Hollywood Calling

Philip Carty

Phil Carty, an Irish writer who turned professional after the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) sent a CD of his music marking the Good Friday Peace Agreement to every school in Ireland, recently attended an ASCAP-sponsored film seminar in Los Angeles. He tells London Calling that it was well worth the trip.

I heard about the seminar by e-mail from Ron Schwary, who has directed several Hollywood blockbusters and whom I met in New York two years ago. He told me I would benefit from it and, as usual, he was right.

We worked on our own through the event. Composers who are any good won't work with someone else unless it's a requirement from a director or maybe the composer is looking for an "in" with someone. The lectures were very informal around a conference room and it was fairly cool to talk to the presenters and ask as many questions as you liked about his/her role. My assignment was to rewrite a cue from Charlie's Angels. I loved it and it worked well.

I met some great film composing names such as James Newton Howard, Mark Isham, David Lawrence and Jeff Rona. They all said that each of us there had the ability to make it big in LA but it was up to us to make the necessary links. The highlight of my visit was conducting the Hollywood Film Orchestra on the Alfred Newman scoring stage in Fox's studio lot. In my opinion these players are probably the best of their type in the world and their sight reading would knock your knickers off! It's really exhilarating when you're conducting your own music. I wrote some difficult stuff and really put it to them.

The main thing I came away with is that it's vital to have a professional attitude in your work and the way you conduct yourself. The great creative people over there all have this attitude. It's what makes Hollywood so successful and it's something we must all incorporate in our lives. Also, be nice to people, get chatting and don't be shy. Those giants are only giants in their contributions to the film industry. Underneath, they are as human as the rest of us and like to talk about themselves and you.