Yikes

I had an interesting chat last week with a potential client, who told me that because I only posted music samples from “big-time national films” that I’d scored, those must be the only kinds of projects I worked on.

Yikes.

Sure, I enjoy working on bigger films. I also love working on smaller projects. As examples, I recently finished scoring two similar short films that may never be aired nationally. One was a terrific short film about the town of Huntsville, Alabama, and the other was a short promotional film about Biiltmore, an incredible mansion in North Carolina.

Both projects needed (among other things) a similar “full orchestral sound”, but neither had the budget for a full orchestra. Not a problem. It’s pretty amazing what you can do with electronic samples these days. Here’s an excerpt from the end of the Huntsville score (no live musicians were harmed – or used – in the recording of this score):
Huntsville Excerpt

and here are some short excerpts from the Biltmore film, (using only three musicians - guitar, violin, and oboe):
Biltmore Excerpts

So there you have it – full sounding scores without using a full orchestra. Of course there will never be a substitute for a roomful of live musicians, but sometimes when the project doesn’t allow for such a luxury, there are great alternatives - especially for projects that don't have those "big-time" budgets.

Thanks, and enjoy!