Shadowater / Musical Musings

Give The People What They Want

Jason Savell — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:07:28 +0000

Composer Deane Ogden is in the middle of an illuminating series of blog posts called Essential Skills of a Modern Day Film Composer which, as the title suggests, has the goal of identifying and improving the skills needed for getting and keeping work as a film composer.

There are three parts so far, but I'm focusing on Part 2, What Directors Want From Their Composers. Built from an anonymous survey of a handful of directors, it offers some great insights into their mindsets and approaches to music in their films and touches on everything from what they look for in potential composers to the drawbacks of temp scoring.

Filled with direct quotes and pretty pie charts, it's a great read, not just for film composers, but for anyone interested in the collaborative creative process.

Current Project + A Little Improv

Jason Savell — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 01:07:01 +0000

I'm currently working on a project I've given the working title 'Conversational Guitar'. It's a collection of instrumentals featuring electric guitar and ethnic percussion. It will either find a home with a production library or be the first release on my new publishing label, Jason Savell Music. Should be finishing up sometime in August.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little guitar improvisation I recorded while working out a tone for the second track of CG. It's called 'When In Doubt, Improvise'. Thanks for listening.

Trailer Music 101

Jason Savell — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:03:21 +0000

Variety has posted an interesting article on the basics and trends of trailer music. It features quotes from several editors, music supervisors, and production libraries. Thought it was worth sharing.

Trailer shops cue music: Unique sound brands movies

Trailers for big, glossy tentpole movies typically deliver a booming symphonic score or operatic choral sounds to convey an epic feeling, though the downside to such larger-than-life bombast is the ring of overfamiliarity. The teaser trailer for "Battle: Los Angeles," on the other hand, broke with convention by using the sparse, eerie tune "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black" from techno musician Johann Johannsson that played over wordless human action. It's among the nominees for a Golden Trailer award.

I Fought the Law...

Jason Savell — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:57:53 +0000

My newest track, Most Wanted, got its first licensed use last week. The full track is being featured in a PR video for a police department. I guess I always knew the law was going to catch up with it; I just didn't think it would happen this fast.

Shadowater Music and Bandcamp

Jason Savell — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:11:19 +0000

I'm trying out bandcamp as a way of making more of my music available for purchase. My main focus is commissioned and licensed music, but the music business is so far from the monolithic days, there's no excuse not to participate.

So far, bandcamp has been quick and easy. I'll still use Tunecore to get more mainstream oriented tracks to iTunes, Amazon, etc., but bandcamp's approach makes more sense for most of my work.

Check out Most Wanted and Final Fight on bandcamp: