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On Cue
Film composer Chris Young counsels students on surviving in Hollywood.
By Jason Roeder
Berklee.edu Correspondent
March 27, 2003
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Chris Young has scored more than 70 films. |
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Photo by Farnsworth/Blalock |
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Film composer Chris Young wasn't the first guest lecturer at Berklee College of Music to offer a roomful of students advice in getting ahead in the music industry. But Young, on hand at the Lawrence and Alma Berk Recital Hall to lead the 2003 BMI Clinic, might have been the first to say, "I want you all to have my phone number." The students unzipped their backpacks, foraged for scraps of paper, and clicked their pens ready. As Young spoke the digits, one student programmed them into her cell phone on the spot. Earlier, Young had urged them to move to Los Angeles, and, having stressed the importance of transcontinental relocation, didn't want to leave the students hanging. "Once you're there, I want to make sure I welcome you and try my best to make sure you keep your head above water."
In 1980, before he went on to score Hellraiser and Hurricane, before his Golden Globe nomination for The Shipping News, and before his nomination for Best Composer by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Young made his own move to L.A. He had never scored a single frame of film—but he knew he had to.
"I had this insane desire to work in film music," said Young, who before the clinic had presented Berklee student Stephen Neale-Oestreicher '03 with the 2003 BMI Film Scoring Scholarship for compositional excellence. "I had fallen in love with it madly and could see no other route in life."
Young realized that he wanted to work in film music the day in his late teens when he dropped the needle on The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann, a record that contained the composer's music for science-fiction movies such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Fahrenheit 451. But soon after moving to L.A. to study film at UCLA, Young discovered that he wasn't going to succeed right away. He traced that realization to a class with famed film composer David Raksin, who after hearing Young's first cue ever said, "Chris, my boy, this cue's just no good," at which point Young moved to the back of the class and began to cry. His second and third cues didn't go much better. But after his fourth cue, Raksin told Young that he had finally gotten it right. It was a much needed confidence boost and an important lesson in patience.
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From left, Chris Young, award recipient Stephen Neale-Ostreicher '03, and BMI's Doreen Ringer-Ross. |
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Photo by Farnsworth/Blalock |
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"Some of you are going to struggle at the outset," Young said. "You've got a picture of in your mind of what you can offer film music. You're just not comfortable with having gotten the skills to get your ideas down. Or the ideas need to be developed. This takes time."
But Young wasn't trying to discourage the aspiring film composers. In fact, he couldn't have been more explicit about his belief that if they were willing to wait—and work—there would be room for them in Los Angeles.
"It is absolutely doable, it is absolutely doable," Young said, leaning into the microphone. "It is absolutely doable."
Of course, there are ways to make the L.A. experience easier. For one thing, Young said, it's essential to meet people, to put oneself in the path of opportunity. And fortunately, that's easy in L.A.
"The composers in L.A. are extremely accessible," Young said. "They don't live on the 32nd floor of some high-rise. They don't even have high walls with buzz-in gates. You can actually find their addresses, and if you're a pest, you can drive over to the house, walk up the driveway, and knock on the front door…If you're an introvert, start learning how to be an extrovert."
Young stressed that while talent is crucial, good salesmanship has enabled less-than-showstopping composers to thrive, while clumsy self-promotion has hampered people with genuine ability. He said that in the beginning, he had trouble keeping his doubts bottled up.
"I had an inability to shelter my insecurities about my writing from those who would employ me," Young said. "It was all about the music, and I was hyper about wanting to be perfect. I'd say to the director, 'I can do better than this. This isn't good at all.'"
But Young said he learned that what directors really want is to be put at ease by the film composer. They've got enough headaches to deal with as it is.
"What they're looking for in a composer is someone who can slide in and let them know that, 'You can worry about the picture, but one thing's for sure, you do not have to worry about the music.'…Practice stating your case. You can only be you, but try being the best you."
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Young and several students continue to talk film scoring during an impromptu gathering in a student lounge after his lecture. |
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Photo by Farnsworth/Blalock |
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When he was done dispensing advice, Young took questions from students. Asked how he managed his breaks between films, Young said that the competitive nature of the business prevents him from enjoying very much down time.
"At any moment your career can hit a dead end," Young said. "There's this fear factor. Everyone in the film industry is insecure to some degree."
In fact, it's not uncommon to be juggling multiple projects, Young said. Enough, it seems, is never enough.
"If agents could have me do six movies at once, I'd expect them to call me and ask me to do a seventh."
So when the Berklee Film Scoring graduates finally dial up Chris Young, he'll not only be happy to hear from them—he may also breathe a sigh of relief.
BMI, founded in 1940, is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal agreements with sister organizations around the world, it grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million songs and compositions.
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