>> Sometimes the phone rings and a composer's there and you say,
"Oh, great, put him through?"
Sometimes the phone rings and a composer's there and you go,
"Hey, how is it going?"
[MUSIC] There are three really essential stages
in the composer getting the gig.
The interview is important because the way you present in anything,
whether you're interviewing to be a composer,
or whether you're interviewing to work at FedEx,
at some level, someone is trying to decipher your vibe.
Do you seem like the lights are on,
you're going to show up with a smile on your face,
you would be pleasant to work with?
These are attributes that don't suck,
when you're trying to get a gig.
I've actually, on a picture,
where I wanted to hire a composer,
had a meeting with him at the producer's house.
The two of us said that the producer's breakfast table,
and the composer who was up for the gig came in.
He slumped at his chair and he said, "Man,
I'm really jet lagged,
and do you have any coffee?"
That was really a difficult 30 minutes,
where he basically blew the gig that he had,
and he didn't know it, because we wanted to hire him.
Neither of us know him.
I was close to the producer.
I was producing the music for this picture.
The guy just took himself out of the running by being completely uninterested,
completely whiny, strangely whiny at the breakfast table of the producer.
Thank you very much. Let's keep in touch.
He left and we looked at each other and said, next.
The interview went so badly that he took himself out of the running.
Lights are on. Time to show up.
It's instinct. It is a performance in a way.
All of life is a performance in a way.
There are very few situations where you're not required to present your best self.
I think the process of scoring,
it's essential for the composer.
Even though I know behind closed doors,
the composer is probably in an embryonic position under
the mixing desk weeping with anxiety and exhaustion,
when the studio shows up,
when a filmmaker show up,
[APPLAUSE] you're together, you're happy,
you're excited about what's happening,
you have some great ideas,
because nobody wants to be nervous that, wait,
one of our team members is unconfident, untogether.
The whole process of making a movie,
you're going into battle.
You want your tail gunner to be right there wide awake.
I worked on a film where I went to
the composers house to hear cues at 10:00 AM in the morning,
and the composer did a really interesting thing.
I love this composer's music,
and was excited to come hear the music.
It's the first time I'd met him in person.
It was a film that was being worked on in the UK and
the composer had come to US to play music for the first time for the head of music.
[inaudible] situations where he's well known and
director wanted him and everybody signed off right away.
I was meeting him for the first time,
we went to his LA studio.
He cracked a beer at 10:01,
while we were about to start listening cues.
I thought, no.
By the way, the music was mediocre.
That combination was not a good mix.
Let's leave it right there.
Come on, you don't drink on the job at 10:00 AM,
in front of the guy that's paying you and the guy that's hired you.
I just thought,
this is behavior 101.
Things not to do.
In the delivery, it's really simple.
The third portion of the composer's gig.
How about showing up on time with your homework neatly corrected and everything lined up,
and here it is?
That's a difficult task as well because it's chaotic at the end of any movie.
You have music that's changing daily.
We no longer have final cut to score to.
Because of digital film making,
somebody's tweaking stuff, passed the last minute.
Your cues are being adjusted and your patience, humility, collaborative nature.
That's why some people next to their name have 120 films and some people have four.
[MUSIC]