I'm an American composer for film, television and video games, and a session and live drummer for radio and records.
As an international speaker and author, I'm passionate about talking to Creatives about the convergence of art and business and the strategies behind building a thriving and profitable creative enterprise as an artist.
I'm the founder and editor-in-chief of SCOREcast, the popular online consortium of worldwide film music and post-production professionals.
I author the creative resource The Conversation, which is distributed monthly to more than 550 subscribers across all disciplines of the creative arts space.
My company, Deane Ogden Creative, Inc., is a global organization that handles my music projects and advocacy endeavors, and also administers my Imaginator Music production library throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Today, I'm starting a series of talks called Essential Skills of a Modern Day Film Composer. I believe there are some things that every composer who is working today possesses that are simply necessary to achieving huge success in this gig. Can you get there without them? Absolutely. But I think it will take you longer. Without some of these, the journey will be a little rougher and certainly a lot more challenging. Let's start with the assumption that you are writing on a deadline. Writing on a Deadline If you are a working media composer, you already love to write music. If you don't, you are in the wrong business. Most of us who are in this gig find ourselves needing to write a certain amount of minutes a day when we are on a deadline. The formula is simple: Divide the number of total minutes of music in the project by...
This morning, I received a letter from a Hollywood director who was a participant in my little survey posted earlier this week called What Directors Want From Their Composers: The Hollywood Directors. I soon as I read this letter, I knew I had to share it with all of you. To me, this letter is at once heartfelt, inspiring, timely, and energizing. I hope you find it that way, too. If you cannot see the video below, click here.
Your first meetings were all raging successes. The call has come in. They like your stuff, they like you. You’ve been hired. You watch the film, make your notes, and prepare to meet with the filmmakers for the first time to spot the film that will occupy your creative head space for the next several weeks. You pack your creative notes, maybe your laptop, into your bag… and you are on your way. Up to this point, you have presented the strongest case about why you would be the perfect person to score this director’s film. And it worked. You are the composer now. At this juncture, however, the next step is absolutely crucial. It is a step that will either set you up for a month of victories with this director or pave a rocky road toward you finishing this film without any tangible remnant of creative satisfaction. It...
I think we all have experienced this at least once: You are going along, having a perfectly awesome and amazing time, and then someone decides they need to let you know what they think about you, or what they think about something you said, or did, or wrote, or whatever. They want to negatively criticize you. They want to pick apart something you've done; something that has affected them, and I'll be damned if it's not your fault! I don't know where it comes from. I don't know why they choose that particular time to strike out. I don't know where they expect it to lead, but it rarely achieves what they want it to. They can't possibly feel better about themselves after they are critical. Negative criticism is not life-giving. It's bitterness wrapped in "well-meaning" intentions. Screw 'dat. Everyone's a Critic Sometimes people are just batshit weirdos who are looking...
**NOTE: This post is Part 7 of my current series Essential Skills of a Modern Day Film Composer. If you are just now joining the series, you can catch up by visiting the links below. PART 1: How to Write Three Minutes of Music Per Day PART 2: What Directors Want From Their Composers: The Hollywood Directors PART 3: VIDEO: Letter from a Hollywood Director PART 4: How to Conquer the Spotting Session PART 5: What Directors Want from Their Composers: The Indie Directors PART 6: How to Identify and Handle Criticism Most Creatives agree that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to a creative slump—that our own thoughts, doubts, self-pity, distractions, negative feelings, and unmet desires about our art will keep us from achieving completion quicker than anything else out there. Identifying these enemy combatants can be tough, however. Sometimes they are obvious: An open window with a bouncing basketball ringing in your ears...
