Drawing Close to the End

8 More cues and 2 possible songs for the film Finding Seoul, and then alas this project will be over.

I get a bit sad when things get to this point, because I know a lot of the hard work is soon going to go into rewrites and ultimately, come to an end. When you work on a TV series, its different because the end is some thing in the far future that may or may not happen every season. I guess because as the episodes come in you realize that those milestones are just as important as the type I am closing in on..

I've almost found my Seoul.

My best,

j

Seoul Continues to Shine

I’m into day three of production. Well I should say night three.

I tried. I really did. I tried to compose during the day and failed miserably :)

Well, that’s not true. I did finish a number of cues for Finding Seoul on friday afternoon. The main theme though has been rocking in my head pretty much the whole week I’ve been working on this, and its hard to get it out. I’m working a lot on the beginning of the film since the music is pretty close. The historical footage is my favorite. I chose alto flute for the main character for when he was a boy, since it really hit the child-essence thing to a T.

As far as later on in the film, there is going to be a lot more of the recapitulation of the the main title theme, which is a song. Vocals and everything.

So here’s to another overnight of composing!

j

Seoul In My Soul

Evening everyone.

I just finished pre-production and instrument selection for a new documentary I’ll be scoring next week. It’s a beautiful piece, and pretty much what I look for in any passion project. It’s real, well produced, and has a great narrative. I’ll begin the downbeat this Wednesday and should have the first drafts out by Friday afternoon.

Check out the documentarian’s weblog here:

http://findingseoulfilm.tumblr.com

As for TM2, I have hit a wall. I’ve written 48 minutes of the record and only have about 12 minutes to go, but those last 12 minutes are so hard. I don’t know if anything I’ve done is even worthy. I guess that’s why us artists can sometimes get to self-conscious and think everything we do is crap.

I know I do.

I still haven’t finished the music for my new demo reel, which is going to feature music that’s been everywhere. I mean, A&E, WE, NatGeo… You’d think I’d be rarin ta go and get the demo reel soundtrack going... And to boot, one of my friends who’s probably the best editor I’ve ever known is cutting the damn thing together! I mean common Jack!

But like I said it’s hard.

Any of you having the same problems I’m having?

Thanks for reading,

j

Looking Over The Tracks

Hi there fellow friends and composers

I’ve checked (and re-checked) what I have so far for TM2 and realized that a little more than half the album is done. There are three tracks that I am confident will make it onto the next album, while two others which don’t match the sound. One of them was so upbeat and happy I almost didn’t recognize it was me.

Along the same vein as the working-title tracks “Open” and “Clear” are another two percolating, which have yet to be named. Still figuring out instrumentation on one and the other…well I know it will have piano, that counts right? :)

Since returning to school, I’ve found less and less energy to do this album. But I am still working on it, and I will keep you posted on how it is going.

As always thanks for reading,

j

Jack Walker Music – Update

Hello friends and fellow composers. Just a quick update on where the projects and albums are.

I spent 2010 in convalescence while completing a number of television projects for A&E and National Geographic.

As such, the albums I was working on took a major hit. TM 2 has been put off for a year, and two other projects began to percolate in the last month and a half. I’ll address those in a later post.

I am rebuilding my sounds database (had a hard drive crash about 6 months ago) and the studio wasn’t operating at 100% for a while.

As for TM 2, its getting close, but I’m still not quite happy with some of the arrangements. I’m considering bringing on a friend who does kick ass arrangements (you know who you are). Hopefully it will reignite the fires of creation as it were.

I’ll keep you updated, and get a release date for TM 2 soon.

Thanks for reading,

Jack

Twilight Meditations 2 - Pre-Production Update

Wooohoo!

Sounds have been selected. Gigastudio 4 has finally died a horrible death, so I'll be using two other PC's loaded with Kontakt, Waves and Omnisphere to fill in. Going to have to figure something out for Giga Violin though. NOTHING can touch that sample and it's only workable in Giga4.

Any suggestions?

96 Khz is the sample rate, the DVD session is plotted, and once I have roughs of all the music I'll pass them to the better half of me to see if they inspire anything.

I become excited :)

Soon

Jack

Twilight Meditations 2 - Pre-Production

Heya gang. Yup, I'm in the middle of putting together instruments and ideas for a second release, tentatively named Twilight Meditations 2. I know, very creative naming. Heh

Anyway, I intend to do this release a bit differently. Specifically, I'm going to record it so that it can be mixed and released in 5.1 surround. I also have a very sexy and talented photographer and graphic designer that I think I can bribe into doing visuals so this can turn into a multimedia relaxation release.

Plans are to make its flow somewhat similar to the last release, starting at around 70 BPM and slowing to 58 BPM, but sticking there. So instead of a gentle slope down then slope up, this will be a very gentle slope down. Hopefully listeners will be able to fall asleep. I know a couple of people who suffer from insomnia and I'm eager to see if this is successful in helping with that.

I'm going to try a bit more with the piano this time. There was a lot of piano in some of the pieces from the last CD, but after listening to George Winston's new age stuff, I realized that you can really carry the material with very limited instrument choices.

I plan on using some more world instrumentation as well, some of the textures that are produced when you combine instruments from two totally different regions of the planet are unique and strangely familiar. There will be some experimentation. If you have any ideas of what might be neat to try, please by all means post some suggestions.

I have a prelemenary release date of quarter 1 2010.

My best

Jack