Chapter Eight - Five Saxophones
Just because I stopped playing the piano, didn’t mean I dropped music. I made my parents pay for classes at the UCLA Extension in film scoring while I was concurrently enrolled at UCLA proper sorting through my GE’s. I did composition old school... with pencil and paper!
Don Ray was the music supervisor/composer on shows like “Twilight Zone”, “Gunsmoke”, “Wild Wild West”, “Gilligan’s Island”, and “Hawaii Five-O”.
He was adamant that when you score a film, you are not writing music, but rather, emotion. Also, writing less is more. If brushing a bell tree sets the scene more effectively than an orchestral chord, the bell tree is in. And if a film cue doesn’t need music, don’t write anything.
Don was great. He told us on-set stories of Jack Lord; why to use certain instruments for different characters, and what timbres were produced by various instruments. We wrote pieces for multiple combinations of strings, winds, percussion, and brass – the point being to discover the range, the harmonies, and overtones... and learn what sounds complemented which. I discovered that ferocious, low blasting brass I love is created by the bass trombone, not the tuba.
As our final project, we scored an entire episode of Hawaii Five-O with each student getting one cue. Mine was the opening of Act One – McGarrett driving up to a house with all the guest stars names rolling on top. It could have been worse. I could have gotten the end credits.
Everyone had one project that completely tanked. (We were writing one 2-3 minute cue per week.) Mine was an adventure film with women in bikinis being terrorized on vacation with the instrumentation of five saxophones.
But also, without exception, the week after your piece blew, everyone produced one of their best compositions.
But what was this program really? It was not taught out of a textbook or off a power point. It made living, breathing musicians and their instruments come alive as we experimented writing for them.
As we created the Inception Orchestra Young Composers Mentoring Program, I’m recalling my experience in film scoring, where creativity took over, and the assignment was to feel as you composed.
If you are not exhilarated when hearing music you write, dig deeper. Be passionate. Tell a story. Take us on a thrilling adventure. Make us laugh. Cry. Love.
Music is the only international language. It touches anyone who listens to it. And if you expose your creative soul, it will move everyone.
Soon after the Extension program, and just before I got into film school, my friends and I shot a (very bad) movie called “The Norwood Homicide”. I decided to score it.
What I had learned from my instrumentation class was, when you are on a limited budget, use low strings, winds, and percussion.
My sophomore year roommate, Stephanie, who hadn’t abandoned the music major as I had, contracted 14 musicians: picc/oboe, flute/alto flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 3 celli, percussion, tympani, piano, and a keyboardist I had a crush on, to play gratis.
It’s daunting to conduct your own score in front of your peers when you are this relatively inexperienced. The first cue was rough. But after getting schooled by Stephanie, basically for my nervousness, I loosened up, everyone laughed, and we had a great recording session. It’s amazing to see multiple cues come together live for a movie, even an unwatchable one.
You cannot let your nerves take over an extraordinary experience when presented to you. Shake them off. You belong where you are.
Years later, I would have the opportunity to expand the score for full orchestra, which was incredible, but nothing compared to the thrill of my first real recording session.
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