CoPA student Logyn Okuda works with acclaimed film composer Michael Giacchino on scoring major motion pictures Orchestrating and assisting on Marvel's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" has taught Logyn about the music film industry and his professional goals

Before he even leaves the walls of Chapman, Logyn Okuda is working up quite the professional résumé for a career in music. Logyn is on a fast track to meet his goals of writing music for film and TV, combining his studies in the College of Performing Arts and Dodge College of Film and Media Arts with his networking and initiatives taken in the industry.

A Music BA student pursuing minors in Film Music and Sound Design, Logyn has been using his resources and studies at Chapman to prepare himself for his creative projects in the industry. Scoring 23 (and counting) Chapman short films, Logyn is grateful for peers and friends who trust him with their stories. He expresses how the material learned from working in the percussion areas with CoPA’s Dr. Terry, score studying with the composition professors and film classes, as well as Dean Galloway’s networking help within the Dodge community, have given him the chance to write more music than ever before. “The faculty encouraged me to continue working outside of class to make my own opportunities.”

Beginning with close work with Michael Giacchino (composer of the scores from Up, Rogue One, LOST, Incredibles, Star Trek, Spider-Man, JoJo Rabbit, Batman, and more), Logyn was able to assist on Amazon Prime’s Butterfly last summer. He got real-world lessons on prepping and orchestration from Giacchino’s orchestrator, Jeff Kryka, which led to Logyn orchestrating on Butterfly and composing additional music. He was then given the fantastic opportunity to orchestrate and assist on Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as well as additional movies in the works with Warner Bros, Marvel, Sony, and Disney. Alongside his work with Michael, Logyn was recently commissioned by his local symphony in Hawaii to score an animation that will be performed live-to-picture.

Having reached the goal he set in his sophomore year that he would orchestrate a project, Logyn has the new goals of scoring his own TV show and a big studio film before he turns 30.

“I used to listen to Michael’s score for ’The Incredibles’ and ‘Ratatouille’ growing up…So this has been such a dream come true. I’m getting opportunities beyond my wildest dreams, and am trying to do the best I can to process it.”

For Logyn, writing music for film and TV is and has always been the goal. He has discovered at Chapman and through his other projects how orchestrating can make you a better composer, and how working with a team can feel like a family.

Want to hear some of his work? Check out recordings on his website.