my own humble TCM contest entry

[MikeGraybill]

This is a short piece I did for the TCM Young Film Composers Competition for a Don Juan 90-second action clip. I really liked Jamieh’s work on his project… and I’m really wishing I’d picked a different clip to do now that I’ve heard it, lol. But I enjoyed making it and learned alot, so I feel content. Last year at this time I was still very much learning the basics of midi and Giga in general, so I feel that I see my own progress, and that in itself is enough to make me feel successful to some degree. Since I used Maarten\'s Timpani and Trumpets, I thought I\'d post a link to it to say thanks for making them available. I don’t yet own the libraries that I need, so they really helped me alot with this project. Any feedback would be welcome. And again, thanks, Maarten.

On a musical note - stylistically it does kinda wander around a bit, I know, and the theme is a bit cheesy too, but damnit I had fun doing it, heheh. That being said, please lemme know what you think.

Samples Used:

Maarten\'s SAM Trumpets
Maarten\'s Adams Timpani
AO Strings Giga
Xsample - French Horn and Trombone
ProSamples - section FHorns, section Trmpts, and solo Tuba
Miroslav Mini Flute (came with my Delta 4/4 soundcard)
Sonic Implants - GigaSessionDrums2

And the cymbals I recorded myself here at home.

It\'s called High Adventure at the top of the page.
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/243/michael_graybill.html (\"http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/243/michael_graybill.html\")

[This message has been edited by MichaelAngelo450 (edited 04-05-2002).]

[ninriggs]

Nice track, i think i may grab more of your music of the mp3 site.... very good...

you made the cymbols? i like em....


------------------
-=Riggs=-

[Z6]

Hey, great work. I agree with Riggs, I really, really liked the cymbal work; very subtle way to carry the action. The percussion in general, I liked a lot.

Actually, it sounded like you \'compressed\' a much larger work into this snippet. It was as if there were plenty of themes you could have worked much more if the piece was longer?

The french horns were nice and the only thing that stopped it sounding like a completely high-end professional score (and I mean \'high-end\' this isn\'t a criticism, I\'m comparing it to my opinion of hollywood end-product) were a few string passages below the standard sound-wise of the rest of the work, and a slight lack of power in the trumpets where it sounded like they should be blasting. (Damn that cymbal work was so clever, it was like a 21st century jazz drummer started jamming with an orchestra from the seventies.)

Damn fine.

Nice orchestration. I loved the way you \'married\' the percussion with (what you described as) a little \'cheese\'. Man, that worked so well.

Like Riggs, it makes me want to hear more. I\'d really like to hear something you did that wasn\'t \'tied\' into an old movie clip.

Incidentally, I couldn\'t see the movie so I don\'t know how well it \'worked\' exactly. But it stands on it\'s own.

[Z6]

I just listened to \"The Fall 4\" on your page.

Fantastic! Are you telling me you didn\'t win with this?

[MikeGraybill]

Wow, thanks Riggs, Z6. I was actually expecting to get a bit more ripped up than that, heheh. I appreciate the Fall 4 comment too, but after listening to the finalists that made top 10 that year, I really saw why. They were very, very well done I thought. The Fall was my first ever attempt at using Giga, so I really had no serious expectations, and the same applies to this year as well. As I said, I feel like I\'m slowly getting better, both compositionally and as a sequencer, and I think that\'s reward in and of itself. Got a LONG way to go though, and I have no illusions about how difficult it will be. Then again, its so much fun http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

As far as the percussion goes, I really struggled with it. I know very little about writing for percussion as a wind player myself, and that is something I have to work on. So I spent alot of time adding and deleting drum tracks until I finally ran out of time. So its a big relief to hear something I was terrified about complimented. Thanks you very much.

[Jamieh]

Nice work Michael! I especially like the beginning and the last 30 seconds or so. I\'ve listened to just a few of the entries up on MP3 by doing a search, and yours is one of the better ones I\'ve heard.

Good luck! Maybe we\'ll get lucky and both of us will get picked. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[MikeGraybill]

Thanks Jamieh! btw I emailed you from your MP3.com\'s artist contact page before I posted this. Since we both did the same clip and I hate musical competition (like to just leave that to the judges) I thought I\'d make sure you didn\'t mind me posting mine at the same time here. But I didn\'t hear back from you so I went ahead. Hope that\'s okay. As I said above, I really liked what you did with the clip, and I think I learned alot from listening to your work. Good luck to you too!

[Jamieh]

Actually I was hoping some other people that posted up here entered the contest. Obviously with anything competitive things can be touchy, but I enjoy seeing how other people approach the same clip. With music like this, there is no \"right\" answer, just a myriad of different approaches, and I find I can always learn things from studying the approaches of others.

[donnie]

hey does anyone have any contact info for the turner contest people? I uploaded an entry to mp3 site over 3 weeks ago and I finally got an email response today saying something was wrong with my .mp3, which is BS btw.

Anyway does anyone know how to get in touch with these people?

Donnie

[Jamieh]

Donnie, did you encode it 128K constant bit-rate? MP3.com rejects everything else. Their customer service is SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW. It takes them about 10 days to get your stuff up even if it is all hunky-dorey.

Probably your best bet would be to contact Mark Northam at Film Music Magazine: mnortham@filmmusicmag.com

I believe he manages the contest.

[MikeGraybill]

Agreed. Mark helped me out last year b/c it took so long for MP3.com to post my music. He\'s a very nice, extremely helpful guy. This year I knew I was finishing up so late, that I just paid the 19.95 for a month to get the \"premium\" MP3.com service... and I gotta say, instead of waiting 7-10days, they had it up the next morning. I\'m cancelling the premium service now, but it is useful to know that in a pinch that will work.

[A_Sapp]

I wanted to do this competition, but I\'m only 17. YOUNG FILM COMPOSERS eh? I\'m not young enough? Bah.

[Jamieh]

Yeah, you have to be 18. Probably has to do with the fact that if you win they have you do work for them which they then own. There are probably legal issues with doing that with a minor.

[Christopher Drake]

good work! I encourage everyone that can enter this contest to submit something. I did it on a whim last year and won 2nd place...it was alot of fun! good luck!!

[MikeGraybill]

Thanks, actually I was just listening to your winning entry only hours ago off the Turner site. Wonderful work, there were times I had to double check the meter to see if it was still in 4/4, heheh, I love when music makes me do that. Really liked the players too, the style of writing and performance were very well matched I thought, playful and absolutley fun to listen to even apart from the clip.

Perhaps you or Jamieh or anybody else here that were selected top 20 could tell me a bit about how you submitted the written score? I\'m debating right now wether or not I should just write by hand, or use Sebelius... I think either would take me just about the same amount of time. Any thoughts? (this is of course assuming I am even asked to, heheh...) But still, I am curious.

[MikeGraybill]

oops, sorry I was thinking of a different clip, I think the person that won 3rd place. Yours was really interesting. It fits flawlessly, geling with both the action and the style of music written at the time. That is actually something I wasn\'t sure about either, wether or not to write as though I were a composer of that period. Were you trying to match period style or did it just happen I wonder?

[Christopher Drake]

i just checked my mp3 page...I wasnt sure if it was still there...I havent checked since I submitted last year...now that I think of it I guess I really won 3rd place, even though my TCm certificate says 2nd....Grand prize, 1st prize and second prize...everyones a winna!!! anyway here is the link to the old MP3 page... http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/241/christopher_drake.html (\"http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/241/christopher_drake.html\")

I just replied to jamieh\'s post about some of the questions you asked in your last post.

good luck!

[Jamieh]

Michael, when I was top 20 in 2000 I did my score in Finale. My handwritten scores look really crappy, so it is an easy choice for me. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

The process is a bit different now. Back then, they just had you submit a score. Now you also have to submit a resume and answer a group of essay questions. Christopher would probably know more about that.

[This message has been edited by Jamieh (edited 04-06-2002).]

[MartinL]

Just curious... what are the prizes for this competition?

Martin

[MikeGraybill]

here\'s what I got off the TCM site:


GRAND PRIZE WINNER
A trip for one to Los Angeles, California with the opportunity to compose a musical score for a silent film and a cash prize in the amount of $5,000.00

FIRST PRIZE
The Korg Triton 61 key music workstation, sampler: the music workstation that musicians have made the industry standard.


SECOND PRIZE
The Neumann M 147 Tube microphone with shockmount, utilizing the K47 capsule made famous in the U 47 with modern electronics and a sophisticated power supply.


THIRD & FOURTH PRIZES
A complete training course for beginning film and television composers offered by Music for the Media, one of the most successful training courses for media composers in the world, written and tutored entirely by working media composers.

Some pretty cool stuff overall, and a neat opportunity.