Category
Orchestration

Hoppers is out and off to a fantastic start at the box office. Chuffed to have been involved in another score by Mark Mothersbaugh. It was great to meet and hang with director Daniel Chong during the sessions and hear about the process of making the film. It’s amazing how much time goes into creating one of these. As usual, it was a huge team effort. Jeremy Levy, Lorenzo Carrano, Pano Fountas, Ryan Humphrey, and Jordan Siegel all delivering as always. Thanks as well to Sunna…
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Go see EPiC.The score for Moulin Rouge! had a huge impact on how I write and arrange, so getting the chance to work on a new project with Baz Luhrmann was a dream come true. I was brought in to transcribe the original orchestral parts and help re-record the orchestra. The music existed on tape, but the recording itself wasn’t usable, so we rebuilt it from the ground up. I also orchestrated the underscore for Elliott Wheeler and arranged some string parts for producer Omer…
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War Machine is streaming on Netflix and has hit #1! I had a lot of fun orchestrating the fantastic score by Dmitri Golovko. Huge thanks to Hillary Holmes and Celeste Chada for the introduction and for bringing me onto the project. An extra highlight was heading back to Australia to record the score at Trackdown Studios with my Aussie friends. Thanks as always to the crew who helped pull everything together- Jeremy Levy, Pano Fountas, Ryan Humphrey, and to Jess G. Wells for being there as…
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It was a blast working with Sarah Schachner on Predator: Badlands. She has a very unique voice and style, often playing nearly everything herself on synths, strings, or anything else she can find.Instead of doubling up all of that with orchestra, this time Sarah suggested we use the orchestral ensemble as a bed under her performances. It was a brilliant idea and it created a sound no one else in this business makes. Thanks for having me on board again, Sarah, and shout‑out to Kyle…
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I had a blast orchestrating Jeremiah Fraites' score for this awesome movie. His music really carries the heart of the story and it was a pleasure to help bring it to life.
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It was a pleasure to work with Jeremiah Fraites and David Baron on the film adaptation of Steven King's The Long Walk (dir. Francis Lawrence). Huge thanks to Lionsgate and Celeste Chada for bringing me on board. The score turned out fantastic, and the movie itself is incredibly impactful.
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A Minecraft Movie, starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black, is out in theaters! It was great working with Mark Mothersbaugh on another awesome score. This one was part of my crazy travels in November-December 2024. I went to Wellington twice to conduct the score. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra were a lot of fun to work with and sounded incredible.Thanks to my crew for helping out at such a crazy time – Pano Fountas, Jeremy Levy, Lorenzo Carrano, and Ryan Humphrey. Also Trevor Motycka and…
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This is such a huge topic with so many angles to explore that I’m not even sure where to begin! I think the best approach is to show how I write for percussion and compare that to some of the other standards out there. My overall philosophy for percussion writing—and for all my writing—boils down to keeping it clean and simple by using common sense. I won’t go into exhaustive detail about the range or intricacies of each instrument; there are plenty of books and…
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In this post, I’ll explain how to clean up a MIDI file and import it into notation software to create a clear and organized sketch for the orchestrator. On major film projects, music preparation houses like JoAnn Kane Music or Fine Line Music Service typically handle this process for us. However, when I was starting out, I did all of this myself and developed a range of tips and tricks to make the workflow as efficient and painless as possible. Fun fact: before my career…
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When I am working I am constantly listening to the cue or song. I need to be able to quickly locate, scroll, play and stop in a way that does not slow me down. There is nothing worse than something playing back in an unfocused program and you can't stop it! Several years ago I came up with a way to control DP in the background using a Contour Shuttle. This means Finale is still the focused app. I currently use the Xpress, but any…
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