Music for the Media

Overview

Music for the Media teaches you how to maker a career as a film or TV composer. It's the largest film music course in the world with 2500 students and graduates in 25 countries.

It's written and taught exclusively by working media composers, the only film scoring school to be able to say that.. The projects you work on are all real jobs and the briefing's come from the real live producers and directors. The course covers everything from documentaries to commercials, feature films to computer games. Why not get in touch and talk to a working composer about how you could get a foot on the ladder.

Programme

Unit 1 - Corporate Video

Learn to write music to someone else's specification, understanding what they're looking for and how to give it to them. Also an insight into the world of corporate video, often surprisingly lucrative and many composers first step on the road to a career.

This is one of the biggest challenges for most new media composers. After writing music for fun, being able to understand what a client wants to be able to deliver is the skill at the heart of all media composition.

We show you how to understand the brief, develop vital communication skills and give you lots of examples of real clients, talking about what they are looking for.

Unit 2 - Computer Games & Multimedia

New scoring techniques in the fastest growing area of the media. Learn about the workflow and how you fit into an industry that's now larger than the film business and probably employs more composers. LA based computer games composer Jamie Christopherson who scores major titles for Electronic Arts and Capcom has come onboard to tutor this specialized unit and will give you feedback on your assignment.

Learn how to develop a distinctive sound of your own with Michael Nyman. Creating a distinctive, musical brand for yourself is one of the most important things in founding a career and getting work.

Unit 3 - TV Themes

How the business works. Learn about writing better tunes with advice from top composers including Keith and Matthew Strachan (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) and Andrew McRorie-Shand (Teletubbies)

In all aspects of the media, tune writing is an essential skill that every media composer needs to have. Work on challenging programmes briefs including the follow up to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, a BBC News Programme and a children's show.

Unit 4 - Documentary

Learning to write to picture. Everything you need to know from timecode and hit points to digitizing video. Your assignment is to score a documentary with a briefing by the director. Load the movie into your sequencer. This is where you learn the nuts and bolts of scoring to picture.

Unit 5 - Animation

Inside knowledge of this specialist area. Work on a contemporary television animation. This unit teaches you more about scoring more closely to picture. We talk to Julian Nott (Wallace and Gromitt and Peppa Pig) about scoring television and feature animation. We show you how to score to an animatic.

Unit 6 - Commercials

Learn the ground rules of this lucrative business. We look at how to manage last minute changes . The assignment is to score a network TV commercial. Score it once to get the gig then score it again after it's been re-cut by the client.

Unit 7 - Natural History

The art rather than the craft of writing to picture with producers from the BBC's Natural History Unit and Discovery Channel. Your assignment is to score two classic sequences from a multi-award winning wildlife film.

Unit 8 - Drama (Part 1)

Feature films. Composers David Arnold, Debbie Wiseman and George Fenton tell you how its done. Your assignment is spread over two units, to score either a complete short feature film, a sci-fi adventure starring Prunella Scales, or scenes from a Hollywood independent movie, Cold Night Into Dawn.

Unit 9 - Drama (Part 2)

We look at two further areas of drama - television and theatre music. We give you a survival guide to money and royalties! Having heard the comments of your tutor from Unit 8, your assignment is to make corrections requested by your tutor, and then go on to score the rest of the feature film project.

Unit 10 - Showreels

How to get work. Top agents, composers and the people on the receiving end, real-life customers, tell you what they want to hear. Put together your own showreel and get feedback from your tutor.

Unit 11 - Finding Work

Sources of information, a guide to better networking, how and when to pitch and who to pitch to. Your assignment is to find and put together a pitch for a real paying job in the real world with our guidance and support.

Supplement: The 2009 Update

A detailed look at more recent developments, how to work with QuickTime movies, delivering projects via the internet using FTP, stem mixes and using two pops. Plus how much should you charge? An update on typical rates of pay across the industry both in the USA and Europe.