I have always secretly obsessed over music and scores in films, and today made my Monday one of my favorites. This morning we met with the accomplished composer Guy Moon at his beautiful house in the Valley. He is widely known for his work scoring The Fairly Odd Parents, but he has also worked on numerous other cartoons and films throughout his career. When we arrived, Guy toured us around his personal sound studio that he built next to his house. Everyone there welcomed us with warm smiles and hellos as we poked our heads into new rooms and stared in awe at the equipment and the employees working there. He then took us into his personal office, which was surrounded with computer screens and speakers pointing towards a center chair. He proceeded to show us the mysterious process of composing a score.
He works closely with directors and producers, and depending on the person, he usually receives notes about what they generally want. One producer humorously sends audio of himself singing over the soundless picture to help Guy get the general sense of what he is going for. Guy then quickly constructs a melody to match the tone and action of the characters, and polishes it off with instruments on top.
Creating sound for cartoons seems incredibly difficult. Characters switch moods within the blink of an eye and Guy needs to shift the tone quickly back and forth to help the story flow. To show us the power of a soundtrack, he showed us a film without background music. Sound is so important! Seeing the film without a score was drastically different, and made me realize how undervalued it is. The score is usually buried behind the busy motion picture, dialogue, and even sound effects, and if done well, it blends right in unnoticed. However, sound hits our emotional strings and plays the audience right into the emotional content of the film. A scary moment can be made horrifying, a happy moment becomes thrilling and inspiring, or an action scene makes us sit on the edges of our seats chewing our fingernails. It expands what is happening in the picture and is truly an incredible craft.
Seeing behind the scenes was amazing insight to how many different kinds of artists this industry supports. Everyone associates being a director with filmmaking. But there is so much more that meets the eye. Costume designers, cinematographers, writers, composers, makeup artists, wranglers, stunt doubles, PAs…etc. The list goes on forever.
The beauty of it all is that everyone is dependent on everyone. Yes, being the PA is maybe a little less impressive than being an Assistant Director, but the PA’s job is just as crucial to making sure the film gets done. Making a film is a true team effort and everyone depends on everyone else to pull through for the pieces to come together at the end. People are dedicated to the final product of the film, and if that means one day they step outside of their job to get coffee for everyone else, they will happily and readily do so.
Sometimes it’s hard not to get lost in the rat race that seems to tint the air around studios and offices. However, at the end of the day everyone is here because of his or her love for film or passions that pertain to film. It’s amazing to see people doing what they love. The artists here inspire me. From successful and well-established artists and businessmen like Guy Moon, to my friends sitting in the van seat next to me, everyone is here to pursue their passions, and I am inspired by their ambition and aspirations.
