orchestral composition accelerator

I’m excited to announce my Orchestral Composition Accelerator program for the first time! This program will run over 7 weeks as I guide you through the process of writing and recording for orchestra. Below are all the program details:

WHEN WILL IT TAKE PLACE?

  • April 10th - May 22nd 2024

WHERE & WHEN ARE THE RECORDING SESSIONS?

  • Skopje, Macedonia with the FAME’S Orchestral Recording Project

  • April 26th - 20 Strings

  • May 18th - 50 Piece Orchestra

WHAT MATERIALS WILL I RECEIVE?

  • Professionally mixed recordings of your music (up to 5 minutes of music!) from both recording sessions (Full Participants Only)

  • Both of your ProTools Sessions with all audio files from your recordings (Full Participants Only)

  • Behind The Scenes video footage and photos of your recording sessions (Full Participants Only)

  • Templates for orchestration and session planning/organization

  • Lifetime access to all archived group sessions

  • Certificate of completion

WHAT ARE THE TWO OPTIONS OF PARTICIPATION?

  • Full Participant - As a full participant, you will have 2 group sessions a week; 1 lecture and 1 review session to go over your works in progress. These group sessions will be about 2 hours each. You will be writing your own music and working towards the two big recording sessions we have planned in the program. You’ll be able to record up to 5 minutes of music total and have 30 minutes with the orchestra in each recording session! You will also have an hour long 1-1 session with me ahead of each recording session so I can help you refine your work in detail. After the recording sessions, your music will be mixed by a professional mixing engineer.

  • Auditor - As an auditor, you’ll be able to sit in on each of the group sessions, both lectures and review sessions. I won’t be able to review your music in the review sessions but you will be involved and can ask questions as the full participants. You will also receive the materials listed above.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

  • Full Participants (12 Spaces) - $3500

  • Auditor - $500

WHAT DO I NEED TO PARTICIPATE?

  • A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Logic Pro or Cubase

  • A notation software

DO I HAVE ENOUGH SKILLS TO MAKE THE MOST OF THIS YET?

  • This program is designed to help you learn how to orchestrate and record with an orchestra, so no previous experience in this is necessary. You don’t need to be an expert in music theory or have a music degree to participate, just a good understanding of how to write a theme and some basics of harmony. If you’ve been writing your own music for a while, whether its pop, classical, edm, film music, then this program is perfect for you.

DO I NEED TO FLY TO MACEDONIA FOR THE RECORDING SESSIONS?

  • You more than welcome to join me in Macedonia for the recording sessions, but this is not required. All of the recording sessions will be streamed and you will be able to join the call directly with a high fidelity audio feed from wherever you are. You’ll be able to hear the same audio that we will hear in the recording studio!

HOW IS THE TUITION DELIVERED?

  • The tuition will be delivered as a mix of group calls and 1-1 sessions. You can have a look at the schedule BELOW. All the group sessions will be recorded and archived so that you can catch up incase you have to miss a session. You’ll be able to access and reference the archive of lessons indefinitely, even after the program has finished. 1-1 sessions will be organized individually based on our mutual availability.

STUDY WITH ME

 

I’VE LAUNCHED AN ONLINE COURSE!

TEACHABLE COURSE! - I’m very excited to share that I’ve now launched a complete and comprehensive online course via Teachable. I've worked in Hollywood film music for a bunch of years at the highest level with credits including Black Widow, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Ad Astra, Gemini Man, His Dark Materials, and many More!

I'm a professor at the Royal College of Music, teaching in one of the world's top film music programmes and I'm also an Affiliate Lecturer at Cambridge University teaching film music curriculum. After years of teaching and working, I wanted to create this course and offer private lessons so I can share my experience and give a clear process for how to write effective music for media.

My comprehensive course takes you through the process of writing music for media from the initial concepts to final delivery. I use examples of my own work to demonstrate each concept and provide tasks to ensure understanding. I've applied my experiences in the field and then refined this curriculum through years of teaching to help you improve your understanding of the industry and become the best composer you can be. To take your development further, I also offer 1-1 lessons to address your specific needs and offer advice for your career. Enroll now!

DISCORD! - I’ve set up a Discord server for us to chat and share useful information. I get a bunch of emails asking advice on a range of topics from importing MIDI files to career advice and I think Discord will make it easier for me to answer questions and for us to share in a more private community than an open facebook page. Follow the link to join!

 

Online Masterclasses

THE CUE TUBE - I’ve given a couple free masterclasses via The Cue Tube which you can watch below. You may also view the full score of the piece I composed for the masterclasses here:

Caminandes 3: Llamigos - Full Score PDF

 

Caminandes 3: Llamigos - Score with video

 

Masterclass Part 1 - November 18, 2021

 

Masterclass Part 2 - January 13, 2022

 

PREVIOUS TUTORIALS ON TWITCH

I’m excited to share film music tutorials and walkthroughs on my twitch channel! My aim is to set weekly assignments as a way for participants to learn how to score an entire project from start to finish. Anyone who wants to participate is very welcome to join me as we build your skills through the weeks.

This first challenge lasted a total of 6 weeks and was a huge success. I reviewed participants work on Mondays live on twitch where they could ask questions and learn from each other. The weekly reviews are archived below.

Head over to my channel and make sure you give a follow so you can stay up to date with my live streams. I’m currently taking a break from my streams but will resume again soon.

Week 1 - Thematic Writing

Compose a theme/suite of roughly 1:30-2:00 in length that portrays feelings of desolation and purpose. Use any instrumentation you’d like and flesh out your idea as much as possible. Be unique, be creative!

The Scene:
Imagine a rogue defector has deserted their mission of keeping peace. Their belief is that by abandoning their mission which is to warn a violent group of a natural disaster, they will allow them to perish, save lives and prevent future conflicts. They are now in hiding hoping to start a new life elsewhere, living anonymously; if they can…



WEEK 1 STREAM - MAY 25, 2020

Week 2 - CREATE A VARIATION

Compose a variation of your theme/suite of roughly 1:30-2:00 in length that is suited to the specifics of the story.

The Story: In an intergalactic society, it has been revealed that a major cosmic event threatens to destroy the planet Nineva. The Ninevite people have a dark and violent history of war among the cosmos but Jonah, a Peacekeeper, is given a mission to warn the Ninevites so they may escape and preserve their peoples’ history and culture. Jonah has a traumatic history on Nineva, where he was previously attacked by one of their chiefs. He believes that by allowing nature to take its course, Nineva will be destroyed but billions of people will be saved from future bloodshed.

Jonah is now hiding out aboard a planetary mining vessel where he has booked anonymous passage with a group of ex-cons. During their travel they are caught by a mysterious energy field that is slowly destroying the ship. When the crew realises that Jonah is the target of this destruction he is ejected from the ship in an escape pod and his course is set to fulfil his duty and promise.

After being brought to Nineva against his will, Jonah must now face his fate and overcome his own prejudices for the greater universal good.

WEEK 2 STREAM - JUNE 1, 2020

Week 3 - Music editing

Export the stems from both your initial theme and your theme variation to create a library of musical ideas to work with. Spot the film to determine where music is needed and then use these stems to lay out an initial musical draft. Feel free to adjust any the stems to suite your needs (adjust tempo, shift pitch, etc…).

The Assets: Email me through mikelontwitch[at]gmail.com to ask for the assets. By downloading these files you agree to only use the film and audio files within the context of this online Twitch Challenge.

WEEK 3 STREAM - JUNE 8, 2020

Week 4 - Conforming & Composing

Using the adjustments to your temp scores as a guide, conform your midi to the temp as a starting point. Create a separate session for each cue of the film and begin to arrange and re-compose your material to match each scene specifically. By the end of this process you should now have a full draft of your score ready for submission.

Delivery: Please send a copy of your video with with music synced to picture as well as individual audio files of cues. Your cues should have the timecode start position in the file name and should spot to the correct timecode. Example of file naming scheme below:

HWL 1m05 The Letter 00 07 59 01 c04 ML v2.00 - 2mx

How We Live 1m05 The Letter 00 07 59 01 c04 ML v2.00 - 2mx

[project name] [cue #] [cue title] [file timecode start] [cut version] [composer initials] [version number] - [stereo mix (instead of 5.1)]

WEEK 4 STREAM - JUNE 15, 2020

Week 5 - Cue FIXES FOR APPROVAL

Now take on the notes for each cue and adjust them accordingly for final approval. In this stage you would be submitting your changes with the director/producer until you all agree and each cue is approved for recording/mix.

Delivery: Please send a copy of your final video with music synced to picture. All of your audio should now be dubbed including the music, dialogue and sound effects.

WEEK 5 STREAM - JUNE 22, 2020

Week 6 - FINAL REVIEW

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who participated through the weeks. All of your questions and hard work put in have yielded amazing results. It’s been amazing to see the response to this first challenge and I plan on doing more in the future. Stay posted for updates!

WEEK 6 STREAM - JUNE 29, 2020