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TV music composing courses?

Music Making » TV music composing courses? (Posts 1 to 6 of 6)

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  1. Hi,

    I am new to this forum although have been reading the main site for a long while now. I am a composer but am wondering if my work might benefit from possibly taking some kind of TV music composing course.

    I am 18 and in my last year of school and could potentially choose a University / college to go to but in the meantime I was thinking of having a gap year and try out some kind of distance learning courses to see how they go and to aid making a more solid decision like going to University.

    I have been looking at Berklee's three month distance learning courses but also ones run by Thinkspace Education, which are longer and supposedly run by 'actual working professionals'. Has anyone here had any experiences with these programmes? and or have any other advice or reccomendations?

    Nice to meet you all by the way, I look forward to getting involved in more discussions.

    Junior S.
    •  
      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeJan 28th 2011 edited
    Hi Junior

    I got this in the mail today, from the agent of Guy Michelmore, who is the composer of Jackboots on Whitehall of which Thomas did a review of yesterday. Here's more info on the company you mentioned, although you perhaps already knew.

    Here's part of the info on Guy
    Guy also directs online distance learning courses in film scoring and orchestration. The Music For The Media course, now in its 15th year, has just had a major upgrade. The Cinematic Orchestration course is unique in preparing composers to work equally with sample and live orchestras in a contemporary cinematic context. What really marks out ThinkSpace Education’s courses, is that they are exclusively written and tutored by working professional composers so the advice students get comes right from the front line.

    Clients of the tutors of these courses include nearly every major film and television studio. Course manager Rachel Grave has recently provided the orchestration on the James Bond video Game 'Goldeneye' and has composed music for cinema trailers for the National Trust. Other specialist tutors include Richard Attree, who was staff composer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for eleven years and whose work includes animation, documentary and TV drama. He scored the Metalheads cartoon series for the BBC, The Demon Headmaster drama and “Gorillas In The Mist” presented by David Attenborough for BBC Natural History among others. Jeff Macdonald is a prolific Hollywood composer who’s credits include CSI: NY, ‘Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen’, Audi, District 9, Land Rover and the new G.I Joe movie. Charles Fernandez regularly writes and orchestrates for the big Hollywood session orchestras. He has scored films for Disney, Warner Bros, Dreamworks and Universal. LA based, computer games composer Jamie Christopherson is also involved in the course and has scored major titles for Electronic Arts and Capcom including ‘Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth’ and ‘The Lost Planet’.

    Deepwater Blue and ThinkSpace Education are based near Chichester in West Sussex.
    http://www.deepwaterblue.net
    http://www.thinkspaceonline.com
    Kazoo
  3. Hi Bregt,

    Thanks for passing on this information. So this Guy runs the ThinkSpace courses?- wow, seems like he could give some good advice on writing film music and how to succeed in getting work in the business. I am still thinking about my choice as yet but their Music For The Media course is tempting.

    JS.
  4. Listening to the Chris Tilton interview on the Fringe Podcast it was interesting listening to him say that there are many ways in which you can get a foothold in the industry. Formal education seems to be one, but not guaranteed, route (although I would imagine that some sort of qualification would be useful).

    It seems that it's more who you know and what sort of network of contacts you have (isn't it always in Hollywood?) So, as well as the more formal route try and get yourself known by making yourself known to composers. Maybe Guy Michelmore could help with that? Maybe being more visible by writing reviews might help? Composers' agents are sending emails to Bregt!
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeFeb 2nd 2011
    FalkirkBairn wrote
    Composers' agents are sending emails to Bregt!

    Guy was happy with Thomas' review and contacted us via the e-mailaddress at the bottom of the page. It's always nice to receive such e-mails. Apart from that, we also get mails from (new and small) labels which we're always happy to promote. Other news is up on the forum quicker than for example press releases from bigger composers and labels, so that's why I seldom have to do that. smile
    Kazoo
  6. FalkirkBairn wrote
    Listening to the Chris Tilton interview on the Fringe Podcast it was interesting listening to him say that there are many ways in which you can get a foothold in the industry. Formal education seems to be one, but not guaranteed, route (although I would imagine that some sort of qualification would be useful).

    It seems that it's more who you know and what sort of network of contacts you have (isn't it always in Hollywood?) So, as well as the more formal route try and get yourself known by making yourself known to composers. Maybe Guy Michelmore could help with that?


    Yeah, I'm thinking that University would give me a better 'recognised' qualification in the form of a degree which always looks good on CV's etc. even if I don't apply for music positions- although that IS the plan. However, getting an idea from one of these courses could be good before hand, I suppose I could even do these whilst doing a degree, at the same time in my spare time- probably be a bit unsociable though with the whole 'Uni lifestyle' thing everyone goes on about. Like 'Hey, lets get drunk every night and not go to lectures' etc. Haha. Maybe that's a downside to think about if I am really 'serious' about persuing it- I guess I can just be the geek of the class and do double courses though. Difficult to know as different Universities are going to be different also.

    The point about actually finding work in the industry afterwards is interesting as by being tutored by 'working industry professionals' with Guy Michelmore's courses I will be in contact with them and get their advice and can perhaps pick their brains on avenues to approach clients through and how to approach clients- but surely I am also their competitor. They are literally training their competitors! - maybe I'm a little paranoid about that and maybe there would be opportunities for collaborations and knowledge shared of 'inside' ways into the industry and some cool anecdotes that I wouldn't get from University lecturers who perhaps haven't worked so much in the industry and are not currently working in the industry. Berklee is in between in the sense that I could do it whenever I like and it's working from home but it's shorter and I don't know if the lecturers / tutors are anything special.

    Thanks for the replies.

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