thebrittanator

[thebrittanator]

updates:

haven’t been active on this blog for a while but I’m still here!

over the next few months I’ve decided to focus on two composing projects:

I’m expanding a string quartet I wrote in college into a programmatic, multi-movement piece highlighting travel scenes. that was my original idea for the piece, but college wasn’t the best time for me to be working on only one type of piece for a long time, so I’m bringing it back now. I don’t know when or how this will be performed first, but I’d love to post some behind the scenes stuff on here as it comes together.

on the technical side of things, I’m switching what software I use, and if my past experience is anything to go by, I’m much more likely to learn it quickly if I have something to work on with it that goes outside my studio. so starting in the next few weeks I want to do some sort of regular feature on here where I can share very small projects made with my new composition tools. hopefully I can look back and see improvement in both my technical skills and my ability to write quickly and spontaneously. I’ve enjoyed writing mini film scores for videos that don’t already have music, so if you have a youtube video you think I should write an epic soundtrack for, send me a link!

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turn the sound on for a very important homage to the iconic music of the past year

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merry Christmas! make sure you turn your sound on!

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Game soundtrack for writers

Soundtrack for games are specially designed for an immersive experience. It’s a great tool for writer and artists.

Age of Empires III

Beyond: Two Souls

Bioshock 2

Bioshock Infinite

Child of Light

Clannad

Commandos

Dead Island

Dear Esther

Dishonored

Dramatical Murder

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Fallout 4

Fallout New Vegas

Final Fantasy XV

Firewatch

Gone Home

Heavy Rain

Homesick

Infamous: Second Son

Infamous: First Light

Journey

LA Noire

Layers of Fear

Limbo

Murdered: Soul Suspect

Nier: Automata

No Man’s Sky

Oblivion

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

Outlast 2

Pandemonium

Planet Coaster

Red Dead Redemption

Rise of Nations

SimCity 3000

Singularity

Skyrim

Stardew Valley

State of Decay

The Last Guardian

The Last of Us

The Witcher 3

This War of Mine

Uncharted 4

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Unravel

Until Dawn

Valiant Hearts

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I spent a long night a few weeks ago submitting Soliloquy to every playlist I could find so it was really cool to get a response like this

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not a soundtrack choice I would have expected but I’m looking forward to hearing it! this dude is unstoppable

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I will not announce the content of my next musical project yet but I will tell you that it is:

1. an impossible work to arrange without at least some John Williams influence

2. really really really stuck in my head and that’s not likely to change any time soon

3. popular enough that there’s at least a slight chance it’s also, coincidentally, stuck in yours

[thebrittanator]

she’s much bigger now and still full of energy! here she is with her little brother who also has no chill

I’m staying at a house with cats and this little diva decided to hang out with me while I attempted to reason with my sample library

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catnip induced frenzy + original soundtrack. you’re welcome

and with that I’m finally on youtube!

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this is an eclectic one! here’s my soundtrack for the many upcoming long car rides of December. November’s playlist ended up being way too short and I learned my lesson.

Imagine Dragons - Origins

Sabaton - Carolus Rex (shoutout to my sister for getting me into a power metal concept album about Swedish history)

An Introduction to Led Zeppelin (I’ve been saying that I’m going to start listening to more classic rock for like 800 years now and I’m tired of making excuses)

John Williams - Home Alone (’tis the season! and I haven’t seen this movie in at least 15 years)

(side note, ask me about how irritated I am that I couldn’t find the Die Hard score on Spotify)

Jerry Goldsmith - an album of Star Trek TNG music (I’m not nearly as familiar with his work as I want to be, and the soundtrack for Star Trek the Motion Picture was unfortunately unavailable, so I’m venturing into television music)

Ravel - Daphnis et Cloe

Nan Schwartz and Brenton Broadstock - an album of new orchestral works (I know nothing about the second composer but I want to get to know this album)

Lauren Daigle - Look Up Child

House of Heroes - The End Is Not the End (I’m going to this 10 year anniversary concert this month!!!!!!)

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first impression review: The Crimes of Grindelwald

also second impression because I ended up seeing it two days in a row

I went for probably the same reason anyone else went - I grew up with Harry Potter, and despite what I may think of JK Rowling constantly changing the canon after the fact, I enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts movie and was curious about the second.

first impressions:

it was enjoyable fanfiction with impressive visuals and likable characters

that’s not how memory charms work

ACTUAL PLOT TWISTS though

as long as they don’t become plot holes later!! please Rowling I’m begging you

Grindelwald makes a very good villain

music:

I love what James Newton Howard is doing with the place

there’s so much music and I love that

the universal problem with scoring a Harry Potter related film is that Hedwig’s Theme is unsurpassable. even John Williams wrote maybe a small handful of better themes if he wrote any at all. and everyone who follows Hedwig’s Theme up has to figure out how they’re going to deal with that. how do you introduce a new story in an entirely different setting, with characters who aren’t children, while still inviting the audience into something equally magical?

personally I think there was a little too much effort, perhaps in all departments, to make it feel magical at the expense of the intensity of the story itself. one thing that makes Williams such an incredible storyteller is his sense of when to set a scene and when to focus on the psychology of the characters, and the soundtrack moments that really stand out in both Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts are the ones that bring out the more universal experiences of the characters rather than just telling you the movie has magic in it. I hope that as the series progresses and we stop needing so much exposition, the emotional appeal of the series will come more from the new characters and less from the audience’s nostalgia for Harry Potter. the biggest threat to that is probably going to be a continued overemphasis on the admittedly fabulous visual effects

you know how the love/friendship theme from the last movie shows up briefly for the first time when Newt is tracking Tina? stuff like that is what’s going to help this series find its own voice.

that being said, there is a really good scene setting minor theme that plays in dark scenes and transitions. I haven’t identified what precisely it’s associated with but it really stands out. [EDIT: according to the soundtrack album, it’s the Fantastic Beasts theme. as it should be]

[thebrittanator]

today I’m learning: networking while inexperienced and introverted

this is going to be geared toward the entertainment/film industry because that’s where I am right now, but I’m sure some of these things are true across multiple industries. I’ve been to two film festivals now so I know at least a little more than I did when I started:

everyone else wants to meet people also

if you walk into any event that has networking potential, you’re not walking into a stranger’s birthday party with the people they’ve known since childhood. and people there don’t see you the way your impostor syndrome does, they see you as a potential connection. they’re going to be treating you all the same ways Pinterest tells you to treat them - be friendly, be interested, find common ground, make plans to hang out later. it’s amazing how much easier it is to meet new people when the interest is mutual.

you’re not as fake as you think you are

if you’re like me, you may be a little paranoid about projecting only (or at least mostly) the positive things or making people feel like you’re using them. but the fact is, everyone else is doing the same thing. and somehow in the end you still end up expressing genuine opinions and having fun.

the same rule for making potential new friends anywhere else applies here: you don’t owe anyone your entire life story. find simple and honest ways of addressing the things it would be complicated to explain. if you’re brand new to the field and/or out of work, say you’re looking for new job opportunities and you’ll get across both the facts and a good outlook. if there’s a stupid reason why you learned a valuable skill, it doesn’t invalidate the skill, so there’s no need to present a disclaimer (having a funny story with a healthy sense of self-deprecating humor is nice though).

don’t expect people to ask you deep personal questions; they just met you too. and if they do, there’s no need to indulge them. you just met.

make note of the pros and cons of everything that’s presented

politics can get complicated if you’re in a situation where you’re expected to present an opinion on something you didn’t like while one of its creators is with you. at film festivals, this can happen a lot. it’s good to find both positives and negatives about every project that’s being presented so you can contribute to any conversation you might end up in. particularly in the arts, sometimes the things that made it not align with your tastes are completely intentional, and if the writer conveyed exactly the message they intended, it means they’re good at what they do. separate your opinion of a project from how well its creator executed their intent. they are two different things.

don’t say anything you don’t agree with

you want to find people you mesh with, and you don’t want to work with people you don’t. don’t seek out situations you don’t want to be in. yesterday I bonded with a director over the films we both disliked and an actress over a shared love of what I call entry level nerd media. if I had pretended that my tastes were more indie than they were, I would have wasted my time chasing people I wouldn’t enjoy working with and missed out on both of those highly satisfying conversations as well as potential new friends and/or important connections. the actress and I are in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively, by the way.

be intentional about social drinking

common sense stuff. if it doesn’t fit with your beliefs or your lifestyle, you’re not missing out on something necessary, but if it does, it can help. it does not, however, help you to put yourself into a state where you’re not 100% in control of your words. by whatever healthy, moral, and legal means you prefer, find the best balance of confidence and self awareness you can.

you can, if need be, get business cards printed at a FedEx Office store. don’t create that need.

if it’s the day before an event and you just realized you forgot to print cards, it’s not too late! design something on a site like canva and take it to get printed as soon as possible. people hand out business cards like candy because it’s a much faster way to give someone your contact info than entering your number in their phone. it’s worth getting it done.

however. services that specialize in business cards are WAY CHEAPER. and they’re printed on better paper. if there’s time, do that instead.

a good way of offering someone your card without coming across as either too businesslike or too casual is saying you can give them your contact info!

follow up before it gets weird

this is, admittedly, one I’m still working on. it can take me a long time to decide how to word an email or text message to someone I don’t know well, so I have to set aside much more time than I think I should. but either that or just sending something simple is better than not keeping in contact at all.

this may be a quirk of the entertainment industry, but instagram is incredibly helpful as an easy follow up tool. follow people you want to follow, and if you have the time, go to the link in their bio and leave a comment if they posted about the event. we’re all on social media anyway so it puts you both at least next door to your comfort zones.

have fun and go make some friends!

[thebrittanator]

music in film » Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), Dir. George Lucas

Original Score by John Williams

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been listening to a Marvel playlist on Spotify in honor of Stan Lee I had some things to say

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found this video somewhere on the internet and thought it needed a soundtrack to suit the personalities involved

original video

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(via https://open.spotify.com/user/1225939640/playlist/79C0hdNE4a2xlS9WJYIARd?si=ZjvrvIQWSzG7Xkp9_N2DwQ)

it’s the beginning of the month again so I’m updating my playlist!

music I’m getting to know better this November:

Hans Zimmer - Inception (honestly a little ridiculous that I haven’t listened to it outside of the movie until now)

Dvorak - 9th Symphony and two Slavonic Dances (I’ve heard many parts of the 9th symphony, but I feel like it’s one I should know much better)

Penderecki - a viola concerto and a cello concerto (a pioneer of neoromantic music who’s still active!)

Philip Glass - an album of his film music (always interesting to see how other composers with a classical background approach film music, and I want to know more Glass music anyway)

Twenty One Pilots - Trench (it needed to happen)

this month’s is shorter because I want to leave time to listen to my new albums and take a few online courses, but I can already tell it’s going to be a good one

[thebrittanator]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OMGGGGG JOHN POWELL LOVES US <3