>> I'm not going to lie making a living as a film composer is difficult.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But here's what I have to say about that.
Coming to LA, coming to Hollywood,
for me coming from New York,
it reminded me of what the financial industry was in New York.
In New York, everyone you meet is in finance,
because that's what the industry is in New York.
When you come to Los Angeles,
when you come to Hollywood,
everyone you meet is in motion pictures,
in TV, basically in entertainment.
I was immediately shocked by how much work there was in general out here.
The industry of this town is making entertainment,
and all entertainment needs music of some kind or another.
I was really shocked when I met so many other young people.
I got here, I was 22 years old, [LAUGHTER]
and so many other people my age were already working,
not making a lot of money,
but at least just in the industry being assistance, being interns,
being arrangers, orchestrators, ghostwriters,
even music programmers running to get coffee.
Basically, for instance, from my studio,
I need several people working with me at all times
because the deadlines are so crazy and the work is so difficult.
I need a team around me to help achieve my vision.
Oftentimes that's the way in.
There's a lot of workout here.
Another thing I want to talk about,
I hate the term networking because to me it feels disingenuous.
I often talk about it as making friends.
When I'm out here in LA, anywhere I go,
I just try to be a nice person and try to meet cool people
and become a genuine friend of theirs like that's my nature,
and I think that's served me well in
this town because so many people are just trying to get ahead,
trying to make a buck here there and make it easy buck,
and to me, I don't look at it like that.
We're all in this together, we're all trying to make cool art.
I try to surround myself with people and meet people who are trying to do the same,
and then hopefully we could help each other out.
I try not to be desperate to get a job,
I try not to be like out there just begging for a gig,
like it all has to come naturally.
As long as you plan on spending a few years figuring it out as an intern,
as an assistant, being ready for anything,
it's really important to not have a chip on your shoulder.
I've known a lot of people who go through a degree program and they come intern for me,
and I asked them to help us get lunch and they have an attitude about that.
I spent four years at college, now I'm getting your lunch.
Well, I'm sorry that's how I started too.
I started making laundry runs [LAUGHTER] and getting people's lunches.
One thing that's great to realize is,
it's all little steps forward.
If you could do a great job as an intern,
well, then maybe you could do a great job as an assistant.
If you could do a great job installing a set of plug-ins on a computer,
then maybe you could do a great job programming a cue.
If you could do a great job programming a cue,
maybe you could write a cue.
It's all little steps of responsibility forward,
and so you just need to have the right attitude to get in that door.
Hopefully, you have the right tools to stay in that door once you get in
and build your set of friends and set of projects you've worked on,
and before you know it, you might have a career.
A career is nothing more than just a group of friends and colleagues working together.
Just because you won an award doesn't mean that you're all set,
just because you've done $1 million film doesn't mean you're all set.
It's all steps along this crazy journey we're all on.
There are all problems to solve out here.
If you can build
a toolkit and come out here with an attitude to help solve those problems,
I'm a believer that you can be a part of the society too [MUSIC]