How Is Music Composed For Film?
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Andy Hill
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Dean - Film Scoring Academy of Europe
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Former Disney Music Production Supervisor
ALL LEVELS
Most films have a music underscore that helps to emphasize the drama and emotion of key scenes. This is a skill and an art that can be both extremely challenging and so rewarding. The composer needs to be able to create music that perfectly embellishes a wide variety of scenes.
In this video, Andy Hill, Dean of the Film Scoring Academy of Europe gives insight on the process behind composing music scores for films.
Information Andy Shares In This Video
Composing vs. Scoring
Hiring The Composer
Composing Process
Skills/Talent
Music Production Supervisor
Copyright Ownership
Plus A Lot More!
Andy Hill
Andy Hill was born in Chicago and studied filmmaking under Haig P. Manoogian at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. From 1987-1996, he served as vice-president of music production for Walt Disney Pictures, overseeing music production on a roster of films which included The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Sister Act, and working closely with composers and songwriters such as Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Hans Zimmer. Films for which Hill supervised music under the aegis of the Disney music department have earned nine Academy Awards in music categories. Subsequent to his term at Disney, Hill opened Andy Hill Film + Music under the auspices of Modern Music and supervised projects which included Message In A Bottle, Ed Wood, James and the Giant Peach and Happy Feet, winning a Grammy Award in 2000 as producer of the Best Musical Album for Children for Elmo In Grouchland.
In 2003, Hill began offering summer scoring workshops via the Los Angeles extension of Columbia College Chicago, and this led in 2006 to his appointment as director of the college's first full MFA program, Music Composition for the Screen. The boutique program graduated more than 50 composers and became a pioneer in the use of post-graduate professional internships as an entrée to the highly competitive world of motion picture scoring. In 2011, he was engaged to oversee preparation and launch of a similar program, Scoring for Film, TV and Videogames, for the international campus of the Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. There, Hill developed professional relationships with leading Spanish film composers such as Alberto Iglesias and Javier Navarrete. This established a base in Europe, and in 2013, he formed Cinemuse VOF for music supervision and production services and affiliated himself with the Galaxy Studio Group in Mol, Belgium, where he now serves as executive soundtrack producer and pilots the post-production facility's drive to develop international business in scoring.
Hill continues to compose, produce, and supervise music for film and other media. He has also authored a trilogy of "metaphysical detective novels," the "Stephan Raszer Investigations," published by Carroll & Graf and Counterpoint Press. The first of these, "Enoch's Portal," was optioned by Paramount Studios and Alphaville for director Alex Proyas, but has not been produced.