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.
First off, never mind that the title of this post is also the title of what is probably Steven Seagal's lamest movie. I'm having an "off" day. Aging fat guys with ponytails aside, what I really want to talk to you about today are your words. Specifically what you say "YES!" to, versus what you say "NO!" to. As artists, we are great at being "YES!" people. We hate not pleasing people. I don't know if that's the performer in us, or if it's just part of the high-grade inferiority complex that the majority of Creatives have been saddled with by nature, but whatever it is... it blows goats. The Problem with "YES!" "YES!" is a deceptive little shit! It's not always what it's cracked up to be. The problem is that "YES!" is a false positive. "YES!" always creates something to be done. Always. As such, "YES!" can screws up your plans. It...
It's the hot buzzword right now, and everybody and their monkey's uncle is a so-called "expert" on it. While I find a lot of "experts" on social media to pretty much be full of shit, I do believe that social media is a worthy asset to the business of anyone working in film and TV music—it just needs to be used correctly. The business has changed dramatically over the last several years. How we as film and TV music professionals find work—and KEEP working—has changed with the advent of social media. Whether you have posted music on your social networks for the world to hear or not, those networks can be used in a manner which furthers the online experience of anyone in your sphere of influence. It’s not without a little sweat equity from you, however, and it may require you to make some small but significant changes in...
There was a raging debate yesterday in our SCOREcast: London Facebook group about whether a person needs to know how to read or write music to execute a functional film score. Truth be told, it was one of those threads that I hate, because, really, it's a pointless conversation. On one side, you have people arguing against "hummers" — people who cannot read but still create amazing scores. On the opposite side, you have folks arguing against "traditionalists" who tend to be out of touch with the way the business is inevitably heading, and are still holding tight to the craft part of the business as their measuring stick for quality writing. Both opinions hold merit, but neither is all that productive as a basis for argument, as you can imagine. Sort of like arguing about whether Van Halen is better than Van Hagar. It's entirely subjective. Personally, I like...
Well... it's official. The experiment is a success. So far, I've hosted two Google+ hangouts for Creatives and it seems that we have something that's catching fire with Creatives. I'm making this a regular series event and calling it The Creative Hangout. The first one was pretty damned great. I joined six fellow composers for a trial run of this program and we had a great time talking about all kinds of cool things, including the responsibility of authenticity as artists, the government's role in art, how to stay musically true to yourself, how to talk to directors/producers about music, and much more. The chat actually spilled over the allotted time and into a Facebook conversation by several of us who had a few more minutes to spend. Last week's Hangout though... holy shit!! It was a barn burner! We had a full boat of ten people this last week, which is the...
Someone close to me (and whom, without a doubt, cares deeply about my well-being) recently warned that I "help others too much." It was heartfelt, and she meant it with every ounce of passion she could muster. "Maybe she's right," I thought to myself. "After all, she's supposed to absolutely have my back, so perhaps I should at least hear her out." So, I soaked up what she was saying, leaving room for any possibility that I, indeed, do too much to help others and am neglecting my own pursuits in the process. As she proceeded to defend her position and list the reasons behind her belief — SCOREcast, The Conversation, my new Creative Hangout project, the speaking engagements, my drumming gigs of late — I started thinking quietly to myself, "Wow… when you put it like that, yeah… maybe I am doing more to help other artists, composers, and...
