Here's What's Up.

It's been some time since my last update, so here's the news with me.

Bad news first: Twelve Tone Semi is not currently moving forward. Until that my colleagues can find a suitable way to make the service work, it will not have a presence on the world wide web, which is unfortunate indeed.

Good news: I have just finished working on a documentary called "Dakota Hunter". I was one of three or four contributing composers to the project. It was a unique project. It gave me the chance to branch out as far as styles go. I did some Latin and African grooves to suit the film's global scale, following a man who purchases parts of old planes on behalf of museums and collectors in their reconstructions of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota, a supply plane in World War II.

I have my fingers crossed that the director uses most, if not, all of my pieces.

More good news: One, if not two possible projects coming up. I'm hoping to meet with another director who I once served with on jury duty (a stroke of luck, eh?). He has three projects going simultaneously, so I have my hopes. As for the second, my friend has started shooting his second student film. I watched the crew work in the desolate desert for their first day of shooting. As I guessed, it was slow. The crew members are champs for weathering all sorts of obstacles. And to think I once had a middle school dream of being a film director... Nevertheless, I will begin scoring that film this upcoming month, which is very exciting.

Aside from that, there is not much to report other than my increased work toward selling music online. We'll see how that goes, there is quite a bit of competition for that.

Here I go.

New Website Up!

Hello, my friends. Got some quick news here- I've totally revamped my website and given it a more professional air. It's less homemade-ish.

It was certainly an interesting experience with HTML and CSS, and uh... self-discovery? No, I guess not- though I did have to write a little bit about myself, that's always interesting.

In any case, hopefully I've worked out the kinks and the website is 100% functional. If any of you have any issues viewing the website, let me know.

Also, this is the website.

The End is the Beginning

Well, I finally did it. I finished all of my coursework with Berklee. It's weird to have it be over after basically nine straight months of schoolwork to get here. It's quite the feeling. I should receive my Master Certificate in Orchestration for TV and Film in the flesh (or on paper, I guess) sometime in the next month or so. And this is where the fun begins.

Here's a couple things I did this semester.
Alchemy Wedding Scene (Source Music)

Alchemy Montage Scene

Waterford Crystal Factory Documentary

I honestly don't know what else to say. I'm thrilled to be where I am right now. Now I'm off to do all the projects I staved off while finishing my certificate. And to figure out how to build a website proper. Not so much looking forward to that, but it's a necessity.

I really don't know how else to close this post. I'm just very, very, happy.

Education, Rediscovery, Occupation

I am now moving into my sixth week of school online at Berkleemusic- which means I'm halfway done with the quarter. So far, things have been pretty interesting. I'm taking four classes this semester in order to prepare me for the Orchestration for Film and TV Certification program. I'm currently in Music Theory 1, Getting into Harmony (yes, that is the actual name of the course. Terrible, isn't it?), Desktop Music Production for Mac and Arranging 1: Rhythm Section.

Thus far, it would seem that the classes I'm breezing through are (surprisingly) Music Theory and Harmony. I imagined that both of those courses, being theory-based, would be a little more taxing. Oddly enough, I'm getting A's on the majority of my work. Desktop Music Production (hereafter referred to as DMP) and Arranging on the other hand are a little different.

DMP has me learning a totally new digital audio workstation- Reason. I'm finding that Reason seems to be more for sequencing as Logic is for recording (though I am not going to switch to Reason because I am only able to use my PLAY sample libraries with Logic). This is not to say that Reason has impeded my success in the course, but I feel like Reason's learning curve is steep. You certainly can't do a whole lot unless you really spend some time with it.

Arranging on the other hand, is the most taxing course; I have many assignments due in a week and often I will have to go back and revise my assignments for this reason or that reason. It's a lot of work in my opinion, especially since I don't normally notate music visually (in Sibelius, an equivalent to Finale), but just go ahead and sequence it in Logic. So I have to work backwards in a way. Most rewarding is the glowing reviews I've gotten from my peers in that course, and that reminds me that it isn't all for naught.

This leads me to my rediscovery of the music network GANG. I remember I'd heard of it, but I never investigated as to what it is. Sure, I have a commercial presence with iStock Audio, but perhaps GANG is an opportunity as well- it is specifically for video game audio. Hallelujah. While I don't expect to be immediately noticed, it's surely a possible avenue for future jobs.

That, then, lastly brings me to jobs in the present. I've been struggling to get a job- and I'll be honest, sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of reluctance. However, I did just send 4 applications each to 4 Apple stores in the Bay Area, and I did happen to get one to respond to me. While I am not one for putting all my eggs in a basket, I sincerely hope that this works out. I'm getting a little desperate as the bills stack up and I have but a limited non-art/music resume- I'm not incredibly marketable as a potential employee in this economy, but I have hope. Rejection and failure are often hard to deal with when searching for job- at least to me. I've sent out numerous applications and gone to outlets here and there but to no avail. Keep your fingers crossed, boys and girls. I could use a little luck.