# Working at Remote Control



## H.R.

Hi

I'm H.R. from Iran. It might be a little bit strange but here we go!
I guess I was around 5 years old when I saw The Lion King and fell in love with the music of that animation. since then I pursuing almost every track from Hans Zimmer. Little bit later It became my biggest dream to meet the master and work with him. So I decided to be a composer,as a kid I practiced so hard with the picture of master on the wall and thank god now I'm a successful composer here (At least by my own standards) then I said to my self what if I'm not good enough to work with master ? so I decided the other thing that I though I'm good at. Videogames. I said to myself If become a successful game designer maybe I double my chance to work with Hans one day. Thanks to the master I'm a game designer too and it's my main job now. But again you can't be so sure, what if he doesn't want to work on my crappy videogame ? So I found the third way, I went to learn film directing and again thanks to the master I recently got my degrees in film directing and now I'm planning to get out of my country and follow every career I have experience at. but here is the question:

How hard could it be to work at Remote Control Production ? How hard could it be to some day meet the biggest dream of my life ? What can I do to get to this dream? I don't believe in impossible and that is why I'm trying so hard to beat all the odds. What qualifications should I have to work there ?

I'm sorry if it got too long, I just thought finally I found a great forum to share this maybe strange way of my life. (Boy I feel good now to spell it all out!) :D 

Thank you guys.


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## RiffWraith

H.R. @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> How hard could it be to work at Remote Control Production ?



To get a job working there? Next to impossible. You probably have no idea how many young, aspiring composers want to get a job at RC. It's not in the dozens, not in the hundreds....and all of these people already live in the L.A. area. And here you are, almost 8,000 mi away. 

My advice is keep honing your skills, practice, study, make contacts, and learn how to network. There are many ways you can become a successful composer, and many paths you can take. I would seriously consider forgetting about working at RC and taking your own path. Not that it is impossible, but you actually have better odds at becoming a working composer outside of RC than as part of it.

Good luck.


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## Markus S

H.R. @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> Hi
> 
> I'm H.R. from Iran. It might be a little bit strange but here we go!
> I guess I was around 5 years old when I saw The Lion King and fell in love with the music of that animation. since then I pursuing almost every track from Hans Zimmer. Little bit later It became my biggest dream to meet the master and work with him. So I decided to be a composer,as a kid I practiced so hard with the picture of master on the wall and thank god now I'm a successful composer here (At least by my own standards) then I said to my self *what if I'm not good enough* to work with master ? so I decided the other thing that I though I'm good at. Videogames. I said to myself If become a successful game designer maybe I double my chance to work with Hans one day. Thanks to the master I'm a game designer too and it's my main job now. But again you can't be so sure, *what if he doesn't want to work on my crappy videogame* ? So I found the third way, I went to learn film directing and again thanks to the master I recently got my degrees in film directing and now I'm planning to get out of my country and follow every career I have experience at. but here is the question:
> 
> How hard could it be to work at Remote Control Production ? How hard could it be to some day meet the biggest dream of my life ? *What can I do to get to this dream?* I don't believe in impossible and that is why I'm trying so hard to beat all the odds. What qualifications should I have to work there ?
> 
> I'm sorry if it got too long, I just thought finally I found a great forum to share this maybe strange way of my life. (Boy I feel good now to spell it all out!) :D
> 
> Thank you guys.



You could start working on you self-esteem and notice that it's not all that important after all. You do seem a bit obsessed with this one career-work perspective, I believe it would do you good to see the merit and great stuff you already have and achieved and do not focus so much on what you do not have and maybe never will.

Also many dreams - once you get there - do not turn out as fantastic as they seemed as long as they were dreams. Not saying you shouldn't try and do your best, but if it doesn't work, hell, something else will as long as you are confident in yourself.


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## mark812

Great advice from Riff and Markus.


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## H.R.

Thank you guys. I really appreciate you answering.
Actually working in Remote Control is an excuse to work with Hans Zimmer. I just can't stop listening to him. I watched Every interview, every video of him and it's an absolute obsession. I want to discover him more, I've learned music by listening to him and I think it's natural to be curios about the source of the success you have. 
You're right Markus, I have to try harder on my self-esteem. Funny thing is although I've learned everything from him but every day I try to not sound like him because obviously I can't be him and It's great to have new music instead of copying someone else.

Anyway it's amazing when you look at RC, It's like a wonderland for a composer, in every room there is a magnificent talent and the sense of competition with them I think will make you a better composer.


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## Christof

Dear H.R.
I can promise to you that Hans Zimmer has read what you are writing here, and I am sure that he is honored by such respect and praise.
@RiffWraith:
Nothing is impossible, if his biggest dream is to work along with Hans Zimmer it may become possible.Even if there are thousands of others with the same desire.
Go for it H.R.!!!


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## RiffWraith

Christof @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> @RiffWraith:
> Nothing is impossible...



Who said it is impossible? I sure did not.



RiffWraith @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> Not that it is impossible, but ...


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## Martin K

Hi H.R.

I can't answer what it takes to work at RC, but I admire your persistence. 

You seem like a guy who truly follow your dreams. My advice would be to keep doing that, never give up, never let anybody tell you that it can't be done and I'm sure you'll work there one day  

best,
Martin


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## KingIdiot

Follow your dreams buddy. Keep working hard to be as good as you can, and you never know. While yes, sometimes dreams never turn out like they seem in your head, chasing them and even achieving them and knowing you went for it can mean so much.

One thing, possibly the most important thing, is going to be work ethic. Some of those guys are the hardest working out there. Work hard, make sure that you working hard is working harder than what other people think is working hard, so it feels easy to out work them. I know this because I've spend time being a lazy shit, and the one thing that always impress me about anyone in that/the film scene is how hard many of them work.

Get good at what you do, and if it's not composing there are other opportunities to be involved in that scene. Sound Designing, tech, all sorts. It's saturated yes, but I promise you, if you work, hard , and get good, everyone notices, and that's just as important as having an in.

It's not that you have to want it enough, or you have to be better. It's really just about having the right things get noticed, when it comes to any dream.

It doesn't mean it'll pan out like your fantasies. It doesn't mean you'll get burned. It doesn't mean you'll even make it, but hell, working towards something, and being goal orientated is an amazing thing for life, and even if you don't make it into RC, you might end up with some awesome skills to make something of your own.

Passion and drive will get you so much further for yourself than a spoon fed "in". Trust me. Make passion keep you loving it.


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## Daniel James

Hey H.R

When going for any job you have to ask yourself "What do I have to offer" Like others mentioned there is ALOT of competition for these types of positions. So I would start by knowing absolutly everything you could ever be asked to do. Research what role you could fill there and learn it inside out...if they need split printers learn their daws inside and out and be fucking amazing at printing splits. If they need sample slicers, learn the tools inside out and get fucking amazing at slicing samples if they need a coffee boy learn how to make the best fucking cup of coffee you can THEN you have something to offer them.

Also make sure you understand the role you are given. If you are hired as a tea boy, you wont be writing blockbuster cues.. Your job will be another cog in the machine; but it requires every cog to turn in order to remain efficient...so before setting on this path you have to ask yourself what YOU want. You said you want to work with Hans which is 100% understandable, Who wouldn't right...the dudes a fucking legend, but keep in mind you are there to do a job. Only you can decide if its the job you want, but at the end of the day that is why you would be there....to do your job, not to hang out and learn. Of course learning will be a side effect of being in the environment as well as being around the people that work at the top of the game but thats the trade off 

If its what you REALLY want mate the absolutely go for it, just remember to go in for the right reasons and have something to offer! 

If you want it bad enough you will find a way, if not you will find an excuse.

Good luck! :D

-DJ


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## dcoscina

H.R. perhaps the first thing you can do is try to arrange for a tour of the facility. I think Daniel James had a visit a while back if I'm not mistaken. Spending a little time there might give you some added perspective- it can either fuel your desire more or perhaps lead you to pursue video games or directing. 

Obviously it's not even that easy to get a tour set up but perhaps Daniel could tell you about his experience there.


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## H.R.

I just can't thank you guys enough. I'm really happy to be a member of this forum with such a great supportive community. It really helped me. 

Somehow I achieved most of my dreams I've had in my life, and I'm not giving up on this one too, no matter what's waiting for me at the end. Who knows? Like some of you said maybe I reach a better goal that I'm now aware of right now. (Working with Hans is my childhood dream after The Lion King)

Thank you guys.


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## pkm

I agree with a lot of what has already been said.

Be two things:

1. Really, really, really good at what you do.

2. Open to alternate paths.

When I got out of college, it was a big goal of mine to work at RCP too. I know lots of people who work there, some directly for Hans, and I've walked the halls there many times. It's a very cool place. Lots of innovation, talent, and collaboration. But my path went in a different unexpected direction and I couldn't be happier.

Don't let yourself think that the only way find your inner "success" is if you achieve the specific goal of working with Hans Zimmer. Would you rather get Hans Zimmer's coffee or write music with John Powell? Would you rather score your own blockbuster film, or print synth masters for 2017's Superman Vs. Batman Vs. Spiderman?
 
Are you pursuing composing because you want nothing more than to write music for film? Or because you want to work with Hans Zimmer?

I think your first step is finding out what YOU really want to do. You mention composing, directing, and designing video games. At the risk of sounding like a high school guidance counselor, find what you really want to do, do it really, really, really well, and the right path will find you.

Best of luck!


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## H.R.

Thanks pkm.

WOW, It most be great to walk in RC. Yes, as I said, now I think more clear. John Powell is my second favorite composer, It would be great to reach that level of professionalism to be able to work with other person's like John Powell. Of course I never think about being a coffee guy for Hans (Though It would be my honor to do it :D ) and that's why I see other alternatives of working with him.
About the question whether I want to be a composer or just work with Zimmer. No doubt I'm crazy to compose for films and games. The process of understanding the story and characters and deciding to expand the feelings with a proper touch is just amazing. but always working with someone who you trust is a ultimate joy and I'm agree and 100% believe in every score he wrote.


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## H.R.

Oh another thing! Like I said before, what do you think is the main standard of big music companies like RC in hiring new staffs ? not just particullary RC.
I saw an interview with Lorne Balfe. He said the first day he went to RC, Zimmer told to him that if he can make music with computer and he said no. Zimmer told him "you kidding right ?" and he lied yes of cours. and he said he was confused with all that knobs and synths. (Not exact quotes!) 
I mean obviously he wasn't that much great with DAWs, I guess! but he got the job and now without any doubt he's one of the best new composers of our era.
I guess it's not all about what you are, it's more about what you can be.


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## Greg

I think you need to.. um... dream a little bigger darling.

Take the inspiration Hans has given you and use that to achieve your own goals and have your own effect on the world. 

Blaze your own trail. Kindle your own dreams. The world wants to see YOUR flame.

You don't need to work at RC to do that. Infact it might even hold you back. Go create your own RC.


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## H.R.

It's very nice of you Greg. It means a lot to me.

Funny thing is I recently decided to expand my work by hiring composers to work with me. Heads up to Hans! :D we're going to dominate Hollywood! :D Hollywood Reckoning I guess!


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## dcoscina

H.R. I think your drive is admirable. I felt the same drive to meet John Williams who was the inspiration for me as a composer. I did finally get to talk with him after a concert in 2003 and shake his hand. It was a tremendous honor and for me, it was important to tell him that his music inspired me to be a composer. though I am sure he'd heard that more times than he could count, it was something I felt like I needed to say to him should I ever meet him and I was able to. A dream come true! 

So I echo every one else here- follow your dreams!


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## jleckie

Hans would probably say ...

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...OtHvTlyuutHPcVqZRlOa0Lo6sn_2NwKzGRSjaiqibzrQg


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## Waywyn

Hey H.R.

didn't read through all the comments and it may have been mentioned already etc. but in my opinion you got more passion than lots of working composers out there. No matter if you land at RC or not - just keep that passion and if you stick to it, you will come very far.

Don't let anyone ruin or talk down your dreams and give a fuck about anyone negatively crossing your way. If RC is your biggest dream then stick to it, use the created energy, convert the stepbacks and failure into experience and keep on writing music. One step will lead to another!


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## H.R.

Vibrato, Thanks for the useful information. 

Waywyn, You just gave me lots of energy man!


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## Brobdingnagian

Follow your dreams, HR.

On another note, this thread has 2000 views, but only 20 posts. Wonder if anyone here who has logged in time there will honestly speak up and share with us their experiences....


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## jleckie

They are all too busy following THEIR dreams.


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## maest

@jleckie & @Brobdingnagain - :wink:


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## SymphonicSamples

Hey H.R ,
As I read though this I have no doubt that all of us here being musicians have had similar dreams throughout our lives with people we admire and aspire to , myself included . Dreams are a wonderful thing as they can makes us grow past a point that otherwise without them , we may not . I wish you the best of luck with yours .


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## Madrigal

What a lot of us tend to forget is that our fascination for certain film scores is the by-product of the amazement and emotion we feel while watching the very movies they are accompanying. 

Some music lingers because it makes us connect with the emotional response of the film's subject. 

Of course, some soundtracks would have made beautiful music on their own, but others are only relevant because of the action they narrate. Movies and music are intrinsically linked and often inseparable. 

Zimmer's music plays an important role in 20th/21st century cinema. 

One of the reasons so many love his music, is because he has had the opportunity to score pictures that became great films. 

All to his credits if he was able to tell those stories in a memorable way through his music. 

My point being, if you want to leave your mark as a film composer and do as Zimmer did, maybe looking forward to working at RC isn't the goal one should strive for. 

One should look to work with the next greatest filmmakers. 

Where to find them? They're all over the place. I'd recommend starting with Youtube, Vimeo, etc :wink: 

Best of luck

M


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## gsilbers

H.R. @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> I just can't thank you guys enough. I'm really happy to be a member of this forum with such a great supportive community. It really helped me.
> 
> Somehow I achieved most of my dreams I've had in my life, and I'm not giving up on this one too, no matter what's waiting for me at the end. Who knows? Like some of you said maybe I reach a better goal that I'm now aware of right now. (Working with Hans is my childhood dream after The Lion King)
> 
> Thank you guys.



also, keep in mind that there is other options besides RC in los angeles which might actually be better for you. 
for one there are ex RC folks who live nearby which you can get a better one to one experience and still have similar quality of RC. 
nothing against RC of course. just options. :wink:


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## Rctec

O.k. I'll stick my neck out and tell you what gets you in the door, not really in order of importance:

Can you write a tune? I mean not any old tune, but something that tells a story that's appropriate to the subject of the film. Don't worry about trying to be original. Forced originality always sounds fake. To be really good is original enough.

Do you know your classics? I mean Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Ravel, Morricone...the list is vast. ...and I mean Really Know. You don't have to be able to play it, but it really helps if you know what Mahler did in the last movement of the second, or how to synthesize Kraftwerk's 'Man Machine'... It's all about orchestration and figuring out the colours. So...
Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? Figure out what the violas are playing as a little hidden inner line? Where in the mix they sit? One of the reasons I instantly hired Steve Mazzaro was because he had done a transcription of one of my pieces by ear, which was more than perfect. ...and he's a really great, creative, talented team player with a very original brain. He has a vast future ahead of him.

Can you program? Preferably in Cubase? Listen to Angels and Demons "130 Bpm". That's what Steve had done. With whatever sample library he had lying around. "Gladiator Waltz" is an old one of mine. The samples are from '94. - I just mention these as tracks that don't require some crazy custom library...And is your programming immaculatly tidy? There is nothing worse than unquantized tracks misinterpreted by the orchestrators, nothing more disheartening than listen to music that has no expression programmed...and worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)...

Can you engineer? I don't mean life players, (that helps!) but know how to really get the best out of reverbs, eq, compressors and all the other toys. We make music for big speakers and have to compete with amazing sound design.

Do you love technology? Some people just don't get on with it. It overwhelms them. The technology controls them, but you have to have an affinity with it...

When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write...

Do you never sleep? That's an advantage 
Do you really want to write for film? This is not some way to deal with your failed rock star ambition, or your secret yearning to write concert music... This is all about wanting to tell a story in music.
Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
...and do you live in L.A.? - I have a place in London, but you really have to be where the movie is being made.
...and that's just of the top of my head.
Good Luck!

-H-


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## David Story

Proof that a post on a forum can achieve greatness, thank you. Worth quoting.
"Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? "


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## Jem7

Rctec @ 20/9/2013 said:


> O.k. I'll stick my neck out and tell you what gets you in the door, not really in order of importance:
> 
> Can you write a tune? I mean not any old tune, but something that tells a story that's appropriate to the subject of the film. Don't worry about trying to be original. Forced originality always sounds fake. To be really good is original enough.
> 
> Do you know your classics? I mean Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Ravel, Morricone...the list is vast. ...and I mean Really Know. You don't have to be able to play it, but it really helps if you know what Mahler did in the last movement of the second, or how to synthesize Kraftwerk's 'Man Machine'... It's all about orchestration and figuring out the colours. So...
> Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? Figure out what the violas are playing as a little hidden inner line? Where in the mix they sit? One of the reasons I instantly hired Steve Mazzaro was because he had done a transcription of one of my pieces by ear, which was more than perfect. ...and he's a really great, creative, talented team player with a very original brain. He has a vast future ahead of him.
> 
> Can you program? Preferably in Cubase? Listen to Angels and Demons "130 Bpm". That's what Steve had done. With whatever sample library he had lying around. "Gladiator Waltz" is an old one of mine. The samples are from '94. - I just mention these as tracks that don't require some crazy custom library...And is your programming immaculatly tidy? There is nothing worse than unquantized tracks misinterpreted by the orchestrators, nothing more disheartening than listen to music that has no expression programmed...and worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)...
> 
> Can you engineer? I don't mean life players, (that helps!) but know how to really get the best out of reverbs, eq, compressors and all the other toys. We make music for big speakers and have to compete with amazing sound design.
> 
> Do you love technology? Some people just don't get on with it. It overwhelms them. The technology controls them, but you have to have an affinity with it...
> 
> When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write...
> 
> Do you never sleep? That's an advantage
> Do you really want to write for film? This is not some way to deal with your failed rock star ambition, or your secret yearning to write concert music... This is all about wanting to tell a story in music.
> Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
> ...and do you live in L.A.? - I have a place in London, but you really have to be where the movie is being made.
> ...and that's just of the top of my head.
> Good Luck!
> 
> -H-



Great response! 
I liked the questions and I would like to answer them if its ok  Just for fun or whatever. I don't know at the moment. It's 3:30 am and I just want to go for it.

I think I can write a tune. As lons as the notes telling some story to me yes I can. Otherwise I keep searching.

Yeah I can listen and try figure out every little detail. Sometimes it takes a bit time to discover some stuff but at the end it helps a lot.

I think I can program better than I compose sometime and I can engineer because I already do. Working as engineer been long time. I love big speakers and working on them most of time.

I love technology because it makes possible to make me write music easier and quicker and lots of other benefits. 

Directors usually doesn't understand from musical language so no point to using musical terms with them  Asking what's that story about or what feeling they want to get is more useful I think.

I hate sleep. I find it hard to sleep and usually slept around 2-4 am and get up around 10-11 am. I've been already in that irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticisim(that's been gone long far to make me grow a thick skin) and others. Damn I don't live in LA yet!


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## Generdyn

Read Rctec's post and I think its time to go back to the drawing board! :D 

I like the bit you said about forced originality and really listening to the music. 

Regards,
Generdyn


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## José Herring

H.R. @ Sat Aug 31 said:


> Hi
> 
> I'm H.R. from Iran. It might be a little bit strange but here we go!
> I guess I was around 5 years old when I saw The Lion King and fell in love with the music of that animation. since then I pursuing almost every track from Hans Zimmer. Little bit later It became my biggest dream to meet the master and work with him. So I decided to be a composer,as a kid I practiced so hard with the picture of master on the wall and thank god now I'm a successful composer here (At least by my own standards) then I said to my self what if I'm not good enough to work with master ? so I decided the other thing that I though I'm good at. Videogames. I said to myself If become a successful game designer maybe I double my chance to work with Hans one day. Thanks to the master I'm a game designer too and it's my main job now. But again you can't be so sure, what if he doesn't want to work on my crappy videogame ? So I found the third way, I went to learn film directing and again thanks to the master I recently got my degrees in film directing and now I'm planning to get out of my country and follow every career I have experience at. but here is the question:
> 
> How hard could it be to work at Remote Control Production ? How hard could it be to some day meet the biggest dream of my life ? What can I do to get to this dream? I don't believe in impossible and that is why I'm trying so hard to beat all the odds. What qualifications should I have to work there ?
> 
> I'm sorry if it got too long, I just thought finally I found a great forum to share this maybe strange way of my life. (Boy I feel good now to spell it all out!) :D
> 
> Thank you guys.



You have a lot of passion and seems like some really good training. 

My suggestion is to make the best film you can, score it, send it to festivals, get noticed, then write Hans and tell him of your successes. Social media makes it very easy to contact people these days, especially if you have distinguished yourself in some way.

Best of luck. Seems like you have a good future ahead of you.

And don't listen to the people that say, it's too hard or can't be done. Many people are doing it, and it can be done. Only the petty person doesn't have big dreams. And, you seem like you have plenty of big dreams. Meeting Hans isn't out of your reach.


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## guydoingmusic

Rctec @ Fri Sep 20 said:


> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?



Have you been talking to my wife?


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## José Herring

Sorry, I posted before I even read the other post. Looks like Hans already chimed in. 

btw, I looked up Steve M. mock up....ummmm whoa!


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## Jetzer

josejherring @ September 21st said:


> btw, I looked up Steve M. mock up....ummmm whoa!



I'm quite curious, is this the mockup: ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Z9MC_eFtI&feature=c4-overview&list=UU0TvZZKVydyvROM1OEoP1eg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Z9MC_e ... OM1OEoP1eg)

If not, were can I find it?
:wink:


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## germancomponist

Rctec @ Fri Sep 20 said:


> Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?



No one should underestimate! Good points, Sir!


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## germancomponist

Oops, double post.... .


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## Rctec

Dear JH, that's Steve's... Pretty amazing. But he'll have to tell you where I heard it. 
-Hz-


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## RobertPeetersPiano

I don't understand why you need to live in LA. I thought HZ lived in Germany when he started his career. 

And also, HZ didn't mention the thousands of dollars you need to be able to set up a DAW


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## Tanuj Tiku

These are some of the questions that have confused me in the past. 

But, in the end everyone has a journey of their own. Forget Germany, I write film music in a country where it is not appreciated and is not even the main event in a film. Song and dance still takes the cake in films in India today.

I used to get confused by such questions and the future for myself but in the end, I realised that what else could I possibly do anyway? Writing this kind of music is a an obsession for me and for a few years I even tried very hard to re-locate to London or LA but being a foreign national, it is very difficult. 

Plus, I got told by many good folks not to go to LA if you had no job in hand or any sort of invitation 

You do not need a million dollars to write film music or set-up a studio. Hans did his first film, in the directors office with a sampler. 

Spielberg jumped off a tour bus in Universal (as far as I can remember from an interview) and just started talking to people there.

There is no 'one' way to enter the industry and its all of the things Hans has just mentioned.

Plus, why would you need a million dollars unless you were scoring Man of Steel where you need that kind of massive sound and lots of live recordings?

If you were chosen to write music for MOS or a big blockbuster - they will pay for it anyway.

So, really you could write music for films today with just a few instruments and a decent computer as well. So many people are doing that already. 

I mean, I do so myself. I just have one computer. I do not have hardware so I saved up for the last two years and got myself UAD last week. Its pretty good and until such time that I can afford hardware, I can use these plug ins.

Hey, if they are good enough for Hans and Alan Meyerson - then it means, we can use it too 

I do not have lots of money to hire an orchestra and nobody wants to pay for it in India so what does that mean for me? Too bad! I am going to go ahead and still make that kind of music. It is not going to stop me and nor should it be that way for anyone else. 

Herrmann did psycho with only strings because he did not have any more money to hire a full orchestra. 

You see, you could look at this the other way round. Hans started with nothing. We all do. Nobody is going to take all the money and equipment with them when they die. 

You just have one life and you try to make the best of it. He started in that office and today he owns a big facility where he has driven not only himself but the entire industry and helped countless composers, musicians and many more in the process.

I see such stories around the world and that is wonderful. That they started small but appreciated the value of the big stuff and have invited people and inspired them over the years. 

I think that is something to take from this. 

Just my thoughts!


Tanuj.


----------



## jlb

guydoingmusic @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> Rctec @ Fri Sep 20 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have you been talking to my wife?
Click to expand...


Love it!

JLB


----------



## dgburns

Rctec @ Fri Sep 20 said:


> O.k. I'll stick my neck out and tell you what gets you in the door, not really in order of importance:
> 
> Can you write a tune? I mean not any old tune, but something that tells a story that's appropriate to the subject of the film. Don't worry about trying to be original. Forced originality always sounds fake. To be really good is original enough.
> 
> Do you know your classics? I mean Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Ravel, Morricone...the list is vast. ...and I mean Really Know. You don't have to be able to play it, but it really helps if you know what Mahler did in the last movement of the second, or how to synthesize Kraftwerk's 'Man Machine'... It's all about orchestration and figuring out the colours. So...
> Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? Figure out what the violas are playing as a little hidden inner line? Where in the mix they sit? One of the reasons I instantly hired Steve Mazzaro was because he had done a transcription of one of my pieces by ear, which was more than perfect. ...and he's a really great, creative, talented team player with a very original brain. He has a vast future ahead of him.
> 
> Can you program? Preferably in Cubase? Listen to Angels and Demons "130 Bpm". That's what Steve had done. With whatever sample library he had lying around. "Gladiator Waltz" is an old one of mine. The samples are from '94. - I just mention these as tracks that don't require some crazy custom library...And is your programming immaculatly tidy? There is nothing worse than unquantized tracks misinterpreted by the orchestrators, nothing more disheartening than listen to music that has no expression programmed...and worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)...
> 
> Can you engineer? I don't mean life players, (that helps!) but know how to really get the best out of reverbs, eq, compressors and all the other toys. We make music for big speakers and have to compete with amazing sound design.
> 
> Do you love technology? Some people just don't get on with it. It overwhelms them. The technology controls them, but you have to have an affinity with it...
> 
> When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write...
> 
> Do you never sleep? That's an advantage
> Do you really want to write for film? This is not some way to deal with your failed rock star ambition, or your secret yearning to write concert music... This is all about wanting to tell a story in music.
> Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
> ...and do you live in L.A.? - I have a place in London, but you really have to be where the movie is being made.
> ...and that's just of the top of my head.
> Good Luck!
> 
> -H-



you know there are some of us around here who do aspire to be the best at what we do.Especially given the opportunities that do come to us.Everything you say is true,and I for one live through all this daily.I just don't live in LA.It's a major pita,and CLM(career limiting move) not to be there,but there it is.
the best music is always written at 4am when everyone else has given up,but you refuse to bend or break despite all around you is saying to give up.biggest fear I have is not ever having a chance to work on something that people actually watch!
anyway....


----------



## H.R.

Rctec @ Fri Sep 20 said:


> O.k. I'll stick my neck out and tell you what gets you in the door, not really in order of importance:
> 
> Can you write a tune? I mean not any old tune, but something that tells a story that's appropriate to the subject of the film. Don't worry about trying to be original. Forced originality always sounds fake. To be really good is original enough.
> 
> Do you know your classics? I mean Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Ravel, Morricone...the list is vast. ...and I mean Really Know. You don't have to be able to play it, but it really helps if you know what Mahler did in the last movement of the second, or how to synthesize Kraftwerk's 'Man Machine'... It's all about orchestration and figuring out the colours. So...
> Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? Figure out what the violas are playing as a little hidden inner line? Where in the mix they sit? One of the reasons I instantly hired Steve Mazzaro was because he had done a transcription of one of my pieces by ear, which was more than perfect. ...and he's a really great, creative, talented team player with a very original brain. He has a vast future ahead of him.
> 
> Can you program? Preferably in Cubase? Listen to Angels and Demons "130 Bpm". That's what Steve had done. With whatever sample library he had lying around. "Gladiator Waltz" is an old one of mine. The samples are from '94. - I just mention these as tracks that don't require some crazy custom library...And is your programming immaculatly tidy? There is nothing worse than unquantized tracks misinterpreted by the orchestrators, nothing more disheartening than listen to music that has no expression programmed...and worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)...
> 
> Can you engineer? I don't mean life players, (that helps!) but know how to really get the best out of reverbs, eq, compressors and all the other toys. We make music for big speakers and have to compete with amazing sound design.
> 
> Do you love technology? Some people just don't get on with it. It overwhelms them. The technology controls them, but you have to have an affinity with it...
> 
> When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write...
> 
> Do you never sleep? That's an advantage
> Do you really want to write for film? This is not some way to deal with your failed rock star ambition, or your secret yearning to write concert music... This is all about wanting to tell a story in music.
> Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
> ...and do you live in L.A.? - I have a place in London, but you really have to be where the movie is being made.
> ...and that's just of the top of my head.
> Good Luck!
> 
> -H-



I made a promise to my self "you do not make contact with Hans Zimmer unless you see him in person and give him a big hug and cry like a maniac" but god damn it it's so hard. 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to respond sir. My heart is beating crazy! 

It was like Gandalf telling Frodo what a dangerous and hard way is up ahead. 

Well I'm not that good! :D 

"Forced originality always sounds fake." Great advise. It's my method of writing a tune. I write it and I listen to it and ask myself:" OK, If someone tells you this is a tune from Hans Zimmer, would you believe it? around 80% of the time the answer is no and after that the hard process of making something unique happens. I mean I watch most movies without making any connection to the main theme . But for instance when I watched The Last Samurai, for a week I couldn't stop singing the main theme with my mouth.

Am I listen to classics ? Unfortunately no. But I improved my ears with Mozart but you are my most important Temple. I can't stop listening to The Thin Red Line for like 10 years to explore the music I want to write.

I'm not a good programmer but I work with Cubase (cause I found out you using it)
"worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)..."-- Oops! I experienced it. :D 

"Can you engineer?" I do, I've done soundeffects for 2 videogames but I think I'm not a pro. (Even though I'm one of the rare persons in Iran who makes his own soundeffect library)

I love technology. I find it amazing to make my own sounds (sorry I use Massive instead of Zebra :D ) even if it takes a day just to make one little tiny sound but at the end of the day I'm happy that I've made it.

I am a director myself and I think I can get along well (even though I've only scored for videogames) and do I love making music for pictures ? Oh this is the ultimate joy. To find out the characters and story is the great part of making music. For instance before The Dark Knight Rises I was thinking "How Hans's going to approach to Bane's Suite ? I started crafting the character based on pictures and infos before watching the film. I came close but god I never thought about Deshi Deshi Basara Basara. (Someone help me, I can't stop listening to TDKR!)

OK I'm searching how to be an Insomniac. :D 

To meet The GREAT HANS ZIMMER I would go to the end of the chant in The Dark Knight Rises and I would climb up and jump without a rope because still, Even I'm not even half good in every thing you said, I still believe in hope. (God I'm about to cry now) 

At the end, thank you Mr.Zimmer to responde, I'm not the guy but I can try hard to be. Thanks for giving me new goals in my life.

See you soon master.

H


----------



## kdm

dgburns @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> you know there are some of us around here who do aspire to be the best at what we do.Especially given the opportunities that do come to us.Everything you say is true,and I for one live through all this daily.I just don't live in LA.It's a major pita,and CLM(career limiting move) not to be there,but there it is.
> the best music is always written at 4am when everyone else has given up,but you refuse to bend or break despite all around you is saying to give up.biggest fear I have is not ever having a chance to work on something that people actually watch!
> anyway....



You are not alone. For sure many of us have worked hard to excel at every aspect of this career - from the creative to the technical; and we love writing to picture like nothing else in this world. We knew these requirements were a given when we started this career, but it really isn't enough. If I thought that the Steve M story was all there was to getting a job there, I would duplicate one of Hans' tracks and fly to LA tomorrow. But in my humble opinion, that's just one aspect of one specific situation that isn't going to work for everyone (and it was likely just an example Hans was offering). This is just my perspective. I don't claim to have anything similar to Hans' insight, so take the following for what it is.

As much as I think it can be hard to accept, there is another looming obstacle - luck, fortune, circumstance - whatever we want to call it. And lots of it. The rest is just the foundation for being able to capitalize on the unexpected, unplanned opportunities that come our way. 

We can move, network, make opportunities, and improve the odds for sure, but being in the right place at the right time doesn't happen simply by careful planning and hitting all of the skill and talent bullet points. 

That last 1% that gets one the gig that leads to significant success simply never happens for most composers, no matter where we live, or what we do to get there. But we still work hard trying to make the most of every opportunity we can land. 

And then there is the challenge of trying to support a family while being subjected to fast declining budgets, outside of LA where there is far less decent work, and reading threads like this, figuring out whether we can even afford a move to LA on these declining budgets. No wonder composing is in the top 10 list of most difficult careers. 

Having a dream is great. But dreaming about being a star or working with one, is not the wisest mindset to have when making a life-changing decision. Take some time to consider this as a job, a career, a major investment before taking any leap of faith. 

There are thousands of us with similar dreams. But in this arts-saturated, arts-devaluing world, I would think seriously about what you are best at and what future you can realistically build with that vs composing. It may in fact be composing is your future, or it may not. 

I think it is important to ask yourself - do you want to have a decent financial future? Are you really talented enough? Be brutally honest. Are your good enough to build the skills you would need to survive once you do get a break? Or is there a skill you've ignored where you can make a healthy income doing something else, and enjoy composing for a hobby and pursue concert music, or just simply enjoy it? 

The odds are heavily stacked against even just making a living composing for a career. Set some goals, but also set some limits on what it is worth to you. Many people give up everything to succeed in Hollywood, and when they reach retirement age, all they have are unfulfilled dreams. 

So that leaves working very hard, wherever we are, with whatever opportunities we can take advantage of.


----------



## Rctec

The question was about working at RCP. And that's in Los Angeles. (One of my first tests for future candidates has always been: can you actually find us?)

No, I didn't start in Germany. I could never get a job there since I hadn't gone to music school, and they wanted to see references from an Akademie.

I was playing in bands in England - pups, colleges, workingmen's clubs, strip-joints. Always late with the rent, and worse - always ran out of shillings for the electricity meter. Makes it a bit hard on the electronic wunderwerk when it all gets dark in the middle of a riff.
Lived mainly off the kindness of friends (it is important, as a musician, to be entertaining enough that people take you out on a regular basis for expensive dinners.) always owed the bank money - but the bank manager sort of believed in me, and let me overdraw. Borrowed synth from the good people at Argent's Keyboards and Syco Systems. Fell in with the jingle crowd, which was a regular check (I used to do two or three a week, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as a synth programmer for other composers)
Started working with an equally poor Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Made a song we couldn't give away. Went to number one the week before my twenty-first birthday. Still waiting for the royalties.
Got fed up with the world of rock 'n' roll. Started working with Stanley Myers (The Deerhunter) as his assistant. He showed me how the orchestra worked, I made excellent espresso. Fair deal.
It was actually quite good not to be on the road anymore. I used every second to get better with equipment. I would loiter at the studio after I was done with my session and learn from engineers like Geoff Emerick, Flood, Hugh Padgham (actually, he was the bass player in my first band).

Build a studio in London with Stanley. It was tiny, but sounded great. Soul To Soul, a lot of KLF and other experimental stuff, endless disco...learned what a "hook" is. Beethoven knew...Mozart and the Stones knew...

And the commercial directors where starting to make TV movies. Our friends Tim Bevan and Sarah Radcliffe started a film company called "Working Title". No money, but a vision. Suddenly we where doing movies. Our movies where edgy and funny and usually under-financed before we even started. Mostly cut above strip joints or brothels in London's Soho. It was all just a different form of the world of entertainment, and the rent was cheap. Still owed the bank a fortune. I kept telling them that a synth could buy a house, not the other way round. That One idea, One tune would make the difference between ruin and being able to pay the banks back. And since I had no other qualifications, they didn't really have a choice.
But I knew my stuff. It was limited - I was into electronica - but I could go up to any synth, any mixing console and work with it. I never took a day off. I was glued to all the synthporn magazines, hung out for years at Syco systems, who sold the Fairlight and the Linn, and eventually was offered a movie in L.A.
And while we - due to lack of money - had really made what little technology we had (ok, i had a Fairlight by then...don't ask how we got it or paid for it. sometimes you have to be lucky. thank You, Stanley Kubrick!) work for us brilliantly, Hollywood wasn't at all the technological fab place I imagined it to be. It was very talented people writing on paper, with their arrangers and orchestrators in some dingy back room with neon lighting and cottage cheese ceilings. Not really my thing. Stained, cracked linoleum floors and water-damaged ceilings (" but thats where Orson Wells cut 'Citizen Kane'!" "yeah, great, but can you at least change the lightbulb?") So I build myself another studio and other people wanted to be part of it, like Mark Mancina, Harry G-W, John Powell...and because we had all that rather cool, yet primitive technology, directors actually liked coming over and hearing mock-ups of a score, discuss the music to picture without a hundred piece orchestra waiting outside. And we had an excellent drinks cupboard.

But the main thing was - we all had an insane work ethic (I remember feeling guilty leaving at 4am one morning, because everybody else's car was still there.). We surrounded ourselves with the greatest music editors like Adam Smalley and Bob Badami (look up their credits!) and changed their way of working to be more like record producers. We got recording engineers like Alan Meyerson, who could effortlessly move between orchestra and fuzz-box.

If we had an idea, we'd build it. We still build our own samplers, put unfair pressure onto companies like Steinberg and Avid (Logic is too corporate now. It's not how long it took to get this last update. When do you think the next one is coming out?)

We very much worked like a firm of architects. One main designer, with us all helping each other out. People are still confused about the "additional music" credits. If it sounds like me, it's probably me. Head Architect. But how can my collaborators ever get a career going if they are just "Ghosts"? If it sounds like John Powell, it's probably him...same rules apply.
Personally, I couldn't give a flying [email protected]&$ about credits. I'm in it for the process. That's the part I love. I have a deal with one film company where they pay me next to nothing for the music, but a shitload of money for doing press. Press is hard work, parties scare the living day lights out of me, and premieres are only great for being in amongst a big audience for whom, ultimately we made it, and enjoying the movie with them. The party after is just some sort of Irish wake, where we say good bye to the joy we had making the thing.
The only thing between you and a career is singleminded stubbornness, hard work and sweat, tempered with social graces and a true compassion for your poor director, good ideas, recklessness, humility and an insane work ethic. You have to have talent in all of these fields, plus, obviously, music and story telling. You need to be a proud servant of the film, and be respectful and a little bit in love with and of your audience. I'm not big on awards. They usually get it wrong. "Shawshank Redemtion" should have won the Oscar, in my opinion. My learned and generous peers obviously had a different opinion and gave it to me for "Lionking". Made no difference to my career, or the trajectory I was on. 
The only true compliment I feel is, when someone goes out and spends their hard earned money on one of my movies or soundtrack. Real people, who have a choice, wanting to be entertained and moved and think i can do that. The only thing I'm interested in is that I'm having some weird ongoing dialogue through my music with people I've never met, who are moved or provoked by my music, that something from my heart resonates with their emotion or brain - all over the world, whatever culture. And I'm interested that some guy with no education from Frankfurt can make it in Hollywood. Because that means anybody can.
-Hz-


----------



## KingIdiot

Rctec @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> But the main thing was - we all had an insane work ethic
> -Hz-



As I stated before. This is the thing that sets me in awe when talking or working with anyone who either makes it, or you know will end up making it. The best guys have incredible work ethics and focus, and hopefully (or at least create over time, the support of their surroundings.

Put yourself in a position that nurtures all of this, and you will only get better, bigger and make things happen. Expect it, and all you'll do is allow for the vast to get bigger around you and always seemingly out of reach.

I know this because I'm a lazy jackass.


----------



## Martin K

@Rctec: Thank you for sharing that story. Really inspiring!

best,
Martin


----------



## Wes Antczak

I can relate to the statement about the insane work ethic. It's something that you just do without even thinking about it simply because you're doing something you love doing and also because you're caught up in the process. 

Several years ago I had the opportunity to work with some people who were as they say "in the big league" and that is one thing that certainly struck me from the very first moment. These guys seemed to have no end of energy. When everyone else would have been at an end, these guys were just getting going. It was on an entirely different level. And it wasn't just about the late nights... it was about never being satisfied with good enough. About always finding a way to take it to the next level... not just about making it good... but making it better. Not being so quick to settle for good enough.

It seems to me that's how it works for anything that's _really_ worth doing. Also... as someone once said... do something different than what everyone else is doing and do a lot of it!

Steve's mockups, btw... really, REALLY nicely done! Amazingly done! The first thought that comes to mind... they're alive! Based on when they were uploaded... some of these super duper better than real libraries weren't even around yet... now there's some food for thought.


----------



## EastWest Lurker

Martin K @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> @Rctec: Thank you for sharing that story. Really inspiring!
> 
> best,
> Martin



+1.


----------



## H.R.

God bless you Hans. Since your latest post I started to work harder and harder with whole a lot of new energy.

"I'm having some weird ongoing dialogue through my music with people I've never met, who are moved or provoked by my music, that something from my heart resonates with their emotion or brain - all over the world, whatever culture." -- I guess there is nothing more beautiful than this. to connect with other people's souls who are living far far away from you, without you knowing it. Doesn't it make us completely different creatures from other living things ? This is something holy.


----------



## jlb

Rctec @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> The question was about working at RCP. And that's in Los Angeles. (One of my first tests for future candidates has always been: can you actually find us?)
> 
> No, I didn't start in Germany. I could never get a job there since I hadn't gone to music school, and they wanted to see references from an Akademie.
> 
> I was playing in bands in England - pups, colleges, workingmen's clubs, strip-joints. Always late with the rent, and worse - always ran out of shillings for the electricity meter. Makes it a bit hard on the electronic wunderwerk when it all gets dark in the middle of a riff.
> Lived mainly off the kindness of friends (it is important, as a musician, to be entertaining enough that people take you out on a regular basis for expensive dinners.) always owed the bank money - but the bank manager sort of believed in me, and let me overdraw. Borrowed synth from the good people at Argent's Keyboards and Syco Systems. Fell in with the jingle crowd, which was a regular check (I used to do two or three a week, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as a synth programmer for other composers)
> Started working with an equally poor Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Made a song we couldn't give away. Went to number one the week before my twenty-first birthday. Still waiting for the royalties.
> Got fed up with the world of rock 'n' roll. Started working with Stanley Myers (The Deerhunter) as his assistant. He showed me how the orchestra worked, I made excellent espresso. Fair deal.
> It was actually quite good not to be on the road anymore. I used every second to get better with equipment. I would loiter at the studio after I was done with my session and learn from engineers like Geoff Emerick, Flood, Hugh Padgham (actually, he was the bass player in my first band).
> 
> Build a studio in London with Stanley. It was tiny, but sounded great. Soul To Soul, a lot of KLF and other experimental stuff, endless disco...learned what a "hook" is. Beethoven knew...Mozart and the Stones knew...
> 
> And the commercial directors where starting to make TV movies. Our friends Tim Bevan and Sarah Radcliffe started a film company called "Working Title". No money, but a vision. Suddenly we where doing movies. Our movies where edgy and funny and usually under-financed before we even started. Mostly cut above strip joints or brothels in London's Soho. It was all just a different form of the world of entertainment, and the rent was cheap. Still owed the bank a fortune. I kept telling them that a synth could buy a house, not the other way round. That One idea, One tune would make the difference between ruin and being able to pay the banks back. And since I had no other qualifications, they didn't really have a choice.
> But I knew my stuff. It was limited - I was into electronica - but I could go up to any synth, any mixing console and work with it. I never took a day off. I was glued to all the synthporn magazines, hung out for years at Syco systems, who sold the Fairlight and the Linn, and eventually was offered a movie in L.A.
> And while we - due to lack of money - had really made what little technology we had (ok, i had a Fairlight by then...don't ask how we got it or paid for it. sometimes you have to be lucky. thank You, Stanley Kubrick!) work for us brilliantly, Hollywood wasn't at all the technological fab place I imagined it to be. It was very talented people writing on paper, with their arrangers and orchestrators in some dingy back room with neon lighting and cottage cheese ceilings. Not really my thing. Stained, cracked linoleum floors and water-damaged ceilings (" but thats where Orson Wells cut 'Citizen Kane'!" "yeah, great, but can you at least change the lightbulb?") So I build myself another studio and other people wanted to be part of it, like Mark Mancina, Harry G-W, John Powell...and because we had all that rather cool, yet primitive technology, directors actually liked coming over and hearing mock-ups of a score, discuss the music to picture without a hundred piece orchestra waiting outside. And we had an excellent drinks cupboard.
> 
> But the main thing was - we all had an insane work ethic (I remember feeling guilty leaving at 4am one morning, because everybody else's car was still there.). We surrounded ourselves with the greatest music editors like Adam Smalley and Bob Badami (look up their credits!) and changed their way of working to be more like record producers. We got recording engineers like Alan Meyerson, who could effortlessly move between orchestra and fuzz-box.
> 
> If we had an idea, we'd build it. We still build our own samplers, put unfair pressure onto companies like Steinberg and Avid (Logic is too corporate now. It's not how long it took to get this last update. When do you think the next one is coming out?)
> 
> We very much worked like a firm of architects. One main designer, with us all helping each other out. People are still confused about the "additional music" credits. If it sounds like me, it's probably me. Head Architect. But how can my collaborators ever get a career going if they are just "Ghosts"? If it sounds like John Powell, it's probably him...same rules apply.
> Personally, I couldn't give a flying [email protected]&$ about credits. I'm in it for the process. That's the part I love. I have a deal with one film company where they pay me next to nothing for the music, but a shitload of money for doing press. Press is hard work, parties scare the living day lights out of me, and premieres are only great for being in amongst a big audience for whom, ultimately we made it, and enjoying the movie with them. The party after is just some sort of Irish wake, where we say good bye to the joy we had making the thing.
> The only thing between you and a career is singleminded stubbornness, hard work and sweat, tempered with social graces and a true compassion for your poor director, good ideas, recklessness, humility and an insane work ethic. You have to have talent in all of these fields, plus, obviously, music and story telling. You need to be a proud servant of the film, and be respectful and a little bit in love with and of your audience. I'm not big on awards. They usually get it wrong. "Shawshank Redemtion" should have won the Oscar, in my opinion. My learned and generous peers obviously had a different opinion and gave it to me for "Lionking". Made no difference to my career, or the trajectory I was on.
> The only true compliment I feel is, when someone goes out and spends their hard earned money on one of my movies or soundtrack. Real people, who have a choice, wanting to be entertained and moved and think i can do that. The only thing I'm interested in is that I'm having some weird ongoing dialogue through my music with people I've never met, who are moved or provoked by my music, that something from my heart resonates with their emotion or brain - all over the world, whatever culture. And I'm interested that some guy with no education from Frankfurt can make it in Hollywood. Because that means anybody can.
> -Hz-



Totally inspirational post Hans, so grateful to have your contribution on here

jlb


----------



## Ellywu2

Rctec @ Sat Sep 21 said:


> I was playing in bands in England - pups, colleges, workingmen's clubs, strip-joints. Always late with the rent, and worse - always ran out of shillings for the electricity meter. Makes it a bit hard on the electronic wunderwerk when it all gets dark in the middle of a riff.



Shillings?! Good lord...


----------



## Ed

Anyone else think Hans should write a book? very well told interesting stories


----------



## Andreas Moisa

> No, I didn't start in Germany. I could never get a job there since I hadn't gone to music school, and they wanted to see references from an Akademie.



That's totally not the case anymore!


----------



## Peter Alexander

See: The War of Art

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379970852&sr=1-1&keywords=the+war+of+art (http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-eb ... war+of+art)


----------



## SamGarnerStudios

Peter Alexander @ Mon Sep 23 said:


> See: The War of Art
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379970852&sr=1-1&keywords=the+war+of+art (http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-eb ... war+of+art)



+1

Great book.


----------



## choc0thrax

SamGarnerStudios @ Mon Sep 23 said:


> Peter Alexander @ Mon Sep 23 said:
> 
> 
> 
> See: The War of Art
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379970852&sr=1-1&keywords=the+war+of+art (http://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-eb ... war+of+art)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> +1
> 
> Great book.
Click to expand...


War of Art is pretty good. I also recently bought this: http://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Day---Day-Creative/dp/1477800670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379974086&sr=8-1&keywords=manage+your+day+to+day (http://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Day-- ... day+to+day)

It's a good little book to have hanging round at all times. The world has changed a lot over the past 15 years. Between emails, tweets, and texts etc. it's never been easier for people to reach out and suck up your time. I turn off my phone for about 8 hours a day and recently dropped off my modem at a friend's place for three days so I couldn't do anything but work... even though GTA V had just come out.

One of the hardest things about all this is not so much the hours you have to put in but the drain of explaining your hours to friends and family who don't understand why you can't make it to Ricky's birthday party Saturday night.


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## Jem7

choc0thrax @ 24/9/2013 said:


> One of the hardest things about all this is not so much the hours you have to put in but the drain of explaining your hours to friends and family who don't understand why you can't make it to Ricky's birthday party Saturday night.



I think nobody can understand that except who already doing it. I tried to explain that some of my friends and people around before. They simply don't understand it. Makes no sense to them. Especially if you are working hard on something and choose to work instead of going out or doing something, they're starting to not understand you. Man it's 7/24 job. It means I can work whenever I want. Doesn't it? Then why don't simply get it? I need to done stuff like everybody else and if I don't work on it how can I do that?

I also have problems with some haunting thought lately. When I'm doing any other stuff like having dinner with musician friends or going out with gf, my mind is always surrounded by the piece I'm working on. I can't get it off my head so I hardly enjoy anything I do at that moment. Find hard to concentrate anything. Just thinking about when I'm going to get away from that environment, come back to studio and working on my piece.


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## dinerdog

chocOthrax - I have read them ALL, and that book is truly the "best of the best".

You don't really need anymore than that. Read it and get on with the work. Btw, her second book comes out tomorrow. Ha, maybe just get that one too:

http://www.amazon.com/Maximize-Your-Potential-Expertise-Incredible/dp/1477800891/ref=bxgy_cc_b_img_b (http://www.amazon.com/Maximize-Your-Pot ... cc_b_img_b)

Jem7 - this reminds me of my hardcore days of working on commercials in NYC (back in the day). It was rare to get out when the sun was still shining, countless missed dinner's etc...

I think either you have that brute force or you don't. It's more of an inner thing, not really a choice. : >


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## Peter Alexander

Jem7 @ Mon Sep 23 said:


> I also have problems with some haunting thought lately. When I'm doing any other stuff like having dinner with musician friends or going out with gf, my mind is always surrounded by the piece I'm working on. I can't get it off my head so I hardly enjoy anything I do at that moment. Find hard to concentrate anything. Just thinking about when I'm going to get away from that environment, come back to studio and working on my piece.



Congratulations! You're normal!


----------



## Ganvai

Peter Alexander @ 24th September 2013 said:


> Jem7 @ Mon Sep 23 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I also have problems with some haunting thought lately. When I'm doing any other stuff like having dinner with musician friends or going out with gf, my mind is always surrounded by the piece I'm working on. I can't get it off my head so I hardly enjoy anything I do at that moment. Find hard to concentrate anything. Just thinking about when I'm going to get away from that environment, come back to studio and working on my piece.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Congratulations! You're normal!
Click to expand...


+1


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## Valérie_D

Thank You Hans for that detailed response!


''When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write... "


This part got me wondering, is it often that directors don't know what they want as for the music, which I find normal and as challenging as rewarding, but also don't know what the mood should be?

The best compliments I received recently from four different directors was that without my music, they did not know what their film was about, they hated their film or that my music made their film come to life.

These are amazing words to hear but they make me feel a bit like I have to litterally be a magician :D


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## jleckie

Valérie_D @ Tue Sep 24 said:


> ... without my music, they did not know what their film was about, they hated their film...



~o) Hmmm. Sounds like a real problem these directors need to address somehow.


----------



## Piano & Strings

Brilliant! I still can't believe Hans finds the time to write these long replies, yet I can tell it's his tone after viewing so many of his interviews on youtube. As he posted last year, it's proof that procrastination is wonderfully rife at the top, plus orchestral composers are so obsessed that their work avoidance tactics are always on topic


----------



## RiffWraith

Marc Filmer @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> I still can't believe Hans finds the time to write these long replies...



That's because he isnt actually writing any music.... he has other people do that.

Ok, I'll get me coat. ~o)


----------



## nikolas

RiffWraith @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Marc Filmer @ Wed Sep 25 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I still can't believe Hans finds the time to write these long replies...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That's because he isnt actually writing any music.... he has other people do that.
> 
> Ok, I'll get me coat. ~o)
Click to expand...

LOL! Better grab your +5 leather armor buddy! :D


----------



## Piano & Strings

Riff is clearly joking lol. Hans is the humblest of all the A list composers. After finding the films sound, composing an initial suite of ideas, it's true that sometimes an army of orchestrators work on his piano blueprint cues with directional notes, but in this is because he needs to be immediately on the next project. All these orchestrators are at RCP of course, so he is constantly checking that the cues are on tgeir intended course. MOST A list composers probably wouldnt bother to credit alot of that work, but Mr Zimmer is too kind for his own good lol. Hans said in an interview that he didnt take a single day off for almost a year I think, whilst composing DKR etc. I took Riffs comment as a naughty joke... perhaps you should clarify that before you upset too many Hansies he he


----------



## EastWest Lurker

Marc Filmer @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Riff is clearly joking lol. Hans is the humblest of all the A list composers. After finding the films sound, composing an initial suite of ideas, it's true that sometimes an army of orchestrators work on his piano blueprint cues with directional notes, but in this is because he needs to be immediately on the next project. Hans said in an interview that he didnt take a single day off for almost a year I think, whilst composing DKR etc. I took Riffs comment as a naughty joke... perhaps you should clarify that before you upset too many Hansies he he



Bottom line is that Jeff thinks he is clever. I will let others draw their own conclusions about how accurate a self perception that is


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## Tanuj Tiku

Marc,

It's a myth that an army of orchestrators work with directional notes (what does that mean?) on Hans's basic themes.

Listen to the original Hans's suite which is over 30 mins of pretty much everything in MOS and the mock up is pretty damn good. He still calls it a sketch. Naturally, some ideas have evolved into slightly different final versions.

I think a lot of people work with him to help out and perfect some of the ideas. But they are not writing the music for him.

He works differently and experiments a lot and also seems to get more people involved to make it sound the best, not because he does not give enough time to a project since he has to move to another project.

In a score there are a lot of other requirements. Specially on a $200 million dollar movie. True there are orchestrators and some additional music but how do you think it always sounds like Zimmer in the end?

Riff is obviously joking 


Tanuj.


----------



## Piano & Strings

vibrato @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Marc,
> 
> It's a myth that an army of orchestrators work with directional notes (what does that mean?) on Hans's basic themes.
> 
> Listen to the original Hans's suite which is over 30 mins of pretty much everything in MOS and the mock up is pretty damn good. He still calls it a sketch. Naturally, some ideas have evolved into slightly different final versions.
> 
> I think a lot of people work with him to help out and perfect some of the ideas. But they are not writing the music for him.
> 
> He works differently and experiments a lot and also seems to get more people involved to make it sound the best, not because he does not give enough time to a project since he has to move to another project.
> 
> In a score there are a lot of other requirements. Specially on a $200 million dollar movie. True there are orchestrators and some additional music but how do you think it always sounds like Zimmer in the end?
> 
> Riff is obviously joking
> 
> 
> Tanuj.



Tanuj... It was a mistake to use the word 'army' to describe the small team at RCP, I should have said 'team' - I was in a military frame of mind after reading Nikolas talking about the +5 leather armor lol. Directional notes are notes that indicate the direction that the composition needs to take... For example, heavy low brass staccatos and sparse thundering percussion, or harp, flute, Celeste soft arrangement with muted strings.

This video explains how the orchestrator deals with the piano track and the direction can be very specific or not. Of course Hans is in the same building and can constantly look over the shoulder of his orchestrators/synthestrators...

http://wherestheorchestra.com/2011/01/live-versus-orchestra-video-at-the-wall-street-journal/

Man of Steel was a film Hans was openly contracted on, but I'm discussing alot of movies that he composes for at the same time... overlapping projects, where there is less of a luxury of time.

However, I do distinctly recall either reading or viewing an interview with Hans where he discussed occasionally needing to provide piano sketches that are locked to picture by someone else at RCP and then orchestrated by a few different orchestrators. He's a very honest man, which is rare... Christopher Young attests to the same fact, though alot of A list composers just don't talk about it, because most don't think to ask.

... that it's a few composers doing most of the movies. Wish I could remember which video it was - I think it *may* have been this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHvamU98GhA

Because I watched it recently, but I can't be sure and too busy to check right now . It's a little tricky quoting someone else, especially when they are at the top of their game and I don't want to put miss remembered words in his mouth, but I do want to defend his honor so to speak, as my words apparently sourced the punchline. Just didn't want the thread turning negative at all and be some kind of strange catalyst, because that would make me feel intensely awkward to be associated, being that I admire this man enormously. I don't profess to be an expert myself in this field. I'm a composer right now, not a film composer, though I do have the dramatic instincts.

Have a look at what Chris Beck has to say about Composer vs Orchestrator:
http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php/13053-Orchestrators-vs-Composers?p=105951&viewfull=1

Here are his credentials:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065100/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It's no secret that Hollywood composers can't always mock up EVERY cue and need orchestrators, sometimes several due to punishing deadlines, it's just not often realized by most people.

I'm not an A list composer - my knowledge comes from obsessively watching and reading interviews, mostly youtube, with said composers. It's a very good way to hear about the way the industry REALLY works as I'm sure there indeed are alot of myths. Just remember, I'm presenting facts straight from the horses mouth, not my own opinions, so I'd suggest anyone who wants to know more about Hans' process watch the first few pages of youtube results for 'Hans Zimmer Interview' - there's some real gold in there. I know the man says he hates interviews, but all the best ones look like he's talking to a friend who just happens to have their camera phone on lol.

JH: I read in another interview that Hans Zimmer had to moonlight on the first pirates as he was under contract on another flick... he couldn't help getting sucked into the project a little though and yes, this is another example of the piano blueprint approach I think... or perhaps he was only able to even compose a short suite of three cues in this instance - don't remember exactly.

I agree Jay, that's why I suggested anyone who might actually believe that (if possible) watch a few YT interviews with the man, it's most insightful! I was originally replying to a response by the OP, which mysteriously was gone by the time I wrote my post... now I'm questioning my own sanity (first time today haha)!

Marc


----------



## nikolas

My post is turning into something big here I see! :D lol

Ok, I would like to say a huge thank you to Hans Zimmer for being around and posting... I wish others would do the same... It's such a huge asset to actually KNOW from the lions mouth what happened, what's going on, how it happened, etc... 

Thank you Hans! (I don't think I've posted before towards any post of his and while I think it almost goes without saying, I also think that I should mention the above)...

Now back to the trolls and goblins please! :D

And, obviously riff is joking! As was I! And Marc...


----------



## Piano & Strings

+1 Nik . It is an amazing gift that Hans gives... his knowledge and I would hate for him to perceive that his work is not respected by the VI community. I too usually refrain from the RCTEC threads, as it's a little embarrassing to throw your fanboy hat into a sea of fanboy hats.... but I just wanted to distance my name from that comment/joke and I hope I succeeded doing that without offending anyone else in the process! It really is a mindfield when you are discussing things that people hold dear!

I just hope HZ isn't ever put off posting on here, because there's nothing more exciting than reading his words in this forum... It's like he's coming straight to us to share his wisdom and it would be a real shame if he stopped for any reason. I feel like he is sharing his love of composing and VI tech directly with us by posting here, as opposed to the wider public and it's unbelievable really, to be able to interact with the man in such a direct way.

Respect to everyone on the thread as we all share the same joy of composing and it's the only virtual community Ive felt so pleased and proud to be part of!

I thought I'd steer this thread back on topic with a CRAZY day dream I just had.... an international contest (I'm thinking Willy Wonka here) where aspiring Film Composers compete to be the RCP Tea/Tech Boy.

From an initial mockup test, 50 lucky finalists are summoned to LA to compete at RCP:

ROUND 1)
Speedy Beverage - the finalists pre-prepare a system for remembering and delivering Hot drinks to all the resident composers. Points deducted for spillages and incorrect orders! Bonus points for chocolate digestives/cookies.

ROUND 2)
Corrupt File - Finalists are presented with a ten year old cubase file with outdated vst's and against the clock they've got to bring it back to life, whilst a client stands over their shoulder shouting that they needed it yesterday

ROUND 3)
Mixed Stems - a few have the Brass Instruments have worked their way into the Strings Stem Mix. Finalists have 5 minutes to scroll through 500 hundred midi tracks, find the offending instrument and re-export to a Dolby Atmos 500 channel speaker configuration. 

The quickest in round three is awarded with a sleeping back next to a broken Moog in the attic of RCP and serves hot drinks and providing quick tech fixes for three months whilst dressed in character with the current movie being composed for.

I'd be up for it hehe


----------



## Valérie_D

jleckie @ Tue Sep 24 said:


> Valérie_D @ Tue Sep 24 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ... without my music, they did not know what their film was about, they hated their film...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ~o) Hmmm. Sounds like a real problem these directors need to address somehow.
Click to expand...



Yes Jay, it's great to have some latitude but at some point, I think the composer has to contribute to achieving the director's vision but there has to be a vision somewhere or somebody in charge of the boat...basically there has to be a director :D


----------



## RiffWraith

Good post TJ.

And....

_of course _I was joking!!!!!!!


----------



## Piano & Strings

Thomas_J @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Hans is not joking or exaggerating when he talks about work ethics. How he finds the energy to manage all his responsibilities is as inspiring as it is hard to understand. I couldn't even finish one cue on pirates before I was ready to jump out of the couch and strangle the director. 4am? He's just getting started when other people have been asleep for hours. I would often hear him working on new brilliant ideas late at night, refusing to give cubase a break until he either ran out of coffee or something crashed and no one was around to fix it (the computer park and the maintenance that goes into it is a study in itself). He has surrounded himself by equal minded talents whom together represent an untiring musical force. It's no place for the lazy, but rewarding in the sense that those who have the tenacity, talent, drive and work ethics will wake up one day and realize that they are quite successful, not because of the opportunities that the environment offers, but because they realized early on that if there are still cars in the parking lot when they go home at night, they are not working hard enough. The ego of a composer is what drives you, and the idea of missing out on a great melody just because it is getting late and the wife is waiting at the dinner table seems disasterous! Then, guilt sets in as you realize that you just spent 15 minutes contemplating whether or not the sh--storm that awaits you at home is worth that extra musical idea that may or may not have come if you stayed - when all the while you could've been working.
> It's been said so many times that I think even the most jealous naysayers have run out of arguments by now, but I'll give the dead horse one last beating for good measure: Hans really does write the content that really matters. Quickly, detailed, fully orchestrated and in great quantity, never sacrificing quality. Alongside Lorne Balfe, another great talent with insurmountable work ethics, they are fighting against the clock and the sunrise and invariably not only get things done, but get them done in time and consistently above everyone's already great expectations. As far as I'm concerned Superman is cool, but Hans is the true man of steel. I have deep respect and admiration for both Hans and Lorne and everyone else at RC, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Composers boot camp!


Thomas Bergersen joins the thread? Wow I didn't know you posted on this forum under the same username as Northernsounds. Funny that I came across that Chris Beck link the other day whilst methodically reading all your forum posts to try and study your raw genius in the embryonic phase. Fantastic words Thomas  and they carry much weight coming from you.

Glad to see it was indeed a joke Jeffrey


----------



## midi_controller

JH @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPuZi9xqHfA
> 
> Seems like some more demos from the Pirates movies. Where they released on a cd or something?



Apparently this is from a box set called "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Soundtrack Treasures Collection". Now the question; where can we buy it? Amazon only has it from 3rd party sellers, but they are asking $205. Did they stop selling these sets? I would love to have a digital copy.


----------



## jleckie

nikolas @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Ok, I would like to say a huge thank you to Hans Zimmer for being around and posting... I wish others would do the same... It's such a huge asset to actually KNOW from the lions mouth what happened, what's going on, how it happened, etc...
> 
> Thank you Hans! (I don't think I've posted before towards any post of his and while I think it almost goes without saying, I also think that I should mention the above)...
> 
> Now back to the trolls and goblins please! :D
> 
> And, obviously riff is joking! As was I! And Marc...



I see you have the lions and we have the horses. Yes please back to the goblins and trolls if you will. And @Riff- in every joke they say lies therein an element of the truth somewhere.


----------



## RiffWraith

jleckie @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> And @Riff- in every joke they say lies therein an element of the truth somewhere.



You said it - not me!


----------



## Markus S

Thomas_J @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Hans is not joking or exaggerating when he talks about work ethics. How he finds the energy to manage all his responsibilities is as inspiring as it is hard to understand. I couldn't even finish one cue on pirates before I was ready to jump out of the couch and strangle the director. 4am? He's just getting started when other people have been asleep for hours. I would often hear him working on new brilliant ideas late at night, refusing to give cubase a break until he either ran out of coffee or something crashed and no one was around to fix it (the computer park and the maintenance that goes into it is a study in itself). He has surrounded himself by equal minded talents whom together represent an untiring musical force. It's no place for the lazy, but rewarding in the sense that those who have the tenacity, talent, drive and work ethics will wake up one day and realize that they are quite successful, not because of the opportunities that the environment offers, but because they realized early on that if there are still cars in the parking lot when they go home at night, they are not working hard enough. The ego of a composer is what drives you, and the idea of missing out on a great melody just because it is getting late and the wife is waiting at the dinner table seems disasterous! Then, guilt sets in as you realize that you just spent 15 minutes contemplating whether or not the sh--storm that awaits you at home is worth that extra musical idea that may or may not have come if you stayed - when all the while you could've been working.



Well, reading all this stuff about work ethics I would like to add, that this kind of life may lead you professional success and may lead you to money, but is not necessarily the right choice to lead a fulfilled life. The never quite good enough, always striving for better, working ideally 24 hours a day, seven days a week, avoiding your wife (kids?) at home (come on give her a hug) and comparing yourself constantly to what other have done to pump out genius soundtrack after genius soundtrack that will blow everyone away - is this the ultimate aim in life ? It seems to me that most people here agree that this is as good as it gets and are striving for it.

There is something between working around the clock and being lazy, there are things to accomplish in life that are not music related. Anything that seems to go the road of eternal dissatisfaction, endless striving for the recognition of others and comparing yourself to other people, may lead to a frustrated life.

Just a general thought - not thinking of anyone in person - to add another POV on this.


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## Danny_Owen

I totally agree Markus, it's truly not for everyone. I managed to maintain a crazy work ethic for about 4 years, from first thing in the morning (writing whilst eating breakfast) right until last thing at night, often going into the early hours of the morning, with minimum breaks. And all things considered I was doing ok for myself music wise.

Eventually it broke me as everything else in my life turned to shit, largely as a result of the crazy work ethic. I realised, even though I'd been chasing a dream, the reality of it wasn't the life I wanted for myself.

I tried to just scale back on the music and the amount I was writing, but I personally found it was hard to be competitive when you don't go in with the attitude of 'great music, whatever it takes' because then there'll be plenty of people willing to go that extra mile that you aren't. I found it very solitary, and it put additional pressure on my existing relationships as a result of my NEEDING social interaction.

I threw in the towel last year and am now a manager in the family business- I'm happier for it. There are plenty of days I miss writing music all day, and I still find myself on VI quite a lot! But as a lifestyle I think it suits me better having music as a great hobby of mine that I can just enjoy for what it is. I'm currently working on a musical and it's a blast to write. I still set myself deadlines, otherwise I'd get nothing done.

I think being a successful composer these days doesn't just require a lot of resourcefulness, skill, confidence, personability, craft etc... it also requires quite a specific type of person. I for one know I'm not that type of person.


----------



## Guy Rowland

Well what an interesting thread, from all sides. I'd raise my hand up and admit the RC way isn't for me, from a life point of view if nothing else. It's worth remembering that the overwhelming majority of composers working in the world today are not in that place of scoring A list blockbusters, and of those that are, the majority don't work at RC. I have huge admiration for everyone there, and they've produced some of my favourite scores of the past few years (incidentally, if you're able to listen there's a great BBC radio documentary featuring Lorne, Hans and many others here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bfjqv ). But its not the only way.

Common I'm sure to most if not all composers are the moments when music takes over and everything else comes second, with all the life causalities that goes with it. To me, it's one thing for that to be the occasional crunch moment, and another to institutionalise it (indeed, to aspire to it). Don't want to get all zen or nothing, but I think I'll remember the amazing family holiday we all had this year more than any of the work I've done (while both enjoying the work and realising it paid for the holiday...) While my own minuscule corner of the industry might not be very glamorous, I'm very fortunate that most of those I work with are terrific people, and I'm usually able to keep the workload in check.

For me its always going to be a balance, so the RC way isn't for me. But I take heart that while How To Train Your Dragon or Inception might be two of my favourite scores that came from that hallowed ground, I also love many others that come from a very different place and environment. I admire you Danny Owen for doing what you did - takes some guts and wisdom to know when things are out of whack for you.


----------



## rpaillot

After all, we should consider ourself lucky, composing is tiring , mentally, but we're staying in front of a computer, in a comfortable chair, with A/C, writing musics for movies and.... basically ripping off the temp track ( to paraphrase a famous composer :D )


----------



## guitarman1960

Very interesting posts here, and many thanks to Hans and TJ for taking time to contribute.
The last few posts are very interesting too, and I think the same holds true of many careers where talent and extreme work ethics combine to get success.
Look at any top sports people at the top of their respective game, especially tennis players like Djokovic, Raffa and Sharapova, and look at all the sacrifices they made since a very early age, and the extreme work they still put in to stay at the top even though they have millions in the bank. Not many people have the drive, determination, single-mindedness and yes perhaps crazyness too that's needed to follow that path.
Hats off to those who can do it, you have to admire them, and if they are truly happy making the sacrifices in life to acheive their dreams then thats fabulous.
At the end of the day though there is more to life than a successful career, and I think those who have acheived success but maintain a healthy work/life balance are probably the ones who have got it right.


----------



## germancomponist

Also very important: *If you want to have a good career then you need especially a wife who has supported you and understand if you're hardly home.*

o-[][]-o


----------



## dgburns

Thomas_J @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Hans is not joking or exaggerating when he talks about work ethics. How he finds the energy to manage all his responsibilities is as inspiring as it is hard to understand. I couldn't even finish one cue on pirates before I was ready to jump out of the couch and strangle the director. 4am? He's just getting started when other people have been asleep for hours. I would often hear him working on new brilliant ideas late at night, refusing to give cubase a break until he either ran out of coffee or something crashed and no one was around to fix it (the computer park and the maintenance that goes into it is a study in itself). He has surrounded himself by equal minded talents whom together represent an untiring musical force. It's no place for the lazy, but rewarding in the sense that those who have the tenacity, talent, drive and work ethics will wake up one day and realize that they are quite successful, not because of the opportunities that the environment offers, but because they realized early on that if there are still cars in the parking lot when they go home at night, they are not working hard enough. The ego of a composer is what drives you, and the idea of missing out on a great melody just because it is getting late and the wife is waiting at the dinner table seems disasterous! Then, guilt sets in as you realize that you just spent 15 minutes contemplating whether or not the sh--storm that awaits you at home is worth that extra musical idea that may or may not have come if you stayed - when all the while you could've been working.
> It's been said so many times that I think even the most jealous naysayers have run out of arguments by now, but I'll give the dead horse one last beating for good measure: Hans really does write the content that really matters. Quickly, detailed, fully orchestrated and in great quantity, never sacrificing quality. Alongside Lorne Balfe, another great talent with insurmountable work ethics, they are fighting against the clock and the sunrise and invariably not only get things done, but get them done in time and consistently above everyone's already great expectations. As far as I'm concerned Superman is cool, but Hans is the true man of steel. I have deep respect and admiration for both Hans and Lorne and everyone else at RC, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Composers boot camp!



let's not forget that when the air clears,there's always time to relax a bit as well.No one goes 24/7 all the time.No one,and I mean no one.(yes,I mean no one)
it's like you always remember those precious little oasis' between the craziness that serves to remind you that when it is indeed "go time",it's better to just "go" ,cause there will always be downtime as well.
and we all secretly chastise ourselves when we do let up when we shouldn't cause we know we'll have time to stew about it later :wink: 

this ain't always a martyr's life guys.


----------



## EastWest Lurker

Fine DG, but almost all the composers I know who are really successful, in the commercial sense, have been divorced at least once, some multiple times. It isn't a coincidence.


----------



## Ellywu2

Jay,

I think you'll find that holds true for the majority of driven people, not just composers - they are often so utterly and obsessively focused on success/recognition/whatever you want to call it that personal relationships, whether with a spouse or friendships in general, fall to the wayside. 

Having that drive, that specific 'gene' (warning: not real genetics) gives people the ability to just push on and ignore outside influence. They don't need downtime, the concept is just not in their vocabulary. I've worked with a few people like that - it's scary. Christ, the people I've worked with are driven in fields which are not necessarily something anyone could ever truly 'enjoy'.


----------



## EastWest Lurker

Ellywu2 @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> Jay,
> 
> I think you'll find that holds true for the majority of driven people, not just composers - they are often so utterly and obsessively focused on success/recognition/whatever you want to call it that personal relationships, whether with a spouse or friendships in general, fall to the wayside.
> 
> Having that drive, that specific 'gene' (warning: not real genetics) gives people the ability to just push on and ignore outside influence. They don't need downtime, the concept is just not in their vocabulary. I've worked with a few people like that - it's scary. Christ, the people I've worked with are driven in fields which are not necessarily something anyone could ever truly 'enjoy'.



Agreed.


----------



## cc64

germancomponist @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> Also very important: *If you want to have a good career then you need especially a wife who has supported you and understand if you're hardly home.*
> 
> o-[][]-o



Nah Gunther, you got it all wrong, no need for this. Wen you are hired at Remote Control Hans personally gives you one of these.(you need to be logged in to see the image) Voilà!

Claude (o) ~o)

Edited Photo. Finally had some time to take out what i found was superfluous in expressing my original idea in the original pic.


----------



## germancomponist

cc64 @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> Nah Gunther, you got it all wrong, no need for this. Wen you are hired at Remote Control Hans personally gives you one of these.



Ha ha.... . But without joking, a good friend of mine uses a kneeling mannequin as a monitor stand. She is holding the monitor in her arms. And yes, she looks very sexy. A cool idea.


----------



## RiffWraith

germancomponist @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> Also very important: *If you want to have a good career then you need especially a wife who has supported you and understand if you're hardly home.*
> 
> o-[][]-o



Totally agree.

Gunther, will you marry me? 0oD


----------



## Guy Rowland

I wonder why we don't get more female contributors at VI-Control? :?


----------



## cc64

Guy Rowland @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> I wonder why we don't get more female contributors at VI-Control? :?



Yeah well i agree that the lady in the picture and some of the commands are a bit OTT but the idea was that, being in total 1000 % agreement with Gunther's post i just wanted to illustrate, in a hopefully funny way, that to be able to work 24/7 you would wish you sometimes had this special kind of remote-control to make sure that your wife always agrees with your career choices and smiles when you come home once a month to change clothes.

Best,

Claude


----------



## jleckie

Sounds a bit misogynistic to me.


----------



## Valérie_D

Guy Rowland @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> I wonder why we don't get more female contributors at VI-Control? :?



I think I'm going to go ahead and throw my demo to the wolves, no orchestration so far but getting there, comments are warmly welcome, don't hold back, I have a thick skin :D 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIPo5ACZcho


----------



## choc0thrax

JH @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> I think Michael Giacchino said in an interview he likes to work from 9-5 and spends his evenings and weekend with his wife and kids.
> 
> He probably can't do it that way all the time, thats just the nature of this deadline-driven business, but as said, there is something between the RCP way and absolute laziness



Though I doubt he worked those hours and spent weekends off during the years he was first establishing his career.


----------



## germancomponist

RiffWraith @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> Totally agree.
> 
> Gunther, will you marry me? 0oD



Lol, you have to exert yourself, then you will find the right woman. I am now married for the third time and now everything is finally perfect. 

However, we take every now and then our off days to do something together. Then there are only her and me and nothing else. o/~


----------



## Daryl

JH @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> I think Michael Giacchino said in an interview he likes to work from 9-5 and spends his evenings and weekend with his wife and kids.
> 
> He probably can't do it that way all the time, thats just the nature of this deadline-driven business, but as said, there is something between the RCP way and absolute laziness


This is one of the reasons I prefer to do library music. I'm certainly not as rich as those people doing big budget movies, but I do have a life outside of composing, and that's the way I like it. I've done ridiculous periods where sleep would have been a luxury, and I have no intention of going back to that. Ever.

D


----------



## guitarman1960

I was diagnosed with M.E. /Chronic Fatigue Syndrome three years ago so something like licensing my tracks to Music Libraries would be the only option for me really.


----------



## Jdiggity1

jleckie @ Fri 27 Sep said:


> Sounds a bit misogynistic to me.



:roll:


----------



## Lupez

this forum is full of HZ wannabies....arrghhh...I wanted to be the next Clapton !! :? 

but mr. Hertz's posts are very entertaining I must say.


----------



## germancomponist

vibrato @ Wed Sep 25 said:


> Listen to the original Hans's suite which is over 30 mins of pretty much everything in MOS and the mock up is pretty damn good. He still calls it a sketch. Naturally, some ideas have evolved into slightly different final versions. ...
> Tanuj.



Oh, I had overlooked this, Tanuj. 

You know what? Some moments here I like more than the final versions ... .


----------



## synthetic

Yeah, I listened to that MOS sketch more than a dozen times. That's the bar. That's what you need to beat. (Yes, beat.)


----------



## Madrigal

germancomponist @ Fri Sep 27 said:


> vibrato @ Wed Sep 25 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Some moments here I like more than the final versions ... .
Click to expand...


I completely agree, I find myself listening to that suite more often than then to rest of the album.


----------



## Piano & Strings

I bought that one track as an mp3 a month ago... It was a hell of a bargain at 99 cents!


----------



## Markus S

Danny_Owen @ Thu Sep 26 said:


> I totally agree Markus, it's truly not for everyone. I managed to maintain a crazy work ethic for about 4 years, from first thing in the morning (writing whilst eating breakfast) right until last thing at night, often going into the early hours of the morning, with minimum breaks. And all things considered I was doing ok for myself music wise.
> 
> Eventually it broke me as everything else in my life turned to [email protected]#t, largely as a result of the crazy work ethic. I realised, even though I'd been chasing a dream, the reality of it wasn't the life I wanted for myself.
> 
> I tried to just scale back on the music and the amount I was writing, but I personally found it was hard to be competitive when you don't go in with the attitude of 'great music, whatever it takes' because then there'll be plenty of people willing to go that extra mile that you aren't. I found it very solitary, and it put additional pressure on my existing relationships as a result of my NEEDING social interaction.
> 
> I threw in the towel last year and am now a manager in the family business- I'm happier for it. There are plenty of days I miss writing music all day, and I still find myself on VI quite a lot! But as a lifestyle I think it suits me better having music as a great hobby of mine that I can just enjoy for what it is. I'm currently working on a musical and it's a blast to write. I still set myself deadlines, otherwise I'd get nothing done.
> 
> I think being a successful composer these days doesn't just require a lot of resourcefulness, skill, confidence, personability, craft etc... it also requires quite a specific type of person. I for one know I'm not that type of person.



Great post Danny! It's good to read there are other minded composers on the forum. wishing you lots of luck on your way.


----------



## RémyB

I think a lot of composers (me too  ) would like to work at RC Prod!
just having luck to compose additionnal music for the master HZ!

He is one of the greatest film composer! It must be such a great experience to work with him

Thank you Hans to share so many things with us, concerning your experience as one of the most prolific Hollywood composers...

I hope too that one day, I could have the chance to work in LA, at RC PRod 

best


----------



## jononotbono

Rctec said:


> O.k. I'll stick my neck out and tell you what gets you in the door, not really in order of importance:
> 
> Can you write a tune? I mean not any old tune, but something that tells a story that's appropriate to the subject of the film. Don't worry about trying to be original. Forced originality always sounds fake. To be really good is original enough.
> 
> Do you know your classics? I mean Beethoven, Bach, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk, Ravel, Morricone...the list is vast. ...and I mean Really Know. You don't have to be able to play it, but it really helps if you know what Mahler did in the last movement of the second, or how to synthesize Kraftwerk's 'Man Machine'... It's all about orchestration and figuring out the colours. So...
> Can you listen? I mean, really hear into a piece of music? Figure out what the violas are playing as a little hidden inner line? Where in the mix they sit? One of the reasons I instantly hired Steve Mazzaro was because he had done a transcription of one of my pieces by ear, which was more than perfect. ...and he's a really great, creative, talented team player with a very original brain. He has a vast future ahead of him.
> 
> Can you program? Preferably in Cubase? Listen to Angels and Demons "130 Bpm". That's what Steve had done. With whatever sample library he had lying around. "Gladiator Waltz" is an old one of mine. The samples are from '94. - I just mention these as tracks that don't require some crazy custom library...And is your programming immaculatly tidy? There is nothing worse than unquantized tracks misinterpreted by the orchestrators, nothing more disheartening than listen to music that has no expression programmed...and worse of all, when you come back three years later to do a sequel, you forgot the program changes and/or can't find the sounds anymore (guilty!)...
> 
> Can you engineer? I don't mean life players, (that helps!) but know how to really get the best out of reverbs, eq, compressors and all the other toys. We make music for big speakers and have to compete with amazing sound design.
> 
> Do you love technology? Some people just don't get on with it. It overwhelms them. The technology controls them, but you have to have an affinity with it...
> 
> When you talk with a director, can you talk in an abstract way, using everyday words to describe things? There is no greater turn-off to film makers than a composer speaking about a second inversion minor eleventh chord, or some Italian mumbo jumbo in describing what he's going to write...
> 
> Do you never sleep? That's an advantage
> Do you really want to write for film? This is not some way to deal with your failed rock star ambition, or your secret yearning to write concert music... This is all about wanting to tell a story in music.
> Therefore, are you a good psychologist? - Not just in dealing with the egos around you, but the subtext of the characters in the story.
> Can you take irony, bad temper, ego-crushing criticism, people changing their mind, unhealthy lifestyles, too much booze, manic depressives, shrinking budgets, chaos, pressure, disappointment?
> ...and do you live in L.A.? - I have a place in London, but you really have to be where the movie is being made.
> ...and that's just of the top of my head.
> Good Luck!
> 
> -H-



This is a great post. Especially the last few questions.


----------



## Desire Inspires

How much money do people who work at Remote Control make? Anybody have an idea how much the average composer makes per year?


----------



## chillbot

Desire Inspires said:


> How much money do people who work at Remote Control make? Anybody have an idea how much the average composer makes per year?


I just couldn't make any sense of the fact that you were not the one to bump this 4-year-old thread but then I remembered that you prefer the 10-year-old threads.


----------



## jononotbono

Sorry for bumping it. There's just some great posts in here and I'm from the Isle of Wight. We've only just got Colour TVs and stopped riding in Horse and Carriages, so it takes a while to catch up.


----------



## mac

jononotbono said:


> Sorry for bumping it. There's just some great posts in here and I'm from the Isle of Wight. We've only just got Colour TVs and stopped riding in Horse and Carriages, so it takes a while to catch up.



Have the movies RC have scored even been released down there yet?


----------



## JPComposer

I was in the Duke of York in Cowes in 1996, and dropped a tenner. The landlord seemed like an honest fellow, so it's probably behind the bar. Get yourself a beer and ask the landlord to keep the change til I visit again


----------



## jononotbono

mac said:


> Have the movies RC have scored even been released down there yet?



Just saw Driving Miss Daisy. Fantastic film.


----------



## synthpunk

Jono, I like the post you quoted, for some reason I'm quite distressed when i talk to young musicians who do not seem to have passion for of all things music. I mean young kids do not watch many movies, do not know who Bernstein was, some can't name a Beatles song, but can tell you about the latest video game or trap song. Go figure. Now get off my lawn!


----------



## gsilbers

Desire Inspires said:


> How much money do people who work at Remote Control make? Anybody have an idea how much the average composer makes per year?



I dont think it works that way. composers rent space there and its on their own to find gigs or already have gigs. asistant probably dont get much as it would be on par with what any assitants make in any studio. which is not that much. And interns well, the standard minumun by law or just free. then there is the management and business side which would be regular day jobs and pay acordigly. but just a guess.


----------



## Desire Inspires

gsilbers said:


> I dont think it works that way. composers rent space there and its on their own to find gigs or already have gigs. asistant probably dont get much as it would be on par with what any assitants make in any studio. which is not that much. And interns well, the standard minumun by law or just free. then there is the management and business side which would be regular day jobs and pay acordigly. but just a guess.



Oh wow. That seems brutal!

What is the advantage to renting space there as opposed to other places in LA?


----------



## dannymc

Desire Inspires said:


> Oh wow. That seems brutal!
> 
> What is the advantage to renting space there as opposed to other places in LA?



well i'm guessing alot of these composers are young kids eager to get a foot in the door so its probably better to see it more like an apprenticeship. 

i wasn't on here 4 years ago so i found it a very interesting post. 

Danny


----------



## John Busby

jononotbono said:


> There's just some great posts in here


Yep! i read'em both, they're great!


----------



## NoamL

jononotbono said:


> Just saw Driving Miss Daisy. Fantastic film.



Your sense of humor is one of the best things about this forum


----------



## NoamL

Desire Inspires said:


> What is the advantage to renting space there as opposed to other places in LA?



Access to collaboration/advice/techxpertise when you need it.

Many of the composers who rent there didn't just move in, they worked for HZ before starting their independent careers.

As for money there is no writer's union and no standard arrangement. You have to negotiate for yourself. In the past couple years I wrote for TV for four different composers and have different royalties with all of them ranging from 0% to 50%. In each case I was happy though. It's up to you to figure out what you're looking for/demand from any situation.


----------



## jononotbono

Steve Mazzaro programmed this by ear?


----------



## Rctec

jononotbono said:


> Steve Mazzaro programmed this by ear?



Not this version... I think that's my original. But his was better!


----------



## Rctec

jononotbono said:


> Steve Mazzaro programmed this by ear?



... I think this is his version. (Sorry, im at an airport with no Internet, so I can't really check)


----------



## jononotbono

Rctec said:


> ... I think this is his version. (Sorry, im at an airport with no Internet, so I can't really check)




Splendiferously great (both versions). I'm going to try and mock it up by ear.


----------



## Jetzer

jononotbono said:


> Splendiferously great (both versions). I'm going to try and mock it up by ear.



I looked this one up in the past, here is his mockup: 


Among others on the channel..


----------



## jononotbono

Jesse Heslinga said:


> I looked this one up in the past, here is his mockup:
> 
> 
> Among others on the channel..




Just amazing.


----------



## John Busby

It's so funny, i've listened to A&D many times but just two weeks ago i turned on 160 bpm in the car and me and my 2 year old jammed out like crazy!

@Rctec i was quickly reminded how much of a rhythmic genius you are, the choirs and the strings damn! but that percussion break is by far one of my favorite moments in any of your scores.
Everyone i ever show that to, including me are like....


----------



## jononotbono

Jesse Heslinga said:


> I looked this one up in the past, here is his mockup:
> 
> 
> Among others on the channel..




You say you looked this up in the past. Have you tried to mock anything up to this standard? And if not, why not?


----------



## Jetzer

jononotbono said:


> You say you looked this up in the past. Have you tried to mock anything *up to this standard*? And if not, why not?



Well...I have tried from time to time, some of them were a total disaster so I never shared them, but you learn a lot in the process. I am currently mocking up Chevaliers de Sangreal from HZ and that Lightning the Beacons cue from LotR, but still very much a WIP. Will post them when ready.

I did this a few years back, I'd say I could do it better now, not sure but I think this was done with the good old EWSO, and apart from that horrible solo cello, it's reasonable I guess:


----------



## jononotbono

And it seriously wasn't a joke about needing to wear socks to get your individual feet through the doors at RCP! Haha! 
Yes, I'm watching the documentary "Score - A Film Music Documentary".


----------



## creativeforge

Rctec said:


> The question was about working at RCP. And that's in Los Angeles. (One of my first tests for future candidates has always been: can you actually find us?)
> 
> No, I didn't start in Germany. I could never get a job there since I hadn't gone to music school, and they wanted to see references from an Akademie.
> 
> I was playing in bands in England - pups, colleges, workingmen's clubs, strip-joints. Always late with the rent, and worse - always ran out of shillings for the electricity meter. Makes it a bit hard on the electronic wunderwerk when it all gets dark in the middle of a riff.
> Lived mainly off the kindness of friends (it is important, as a musician, to be entertaining enough that people take you out on a regular basis for expensive dinners.) always owed the bank money - but the bank manager sort of believed in me, and let me overdraw. Borrowed synth from the good people at Argent's Keyboards and Syco Systems. Fell in with the jingle crowd, which was a regular check (I used to do two or three a week, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as a synth programmer for other composers)
> Started working with an equally poor Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Made a song we couldn't give away. Went to number one the week before my twenty-first birthday. Still waiting for the royalties.
> Got fed up with the world of rock 'n' roll. Started working with Stanley Myers (The Deerhunter) as his assistant. He showed me how the orchestra worked, I made excellent espresso. Fair deal.
> It was actually quite good not to be on the road anymore. I used every second to get better with equipment. I would loiter at the studio after I was done with my session and learn from engineers like Geoff Emerick, Flood, Hugh Padgham (actually, he was the bass player in my first band).
> 
> Build a studio in London with Stanley. It was tiny, but sounded great. Soul To Soul, a lot of KLF and other experimental stuff, endless disco...learned what a "hook" is. Beethoven knew...Mozart and the Stones knew...
> 
> And the commercial directors where starting to make TV movies. Our friends Tim Bevan and Sarah Radcliffe started a film company called "Working Title". No money, but a vision. Suddenly we where doing movies. Our movies where edgy and funny and usually under-financed before we even started. Mostly cut above strip joints or brothels in London's Soho. It was all just a different form of the world of entertainment, and the rent was cheap. Still owed the bank a fortune. I kept telling them that a synth could buy a house, not the other way round. That One idea, One tune would make the difference between ruin and being able to pay the banks back. And since I had no other qualifications, they didn't really have a choice.
> But I knew my stuff. It was limited - I was into electronica - but I could go up to any synth, any mixing console and work with it. I never took a day off. I was glued to all the synthporn magazines, hung out for years at Syco systems, who sold the Fairlight and the Linn, and eventually was offered a movie in L.A.
> And while we - due to lack of money - had really made what little technology we had (ok, i had a Fairlight by then...don't ask how we got it or paid for it. sometimes you have to be lucky. thank You, Stanley Kubrick!) work for us brilliantly, Hollywood wasn't at all the technological fab place I imagined it to be. It was very talented people writing on paper, with their arrangers and orchestrators in some dingy back room with neon lighting and cottage cheese ceilings. Not really my thing. Stained, cracked linoleum floors and water-damaged ceilings (" but thats where Orson Wells cut 'Citizen Kane'!" "yeah, great, but can you at least change the lightbulb?") So I build myself another studio and other people wanted to be part of it, like Mark Mancina, Harry G-W, John Powell...and because we had all that rather cool, yet primitive technology, directors actually liked coming over and hearing mock-ups of a score, discuss the music to picture without a hundred piece orchestra waiting outside. And we had an excellent drinks cupboard.
> 
> But the main thing was - we all had an insane work ethic (I remember feeling guilty leaving at 4am one morning, because everybody else's car was still there.). We surrounded ourselves with the greatest music editors like Adam Smalley and Bob Badami (look up their credits!) and changed their way of working to be more like record producers. We got recording engineers like Alan Meyerson, who could effortlessly move between orchestra and fuzz-box.
> 
> If we had an idea, we'd build it. We still build our own samplers, put unfair pressure onto companies like Steinberg and Avid (Logic is too corporate now. It's not how long it took to get this last update. When do you think the next one is coming out?)
> 
> We very much worked like a firm of architects. One main designer, with us all helping each other out. People are still confused about the "additional music" credits. If it sounds like me, it's probably me. Head Architect. But how can my collaborators ever get a career going if they are just "Ghosts"? If it sounds like John Powell, it's probably him...same rules apply.
> Personally, I couldn't give a flying [email protected]&$ about credits. I'm in it for the process. That's the part I love. I have a deal with one film company where they pay me next to nothing for the music, but a shitload of money for doing press. Press is hard work, parties scare the living day lights out of me, and premieres are only great for being in amongst a big audience for whom, ultimately we made it, and enjoying the movie with them. The party after is just some sort of Irish wake, where we say good bye to the joy we had making the thing.
> The only thing between you and a career is singleminded stubbornness, hard work and sweat, tempered with social graces and a true compassion for your poor director, good ideas, recklessness, humility and an insane work ethic. You have to have talent in all of these fields, plus, obviously, music and story telling. You need to be a proud servant of the film, and be respectful and a little bit in love with and of your audience. I'm not big on awards. They usually get it wrong. "Shawshank Redemtion" should have won the Oscar, in my opinion. My learned and generous peers obviously had a different opinion and gave it to me for "Lionking". Made no difference to my career, or the trajectory I was on.
> The only true compliment I feel is, when someone goes out and spends their hard earned money on one of my movies or soundtrack. Real people, who have a choice, wanting to be entertained and moved and think i can do that. The only thing I'm interested in is that I'm having some weird ongoing dialogue through my music with people I've never met, who are moved or provoked by my music, that something from my heart resonates with their emotion or brain - all over the world, whatever culture. And I'm interested that some guy with no education from Frankfurt can make it in Hollywood. Because that means anybody can.
> -Hz-



Priceless, thanks Hans!


----------



## dannymc

creativeforge said:


> Priceless, thanks Hans!



wow just read that post now. really inspiring stuff from Hans. 

Danny


----------



## jononotbono

On loop for weeks now. It’s the only thing I listen to. Steve is no doubt incredible. Fuck! I love knowing where the bar was.


----------



## CT

"Science and Religion" is just one of my favorite pieces of music ever, film score or otherwise.


----------



## jononotbono

Just wanted to chime in here... Cause it's been a while (and I thought the record might not need changing)... 160bpm Still amazing. Difference after correcting my room is when, at 2min 46, I finally hear room depth with Bass. Like, holy shit! Depth, perception, space, EVERYTHING is clear. Built. Man, this piece of music is a beautiful beast. Not bad for a 50+ year old that Daniel James Picks on.


----------



## jononotbono

The detail is immense.


----------



## KEM

jononotbono said:


> Just wanted to chime in here... Cause it's been a while (and I thought the record might not need changing)... 160bpm Still amazing. Difference after correcting my room is when, at 2min 46, I finally hear room depth with Bass. Like, holy shit! Depth, perception, space, EVERYTHING is clear. Built. Man, this piece of music is a beautiful beast. Not bad for a 50+ year old that Daniel James Picks on.



Oh God... please don’t start another war...


----------



## Rctec

KEM said:


> Oh God... please don’t start another war...


...just a little one?  ...I’m not 50+, I’m 60!


----------



## KEM

Rctec said:


> ...just a little one?  ...I’m not 50+, I’m 60!




Well, a debate about your age should end very quickly, although when I made a similar statement on the last debate thread another 30 pages went by...

See look what you’ve done! Now I have to explain myself!!


----------



## Garry

Wow, this is such a great thread. Just spent a really enjoyable Saturday morning reading through the posts, and listening to the music. The HZ orchestra playing Angels and Demons is to die for. The OP may have had the desire to work at RC: mine is just to take my son and watch a HZ live concert together. Looks incredible - when is the next one?!

Thanks to Jononotbono for bumping the 4 year old thread, or I would have never seen this. Makes me think a ‘classics thread’ would be a useful sub forum here: a place where threads such as this could be archived, so they are not lost to the mists of time? I wonder what other threads lurk in the VI-C archive that many of us may not have benefitted from at the time?

I’m off to listen to the rest of Angels & Demons...


----------



## jononotbono

Rctec said:


> ...just a little one?  ...I’m not 50+, I’m 60!




Haha! But seriously though. I just started using room correction software (Sonarworks) and its changed my world. I apparently have a 12db hump around 100hz which is ridiculous and unbeknownst has always influenced my listening. I just started writing library stuff for Universal and my first track got rejected 6 times due to the mix being top heavy. So I thought I’d give room correction a go. First mix into Sonarworks and it got approved. Which then led onto me listening to 160bpm. It’s a beast. The production is insane. I love it and heard it in such a different way last night.


----------



## jononotbono

Garry said:


> mine is just to take my son and watch a HZ live concert together.



You should definitely do that. I saw the gig opening night Wembley a couple of years ago. Not too shabby! Haha!


----------



## Garry

jononotbono said:


> You should definitely do that. I saw the gig opening night Wembley a couple of years ago. Not too shabby! Haha!



So I just looked it up to see when his next concert is (I missed the 2017 tour :( ), and there’s a ‘tribute’ concert here: http://www.worldofhanszimmer.com/en/ that is endorsed by HZ, though he’s not playing (he’s musical director and curator though). 

I don’t know any of the players (my ignorance): can anyone recommend this?


----------



## Rctec

Garry said:


> So I just looked it up to see when his next concert is (I missed the 2017 tour :( ), and there’s a ‘tribute’ concert here: http://www.worldofhanszimmer.com/en/ that is endorsed by HZ, though he’s not playing (he’s musical director and curator though).
> 
> I don’t know any of the players (my ignorance): can anyone recommend this?


Gavin Greenaway is conducting... he and Nick Glennie-Smith have done all my scores. Lisa G from Gladiator is singing, Pedro Eustache from my band is playing, and all the other soloists are first rate... and I have worked with the orchestra. I spend a lot of time doing new orchestrations with Steve Mazzaro and Bruce Fowler that are quite different from what we did as a “band”. I didn’t want to repeat myself. This is definitely more orchestral. Originally I thought it would be for small concert-houses, but the tickets started to really sell, so I had to re-think it a bit and tried to make it work as an arena show. Yes, I really hope it’ll work. We’ll see!


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## Garry

Rctec said:


> Gavin Greenaway is conducting... he and Nick Glennie-Smith have done all my scores. Lisa G from Gladiator is singing, Pedro Eustache from my band is playing, and all the other soloists are first rate... and I have worked with the orchestra. I spend a lot of time doing new orchestrations with Steve Mazzaro and Bruce Fowler that are quite different from what we did as a “band”. I didn’t want to repeat myself. This is definitely more orchestral. Originally I thought it would be for small concert-houses, but the tickets started to really sell, so I had to re-think it a bit and tried to make it work as an arena show. Yes, I really hope it’ll work. We’ll see!


Thanks Hans - that’s all I needed: 2 tickets bought. Can’t wait to see my son’s face!

Any thoughts on when you’ll next tour again yourself?


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## KEM

Garry said:


> Thanks Hans - that’s all I needed: 2 tickets bought. Can’t wait to see my son’s face!
> 
> Any thoughts on when you’ll next tour again yourself?



I hope soon but there better be a St. Louis date!!


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## fretti

Rctec said:


> ...just a little one?  ...I’m not 50+, I’m 60!


Like a good wine! Matures with age and get exceptional flavors and a great complexity 
Just like your music I'd say. (Because it is said you like a good glass of wine).

P.S.: Hope that isn't seen as offensive towards you


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## SterlingArcher

Rctec said:


> ...just a little one?  ...I’m not 50+, I’m 60!


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## AlexRuger

Rctec said:


> Gavin Greenaway is conducting... he and Nick Glennie-Smith have done all my scores. Lisa G from Gladiator is singing, Pedro Eustache from my band is playing, and all the other soloists are first rate... and I have worked with the orchestra. I spend a lot of time doing new orchestrations with Steve Mazzaro and Bruce Fowler that are quite different from what we did as a “band”. I didn’t want to repeat myself. This is definitely more orchestral. Originally I thought it would be for small concert-houses, but the tickets started to really sell, so I had to re-think it a bit and tried to make it work as an arena show. Yes, I really hope it’ll work. We’ll see!



Pedro is potentially the coolest guy I have ever met. Recorded him a couple weeks ago and it was such a blast!


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## dcoscina

Garry said:


> So I just looked it up to see when his next concert is (I missed the 2017 tour :( ), and there’s a ‘tribute’ concert here: http://www.worldofhanszimmer.com/en/ that is endorsed by HZ, though he’s not playing (he’s musical director and curator though).
> 
> I don’t know any of the players (my ignorance): can anyone recommend this?


I unfortunately missed HZ when he came to Toronto last August but was delighted to discover the Prague concert on Netflix just recently. While it can’t compare to the live experience, I really enjoyed the production value and the way the music was arranged for live performance. I had the biggest goofiest grin on my face when I heard the clarinet line from Driving Miss Daisy which opened the show. Love that score to this day.


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## jbstanley

Have really enjoyed reading some of this thread - really neat to hear about some of the work that went into HZ's live show. I was not able to see it in person, but was able to watch it on Netflix (which doesn't do it justice), but it was phenomenal.

Just recently wrapped production for a stage show in which they wanted to bring cinema to the stage - full orchestra, rhythm section, choir and lots and lots of percussion. Was really fun to bring together and I was inspired by watching the HZ live show. Did a bit of a "salute" to what I observed in Hans' production work in combining electric guitars with an orchestra among other things. I've always been inspired by his work (especially the percussive side of things as I always love creating gigantic percussive works with an orchestra - as a drummer turned composer it's a blast).

Wanted to share a snippet of the final - the total length of this piece is 12 minutes, but the sample is only about 3. Very diverse movements that had to be tied together - it was a stretch, but man was it fun. Thanks for the inspiration Hans.

Hope you guys enjoy...the link is below.


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## bengoss

Rctec said:


> The question was about working at RCP. And that's in Los Angeles. (One of my first tests for future candidates has always been: can you actually find us?)
> 
> No, I didn't start in Germany. I could never get a job there since I hadn't gone to music school, and they wanted to see references from an Akademie.
> 
> I was playing in bands in England - pups, colleges, workingmen's clubs, strip-joints. Always late with the rent, and worse - always ran out of shillings for the electricity meter. Makes it a bit hard on the electronic wunderwerk when it all gets dark in the middle of a riff.
> Lived mainly off the kindness of friends (it is important, as a musician, to be entertaining enough that people take you out on a regular basis for expensive dinners.) always owed the bank money - but the bank manager sort of believed in me, and let me overdraw. Borrowed synth from the good people at Argent's Keyboards and Syco Systems. Fell in with the jingle crowd, which was a regular check (I used to do two or three a week, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as a synth programmer for other composers)
> Started working with an equally poor Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. Made a song we couldn't give away. Went to number one the week before my twenty-first birthday. Still waiting for the royalties.
> Got fed up with the world of rock 'n' roll. Started working with Stanley Myers (The Deerhunter) as his assistant. He showed me how the orchestra worked, I made excellent espresso. Fair deal.
> It was actually quite good not to be on the road anymore. I used every second to get better with equipment. I would loiter at the studio after I was done with my session and learn from engineers like Geoff Emerick, Flood, Hugh Padgham (actually, he was the bass player in my first band).
> 
> Build a studio in London with Stanley. It was tiny, but sounded great. Soul To Soul, a lot of KLF and other experimental stuff, endless disco...learned what a "hook" is. Beethoven knew...Mozart and the Stones knew...
> 
> And the commercial directors where starting to make TV movies. Our friends Tim Bevan and Sarah Radcliffe started a film company called "Working Title". No money, but a vision. Suddenly we where doing movies. Our movies where edgy and funny and usually under-financed before we even started. Mostly cut above strip joints or brothels in London's Soho. It was all just a different form of the world of entertainment, and the rent was cheap. Still owed the bank a fortune. I kept telling them that a synth could buy a house, not the other way round. That One idea, One tune would make the difference between ruin and being able to pay the banks back. And since I had no other qualifications, they didn't really have a choice.
> But I knew my stuff. It was limited - I was into electronica - but I could go up to any synth, any mixing console and work with it. I never took a day off. I was glued to all the synthporn magazines, hung out for years at Syco systems, who sold the Fairlight and the Linn, and eventually was offered a movie in L.A.
> And while we - due to lack of money - had really made what little technology we had (ok, i had a Fairlight by then...don't ask how we got it or paid for it. sometimes you have to be lucky. thank You, Stanley Kubrick!) work for us brilliantly, Hollywood wasn't at all the technological fab place I imagined it to be. It was very talented people writing on paper, with their arrangers and orchestrators in some dingy back room with neon lighting and cottage cheese ceilings. Not really my thing. Stained, cracked linoleum floors and water-damaged ceilings (" but thats where Orson Wells cut 'Citizen Kane'!" "yeah, great, but can you at least change the lightbulb?") So I build myself another studio and other people wanted to be part of it, like Mark Mancina, Harry G-W, John Powell...and because we had all that rather cool, yet primitive technology, directors actually liked coming over and hearing mock-ups of a score, discuss the music to picture without a hundred piece orchestra waiting outside. And we had an excellent drinks cupboard.
> 
> But the main thing was - we all had an insane work ethic (I remember feeling guilty leaving at 4am one morning, because everybody else's car was still there.). We surrounded ourselves with the greatest music editors like Adam Smalley and Bob Badami (look up their credits!) and changed their way of working to be more like record producers. We got recording engineers like Alan Meyerson, who could effortlessly move between orchestra and fuzz-box.
> 
> If we had an idea, we'd build it. We still build our own samplers, put unfair pressure onto companies like Steinberg and Avid (Logic is too corporate now. It's not how long it took to get this last update. When do you think the next one is coming out?)
> 
> We very much worked like a firm of architects. One main designer, with us all helping each other out. People are still confused about the "additional music" credits. If it sounds like me, it's probably me. Head Architect. But how can my collaborators ever get a career going if they are just "Ghosts"? If it sounds like John Powell, it's probably him...same rules apply.
> Personally, I couldn't give a flying [email protected]&$ about credits. I'm in it for the process. That's the part I love. I have a deal with one film company where they pay me next to nothing for the music, but a shitload of money for doing press. Press is hard work, parties scare the living day lights out of me, and premieres are only great for being in amongst a big audience for whom, ultimately we made it, and enjoying the movie with them. The party after is just some sort of Irish wake, where we say good bye to the joy we had making the thing.
> The only thing between you and a career is singleminded stubbornness, hard work and sweat, tempered with social graces and a true compassion for your poor director, good ideas, recklessness, humility and an insane work ethic. You have to have talent in all of these fields, plus, obviously, music and story telling. You need to be a proud servant of the film, and be respectful and a little bit in love with and of your audience. I'm not big on awards. They usually get it wrong. "Shawshank Redemtion" should have won the Oscar, in my opinion. My learned and generous peers obviously had a different opinion and gave it to me for "Lionking". Made no difference to my career, or the trajectory I was on.
> The only true compliment I feel is, when someone goes out and spends their hard earned money on one of my movies or soundtrack. Real people, who have a choice, wanting to be entertained and moved and think i can do that. The only thing I'm interested in is that I'm having some weird ongoing dialogue through my music with people I've never met, who are moved or provoked by my music, that something from my heart resonates with their emotion or brain - all over the world, whatever culture. And I'm interested that some guy with no education from Frankfurt can make it in Hollywood. Because that means anybody can.
> -Hz-


Such an old post, was wondering if anyone had luck with “can you actually find us” @Rctec  ?
I am in LA right now, visiting from NYC and wanted so badly to visit remote control for an informational interview and learn as much as I can while there.
I did send an email couple of weeks ago - no response..
I found RC, asked who should I talk to and they just told me that this is a private property and they are not able to introduce me to anyone..
I did call today and they also told me that there is no way of talking to anyone or visiting.
So definitely can you actually find us has a different meaning)
If anyone has an advice, I would appreciate it a lot.

Thank you,
Ben


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## CT

It's like converting to Judaism. You have to ask three times.

(Sorry, obviously I don't have any useful advice, much as I'd like to for both our benefit)


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## bengoss

miket said:


> It's like converting to Judaism. You have to ask three times.
> 
> (Sorry, obviously I don't have any useful advice, much as I'd like to for both our benefit)


Lol, thank you anyways! 
Hope someone here works at RC and kind enough to respond.

B


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## Strezov

Buy doughnuts maybe?


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## Beluga

Strezov said:


> Buy doughnuts maybe?


That might actually work since they are musicians, they most likely are hungry..


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## Loïc D

A plumber outfit works in every movie to break in a building.
Worth trying.
At worst, you’d pretend you’re scoring the next Mario Bros movie.


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## CT

It worked for Susie!


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## bengoss

Strezov said:


> Buy doughnuts maybe?





LowweeK said:


> A plumber outfit works in every movie to break in a building.
> Worth trying.
> At worst, you’d pretend you’re scoring the next Mario Bros movie.



Lol 😂


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