Days in the Life of a Film Composer

I just received word that Film Score Focus won a "Best Free Course in Film Appreciation" award in the 2010 Austin Chronicle - Best of Austin Awards. This is pretty damn cool. I feel like I should give an acceptance speech...

"I'd like to thank KMFA for their tireless support, for my wife who puts up with my film music shenanigans and to all my listeners out there...I couldn't have done this without you!"

Here's the blurb that the Austin Chronicle wrote:

Sure, movies are a feast for the eyes, but don't forget the ears. Brian Satterwhite sure doesn't. A respected film composer in his own right (including the score for Austin comedy Artois the Goat), Satterwhite hosts KMFA's weekly program Film Score Focus, hitting just the right note with new and classic sounds, from spaghetti Westerns to Vegas glitz and the tunes accompanying classic Tex Avery cartoons. We're all ears. 8pm Fridays; 7pm Sundays.

Thanks Austin Chronicle! It's an honor I accept with my humblest appreciation.

This weekend I went to Los Angeles for a quick mini-conference for film music fans. It was called the 1st Annual Fans of Film Music Gathering and it was held at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California. There were about fifty film music fans from around the country in attendance along with several film composers and soundtrack dignitaries. John Ottman, Tom Hajdu, John Debney, Stu Phillips, Michael Wandmacher, Daniel Licht, and MV Gerhard and Matt Verboys of La-La Land Records and Lukas Kendall of Film Score Monthly. Daniel Schweiger of IF Magazine moderated the event. La-La Land Records provided swag bags full of their CDs and Peter Hackman, the organizer of the event, provided cool posters for everybody.



The entire experience was awesome and totally worth the trip! I got to meet a lot of people who I've associated with or knew by name only but never met face to face. The composer panel was very insightful as well. The intimate surroundings allowed them to open up a bit more than they're probably used to. After the discussion they signed autographs for about an hour. I got a handful of CD covers signed myself. My only real complaint is that it was too short. The fact that these extremely busy composers took time out of their schedules to come down and talk for a few hours is a near miracle unto itself. Still, another hour would've made it that much better.

If they continue to do this every year, I will try to go. It will all depend on my own schedule of course, but if I can, I'll mark it on the calendar and make a point to try to go. Maybe next year I can be on the panel myself? Either way, as a composer or as a fan of film music, I would love to attend this again in the future.

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Peter, Daniel, and everybody else who made this event possible. It was awesome!

Me and Stu Phillips ("Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," "Knight Rider," "Battlestar Galactica")

Tomorrow morning I'm boarding a plane for a quick weekend in LA. There's a film music fan gathering at Dark Delicacies in Burbank that I'm attending. Several composers are going to be there including John Debney (PREDATORS, IRON MAN 2), Tyler Bates (300), Stu Phillips (KNIGHT RIDER), John Ottman (VALKYRIE), and Michael Wandmacher (PIRANHA 3D). It should be a lot of fun. I don't have too much available free time so I'm leaving early Saturday and will be flying back to Austin late Sunday evening. I'm going to mingle with a few friends out there after the event on Saturday. It'll be quick but very fun trip.

I always love it when I get to go to LA.

About six months ago I blogged about the supremely cool award that was presented to the filmmakers of RICHARD GARRIOTT: MAN ON A MISSION (2010) when they won the prestigious "Spotlight Premieres" Audience Award at South by Southwest. The honor was indeed great but the actual award itself was truly one of the coolest I have ever seen given.

The award is made from a little device called a Thingamagoop 2 made by Bleep Labs. The item itself isn't cheap. It lights up, make all sorts of wacky electronic noises, and turns on and off with the flick of a switch. It's so cool!

Last month for my birthday, the producer Brady Dial presented me with my own award. SXSW had given out two to the filmmakers for winning the Audience Award and the filmmakers themselves paid for the extra awards to be given out to the other principal crew members. I was flabbergasted. It's not too often you'll find filmmakers that would do that. I'm very appreciative they did that for me. It's a truly cherished item up on my awards shelf.

The picture to the left shows it turned on resting on my shelf. Thanks Beef & Pie!

Having Nate around as my assistant has been fantastic. I'm not sure why I didn't do this a long time ago. Actually, I know exactly why I didn't do this a long time ago (didn't have the space, didn't have the equipment, didn't have the work). The timing of this momentous step in my career has been just perfect.

One of the first tasks I assigned Nate was to clean up all the project files for CELL - The Web Series in hopes of possibly releasing a soundtrack CD in the near future. When I was working on the score for each weekly episode, there were always numerous little imperfections and issues that we wished we had more time to fix. They were relatively insignificant and would never be noticed within the context of the series itself; however, when you release music on CD all of these little compromises would most definitely be noticeable. One of the biggest obstacles in getting a soundtrack released is going through all of the project files (close to ninety minutes of music) and cleaning them all up. If I were to do it myself it would take me months to scrape up what little time I had to complete the job. Realistically, it would probably never get finished.

When Nate came aboard I knew that this was going to be one of his first assignments. He's had the all of the project files since he started working for me and yesterday he just finished cleaning them all up. The next step is to send them all back to Matt for another round of nuanced remixing.

Once we tweak all the mixes will do another master and then we'll have something that should be worthy enough to release to the public. Mark (the director of CELL) and I talked awhile back about pitching in together and just doing a release ourselves. That's most likely what we'll do. I don't think there's much of a market yet for web series scores but who knows. I may still approach a few labels and see what their thoughts are.

Nate's next assignment will be to produce a radio spot that I need for an upcoming short film that I'm editing and scoring. There are a couple of source cues in the short and so I'm going to hand those off to Nate to complete. He's excited to be doing something creative for me.

My list of projects for Nate is growing as ideas come to me. When I start up on my next big film score which should be sometime in mid to late September, Nate will be inserted into the process and stay busy along with me as I score. In the meantime, these little side projects are creating a lot of good work for him which is helping me a great deal manage all these tasks with what little time I have.

Yes. Having an assistant is definitely something I could get used to rather quickly.

Last night was the first ever Film Score Focus Film Series event at the Alamo Drafthouse. What a night! I really didn't know what to expect when I showed up around 6PM at the Alamo Ritz on 6th Street. I knew about seven or eight friends of mine had purchased tickets so I was counting on at least seven or eight people being there. Beyond that I wasn't too sure.

About forty-five minutes beforel the show was scheduled to start there was a line out the door, around the corner and down the street. I had to ask my self, "Is this for NORTH BY NORTHWEST?" Indeed it was. Granted nobody needed additional incentive to come and watch this magnificent film. The Alamo staff could have just put it on the schedule and I would've showed up. I didn't know if my advertised film music presentation beforehand would be an attractor or a detractor.

To my great pleasure, we had a nearly packed house. Mitchell Bowman led things off with his arrangements of several Bernard Herrmann film scores including TAXI DRIVER (1975), CAPE FEAR (1962), VERTIGO (1958), PSYCHO (1960), and CITIZEN KANE (1941). They were fantastic! He completely set the mood and got people tuned into Bernard Herrmann right off the bat. About fifteen minutes after the hour I started my presentation on Herrmann's iconic score for NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

I didn't really have a script or any articulately written out notes. The way I saw it, I had about an hour's worth of information crammed in my head and only about fifteen to twenty minutes to deliver it. I knew I wouldn't get through everything so like I always do when I talk in front of large audiences, I pretty much winged it. I just let each idea take me to the next. The last thing I wanted to do was make this a lecture. That wouldn't have worked. I wanted it to sound fun and spontaneous and you just can't do that reading from a paper. There was even a bit of added humor to the event when the Alamo staff placed a lectern and mic up on the stage so I could put my lap top up there. Nah. That was so un-Alamo like. I just asked for the wireless hand-held and strolled across the stage like I normally do.

I felt pretty comfortable up there. I enlisted the help of Elise Winters to perform some of the isolated themes on the violin for everybody to hear. I even made a little joke and proved a very good point about the genius behind Herrmann's scoring when I asked Elise to perform what Herrmann wrote for the crossroads/cropduster sequence. She stood there for thirty seconds not playing anything. Then a few chuckles bounced around the audience as they started to get my point...that silence is every bit as important as having music.



My time up on stage went lightening fast as I realized I may be pushing my time. I knew that no matter how interested people were with my ramblings that eventually they were going to start getting antsy to see the film. I could relate. I think I rushed my wrap-up a little but all in all I thought I did a decent job and it sure was a hell of a lot of fun. The good turn out is a good sign that this series will continue. I sure hope it does. Just give me a great film with a great score and a die-hard audience drooling to experience them both and I'm confident enough I can give a good presentation.

Until next time...

Here are two more pictures from my photo shoot a couple of weeks ago. All photographs were taking by Eric Doggett.

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Last week I hired photographer Eric Doggett to come by my studio for a photo shoot. I've been wanting to have professional shots taken of me for so long but I haven't actually taken the step. I needed a professional shot of me for an upcoming project I'm involved in so I thought this would be a great time to finally get some made.

Eric is an amazing photographer. I've been a huge fan of his work since he first started in the business. I knew for years that whenever I needed photos of me made that he would be my guy. He didn't disappoint. He come over for a couple of hours and we did about four or five setups. Although he's known for doing some pretty radical stuff, I wanted this pictures to be more conservative so they'd be more versatile for my needs.

Below is the first shot I got back. I love it! It's me in my studio. I look like I feel when I'm here...happy.

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I've got several more pics which I'll be posting as well.

This was really a lot of fun for me. I would love to do it again. Next time, I'll work with Eric to come up with something pretty wacky.

Today I took a major step in my career that I've been wanting to take for a long time. There have been many occasions during the past four or five years when I desperately wished I had an assistant to help me with tasks necessary to complete my projects. There are so many things to do to get a score composed, edited, mixed, mastered, and delivered and a lot of it can actually be done by somebody else other than me. The less time I have to do these tasks the more I can devote my attention and energy toward composing. There have been times when I was staring a deadline in the face frantically trying to get everything done thinking of how an assistant would really come in handy right about now.

Working from home for ten years doesn't really make having an assistant very practical. After I moved into my studio I had the available space but no computer, desk, or any other resources for anybody to use. I even had people email me asking me if I needed an intern. All the pieces were strewn out on the table. I just had to piece it all together.

As of this week, I've started putting it all together. For the past couple of months I've been interviewing a handful of people for an assistant position here at the studio. I talked with a lot of great guys who were would all have been a valuable asset to have working for me. In the end I chose a recent Berklee graduate who just recently moved to Austin.

Meet Nate. Nate is my new assistant and will hopefully be working with me for the next several months at least. I actually have to learn how to have an assistant so there's going to be a period of adjustment for the both us. We're already off to a great start. I'm getting him used to operations around here and will teach him a few things along the way in time for my next big scoring project which is set to start up within the next month or so.

I've already given Nate his first project. He'll be cleaning up Logic project files from CELL in hopes of releasing a CD of my music from the web series. During production of the series I let slide a lot of little bad edits and pops that would never be noticeable in the context of the series but would certainly be noticeable on CD. Nate's going through and cleaning everything up which he'll then send up to Matt who'll look at doing more polished mixes of each cue. If all goes according to plan we should have a great album worth of music from CELL to release to the public.

I was at lunch today with my family realizing that while I was eating, work was still getting done at my studio.

Ya, I can get used to that.

When the season finale of CELL premiered back on July 21st, the cast, director, and I were featured on Indie Intertube which was a talk show broadcast via the internet regarding all things related to web series. We were on a live video feed answering questions from the hosts and from the listening audience as well. There was a chat window up that we were all reading where fans posted their comments and questions for us. I had a couple questions to answer myself so that was especially cool. A lot of people really dig the show and this was one of the first times I was able to experience its popularity first hand.

Here is the final episode of season one of CELL: THE WEB SERIES which is titled "My Name Is Sarah."

Starting in August I'll be hosting a new film series at the Alamo Drafthouse focusing on superlative film scores. First up is the Alfred Hitchcock classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) which features a score by Bernard Herrmann. Before the screening, I'll give a brief twenty minute lecture about the score and give audiences a little glimpse inside what makes it so fantastic. I'll isolate a few themes to listen for, spotlight choices reflecting Herrmann's genius and give the audience a little better appreciation of the score just before we watch the film together. I'm really very excited. It'll be the first time I've ever seen NXNW on the big screen.

It'll take place Sunday, August 22, 2010, at the Alamo Ritz theater. Tickets will be $10.00. As an extra bonus for those arriving early, Mitchell Bowman will be performing renditions of Bernard Herrmann's music on the accordion! It should be an absolute awesome evening!

For more information and ticket purchasing, visit the page over at the Alamo website.

After a crazy and hectic night, Matt and I mixed the final few cues of the series finale of CELL. I just got word from Mark (the director) that the episode is now rendering and will be uploaded after that just in the nick of time for tomorrow's webcast. Whew!

There's a great blog talk radio station on the web that focuses on web series called Indie Intertube. They're big fans of the show there. Tomorrow night the whole cast and crew of CELL will call in live on the program to help celebrate the series finale of CELL. I'll be there as well answering any questions anybody may have regarding the music. It'll probably be available after the live blogcast but if you're interested in listening live you can do so by heading over to Indie Intertube. We'll be on from 6PM until 8PM CST. I believe the episode of CELL goes live around 5PM over at Koldcast.tv.

We're under the gun. The final episode of CELL will webcast on Wednesday night. We're less than 48 hours away and I'm still working on the score. I'm pretty sure I've got it all composed and recorded. I'm uploading the final few cues to Matt now so he can mix it all tonight. I composed about 18 minutes of music in the last two days. I believe that may be a new record for me. Thank goodness for quarter note = 54!

Last week, Perseverance Records announced their next soundtrack title in their ongoing effort to release scores from the movies of Jean Claude Van Damme. This one in particular is especially important to me as I wrote the liner notes for this CD last month. The film is titled NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER (1986) and it marks JCVD's film debut. He plays a henchman, not even a major role. He does engage in the final fight scenes to close the film but is barely seen anywhere else. I think he had two lines. He's good though. You can see why he moved on and continued to get work. His fight sequences are fairly spectacular and he certainly had an on-camera presence.

It's a really fun 80s score composed by Frank Harris. There's an interesting story behind the score as well as Harris' music was replaced by a score by Paul Gilreath in the U.S. version of the movie. Only in Europe and Australia was Harris' original score heard where it became mega-popular. You'll have to read the liner notes themselves to get the whole story.

It was a really fun album to write liners for. I'm already looking forward to the next assignment from Perseverance Records.

A couple of days ago I wrapped up the short film score for EULOGY MAKER, written and directed by Leslie Langee. It's an absolutely superb short film and I'm really very happy with how the score turned out. It could be a candidate for the sparsest music I have ever composed for a film. It's so exposed and fragile you feel like a gentle breeze could blow it right out of the picture.

It didn't really start off that way. My earliest drafts were about twice as thick as they ended up even though they were still pretty thin. I talked with Leslie from the very beginning about making this a "less is more" score but I think she meant it even more than I did. There was a funny moment when I was playing Leslie the first draft of the score all the way through for the first time. She shook her head and said, "Ok, there are some good things in there. Now let's go back to..." I went back to the spot she requested. She said, "Ok, now what can you take out?" I probably had a surprised look on my face and said something profound like, "Take out?" It was already pretty thin. "Well, I can take this note out, and this note, and perhaps these notes here..." "Good," Leslie said. "What else can you take out?" "Uhhh," I replied. "Maybe this note and this...I proceeded to spend the next five to ten minutes literally stripping the score to its barest and most exposed elements. Even major tracks i thought were important in order to convey the harmony were quickly banished.

When I finally finished I had a really bare, almost bizarre score left...and I liked it. More importantly, Leslie liked it. "It's perfect!" I think were her exact words.

It's scored with harp, piano, clarinet, cello, and harmonica. The later three tracks were performed live while the first two used a really good sample library. I called in Brian Peterson to perform the clarinet parts. It was an easy task, quarter notes and half notes was all it was. I performed the cello and harmonica tracks myself.

It's different for me. I can't wait to start seeing this on the big screen. Leslie is sure to get this into festivals somewhere. It's really one of the best short films I've ever worked on.

About a month ago, I received my DVD copy of the documentary film that I scored earlier this year called SURVIVE & THRIVE: HOPE, LAUGHTER, AND TRUTH (2010). This was the movie that allowed me to travel to Anchorage, Alaska, back in October to meet with the director, Mary Katzke. Finally seen the movie, my assumptions were correct in that this is a very good film. These types of movies are always the hardest to score. They're not entertainment but tools for people's lives. Women with breast cancer or people who know women with breast cancer will watch this film and hopefully be encouraged by it. It's a daunting responsibility that I'm only really now starting to realize.

I've worked with Mary now on five or six projects. It's always a treat to work with people you like multiple times. I hope to work with her again and if she wants to fly me back up to Anchorage on the next project, I'll be sure to make that happen.

Here is episode "twelve" from the web series CELL.

Here is episode "eleven" from the web series CELL.

I got word this past weekend that the short documentary that I edited and scored called MISSION ON SEVEN (2009) will premiere at the 16th Annual San Antonio Film Festival. It'll screen Thursday, June 24th from 2PM-5PM along with a collection of other shorts. I'm sure Mark and I will be in attendance. I'll have to check my schedule. We've been wanting to get this little short into a festival and so after several rejections, the good folks at SAFILM have allowed us entry. We're very proud of this and look forward to possibly attending.



In other news...the doc I scored earlier this year RICHARD GARRIOTT: MAN ON A MISSION (2010) will also be screening at the San Antonio Film Festival on Friday, June 25th from 7PM-10PM.

Thanks San Antonio!