requirements for registrations. For example, APRA requires that all of its local territories are explicitly specified as included or excluded, something not required by PRS. • Successful registrations require work titles and writer or publisher names that contain only allowed characters. For example, a comma is allowed in a title, but not in a publisher’s name. An accent mark over an “e” is allowed only in some very specific cases.

After a publisher submits a CWR file to a society, that society returns an acknowledgement (ACK) file, which indicates which works were accepted and which were rejected. For rejections, some explanation is typically provided, although the explanations are often not completely clear. Ideally, the royalty database has the ability to ingest and interpret ACK files so when a work is rejected, the publisher is alerted of the need to correct the data and re-submit the registration in a new CWR file.

After works have been successfully registered, the publisher is able to revise the registrations with new CWR files. The societies refer to the Submitter Work ID when identifying which work to revise.

While properly filling out an EBR or CWR file is not rocket science, many publishers find that their data is not ready for export to EBR or CWR. Though it may be extremely time-consuming, data clean-up and validation is crucial in works registration, or else substantial revenue could be missed globally. g Abby North is the principal of North Music Group, a music publisher and rights administrator based in Los Angeles that works with composers, estates, artists and labels to maximize their music catalogs’ reveue.

In addition, Abby manages the catalog of her father-in-law, 15-time Academy Award nominee (and the first composer to win a Lifetime Achievement Oscar) Alex North, composer of film scores for Spartacus, Cleopatra, Death of A Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire and more.

SCL Events May 24—Krypton Screening with Pinar Toprak and Andrew Cholerton.

Sepulveda Screening Room L-R: Producer Andrew Cholerton, Composer Pinar Toprak

June 9—Black Lightning Screening with Kurt Farquhar, GodHolly, and Joshua Winget. Linwood Dunn Theater L-R: SCL COO Mark Smythe, songwriter GodHolly, composer Kurt Farquhar, music editor Joshua Winget June 11—The Music of Legion, American Crime Story, This Is Us, The Americans, Empire, American Horror Story & 9-1-1. Moderated by Katie Aselton. Linwood Dunn Theater L-R: Music supervisor Maggie Phillips, SCL COO Mark Smythe, composer Jeff Russo, moderator Katie Aselton, composer Fil Eisler, Impact24 PR’s Jana Davidoff, composer Mac Quayle, composer Nathan Barr, composer Siddhartha Khosla June 13—Cobra Kai Screening with Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson, Xolo Maridueña, and Martin Kove.

Sony Backstage Theater L-R: Composer Leo Birenberg, composer Zach Robinson, SCL COO Mark Smythe, actor Xolo Mariduena, actor Martin Kove

June 18—Godless Screening with Carlos Rafael Rivera. Moderated

by Melinda Newman. Netflix Theater L-R: SCL COO Mark Smythe, composer Carlos Rafael ‘Dude’ Rivera, Moderator Melinda Newman (Billboard Magazine) July 23—In It Together: An Evening With The Music Team of The Color Purple Moderated by ASCAP’s Michael Kerker. Garry Marshall Theatre L-R: SCL President Ashley Irwin, host and SongArts Chair Adryan Russ, Kenna Ramsey, ASCAP’s Michael Kerker, Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, Jason Michael Webb and Dramatists Guild West Coast rep Josh Gershick

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Franco Interview Continued from Page 16

Score: To wrap up, If you had to give one piece of advice to any young composer about to start their path or go to school or get their first job, I mean ­really starting getting their feet wet in the industry, what’s one piece of advice that you would give to them?

Germaine: Don’t stop, don’t give up, and keep developing yourself as an artist. Keep writing even when you don’t have a gig. Keep up to date on the latest technology. Keep working on your library, keep honing your craft not just a composer, but as a musician too. I think people really enjoy it when composers play their own stuff.

I think we also take ourselves too seriously as composers, because it’s such a strenuous job. It takes a lot of hours and years to develop. Don’t expect to get there overnight, but just remember you’re on the path. You’ve got to believe in yourself, because if you don’t, no one else is going to believe in you. That’s a good place to start.

Play music for fun, too. That’s part of it, that’s why we started, because we all love music. Sometimes it’s easy to lose track of that when we’re chasing that dream, but it’s really great to

Video Game Appreciation Continued from Page 20

video games since they were little.

Sarah Schachner agrees that “Films have been around for over 100 years and there is a lot of history there. With the game industry being much newer, the first generations of gamers are still growing up.” Garry Schyman echoes those thoughts and feels that “It really is generational as older folks who are unfamiliar with the industry and never play games are just not in the loop, and have no clue as to what is happening.”

While age may be the big factor here, we should also look at content.

However, outside of gaming, video games are still seen as just… well, games. But maybe that’s okay. “Video games are their own world and I think if you try to bind film, TV and video games this will not succeed. They are 22

get together with friends and make some music sometimes. Those are the moments that are really worthwhile.

Sometimes those moments can carry you through, making music with other friends for no reason other than to make music.

Having some balance in life is good.

Taking walks, exercising, spending time with friends and family. Life goes by and we need to enjoy it as well. g

New Gear Continued from Page 9

with because it is so intricate. You can always just keep it simple and use a couple of features. If you want to dive in a bit, you can turn a regular drum or bass loop into something that would take multiple plugins to achieve and a lot easier to use. The GUI is simple and easy on the eyes with its color-coded graphics and subtle animations. It has support for retina displays if you own one. It has haptic feedback if you have a track pad capable of it. Fraction supports audio units only, which is a con.

The plugin has been very stable with no crashes. They have a demo on their website worth trying. I would definitely give it a shot. I give it a 10/10. totally different mediums.” Inon Zur explains. And for now, maybe that is the best thing. Time will change all things and perhaps down the line we will recognize amazing storytelling just for what it is. Sarah Schachner believes for that to happen,“video games need to be completely accepted and embedded into the culture across all generations which will happen eventually.” Communities and cultures change as time progresses, and it seems that at this point in history this is how video games are viewed. “I believe we will evolve our sense of what art is over time. Pong may or may have not been considered art when it first came out but I think we will all come to look at Pong as art one day.”

It does truly feel that the best is yet to come with video games, but the brilliant part is that it has always felt like that. There is so much more to discover not just for composers, but for g storytellers of all walks of life.

SCL Premier Partners SCL members can find out the member discount details and how to contact Partners on our website.

ALFRED MUSIC AUDIO PERCEPTION BANDZOOGLE BIG FISH AUDIO BLACK LION AUDIO CINEMATIC STRINGS CINESAMPLES COMMERCIAL SCORING WORKSHOP FOCAL PRESS AND ROUTLEDGE MUSIC GUERRILLA FILM SCORING GRAPHICALLY ENHANCED MANUALS JAN-AL-CASES LUDWIN MUSIC PUBLICATIONS MEGATRAX RECORDING STUDIOS MELROSE MAC MUSIC BUSINESS REGISTRY MY MUSIC MASTERCLASS NOTEFLIGHT PAGU BATONS PC AUDIO LABS PUREMIX THE RICHARD BELLIS MASTER SERIES SAMPLELOGIC SONIC FUEL STUDIOS SONOKINETIC SOUNDIRON SPITFIRE AUDIO TUNECORE UCLA EXTENSION

SCL AMBASSADORS BURT BACHARACH ALAN & MARILYN BERGMAN BRUCE BROUGHTON CARTER BURWELL GEORGE S. CLINTON RANDY EDELMAN CHARLES FOX ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL DAVE GRUSIN ARTHUR HAMILTON JAMES NEWTON HOWARD MARK ISHAM ROBERT LOPEZ & KRISTEN ANDERSON-LOPEZ JOHNNY MANDEL RANDY NEWMAN THOMAS NEWMAN MIKE POST LALO SCHIFRIN RICHARD SHERMAN

DAVID SHIRE ALAN SILVESTRI MARK SNOW MIKE STOLLER DIANE WARREN PAUL WILLIAMS MAURY YESTON In Memoriam: VAN ALEXANDER RAY CHARLES HAL DAVID RAY EVANS EARLE HAGEN JACK HAYES JERRY LIEBER VIC MIZZY ROBERT SHERMAN PATRICK WILLIAMS

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD BILL CONTI PHILIP GLASS QUINCY JONES

GINNY MANCINI LALO SCHIFRIN

HONORARY LIFETIME MEMBERS JAY L. COOPER, ESQ. JIM DiPASQUALE CLINT EASTWOOD

DENNIS SPIEGEL JOHN WILLIAMS

M U S I C A L S H A R E S

BY CHARLES BERNSTEIN

Film Music: Are You Serious?

T

rue or false: Film composers and concert composers live in two completely separate worlds with two entirely different audiences. Maybe this is both true and false?

There has always been a lot of crossover between the concert hall and film music.

Many film composers have aspired to write great concert music. On the other hand, renowned concert composers have written successful film scores. Most composers begin by making their mark in one of these areas (film scores or concert works) and then “crossing over” to the opposite side from time to time.

But, the world still seems to peg composers as either primarily “commercial” or “serious.”

(The word “serious” has long been used to describe a sophisticated level of composing meant to stand on its own in concerts. We could argue that all music is serious if it is good music… but that’s another discussion).

Consider Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Copland or Bernstein. They were all established concert composers who wrote a few notable film scores. More currently, Philip Glass and John Corigliano are both firmly established in the concert realm while also having written some highly acclaimed film scores. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead seems equally at home and brilliant in pop, film as well as avantgarde concert hall compositions.

It’s always been hard for composers in the popular media to be accepted or even admitted into the lofty world of concert music. In the 1930s and 40s, a good number of established film composers were enjoying real success in the concert community. This may be because so many film composers of that special era were actually trained to be concert composers in the first place, before going astray and forging careers in film scoring. In the early years, many successful film composers like Korngold, Rózsa, Herrmann, Raksin and others were simultaneously celebrated for their film scores and for their concert music. Following in this tradition is the ever-brilliant John Williams and Ennio Morricone, each well-loved for their concert compositions (as were Lalo Schifrin, Elmer Bernstein or Jerry Goldsmith before them).

At this moment, it is worth noting a significant rebirth of important “serious” concert music from the hands of a newer batch of primarily film composers. I heard some outstanding concert pieces recently that were

truly impressive. All of them were written by composers known for their work in film and television. Oscar nominee and multiple Emmy award-winner Bruce Broughton has written a number of excellent concert pieces lately. Particularly engaging was a composition I heard this year entitled Salmagundi for String Quartet and Orchestra. It was brilliant and inspiring enough to impel me back to hear it again performed by a different orchestra, and it revealed even more the second time… a sure sign of quality. Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal, who has made his mark in film music and composing for the popular TV series House of Cards, had a premier of his Flute Concerto last week by the excellent Minnesota Orchestra (featuring an amazing flute soloist Sharon Bezaly). I caught this performance through live-streaming, and even by this long-distance attendance, the energy and excitement were palpable and the articulate and elegant quality of the music was infectious. Oscar-winning film composer John Powell (The Bourne Identity, How to Train Your Dragon), wrote an immense oratorio for ­orchestra, chorus and soloists, A Prussian ­Requiem, premiered two years ago by the Philharmonia Orchestra in Royal Festival Hall, London. John’s music is truly superb, soaring and moving. His facility and command of those giant musical resources was masterful and inspiring. Busy film composer Aaron Zigman wrote a gorgeous cello concerto that I heard in a preview rendition recently. What a pleasure. The piece was robust, romantic, expressive, melodic and brimming with musicality and life. There are so many wonderful concert compositions by our colleagues being played by musicians across the world.

What stands out in all of these particular pieces is how enjoyable they are to listen to.

Its almost as if these film composers have honed a certain talent for shaping music to dramatic purposes, and that special talent informs their compositions in way that might be less important to some purely concert composers. We can find more examples of this in Gloria Cheng’s excellent album of solo piano compositions written by film composers, Montage (2015). Each composition by our colleagues on this CD has something meaningful to say and is, of course, wonderfully listenable and lovingly played—displaying a certain facility for musical communication born of scoring to picture. Continued on Next Page

Importantly, serious compositions can give our composers a chance to share their musical thoughts in a far more personal, direct and unfettered way.

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Musical Shares Continued from Previous Page

But, there remains more to this issue of film composers writing “serious” music. The concert hall places a completely different set of demands on the composer and on the listener. The concert world can be intimidating for any composer. After all, this is the province of the immortal gods of music. No one wants their compositions measured against those of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky or… (fill in the blank); but the truth is, no one is really making this measurement. Still, the concert hall can be a brutal and unforgiving place to bear one’s musical soul. And some critics can be especially unkind to what they sometimes see as interlopers (that is, anyone who might have been successful in a commercial or more popular part of the music business).

Let’s consider some basic differenc-es between writing music for the concert hall and writing scores for films. For one thing, film music must conform to something outside of itself, namely to the movie. Film scores will necessarily be shaped and influenced, perhaps dictated by forces outside of the composer’s control, forces beyond the music itself. Obviously, concert

music brings no such external constraints. Instead, “serious” music must conform to something inside of itself. A concert composition has to generate its own logic and reason-for-being, while it commits to a particular historical style, or “ism” (like serialism, minimalism, neoclassicism, modernism, postmodernism, etc.)

Film composer Erik Korngold wrote a violin concerto in 1945 for Jascha Heifetz. It was in a distinctly melodic cinematic-sounding style. The violin concerto that Esa-Pekka Salonen wrote for Leila Josefowicz in 2009 commits to a very different stylistic language. Both are amazing challenging concertos, but each employs a very different musical vocabulary that is fundamental to the composer’s “concert” identity. Interestingly, the great concert composer Alban Berg’s brilliant and mostly atonal Violin Concerto was written ten years before Korngold’s, and yet it is committed to a style that is so much more radical and progressive. Concert audiences and critics have come to expect a personal stylistic commitment from composers in a way that film composers rarely need worry about.

As we can see, writing concert music is highly demanding. It has differ-

ent rules and it leaves a lot more in the composer’s control. Importantly, serious compositions can give our composers a chance to share their musical thoughts in a far more personal, direct and unfettered way. For the listener, such purely musical expression can prove to be a great gift, a window into the character and soul of a composer, free from the demands and constraints of cinematic storytelling.

Without doubt, writing for the concert hall takes courage and commitment. We can only be grateful that so many gifted film music colleagues are taking “serious music” most seriously! © Charles Bernstein 2018 www.charlesbernstein.com

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