Thankyou very much.
Your music's quite good. one thing, less is more.

most professional games companies are run by pencil pushers who wouldn't touch me with a 60 foot barge pole. They tend to take on people with 70 tonnes of paper and 1 ounce of imagination.

And i was merely listing some aspects of my cv, nothing more. But yes it does sound as if i'm boasting.
yes a lot of people are uninterested and don't really care. Stuff them. The best games are made by the most passionate game makers, if civilisation and simcity are any sort of example to go by.

I ignored your insult at my address completely since it has no point in getting into argueing whether I cant read, think or am being a child.

If you want to get into jobs you shall have to provide people with stuff that you can. Meaning that if you post samples of your music people want to hear what you are fully capable to do. Not something that provides them with a basic idea. People dont want big words. They want to know exactly with whom or what they are gonna work with. They dont send you contracts based on words or an unedited demo. If so, then start wundering what proffesional company that is and if you are willing to work with them. If you are going to hire people, you als want to know what is their maximum capability I presume.
If you see an advertisement for a movie or a game I assume you want to know what the max is they are capable of. Ofcourse a lot can be pretended, but in the end you want to know how and what. For this you need demo's of the highest quality you are able to produce at that time.

It is good to dream and to make the impossible happen. I know by experience. Eventhough you may think of me as a child, I am in fact a 28 year old composer with a ton of experience. Not in the game world, not in the movies, but as classical composer in the avantgarde world in Europe. Everybody laughed at me when I wanted to create an music theatre production about the Divine Comedy, but 2 years later, lobying €150.000 euro of budget I created my dream. So I know what it is. BUT. You have to stay realistic. The world of music is dynamic. If something happens to you and you get for whatever reason out of the picture, you are replacable. That goes for everyone. Even John Williams, Horner, Elfman and god knows who. We are all special, but in the other hand we are not.
We are craftsmen of music. Nothing more, nothing less.

Edit: fixed some typo's (probably still a lot in there :P)

if a person asked me to write a track i'd do it without a second thought.
But nobody's e-mailed me asking me to provide the minimum and max i can provide.

And i will always show the minimum standard that is achievable for a project in a demo, as a tactic for discovering if the people in question have the imagination necesary to work out what i am actually going to produce when i put time and effort into the tracks for the final score. it's a means of ascertaining whether the company i am working for has the ability to produce a good game or film.

And i never mean to insult anyone, i have a slight problem conveying my precise mood and thoughts in words, music is easier, so it's unfortunately open to interpretation.

Music's a highly competitive business, there's always someone else trying to do better, so i'm well aware that i am replacable. The way i have survived the last 2 and a half years is to stay ahead of the game by constantly evolving my talents. And to only work with people who are similarly creative and imaginative. I've deliberatley avoided the salary market altogether and will do so for the rest of my life.

I am not a craftsman of music, i am an extractor and craftsman of the emotions of the person playing or watching. As i understand it the job of a media composer is not to craft music, but instead is to take the emotions presented in that media and convert them into music, so as to force the audience to experience those emotions and thus enjoy experiencing the media they are experiencing.

Quote: Original post by matmilne
if a person asked me to write a track i'd do it without a second thought.
But nobody's e-mailed me asking me to provide the minimum and max i can provide.

Ok, that is nice then, but maybe they just expect the max. But ok :)

Quote: And i will always show the minimum standard that is achievable for a project in a demo, as a tactic for discovering if the people in question have the imagination necesary to work out what i am actually going to produce when i put time and effort into the tracks for the final score. it's a means of ascertaining whether the company i am working for has the ability to produce a good game or film.

I personally would love the recruiter who has time to think about what I would be able of doing if I had shown a full quality demo instead of the minimum.
Problems with companies and their recruiters is: they wanted you yesterday. So no time to think about. But ok, it is a tactic and I hope it will work out for you. Would be ideal if the world was like that.

Quote: And i never mean to insult anyone, i have a slight problem conveying my precise mood and thoughts in words, music is easier, so it's unfortunately open to interpretation.

Ok, can happen :) no bad feelings.

Quote: Music's a highly competitive business, there's always someone else trying to do better, so i'm well aware that i am replacable. The way i have survived the last 2 and a half years is to stay ahead of the game by constantly evolving my talents. And to only work with people who are similarly creative and imaginative. I've deliberatley avoided the salary market altogether and will do so for the rest of my life.

Maybe I misunderstood you since I had the idea you are aiming for the big companies. You posted that also on your soundclick page, but it is indeed highly competitive. I personally think it has nothing to do with evolving talents. Ofcourse it is part of it, but a most of the work is simply done by networking and being there at the right place at the right time.
I know a composer with whom I have studied and he was extremely gifted. Maybe the most gifted composer I have seen so far. Only problem was that he was very bad in social contacts. The poor guy never got any assignment and after 4 years he simply quited composing.

Quote: I am not a craftsman of music, i am an extractor and craftsman of the emotions of the person playing or watching. As i understand it the job of a media composer is not to craft music, but instead is to take the emotions presented in that media and convert them into music, so as to force the audience to experience those emotions and thus enjoy experiencing the media they are experiencing.

Basicly you are saying also craftsman of music. Music is creating emotions for the audience and present that to them. Our job is to do that. But with games and movies it is a total picture and not only music creating the emotion. We have to debate with and adjust to the directors point of view to making our emotions and feelings in the music that is needed for the game or movie.

Quote: However good computer games are made like films, and generally do better if scored that way because of that.

Wrong, totally wrong. These days people actually are trying to get out of the linearity of older games and films/movies.

Quote: i happen to think that those tracks on my site are rubbish, on the grounds that they're fake, have no editing applied to them, have not been recorded properly or in any other way professionally mixed. And they're taken out of context.
They're just a means of providing a very basic idea of what i can do.

Again wrong. If you want to show people what you can do, show people what you can do. If you can't edit, 'record properly' or professionally mix files, say so, but don't fake like you can and then say you just didn't do it. Doesn't really show any professionalism.

Quote: I do admit that i tend to prefer working with people who dream, you know the type, the ones that are so imaginative and strive for impossibility, they get luaghed at by almost everyone, then produce something that shuts everyone up.
it's much more exciting than churning out factory nonsense.

provoking people is not necesarily the best practice but it quickly sorts the pompous and arrogant accountants out from the serious and creative artists.

Not much people can choose the projects they work on. But if you say you can, you're lucky :D! About that arrogant, I think highlighting it says enough. Being a good gamecomposer is not only being able to create good music, but also to be able to work with other people. And believe me, serious and creative artists also don't like to be provoked.

Quote: And as far as i'm aware, no 20 yo untrained musician has been taken on to score major movies alongside major people, so i'd say my potential was pretty difficult to fathom. Unless you're a creative minded person, you're gonna have a hard time seeing it on paper.

...I...You're...forget it, I'm not gonna react to that...

Quote: if you don't want to hire me that's your porogative, but if you don't try me out on a few small things like trailers etc, you're not gonna know what could be achieved here.
You're not gonna no for certain until you try. sending a video clip doesn't cost anything, and i can have up to 10mins scored in one day. And if you don't take me on, you don't take me on. all i want is for someone amongst this crazy group of people to have a go. what have you got to loose....

One word, time. And with the big companies out there, time is money.

Just my 2 cents.

-Stenny

Oh, and you do realize that imdb only gives up 2 movies and 1 series you scored. 2 which have no score whatsoever, and 1 which has a 7 but lasts only 10 minutes. Where are the bigtime-movies you talked about. Proof man, proof!

[Edited by - stenny on July 28, 2007 5:24:33 PM]

Unfortunately most people in the gaming industry trying to get away from linear film like games ignore gameplay, and produce some of the best looking rubbish heaps on earth.

I am not interested in working with big companies or working with money. I am intersted in working with just one or two individuals. whether they are a part of a big company, financed by a big company or entierly independent is not something i particularly care about. I just want to work with visionary artists.

if a person likes a track in its basic form, then what's it gonna be like when it's recorded by the best orchestra, in the best studios, edited by award winning editors and mixed in the best facilities?
If you can imagine that, and have the budget to provide the resources, then you and i can work very very well together.
i simply provide the actual notes of the score, the music department does the rest.

I don't live in "the real world" because most people's ideas of the real world is a depressing limited existence of mundane routine. i live in a world where i can pick and choose the projects i work on, and work with a few, highly talented individuals. i don't want to work on some everyday rubbish with everyday people, i want to work on once in a lifetime projects with once in a lifetime visionary artists and great peeople (whether they come from humble or wealthy backgrounds is again not important to me).

And all i will say is that large projects take between 5 and 12 years to make. Most are only in their second year and thus are not in pre-production yet so are not listed on the imdb. The proof of the puding is in the eating. the pudding i'm afraid may take another 2 years to arrive, before it can be eaten

if you have a great imagination and are a great artist, then you should be able to see exactly what i am doing, and this of course is how i pick and choose.

This is not to mean that you personally are not a great artist, but is the way i choose the people and projects i work on.

those who see what i am doing contact me, those who don't don't. Those who contact me, understand me and thus are people i can work easily with, those who don't aren't. and it is as simple and as crazy as that.

Hey Matt, who, apart from you, says you are internationally renowned?

the fact that i work internationally and with other internationally renowned people. You're gonna have to wait a bit for some of the current international projects to reach the spotlight but they're on their way.

An example is my 15th piano concerto written for ambre hammond (the record holding internationally renowned australian pianist) in order to know that i was working with her, you would have to believe me or know her, because the piece itself may not be performed by her for at least a year.

I suggest you work on how you present yourself. Do you notice how not a single person has responded in a positive way to your initial post? That means something. It really does.

Your post is boastful and seems to be full of exaggeration and half-truths. You drop names and make lots of big claims. I don't think people will ever take you seriously with an approach like that. Believe me, I worked in the film and music industries in L.A. for 10 years. I can spot bullshit a mile away.

Quote: Original post by matmilne
most professional games companies are run by pencil pushers who wouldn't touch me with a 60 foot barge pole. They tend to take on people with 70 tonnes of paper and 1 ounce of imagination.

Oh, and you know nothing about making games.

And thus : would you consider yourself someone who will sometime in the future be internationally renowned i.e.

you are "aspiring: to be internationally renowned?

does that sound more accurate to you?