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Fargo Composer Jeff Russo on TV Scoring

When Jeff Russo's band Tonic hit it big in the 90s, he was just beginning to get interested in film and television scoring. Now his IMDb page is chock full of major TV credits, including composing for CBS's Hostages, 50 Cent's Power, USA's Necessary Roughness, Showtime's Weeds, etc. His most creatively fulfilling work, though, has been on the FX show Fargo, for which he just got an Emmy nomination. I'm excited to bring you my interview with Jeff, which marks the start of Composer Quest: Season 3.

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Live Film Scores in St. Paul

My friends at MNKINO and I have been organizing a night of new short films with original scores. We teamed up filmmakers and composers from around the world to collaborate. The most exciting part is that we've assembled an orchestra to play these scores live at the film screening.

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How Music Licensing Deals are Made in Film and TV

If you're a songwriter or composer, you may have been approached by a filmmaker who wants to use your music in his or her film. After the initial burst of excitement, a few practical questions should be going through your head:

What should I charge?
Who will own the music?
Will I be able to collect royalties?
Should I ask for a chunk of the film's profits?
Should I write the contract myself or hire a lawyer?

These are just a few of the topics covered in this special summer episode of Composer Quest, featuring a talk by entertainment lawyers Ken Abdo and Dan Satorius. Thanks to the Minnesota Music Coalition and McNally Smith for hosting this talk at the 2014 MN Music Summit. I highly recommend listening if you're a songwriter or composer, so you can make the most out of getting your music placed in a film and avoid getting stuck with a crappy contract.

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Film Scoring 101 with Adam Conrad

In this special summer episode of Composer Quest, composer Adam Conrad shares a ton of great insights about how music works in film. He also explains why he transitioned from using MIDI mockups to writing everything by hand, for real musicians.

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Kim of the Sunset

My friend Jeff Schwinghammer filmed a mini documentary about a scooter-driving woman in San Fransisco, and he asked me to write "ambient surf-ish music" for it. Sounded right up my alley.

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Rock and Docs with Composer Silas Hite

I guarantee you've heard music by Silas Hite before. If you didn't play Sims 2 or see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, then you at least heard Silas's score for the ubiquitous Mac vs. PC ads. Silas is proof that freelance composing is a viable career. In this episode of Composer Quest, we talk about his percussion-driven scores for the documentaries The Record Breaker (a Vimeo Top 10 film of 2013), The Invention of Dr. Nakamats, and Stories from the Evacuation. Silas also shares his creative process behind his rock records, and gives some tips on freelance composing.

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Indie Film Composing with Brooke deRosa

DJ, opera singer, and film composer Brooke deRosa is making a name for herself around LA. She recently sang on Ghostface Killah's 12 Reasons to Die and appeared on Jimmy Fallon with the group. In this episode of Composer Quest, Brooke gives us some practical advice she's learned from scoring over 15 films and TV shows in the past five years. She also shares tips on composing for vocalists.

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Follow Your Dreams! With Candy Bilyk

Theater, film, and video game composer Candy Bilyk shares the best piece of advice she ever heard from Katy Perry: "Follow your dreams!" Candy was happy to share her own (actually practical) advice on composing and the music business. In Composer Quest Episode 37, we talk about everything from "synthestration" to grant writing to her opera about a fairy-eating carp.

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