Will Van De Crommert produces Hollywood-quality film scores in a humble basement studio at Saint John’s University. We talk about composing for film, his portfolio for USC Film School, and how to produce an endorphin-releasing pop tune.

We also discuss “spotting” films to plan where music should go. One of the trickiest things for a new film composer is deciding when the music should simply create a mood and when the music should do a bit of “Mickey-mousing,” which refers to composing obvious musical cues to fit the visuals.

[audio:https://charliemccarron.com/mediaftp/composerquest/composer-quest-013-will-vdc.mp3]

Right click to download Ep. 13, or open in iTunes.

Here’s a score Will composed that we talk about in the episode. Will took the original trailer for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and produced his own soundtrack.

For more of Will’s music, visit his website or YouTube page.

Links

• Richard Davis – Complete Guide to Film Scoring
• Soundworks Collection (Behind the Scenes of Film Sound)
• Macklemore – “Thrift Shop” (Positive, non-empty message in a Top 40 tune)
• Research on minor keys in Top 40 songs

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