Composing

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Your Stage 32 Success Story Starts Here: Join Our FREE June Community Open House!

Your Stage 32 Success Story Starts Here: Join Our FREE June Community Open House!

Wednesday, June 10th at 12:00 pm PT!

Every success story begins with a first step.

If you’re ready to take yours, join me, Ashley Smith, Head of Community at Stage 32, for our Summer Community Open House Webcast happening Wednesday, June 10th at 12:00 pm PT!

Free Registration: https://www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32s-june-2026-community-open-house-webcast

Whether you’re chasing representation, looking for collaborators, or simply ready to stop creating in isolation, the Stage 32 Community Open House is your moment to show up, be seen, and start making real progress.

This free live event isn’t a presentation; it’s a fully interactive session led by you and guided by Ashley Smith, Head of Community at Stage 32. You’ll have the opportunity to share your goals, ask questions, and tell us exactly what resources or support you’re looking for right now in your creative journey.

Ashley will walk you through the most powerful tools and features on Stage 32, including how to build a strong profile that acts as your virtual business card—clearly showcasing your skills, interests, and creative voice. You’ll learn how to participate in the free Stage 32 Lounges in a way that positions you as someone others want to collaborate with, including how to make a compelling post, contribute to ongoing conversations, and stay consistently active in a way that builds visibility and trust.

You’ll also learn how to keep up with the latest industry news, platform updates, and community insights through the Stage 32 Blog, and how to access Stage 32 Education, Certification, and Script Services.

This session will close with a live Q&A tailored specifically to your needs—whether you’re a writer, director, producer, actor, editor, or someone who wears multiple hats.

If you can’t attend live, don’t worry, registering ensures you’ll receive the full recording to watch anytime from anywhere!

Wherever you’re starting from, this is your launchpad. Join us and take that first step with intention.


Liked by Mahdi Zamani and 5 others

Jon Landers
Are We Listening.... or Just Hearing Production?

Are We Listening… or Just Hearing Production?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we evaluate music—especially in today’s world of highly polished production.

When I listen to a track, I tend to focus first on the song itself:

• The melody—does it stay with me?

• The lyrics/message—does it move...

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Amanda Toney

As someone who is not creatively talented myself, I never think of things sonically...to me it's all about emotion and feeling of the lyrics.

Morgan Aitken

Good point, Jon Landers ! Production can be cleaned up, that's technical... no emotion involved. And like Amanda Toney says, it really is the emotion that adds to the scene. But, and there's always a...

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Jon Landers

For Amanda:

Thanks Amanda. I think that’s actually how most listeners experience music — emotionally first. Sometimes we in the industry can get so focused on production details that we forget the huma Expand comment
Jon Landers

Morgan, I think you've hit on one of the biggest challenges facing independent artists today.

The emotional connection is what ultimately serves the scene and the story. A technically perfect track wit...

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Kat Spencer
Perfectionism vs. Progress

You ever spend way too long getting one tiny section right…

and then realize no one listening will even notice it?

Perfectionism… maybe.

But it still has to feel right.

Do you keep tweaking—or move on?

Michael Teisan

Kat Spencer Yes! I struggle with this often. Especially when it’s a personal project with no real deadline!

David Carter

Mike Hall that's a great way to look at it... like putting up some shelves in your living room!

Kat Spencer

Morgan Aitken - Hmmm.... I would say I have high standards. I know progress is better than perfection, so I don't tend to put that pressure on myself, and yet, I will not let something go out into the...

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Kat Spencer

Mike Hall - I feel that. I think that's what I meant above about "perfect." Perfect is subjective, and what matters most is that we, the creators, are happy with it....

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Geoff Hall

Kat Spencer hi Kat, I tweak as I go through it the first time. There’s no point having something in the script that feels wrong and then may cause problems later in with the story....

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Kat Spencer
The Song You Still Think About

Have you ever written a song years ago that still feels emotionally connected to you now?

Not necessarily your “best” song.

Not the most successful one.

Just one that somehow stayed with you.

Maybe the meaning changed over time.

Maybe life gave the lyrics a completely different context later on.

Or maybe...

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Amy Wilhelm
A Cinematic Emotional Ballad I Could Truly Hear Adele Recording This

I wrote a song that I genuinely feel deserves to reach beyond my own walls and out into the world. It was created from a very deep emotional and spiritual place, and I believe it carries the kind of cinematic emotional weight that could truly connect with people on a large scale.

Part of me can hones...

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SFX and Foley Bundles?

Hi gang! Was wondering if anyone had experience with high end SFX and Foley sound libraries and which brand/ bundle they've found to be the most realistic under 1,000 dollars? I'm reaching the point where I don't have time to make real sounds and am in need of a professional sound pack. Native Instr...

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Michael Teisan

Hey thanks Mark Gosney! I'll check it out!

Kerry Kennard

Hi Michael,

have you heard of keepForest?

They have some interesting sounds.

Sonokinitics has a lot of cool sounds, etc.

I bought I .. FAVOLA for this one Competition.

Lots of possibilities.

Audio Plu...

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Michael Teisan

Thank you for the tip Kerry Kennard! I'll check it out! By the way the link you posted leads to a page that says page not found.

Michael Teisan

Follow up: For those of you who are interested, I finally found a great foley library by Impact Sounds that works with Kontakt called Cinema Foley Library with over 53,000 foley sounds for only 140 bucks. It's a great program and I highly recommend it.

Kerry Kennard

this one should be right, Michael.

KK

https://kerrykennard.com/services/film_music/

Mary Jane
Composing or Music production

Hello,

I’m Mary Jane, a composer, songwriter, female singer, and music producer passionate about creating emotional, cinematic, and heartfelt music.

If you’re looking for a female vocalist for your songs, film, podcast, show, intro, soundtrack, or vocal production, I’d truly love to collaborate with y...

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Kerry Kennard

hi Mary Jane,

what styles do you usually write in ?

I do a lot of orchestral and contemporary doing instrumentals .

Hope to connect and hear from you soon.

Kerry Kennard

www.kerrykennard.com...

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Mary Jane

Thank you for reaching out. My writing style is mainly centered around contemporary gospel and worship music also pop edm music, blending emotional storytelling with modern cinematic and uplifting sou...

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Colin Hussey
what movie or TV show would you want to re-score, if you could?

There are several projects that come to mind that I wish had been scored differently--movies & TV shows where everything else about them was good, except the soundtracks. I'll give a few examples. One is 21 Bridges, which was scored by an acolyte of Zimmer. I'd rather Terence Blanchard had scored th...

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Andre Abrahamse

Hi, I'm Andre Abrahamse, new to Stage 32... To answer the question "What movie would I re-score?" That would be a remake of EASY RIDER...The story would be set in apartheid South Africa... The soundtr...

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Marcellus White

I would re score interstellar. It feel it can have a more darker approach and also have different sounds of pianos and strings as the drive of it.

Julia Sauder

The Princess Bride. Such a wonderful movie with such fingernails on the chalkboard music.

Ewan Dunbar

I thouroughly enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick. The opening with the original score and Kenny Loggins was a fantastic decision. The only difference I would have made would have been to have Cheap Trick's Mig...

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Colin Hussey
great moments in scoring: The Firm

Sometimes a lot can be accomplished with minimal instrumentation, and this is well demonstrated in the Tom Cruise vehicle, The Firm (1993). The score consists solely of Dave Grusin on the piano, with a driving title track setting the tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLTPiL4reg...

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Kat Spencer
One Note From a Listener

We spend so much time focusing on streams, placements, followers, and metrics.

But sometimes a single message from a listener means more than all of it.

Over the years, I've received a few notes from people who connected with my music in ways I never expected. Those messages have stayed with me far lo...

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What's your favorite film score and why?

Miklós Rózsa's work on William Wyler's 1959 film "Ben Hur" is stunning to this day. The multitude of layered leitmotifs makes it the most impressive score I've ever heard. You can hear, in the introduction of the friendship between Judah and Messala, the mixture of the characters themes while they'r...

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Philip Sedgwick

Though not a film, WHITE LOTUS.

Geoff Hall

Michael Teisan Oooh, great question Michael. Mine would be Lalo Schifrin’s music on the film ‘Bullitt’.

https://youtu.be/hq8YD7-Aimw?si=vjSMjBae8KnzNh-u...

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Michael Teisan

Geoff Hall Ooooh good one! Love Bullitt! What do you like about the score?

Rutger Oosterhoff

The Mission

Geoff Hall

Michael Teisan I was a kid when I first saw it and I found the score was intoxicating. I watched the restaurant scene and loved the music; it was the main character in that scene. There was no dialogu...

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Roger Hewett
Silent film accompaniment

Greetings!

It's been a while...nice to see some familiar names here.

As a pianist, I'm embarking on a new venture...live improvised accompaniment for silent movies. Working with century old classics.

I was wondering if any fellow musicians here have any experience in this field, and advice to offer r...

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Kerry Kennard

I did I did a Google search on your last paragraph.

I found this one Link about PD and copyright. It looks like it’s for higher Education, but I think it would still relate (somewhat) to what you’re t...

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Roger Hewett

Thank you Kerry. Interesting details there. I neglected to mention I'm in Ontario, Canada, but the principles are probably similar.

Natasha George
Love to be here

hi everyone nice connecting with you all

Geoff Hall

Natasha George hello Natasha, how are you doing? What are you working on at the moment? What’s bringing you joy?

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