Tucked at the end of a nondescript street in Hollywood, a city known for its constant bustle and commotion, a group of Chapman students sit in the small studio of Hollywood Scoring in complete silence.

Some are student composers, eager to hear their pieces played live for the first time. Others are directors, producers and animators, waiting for their visual creations to be enhanced by music.

All eyes scan a large screen in front of them, a live video feed of the orchestra in the next room. Heels tap and fingers drum as the conductor gives directions. He barks terms through the speakers that only music students and professionals would understand.

“Punch to seven and go to fourteen.”

“Is it possible to give eight clicks to bar seven at tempo seven?”

The orchestra erupts.

“Lovely, let’s move on to the next cue.”

Such was the scene on Saturday, April 12, when for the first time, collaborating student filmmakers from Dodge College and student composers from the College of Performing Arts (CoPA) had their soundtracks scored in a professional studio. The idea was the brainchild of Dodge College Assistant Professor Matt Kulewicz, a recording engineer and producer for music and broadcast TV/film sound. He knew that the experience would be transformational for students.

“This experience is what a lot of students, young people in the industry, will not get to experience until later on in their career,” he said as waves of base boomed through the studio, followed by the soothing harmony of violins — drama and tension building, rising and falling, to marry scene with soundtrack. “To see what it’s like at the top level of filmmaking.”

“Hearing this live is just amazing, because the bass trombone, the strings, everything is so much more powerful and fuller than anything you would hear on your computer,” said Lars Kahn, a junior film music minor and composer for the short film Mini Skirt. “Every little decision that the musicians are doing sounds very real and so much fuller.”

Behind the magic is a mix of talent and skill, of course. The professional musicians were given their sheet music mere seconds before recording, but their timing and synergy seemed effortless.

“This is the height of musical recording, in Los Angeles with these players in this room,” said Connor Low, the composer of the animated short film Fly Fishing. “You know, this is as good as it gets.”

Low said that knowing his music would be played live impacted his writing style and inspiration.

“We wanted something that was…strikingly dramatic, and the orchestra we had today was perfectly suited for that,” Low said. “We leaned into our resources. We said: ‘We have a concert orchestra. We have a classical orchestra. Let’s write a classical score.’”

Low said that being able to work with the film’s director, Ethan Walker, was an opportunity for him to learn how to “talk music” to someone in a different industry.

“My favorite part of collaborating with directors is finding our common ground,” he added. “Kind of being the musical translator for the director to help express their vision.”

Walker, a senior animation major and creator of Fly Fishing, asserted that his collaboration with Low and CoPA contributed to his undergraduate experience.

“There’s just so many people around that have so many different perspectives on so many different things that we’re doing,” he said. “I feel like I’m getting a very well-rounded film education.”

According to Kulewicz, Dodge students were already collaborating with CoPA composers even before the scoring event was introduced to them.

“You don’t necessarily have to go outside of Dodge or Chapman to find what you need,” Kulewicz said. “We have an entire university full of talents. Students themselves were trying to make those connections.”

Part-time CoPA professor and music composer David Volpe immediately fell in love with Kulewicz’s idea of exposing his students to a professional scoring session.

“[The scoring experience] really inspired the students, and certainly it inspires us. I’ve been doing this for 15 years now, and it still gets me excited every single time,” Volpe said. “The energy was there because all the students were eager, wide eyed and just thrilled to be there.”

The CoPA student composers were either currently enrolled in or had taken Volpe’s Advanced Composition class in the past. For eight weeks leading up to the scoring session, he worked to prepare them for the big day.

“They all helped each other out, because some of them have done this before, and for some of them, it’s their first time,” Volpe said. “It was really amazing to see them come together and get it done.”

The night before the session, the students learned about the technicalities of physical performance, and participated in a “taping session,” where sheet music is printed and taped up for the musicians.

“All of the parts had to be printed out, and any errors had to be checked,” Khan explained, “and then we put the scores together. You have to use tape… [otherwise] it won’t fold very well for the musicians, and it also makes noise. The whole process is super analog.”

Ben Davidson, a music composition major, had written music for the short film Game Boys and Top Spin, and had only ever heard it played through “makeshift” or virtual orchestras.

“When you do it yourself at home, a lot of it is sampled instruments and virtual instruments,” he said. “There are always limitations with that because you can’t get a computer to program everything. But when you get it recorded by a live orchestra, you’re completely opening up your entire world.”

Besides being a landmark in the lives of current student filmmakers and composers alike, the scoring session, which was paid for by Dodge and CoPA, marked the first event in what Kulewicz and Volpe hope will become an ongoing partnership and annual session with Hollywood Scoring.

“This is going to be a first of its kind for film schools in the country,” Kulewicz said, “for Chapman and Dodge and CoPA, and hopefully for many more to come.”