Brent Belke, Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, John Morgan, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya

Left to right: Brent Belke, Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, John Morgan, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya.

SOCAN and the SCGC (Screen Composers Guild of Canada) co-presented a captivating “Composure in Composing” panel that featured Vancouver-based screen composers, on Oct. 4, 2018, at the 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

A diverse group of SOCAN #ComposersWhoScore were gathered for an informal session to share their experience, tricks of the trade, and advice on moving forward in the ever-changing world of composition for film, TV, and online. From stock music to Star Wars, they dealt with the entire spectrum of possibilities for the use of music in motion.

The panel, presented under the auspices of a VIFF/AMP (Alliance Media Partners) summit   featured screen composers Red Heartbreaker, Matthew Rogers, Hal Beckett, Raj Ramayya, Brent Belke, and John Morgan, Audio Director at The Coalition – Microsoft.

The group went into detail on some of the more technical aspects of scoring to screen, including the use of harmonic ambiguity to help tell the story, the ever-present challenge of creating temp music, and issues of plagiarism and originality.

Red Heartbreaker gave a passionate speech discussing her struggles toward equality as a woman in the screen music industry, and urged her male colleagues to become better, more active allies.

With files from Tonya Dedrick