Scoring for Documentaries | Hollywood Music Workshop

The Art of Musical Narrative and Collaboration

With Miriam Cutler, July 15 – 17

Explore the Art of the musical narrative and strategies for a successful Filmmaker/Composer Collaboration with indie film and documentary composer for many award winning projects, Miriam Cutler. Learn to communicate about emotional tone, find the rhythm of a film sequence, practice and develop your abilities to understand, interpret, and enhance the story your director envisions. The workshop will also cover how to think outside the box to envision a career built around who you are, your goals, and strengths and how to apply them in todays ever-changing industry landscape.

Discover simple tools to help you communicate about music and inspire confidence and comfort in your filmmakers. The goal is to create the best possible atmosphere for creative ideas to flow between composers and filmmakers.

Over 3 days, the workshop will include:

Discussions of clips from Miriam’s own work to demonstrate various ways music can be used to tell a story.
Presentation of her unique Music Story Arc process, which is an invaluable creative and organizational tool for composers and filmmakers to share ideas.
Hands-on opportunities for participants to explore and create music for film clips so that Miriam can lead the class in discussions, exploration of the creative process and collaboration, and evaluations of their work.
Practical discussions of how to organize a project from getting the job, realistic budgets, schedule, work flow, expectations, types of agreements, importance of creative rights, producing and recording, mixing strategies, and delivering on time and budget. Also, discuss how to ask for more money when needed.
Practical discussions about how to position yourself to attract the kind of work that excites you.

There is no better guide through this complex and nuanced process than Emmy-nominated composer Miriam Cutler whose scores have been featured in Emmy winning, Sundance, and Oscar nominated films: THE HUNTING GROUND, ETHEL, LOST IN LA MANCHA, THIN, POSTER GIRL, KINGS POINT, GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB, AMERICAN PROMISE, VITO, DESERT OF FORBIDDEN ART, LICENSE TO KILL, SCOUTS HONOR, ONE LAST HUG, and more. Miriam Co-Produced and Scored ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT, and is currently co-producing 2 new projects. She is a Lab Advisor for Sundance Documentary Composers Lab, and a Documentary Juror for Sundance, Independent Spirit, & IDA Awards. Miriam has co-produced Grammy-nominated live jazz albums for PolyGram/Verve: Joe Williams, Nina Simone. She is a Motion Picture Academy Documentary Branch member, a Board member in the Society of Composers and Lyricists, a Film Expert for USC/US State Department’s American Film Showcase, a Founding Member Alliance for Women Film Composers, and an Executive Committee TV Academy Music Branch.

Who should take this master class:

Any composer who wants to be more pro-active in getting the kind of work he or she wants by increasing his or her understanding of film music and by learning to communicate and collaborate more effectively with filmmakers
Composers seeking specific tools from a very experienced composer who has developed a unique set of strategies for enhancing communication with directors

Miriam invites you to join her for this special master class:

“I have been focusing on scoring documentaries since 1997, and have worked with many filmmakers in all kinds of scenarios. The most common thing they tell me: I don’t know anything about music. This is not true and in this workshop I will show composers how to effectively bridge this divide. I will present simple tools to help you communicate about music and inspire confidence and comfort in your filmmakers. My goal is to create the best possible atmosphere for creative ideas to flow between composers and filmmakers”.

Built into the Master Class will be a generous amount of time for Q&A.

For more information please visit www.miriamcutler.com

Click button to the left to get to our application page which has the pricing information and takes you to the application process.

Miriam Cutler in a TV interview.

Emmy nominated Composer, Miriam Cutler is passionate about scoring documentaries, among them Emmy winning, Sundance, and Oscar nominated films: ETHEL, LOST IN LA MANCHA, THIN, POSTER GIRL, KINGS POINT, GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB, AMERICAN PROMISE, VITO, DESERT OF FORBIDDEN ART, SCOUTS HONOR, LICENSE TO KILL, ONE LAST HUG.

Her score for THE HUNTING GROUND, received Best Documentary Score Award from Hollywood Music In Media. She recently completed the score for A PLASTIC OCEAN, soon to be released.

Miriam Co-Produced and scored ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT and has served often as Lab Advisor for the Sundance Institute Documentary Composers Lab, on documentary juries including Sundance, Independent Spirit Awards, IDA Awards. She has been a guest instructor at USC, Loyola Marymount, Columbia College Chicago, UCLA, International Documentary Association, and more. She has co-produced two Grammy-nominated live jazz albums on PolyGram/Verve for Joe Williams, and albums for Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, and Marlena Shaw plus her own music. Miriam is an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch member, a long time board member of The Society of Composers and Lyricists, and a film expert for the USC/US State Department’s American Film Showcase.

Our Mission

The Hollywood Music Workshop is all about bringing talented composers from around the world together in one place, and providing them with first-class courses and a very inspiring working environment. We want to establish a personal relationship between lecturers and participants and therefore let them profit from one another. We love film music and we want to provide other people with a chance of experiencing the magic of film music as well.