Composing for Puppies

In July of this year I had the opportunity to compose for my first full length feature film, a romantic comedy called Three Holiday Tails produced and distributed by Mar Vista Entertainment. The movie is set at Christmas time (as you might guess) and involves a clever golden retriever and three puppies that, through a series of mischievous events, are able to help reunite the main character with the love of her life. It's a charming little movie that in many ways proved to be the perfect film for one's first feature, though it was not without its challenges.

For starters, the timeline. The film was spotted on July 17. The production company needed a final score delivered by August 1st. Now two weeks is bad enough, but when I factored in time for recording and mixing, that time shrunk to 1 week. One week to write 40 minutes of music. It sounds impossible, but the truth is that composing a truck load of romantic comedy-style music is not terribly difficult, provided you have solid themes on which to derive every cue. Don't get me wrong, 2 weeks is NOT enough time to write a feature, particularly when one needs to record live people. But, it certainly is doable when you have the right plan and the right people in place.

Second challenge is, as always, the budget. I don't wish to divulge a specific number here, but suffice it to say that though it was the biggest budget I had ever been given, it still required a lot of clever maneuvering to get what was needed. Many of you reading will know what I mean when I say that this was a "package deal" - that is, I was given a fixed sum of money and it was up to me to spend it. Whatever I don't spend, I get to keep as my fee. There are many composers in my position who would just go all in and spend their entire budget on the production. I, however, need to eat. :) For live players, most composers would agree that money is always best spent on live strings before anything else. So I decided that my session would consist of just strings. Other sounds (like guitar and woodwinds) I would piece together Tom Newman style in smaller sessions. All said and done I had less than $2000 to spend on a recording session. With the help of my stellar music contractor, I managed to get 11 players for 3 hours with studio and engineer for $1800. Pretty damn good if I do say so myself. And because I am constantly surrounded by incredibly talented people, I was able to farm out my guitar and clarinet parts to my good friends Sam and Alexis, who recorded in their studio while I was finishing other parts of the movie. Between them, the string session, recording live flute in my bedroom, and getting a good mixer on board, I would have a score.


So with the logistics of recording in place, it was time to actually write the music, but before that could happen I realized I would need help keeping track of everything else - things like spotting notes, picture changes, all the elements of the score that would not be recorded, session prep for recording and mixing, cue sheets, etc. All of this adds up to a music editor. For you composers reading this, heed my words when I tell you that hiring a music editor is the smartest thing you will ever do, especially on an absurdly tight deadline. I happen to be really good friends with Joseph DeBeasi,  a very accomplished music editor in addition to a great composer. Not only was he happy to join my team, but he proved to be utterly invaluable to me during my whole process, from taking spotting notes to creating protools sessions and take lists for my recordings. Amazing.

NOW I was ready to compose, and compose I did. I had two main themes, one for the relationship between the two main characters (the love theme) and one for the engagement ring, which had a life and back story all its own. There was also a motif for the dogs as well as recurring comedic/action material that I used to fill in, you guessed it, scenes of comedy and action. Between these four main chunks of musical material, I had my entire score... I just had to write it. One of the challenges for me as a composer is recognizing just how simple any given task can be. When you sit down and there is 40 minutes of picture staring at you, it's overwhelming. I spent a lot of time running away from my computer and walking around my neighborhood just trying to comprehend the mass of what I was doing. But, when I actually sat at my computer and focused on a cue, I realized I already had all I needed and all I had to do was cleverly draw it out. Below was perhaps the most challenging cue in the movie for me, mostly because there was so much that had to be encompassed in such a short time. It was also one of the first clips that had to be written for promotional purposes, which meant that it would govern similar scenes through the rest of the movie. When you watch you'll hear a familiar christmas tune, comedic material, the puppy motif, action music, and if you're really clever you will gather a little hint at the ring.

Some of you composers might be wondering how one gets an entire score approved in a week's To add one more level of excitement to the mix, I discovered early on that my director would be out of town for the entire time I'd be writing the score. And of course there were producers to go through as well. The answer? Dropbox. I got my director and my producers on dropbox and posted cues as I had them ready. They all conferred and my director would send me emails of bulleted feedback for each cue. So essentially I created a workflow. I would compose new material through the day, post the cues once they were finished, then address changes for previously written cues in the evening and post those before going to bed. I was supremely lucky to have an incredibly gracious and supportive director/producer team who made my job so much easier.

As is true with many creative processes and projects, the end product is almost always worth the battles (internal and external) one has to fight to get there. This was absolutely true of Three Holiday Tails. Yes it was grueling. Even as I think of it now I am both horrified and excited to ever return to the state of mind I was in. But the truth is that it is simply part of my job.

A Summary of Lessons Learned and Re-Learned

1. You are only as good as the people on your team.
2. Music editor = life
3. Your final mix can make or break your score. Don't skimp on a good mixer.
4. Never underestimate the positive impact that even one live instrument can have on your score
5. Take nothing for granted. Put everything you have into every project you do.

Below is a selection of tracks from the movie. Check back as I'll be adding more once I have them ready.


  Three Holiday Tails by Dave Volpe

Virgin Eyes (New Tracks!)

I had the pleasure of spending several weeks in August creating a score for an AFI student thesis project called Virgin Eyes directed by Roxine Helberg. One of the benefits of working on short films is that their concise stories and often intimate musical needs present a canvas on which one can create something completely unique and flavorful. That was certainly the case for Virgin Eyes, which was shot beautifully on location in Bel Air. In addition to the film itself being full of luscious imagery, Ms. Helberg provided a temp score filled with music I had never heard before including a band called Gotan Project, a Parisian tango-fusing trio that is self described as the "consummation of tango and electronica." In discussing her temp score we arrived at a palette that would blend a gypsy feel with electronic elements. Several of her tracks used accordion, a scintillating flavor that made its way into the score along with solo viola and guitar. Originally the idea was for violin, but I made a case for the darker more sultry tones of the viola, a very under-appreciated instrument that I felt would give the film yet another layer of unique color. And let's face it, every holocaust movie incorporates a solo violin and everything else uses a solo cello (no offense, musicians, we love you), so why not explore something new? The finished project was nothing short of delicious.

A valuable lesson was learned from this film. While temp scores are very often evil things that composers have to deal with, they can sometimes be a fantastic jumping board from which to leap, particularly if it opens new compositional doors and gives insight into what the director wants. This was Ms. Helberg's first time working with a composer and I'm happy to report that, though she was very much in love with her temp, the walls of her mind were blown away when she sat down and experienced what an original score with live players can bring to her film.

Hope you enjoy!

  Virgin Eyes by Dave Volpe