Composing : Career change...getting started! by Simon Marchant

Career change...getting started!

Hello

I’m new to Stage 32 having followed a recommendation from a co-creative and signed up today. I am a musician and had been working in education teaching music technology for 21 years. On reaching the grand old age of 60 I decided to take my rather meagre pension and attempt a career change. I now like to describe myself as a composer (or organiser) of sound. I think most people today appreciate the importance of timbre in music (together with pitch, of course) and I reckon that most of my work focuses heavily on this ability of tonal qualities and fluctuations to elicit the emotional responses strived for.

I have put together a portfolio of music/sound designed with moving images in mind but, as things stand, I am yet to pick up my first commission and so my showreel is really not as effective as I would like it to be. I have paired an excerpt of Maya Deren’s 1943 experimental film, Meshes of the Afternoon, with one of my compositions (see below) which, hopefully, goes some way to demonstrate the efficacy of my work.

I would really appreciate any advice from Stage 32 members on finding potential collaborators to work with.

Many thanks!

Linwood Bell

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2 people like this
- Simon Marchant
- Maurice Vaughan
1 year ago

Hi Simon Marchant and welcome to the group! I like what you did here. You got some nice interesting sounds and layers going on that evolve nicely. Nice tension built in with b2 b6. It works well. What synths are you using. Totally in the box or some hardware thrown in?

Simon Marchant

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1 person likes this
- Maurice Vaughan
1 year ago

Hi Linwood. Thanks for your thoughts and welcoming comments. Thinking back to that one I believe that was completely software synths although I do also use an old Korg Delta as well as a Behringer Neutron on some stuff plus a whole lot of twiddly analogue bits and pieces… guitars and a cheap little theremin thing etc. How about you… what’s your noise making device of choice?

For things like this I go with my Omega 8, Mini Moog, Matriarch, Omnisphere and Pigments. I got the Matriarch during the Covid lockdown on a whim. I love the thing now. There are so many colors and textures you can get out of it. The only bad thing about it is it makes me lust for more stuff. lol

The Matriarch certainly looks very cool. Sadly, I can only dream of such things at this point

During the covid lockdown I bought a new Mac. In doing so I needed to replace the audio interface. I bought an Apollo x6 to go along with it. In my older Mac I had a UAD pci card and I had all the Neve plugins. With the x6 I was really happy with the 1084 and La2a for recording vocals and it got so that I wasn't using my 1272's or ELOP hardware...so I traded some outboard gear to Vintage King for the Matriarch and a Jupiter X. Even swap. The trade gave me something to play around with and make noise while no one was able to come over an record for a while. It got nuts here in Vegas for a minute. Glad I did it. I don't miss the hardware at all and love the addition of the synths.

Maurice Vaughan

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1 person likes this
- Simon Marchant
1 year ago

Welcome to the community, Simon Marchant. I like your "Shoreline" video, especially when the sound picks up at 0:24. I'm not sure what that sound is called.

Here are two blogs that'll help you find collaborators and success on here:

"Navigating Stage 32 For Your Best Experience" www.stage32.com/blog/navigating-stage-32-for-your-best-experience-3095

"How To Network Successfully On Stage 32" www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-network-successfully-on-stage-32-3356

Thank you, Maurice. That’s really kind of you to dig those blogs out for me. I shall check them now

Sam Sokolow

Hi Simon Marchant - it’s great to meet you here in the community! There is no age - only art (my mom just published her first book at 86 years old).

I’m the Director of Education here at Stage 32. If I can ever recommend any of our education for you or be of any help on your Stage 32 journey please reach out to me directly at edu@stage32.com.

Also, here is a link to the Stage 32 education landing page so you can check out all of the webinars, classes and labs that are at your fingertips as a community member: https://www.stage32.com/education

You're welcome, Simon Marchant. Ok, great. And Stage 32 has a lot of blogs. Composing blogs, filmmaking blogs, screenwriting blogs, and more.

Joanna Karselis

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3 people like this
1 year ago

Welcome to the community Simon! Love your use of textures and synths, it's sounding great. I echo everyone else's sentiments - it's never too late for a career change.

As for finding collaborators- you're in the right place here on S32. I'd also suggest going along to film meetups local to you and joining any local discord servers. You could look on Cue Tube for more clips to score against for the show reel. Film festivals are a great way to meet directors and producers too.

Joel Irwin

You're a baby! I didn't get my first film credit on IMDB until I was 62! :) Try a competition where all the teams need (or should need) composers. My first two credits were 48 hour film competitions. It's a great way to practice and establish relationships for future non-competitive projects. The second 48 hour film I scored won 8 awards (including best music video) and went on to 'filmapalooza' to compete internationally against all the city winners - placing 2nd to Paris with 4 more awards. Participating has advantages but you also get to list wins and nominations in IMDB as well. Of the nine 48 films I scored "Elegantia" ( https://youtu.be/jXfajMVeT54 ) won (I got producer credit for paying the entry fee) and I also won once and was nominated once for best score. Currently IMDB win/nomination summaries don't differentiate between shorts and features.

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2 people like this
- Ashley Renee Smith
- Maurice Vaughan
1 year ago

Thank you Joanna and Joel. Some most helpful advice from both of you :-) I've joined up with Cue Tube (which I knew nothing of until your post, Joanna). It looks like it could be very useful. Any advice you could give me in getting the most from it would be gratefully received.

And, Joel, I'm 62 now so, perhaps not so much a baby as I'm still trying to get something going! But I do take your point. Well done for all your marvellous achievements. The score for the Elegantia film was justly rewarded :-).