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Month of the Novel, part 1

I was contacted by Jordan Smith in September 2011. He was looking for a composer for his upcoming web series, Month of the Novel. I had been recommended to him, would I be interested?

I had heard of Month of the Novel and that they were going to be filming it, but it honestly didn't make any sense to me. However, for a young composer it is always an honor to be contacted for a job. Plus I knew Jordan and that although he was still learning himself, his films were getting better in quality all the time. So I said sure, could I look at the script?

Turns out there were six scripts, all of them around five pages long. They were quite humorous and clever, this would be great to do! The only catch was that I was in school full-time at ETSU, and didn't know if I could devote the time to do a show, also. 

When Jordan offered me the position, I decided to take it and go for it. These episodes would be short anyway, right? Plus, the job payed a bit, not very much, but more than I'd ever been paid for composing.

My first work was not too hard, just composing the theme for the show. This was probably the trickiest part of the process, because Jordan wanted something that would work for all the shows, and he had a specific idea in mind. Evidently, I finally got something that worked.

Then Jordan and Co. went off to Georgia to shoot the show. Once they got back, the mad scramble began, and would continue for the next six weeks! They would edit the first episode, get it to me by, say, Monday, I would write the score, get feedback, change the score, tweak it, get approval, do a final render, send it off, and the episode would air on YouTube the following Tuesday. 

www.monthofthenovel.com

Space Walk

This film was created for the ChristianFilmmakers.org 36 hour competition. You have 36 hours to make your movie. You can brainstorm, work on music, plan costumes, and lots of stuff before the 36 hours, but all the shooting and editing must be done within the time limit.

I had worked with Jacob Pennington before on Tentacle Reef, so when he and his sister Grace asked me to write the music for their film entry, I was happy to oblidge. Plus, this film was purposefully supposed to be so over-the-top that I could go all out with the music. Which I love to do.

I started working on themes the night before the competition started. This was a Very Good Thing, because I was not going to be in town the second day of the competition. So fortunately, due to the advance preparation (and the grace of God), I was able to get the four minute score done in just that one day.

The video turned out pretty funny, I think:

Civil War Reenactment

If you look at my portfolio under 2010, you will see this short film listed. It's obviously not something I did recently, but I thought it turned out well and wanted to share it.

David Reid posted a notice on ChristianFilmmakers.org that he had put together a reenactment video, was anyone interested in scoring it for free? I had about a week left before I started college, so I said sure. I was concerned that it might take a while, though, and once I started school the music would be left hanging.

Well I guess I didn't want any hitches, because I got the entire three and a half minutes of score done in under 24 hours. David was pleased with the first half, so I went ahead with the second half. David lives in Oregon, and I do not, so the time difference was slightly amusing. I happened to check my email in the middle of the night and he had sent me a message approving the score. I'm sure I went right to sleep after that. :)

Bartlett Farm Pork Commercial

Today I got to score a commercial for the Bartletts, who operate a diversified farm based in North Dakota. It was fun to do and I hope the ad sells a lot of pork!

The Audio Arrives

Here are the recordings!

String Quartet No. 2, Allegro by benjamindawson


Rondo for Saxophone Quartet by benjamindawson

A Successful Concert

The Composers' Concert went very well last night! I was kept busy running here and there, going off stage, coming off stage, then going on again...but it was a very rewarding evening and I think we got some good recordings.

Of course I enjoyed performing and listening to my pieces, but one of my favorite experiences of the concert was conducting a choral composition In the Garden, Gethsemane by my friend Ethan Tate.  The piece was performed by eleven singers from ETSU. It is very similar in style to Eric Whitacre. Lots of polyphony, cluster chords, and the like. It had a lot of passion, and I got lots of good practice showing this to the singers, while I did my best to give cut-offs, cues, and generally not fall down on stage.

In a day or two I hope to have audio, which I will then post.