Chasing the Sun Productions - Need a score for a movie?

Hey everyone,

Wow, haven't been on these boards for a while. It's been a while.

Just wanted to tell everyone about my good friend Jeff Simmons who just launched his web site. He composes music for games and plans to branch out to films as well. He's inspired by music scores such as the Lord of the Rings, and can come out with beautiful fantasy scores. He also does other styles as well.

He can do music for both trailers and full movies.

Check out the site here:

http://www.chasingthesunproductions.com

He does charge, but if you listen to his quality of work it's worth it. However it's fair pricing and you can speak to him directly to determine what the price will be.

If you don't need any music, then just check out the site and listen to his work. Tell other people about it.

 

Oh wow... listening to the "Action" song right now, and i'm loving it

 

The "horror" one is one of my favs. Especially near the end. But it's all very good and definetly worth the listen if you have the time.

 

Yea I listened to them all, i'd have to say that horror is the best out of them

EDIT: In my opinion of course

 

Yeah, the horror one is his most recent work. He's also putting on some more recent work sometime this week.

 

"Horror" sounds very Alan Silvestri.

One problem a lot of the better composers who advertise for indie work have, is a lack of focus in their demo cues. They usually go for a "mood" or "scene type" and then end up throwing everything they can think of into it. It most often ends up sounding a bit disjointed as one motif suddenly becomes another in a very prescribed, inorganic way. I'd love to hear someone who can come up with strong, memorable themes like Williams, while also being able to make very driving scores similar to someone like Zimmerman.

I imagine in the context of a film's structure, his music would be much better structured as well. For what it is, it sounded pretty good.

M. Scott

 

Thanks for the review Dorkman. I'll mention that to him when I see him next.

EDIT: (erased second part of my message) Noticed this demo reel is from 2005, not the first one he did. But he does make things flow very well when it comes to films and games. I've heard some of his stuff on the side, for trailers and such.

Listening to it now, and I can tell you that all these songs in the demo reel were in fact seperately made at different times. Some were for practice, some were for some works he did. I've heard them all and he must have just put them together.

 

No one else listened to his stuff?

 

I did, and I love it. He sounds very professional... and expensive. I can't imagine how much it would cost to get just 15 minutes of his score for your movie. Probably better suited for a high budget short film. Still cool though.

_Max

 

Well he is trying to make a living, and considering some composers charge 300$ or even more per minute of music, he usually charges very little.

Also, what do you consider to be high budget? I know most people on here probably won't be able to afford him becuase they're more like low low budget or even no budget, which I understand, I do those movies alongside you guys, but I just thought I'd get the word out.

Keep his adress handy and tell people about it, incase there are higher budget shorts being made. He would appreciate it and takes only a few seconds to do. He has food to pay for after all.

 

simply amazing, the Shadows within song is fantastic, do you know how much he charges?

 

It all depends on the movie, you need to talk to him. I don't think he has a flat rate. However it's usually a certain price per minute. So if you don't need music throughout the whole movie, specify that. If you're budget is very low, specify that as well, but he likes to work with proffesional individuals, even if they have a low budget.

 

The kid is good,but he needs to get some mold behind his ears because I hear a lot of sustained notes but very little "action" and texture in his samples.
There is nothing wrong with influences just as long as they don't become "influenza",if you take my meaning.The real you still has to shine through,no matter who you claim to pay tribute to.

 

Thank you for your review. I'll tell him that. Perhaps you'll see his style more when he uploads his more recent stuff this week.

He does emphasize his own style though. He was doing a trialer for a movie, and he composed his own song, however the director kept asking him to do it more like a specific song, and basically he wanted that song but slightly different (that song was originally used, but Jeff didn't like the idea of a copywrited song in the trailer). Jeff didn't want to copy the composer though because he wanted to bring out his own style, and he didn't in the end.

 

What was the trailer for?

_Max

 

Yeah Nitro,the old "temp-track"trap.
Believe it or not,sometimes,Directors have a bit of a problem asking for what they want,because they haven't experienced things from the composers point of view.This is why film is a collaborative effort,so a little give and take is in order.But,a director flat-out asking for you to all but plaigarize a piece of copywritten music-well,lets just say that some directors should put the megaphone down for awhile and maybe take some music lessons.

But then again,maybe the director was asking for a song that was *stylistically* similar and not an out and out "lift".But even with a "lift",most times,you'd be shocked at how much you DON'T sound like the "liftee",or material in question,because the last thing that the music is filtered through,is the person writing or paraphrasing it.The lift is not totally successful,because,you are not the person(like John Williams,for instance) in question and you don't have their gear.And this is always going to be a good thing,because the best person to be,is yourself,even in the middle of wishing you were someone else and/or had their abilities.