>> Went to high school in Pennsylvania,
and I remember going to my guidance counselor's office,
and I said I wanted to be a composer.
They said, "What are you talking about?
It's not a job, that's a hobby."
[MUSIC] Five years later,
I'm in California, and I remember my mom coming out with my dad to see me,
and my dad would tell me stories about how
she would have nightmares that I was actually going to be on
[inaudible] beach with a little hat and set a bongos waiting for people to put
enough change in my hat so I can buy dinner that night.
It was on the edge a couple times. I'm not going to lie.
I never actually did it, but what I would say is it is a career.
It's actually an amazing industry with a lot of options,
even that you don't see to make a living,
to get your foot in the door.
There are literally thousands of jobs in support of composing and support of
film music that you can make a complete career and living out of everything
from music editor to music supervisor to copyists,
programmers, sound sample developers.
They're amazing careers in and of themselves.
There are also great ways to develop and pay
the bills while you're attempting to get your actual composing career started.
Then of course, the other way is,
is being an assistant.
I was Basil Poledouris' assistant for four years and amazing things like Free Willy,
and Starship Troopers, and amazing stuff.
Then I ended up working for Michael Kamen a couple of years after that and started out
transcribing for Michael out of the sequencer and ended up orchestrating for him.
There's all those jobs that not only
will pay enough money that you can actually have an apartment and buy food,
but they will also put you in a position where you meet people,
where you watch the person you're working with
handle situations like they don't like your cue,
or you might get fired,
or there's not enough money,
or you don't understand director,
producer don't agree on something.
I feel like the thing I would suggest
is you probably have to do a little education of parents,
and advisers, and guidance counselors,
and things like that to just let them know that this is a real thing,
and luckily with the Internet,
it's probably easier to prove that out now than it used to be.
But realized that it's a stepping stone situation.
I was out of school for about seven or eight years before I could actually pay my bills,
writing my own music,
but I was working as assistant,
I was being a gofer,
I was filing cue sheets for a company,
I was doing all kinds of side work and learning the whole way I was doing it.
It's very possible to just do that while you're continuing your education.
It's almost like going to grad school and just making enough money to pay the bills.
But then even once you get started,
there's going to be lots of time where you're
doing a little web series that doesn't pay great,
or you're doing a slasher film with no budget,
but it's going to lead to that director might love your music and on the next movie,
there'll be a big budget and they'll call you back.
It's really important to do all those things, and the good news is,
is that you can actually build
a career or a job that actually pays money out of all of those things.
Get good at Sibelius,
get good at Finale and all the programs that print music.
Learn how to make your own samples because you can make money doing that.
There's all great things,
but that puts being an assistant and being
indispensable to whoever you're working for, that's the key.
But it is absolutely possible to make a living doing this in a billion different ways.
Then if you work hard enough,
it's possible to make an amazing living doing this.
I'm blessed to be able to do this for a living.
It's really great.
I never bought into the whole idea of what your fallback plan or what's the safe thing,
get your degree in something else first.
I really feel like you have to do what you love.
It's a competitive enough field.
If you don't have that attitude,
it might be tough to make it.
I just want to end with it thinking that I'm going to do it and that's it.
It just depends on how long it's going to take me.
[MUSIC]