When I was writing for tv
I had to write 42-44 minutes of original music spot to picture in 7 days week after week for a 22 episodic show on a major network. That means no days off, there is no such thing as a weekend, and welcome to the world of you are not allowed to sleep
. I would never have been able to do this if I had kids. I was working 18-20 hour days 5-6 days a week and 1-2 all nighters each and every week. Nothing existed but this project for about a year including prep. There was never enough time in the day and because of the nature of the turn around time I had to create 6 minutes of finished original music a day to picture week after week. I never used prerecorded music or loops. It was exhausting, exhilarating, exciting, satisfying, engrossing, all-encompassing and incredibly productive. It got easier the more episodes I completed as I was able to build up more and more themes to go to for each character, location or dramatic moment. If they paid me more I could have hired people to help but I had to do everything on my own (spotting, composing, orchestrating, arranging, performing, recording, programming, editing, mixing, mastering, syncing, converting, and delivery). As time passed the deadlines started to get easier as I had sometimes 14 days to create a finished 42-44 minutes original score to picture. But all that meant was I had more time to perfect
my work for each episode as I still never took one day off till the show ended. I cannot fathom anyone in any profession working more hours than I did ever in the history of the world. If I could have gotten hired to work like that year after year I would gladly have done it but getting gigs in this biz as a composer for hire for major studios is not easy unless you are on the A-list. Whoever thinks you are supposed to do 1 minute of music per hour is delusional. I’ve had moments where minutes of music came to me in my mind in seconds but that is not the same as making a finished track to picture over and over and over again day after day while having to meet major deadlines.