# How long between gigs do you need....



## kid-surf (Sep 7, 2006)

...to get your head together? Not to mention flipping the switch and probably having to write something in a totally different direction with a different sound and sensibility altogether.

Do you need a few days off or can you just go right into the next thing the very next day? (and do a "good job") Just wondering what people's stamina is.


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## Daryl (Sep 8, 2006)

Depends on the gig and what the work is. Last year I had to do 78 minutes of orchestral arrangements for a pop tour and did it in about a week and a half doing between 20 and 22 hours a day. After that one I took nearly a month off, only doing a bit of teaching to keep myself sane....!

D


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## wonshu (Sep 8, 2006)

Actually the more time I have in between the harder it gets for me to get into it again.

For me constant work is fine. It's the periods without work that I find the most stressful.


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## Daryl (Sep 8, 2006)

midphase @ Fri Sep 08 said:


> Maybe I'm a wimp (or maybe I'm too old) but I simply can't imagine working for 20-22 hours a day. I mean...I could work 1 day for 20 hours straight, but then I would probably have to take the next day off to recoup and rest otherwise I would be useless.


I'm sure that you would do it if you had to. Somehow my mind (and body) seems to know when I really, really need to stay up all night and keeps me awake and reasonable productive. However, I can't just do it whenever I want to, which is quite weird.

D


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## Craig Sharmat (Sep 8, 2006)

Prozac


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## Ashermusic (Sep 8, 2006)

midphase @ Fri Sep 08 said:


> Maybe I'm a wimp (or maybe I'm too old) but I simply can't imagine working for 20-22 hours a day. I mean...I could work 1 day for 20 hours straight, but then I would probably have to take the next day off to recoup and rest otherwise I would be useless.
> 
> I usually find that after about 12 hours of working max, my productivity goes way down and I start making mistakes that actually end up costing me time.
> 
> ...



Kays, this is almost identical to what I would have written although I could probably do 14 hour days without collapsing.


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## John DeBorde (Sep 8, 2006)

this is about my max too. last year i did a film where i worked 14 hour days for 3 weeks straight, and i was pretty burnt afterwards- which is typical for me. too much more than that and the mistakes start to have a diminishing return.

i just wrapped a much larger scale project (100 minutes of music) than is typical for me, and it took me about 3 months of mostly 8-10 hour days. this was a marathon for me - i found that if i put in the longer days, the lapse in quality really started to show. (mostly cuz i was doing a lot of synth programming, which is fairly tedious for me). fortunately there was no drop dead deadline, so the director told me to take a litlle extra time if that would make the score better (how many times have you heard that?).

anyway, it was a bear and took a lot of balancing to keep myself healthy and sane over that long a haul. it was great fun tho, and some of my best work ever.

in regards to changing gears - i scored the trailer to this film as well right after i finished the score, and it took me a few days to change gears from the quasi-minimalist/ambient score to the rock trailer. if i write in a certain style for long enough, a certain inertia gets built up, and it's hard to switch gears right away, as muchòg   DwÓg   DwÔg   DwÕg   DwÖg   Dw×g   DwØg   DwÙg   DwÚg   DwÛg   DwÜg   DwÝg   DwÞg   Dwßg   Dwàg   Dwág   Dwâg   Dwãg   Dwäh   Dwåh   Dwæh   Dwçh   Dwèh   Dwéh   Dwê


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## kid-surf (Sep 9, 2006)

Wouldn't you know... I'm too fuck'n tired to respond at length (due to the subject matter). I'm in hardcore decompression mode right now. 


_me sleepy................._


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## kid-surf (Sep 9, 2006)

By the way ... Craig do you take your prozac orally or the other way? :D

I'm not to tired to crack a joke.....


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## lux (Sep 10, 2006)

I like the usage of the word "gigS". Things seem so easy for us people. I know it isnt, but it makes me a certain effect. Actually I have all the time I want.


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## wonshu (Sep 10, 2006)

lux - good obvservation... hehehe


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## kid-surf (Sep 11, 2006)

Ok, so reading your responses I see I'm mostly not alone. I need at least two days between an extended gig. I think some people look at it as a badge of honor (being treated essentially like shit due to these deadlines) but to me it's not all that glamorous. Most everyone else in this world doesn't have to work weeks without breaks.... so? So, hard for me to see no weekend(s) as "cool". Cool is me and my bros on the beach in some exotic local sipping a drink with hot chicks giving us a massage after we've just surfed killer waves all day. (or anything else but sitting in front of computers)


Like some of you if I take too much time off I feel rusty and apathetic. I think it's that way for many people with high intensity jobs. I was talking with some agents the other day and they all said they can't take too much time off or they find it hard to get back in the swing of things. I imagine I wouldn't want to go under the knife with a dude who's had an extended holiday. 

One thing with me is that I like the "high" of writing something I'm into. So it's hard to go too long without writing something. Even if I'm not working on something I still have to be writing almost everyday (weekday). If I'm not on a gig I'm absolutely taking the weekend off though. No question.

Me too, after a certain number of hours I start to sit there and stare at the screen not producing much of anything worthwhile. Probably about 12 hours for me too. Yet, I seem to do a lot of all nighters cause of getting files late in the day. About 4 a month, which seems high to me.

Anyway....

Daryl -- so are you a concert composer. You've clown'd on film composing so I don't know what your gig is. Concert composing? 

Lux -- I just mean doing whatever. Maybe you go from a gig to speccing for something. It's still all work to me. 

Kays -- I'd ask for help if I needed it too. Who cares. Plenty of good composers ask for help since these deadlines are friggn stupid.


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## Daryl (Sep 11, 2006)

kid-surf @ Mon Sep 11 said:


> Daryl -- so are you a concert composer. You've clown'd on film composing so I don't know what your gig is. Concert composing?


Sorry, language barrier. Can you ask that again in English with words of one syllable....!

D


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## midphase (Sep 11, 2006)

> Ok, so reading your responses I see I'm mostly not alone. I need at least two days between an extended gig. I think some people look at it as a badge of honor (being treated essentially like shit due to these deadlines) but to me it's not all that glamorous. Most everyone else in this world doesn't have to work weeks without breaks.... so? So, hard for me to see no weekend(s) as "cool". Cool is me and my bros on the beach in some exotic local sipping a drink with hot chicks giving us a massage after we've just surfed killer waves all day. (or anything else but sitting in front of computers)





amen.....AMEN!!!!

I'm totally with you on this one....staying up for days on end to make an idiotic deadline just because the director and editor took their sweet old time on the Avid and now the composer has to make up for their inconsiderate tardiness is nothing to be proud of!


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## Bruce Richardson (Sep 26, 2006)

I have been working almost nonstop since April...two plays, a roadshow, a short film, and a re-cut of a feature I did last year, and now starting a 26-episode series.

I took a bit over a week off in Amsterdam, and that helped, but not so much. I'm still burned out, with no break in sight for a few months.

:shock: 

It is definitely beyond my outer limit. Unfortunately, I had a big batch of studio expenses, and even with all this work, I am running tight.

sigh...


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## Patrick de Caumette (Sep 26, 2006)

So Bruce, you've taken a week off in Amsterdam and you feel burnt...
...no kidding  I can see smoke coming out of yours ears :mrgreen: 

I've had a 3 weeks straight @ 16 hours/day. Not as bad as Daryl but while under the gun I started being forgetful: lost a pair of glasses and a jacket in the train, the cap for my car's tank, my monthly train pass (when I go teach)...etc

and I wasn't smoking the stuff Bruce had in Amsterdam :cry: 

I agree that when the dealines are there, we just manage to deliver no matter what.
But down the road, there is a price to pay for the sustained adrenaline rush.


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## Bruce Richardson (Sep 26, 2006)

Haha. I'll confess that I did elevate my blood THC level considerably while there. When in Rome...


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## Sean Beeson (Sep 26, 2006)

Waywyn @ Fri Sep 08 said:


> Yeh I would say the same. Sometimes I don't even have time to think about taking a day off because the schedule is packed
> 
> So it happens to start an ethnic ingame track but right after that I should start music for a racing game and a day later I have to get back to the romans
> 
> ...



I agree with the entire zombie mode. That happens to me quite a bit nowadays. I try to work in 1 hour spurts, and then rest for 15 minutes. That way in a ten hour day I am working 8 hours on writing.

I spent 40 hours working on a piece once in two days. By the end of those two days my head was jello. It took a week to really get back into the game. I was tired and needed rest. My brain was spent and need to take a break, and my creativity felt like it just had its colon blasted with a firemans hose


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