As Discovery Campus is in full swing, it is time to get to know some of the young professionals who have joined this year's Music Meet Film. The 11th Music Meets Film refreshed focus is on young talents and continues to provide the possibility of a meeting place for extending the film and film music professionals’ network.
What projects are some of the participants working on currently, and which books or films keep them up all night? Read further to find out!
How would your best friend describe you? I asked Christian directly, his response: "Simple, fun, precise, and determined. When he has an objective, I'm sure he puts all of himself into that, sometimes so much that he gets obsessed with it (making him a little stubborn, hahaha!). But when there is a problem, he's the first to help you find the solution, I guarantee!"
What are you working on right now? I’m currently working with a young Italian singer-songwriter, I mainly deal with the arrangement and production of his songs, with the reserve of being able to retouch the harmonies and structures. In the meantime, I continue to expand my portfolio to be able to propose myself as a film composer, my main life goal!
Who would your dream collab be, dead or alive? John Powell, without a doubt. There is no contemporary composer who moves me as much as he does, I would give up anything to be able to work with him! But my heart belongs to Peter Robert Jackson if we talk about film directors. 😊
What is your biggest challenge as an audiovisual professional so far? Westworld Scoring Competition 2020. It was my first experience as a film composer. I remember starting two weeks late and my inexperience made me skip lunches, dinners and spend sleepless nights. Truly destructive but so satisfying - thanks to this experience, I understood that I wanted to be a film composer and that taking care of yourself is vital (don't make the same mistake as I did!).
What are you looking forward to the most at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event? Too many things really... Meeting the other composers of the Discovery Campus, meeting directors with whom I can collaborate doing what I love most, following the masterclass... But an honourable mention goes to Orchestral Tools, without which I wouldn't be here! Can't wait to meet you Hendrik!
What is a film (or book) which keeps you up all night? The Lord of the Rings trilogy, EASY!
If you could have one superpower, then what would you choose? Equal rights and opportunities for everyone. We must all be able to live peacefully and do what we love most!
How would your best friend describe you? My best friend would probably describe me as a positive multitasker who loves to create music, think of wordplays and spend time in nature.
What are you working on right now? Currently, I share my time between two schools, where I study music & multimedia and world music. I am also working on a student film score and have a couple of choral and instrumental compositions in progress.
Who would your dream collab be, dead or alive? My dream collab would probably be Hans Zimmer or John Powell – someone of the film scoring greats.
What is your biggest challenge as an audiovisual professional so far? My biggest challenge is probably that I never have enough time to finetune my creations as much as I would like.
**What are you looking forward to the most at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event? **I look forward to all the workshops, especially the rescoring masterclass with Sven Grünberg.
What is a film (or book) which keeps you up all night? Two films that keep me up at night are Aftersun and Atonement.
If you could have one superpower, then what would you choose? For my superpower I would choose teleporting – it always seems that so much of my time is spent commuting.
How would your best friend describe you? He’d say I am a great friend - with hidden potential who should follow his dreams fully. He’d suggest I let go of all the things holding me back or of drifting into any other path than the one that makes me happy and in which I am effortlessly good at (not to mention serious about). He’d say I have a strong heart in enduring troubled times - not by nulling pain, but finding good in and around.
What are you working on right now (project, studies)? Currently, I am working the most on MMF - strengthening my bond with film composing more and more by becoming more knowledgeable of the field in and around the business, licensing and marketing side of things.
Another thing is loop lives. Although most comfortable with plain improvisation for hours at hand on stage on my main instrument (the keys), live-looping (a bit restrictive) opens up the possibility, like a DAW, to express ideas that come in the spring of the moment with more than two hands.
Who would your dream collab be, dead or alive? WOW… that’s a good question!!….. RRRReally hard one. If asked me as a film composer, Hans Zimmer, both to know if he’s impressive (& then to collaborate in something new) or to know if he is the Thomas Edison of film music (an inventor’s company of inventors inventing under the Hans Zimmer title/brand.)
If asked as an artist on stage, Tim Minchin. His work is important and I would enjoy working on a project with him
This was an evil question. The more I think - Bach would be interesting: the mapper/scientist of classical theory music. Beethoven on the true essence of majesty & strong emotions. Pink Floyd… that would be amazing to be with them in their younger years to develop more albums like The Dark Side of The Moon or The Wall.
Among Estonians… I feel… Pärt Uusberg is leading the “modern sincerity” sound of choir music. Look up one of his older pieces Muusika and how that is spreading effortlessly around the globe at the moment (youtube).
What is the biggest challenge you have faced as an audiovisual professional so far? Sad to say, but: licensing, making my own company into a distributor or other shenanigans (this is fairly a gatekeeper’y and sophisticated field for me that I rarely find interesting and connected to the state of mind you need to create music.) But I try and now respect it more than ever, & grew out of the childishly naive way of seeing marketing as something that will naturally come along the way (with good friends) by first creating (hopefully?) good music. I have changed my views on that. Control your image or someone else will control their goals.
And finishing projects - yep, nothing new under the sun. Be it concerned with not understanding mixing enough and/or DAW workflow stuff or just getting gobbled up in having too many variables rather than setting some things in stone without moving them during writing - I am blessed with, I dare say, over 100 ideas (with melody, harmony and rhythmical movement) out of which 1-5% have reached a final form. And out of those, 50% are currently public, of which 0% is professionally released. :D But I am proud of them as there are tracks in 3 short films that have worked well. Discography is nothing to brag about, but just that I already feel blessed that some things have worked in a way that I can listen to later on and not cringe at the quality and without needing to question my sincerity in the music.
What are you looking forward to the most at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event? Honestly - to feel broadened on the whole field of filmmaking, especially on the necessity of different specialists that amateur film teams don’t tend to ever think of. I’m hoping to meet some cool people :) , maybe a window to a world or different opportunities that don’t have to be necessarily related to film projects but other supplementing workshops, conferences etc. If I were to meet someone in particular, then it would be good to have someone who punches me in the face or gut in a loving way (figuratively) to finish my things when I get into a big haze. I don’t want to bother Sofia Mihhaljova too much, but from PÖFF’s team, she’s backed me up and believes in my abilities through-out two years, and has helped me come back to working on film music & doing so better than ever.
What is a film (or book) which keeps you up all night? The good thing is that rarely something fictional has disturbed my sleep. Dreams are a different story, but that’s just a book. Speaking of books: Marcus Aurelius Meditations: Thoughts to Myself makes you understand that people have contemplated the same way for at least 2000 years - this helps you feel that the ancient person is very much the same as you are today, whilst reading this sentence. Plato’s Phaedrus questions what the best way to love anyone (including yourself) in an easy-read dialogue form is - this book can help you feel the feeling of love without any particular person in mind.
Movies: The Man From Earth although not particularly memorable as an example of film music, the story itself is something that… is very STRONGLY unexpected and well fleshed out. A cult classic for a reason. I don’t have a movie in particular to bring as an example of film music that I would only listen to every day til the rest of my days, but Princess Mononoke and The Last Samurai come close.
If you could have one superpower, then what would you choose? Immortality - much more time to think, feel, experience, create, cry and enjoy. I guess the only downside is everyone I have ever known and loved may not live as long as I, but I would have enough time to someday conquer that problem thanks to immortality - maybe even find a way to travel in all directions of time. Maybe bring them at their prime to my time where non-existence has been conquered for all life. :) Immortality or the ability to finish every music project with zero hiccups - yeah, definitely the last one! :D
How would your best friend describe you? Emotional, compassionate and a little crazy.
What are you working on right now (project, studies)? I am still finishing high school and taking some lectures in music theory. I just finished music for a documentary, as well as music for a theatre play. Currently unsure of the next steps, but I am independently working on a performance piece about one of Latvia's greatest writers Aspazija.
Who would your dream collab be, dead or alive? I am not sure how our musical styles would mix, but Claude Debussy has always been a big idol for me. I would love to get his feedback on what I have written and play the piano with him.
What is your biggest challenge as an audiovisual professional so far? Probably time management and trying to juggle school, part-time work and composing.
What are you looking forward to the most at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event? Meeting like-minded people and getting to talk about common passions and interests.
What is a film (or book) which keeps you up all night? Recently, it's been The Peasants by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman. Firstly, because of the amazing hand-painted animation and secondly because the storyline really shook me to my core.
If you could have one superpower, then what would you choose? I would want to be able to play any instrument and any piece just from listening to it once.
How would your best friend describe you? Above average at everything, but not exceptionally good at anything.
What are you working on right now (project, studies)? Studying Integrated arts music and multimedia in Baltic Film and Media school.
Who would your dream collab be, dead or alive? John Powell, Veljo Tormis.
What are you looking forward to the most at Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event? A lot of new faces meet
*What is a film (or book) which keeps you up all night? The Greatest Showman, How to Train Your Dragon, Shawshank Redemption
If you could have one superpower, then what would you choose? It's not a superpower per se, but I'd like to wake up on time without an alarm clock.