{"id":19768,"date":"2025-04-28T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/dodge\/2025\/04\/28\/scoring-big-in-hollywood\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:00:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:00:21","slug":"scoring-big-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/2025\/04\/28\/scoring-big-in-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoring Big in Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> in complete silence.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cPunch to seven and go to fourteen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it possible to give eight clicks to bar seven at tempo seven?\u201d<\/p>\n

The orchestra erupts.<\/p>\n

\u201cLovely, let\u2019s move on to the next cue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience is what a lot of students, young people in the industry, will not get to experience until later on in their career,\u201d he said as waves of base boomed through the studio, followed by the soothing harmony of violins \u2014 drama and tension building, rising and falling, to marry scene with soundtrack. \u201cTo see what it\u2019s like at the top level of filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing 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,\u201d said Lars Kahn, a junior film music minor and composer for the short film Mini Skirt<\/em>. \u201cEvery little decision that the musicians are doing sounds very real and so much fuller.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the height of musical recording, in Los Angeles with these players in this room,\u201d said Connor Low, the composer of the animated short film Fly Fishing<\/em>. \u201cYou know, this is as good as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Low said that knowing his music would be played live impacted his writing style and inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted something that was\u2026strikingly dramatic, and the orchestra we had today was perfectly suited for that,\u201d Low said. \u201cWe leaned into our resources. We said: \u2018We have a concert orchestra. We have a classical orchestra. Let\u2019s write a classical score.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Low said that being able to work with the film\u2019s director, Ethan Walker, was an opportunity for him to learn how to \u201ctalk music\u201d to someone in a different industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part of collaborating with directors is finding our common ground,\u201d he added. \u201cKind of being the musical translator for the director to help express their vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker, a senior animation major and creator of Fly Fishing<\/em>, asserted that his collaboration with Low and CoPA contributed to his undergraduate experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so many people around that have so many different perspectives on so many different things that we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m getting a very well-rounded film education.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Kulewicz, Dodge students were already collaborating with CoPA composers even before the scoring event was introduced to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don’t necessarily have to go outside of Dodge or Chapman to find what you need,\u201d Kulewicz said. \u201cWe have an entire university full of talents. Students themselves were trying to make those connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part-time CoPA professor and music composer David Volpe immediately fell in love with Kulewicz\u2019s idea of exposing his students to a professional scoring session.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The scoring experience] really inspired the students, and certainly it inspires us. I\u2019ve been doing this for 15 years now, and it still gets me excited every single time,\u201d Volpe said. \u201cThe energy was there because all the students were eager, wide eyed and just thrilled to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CoPA student composers were either currently enrolled in or had taken Volpe\u2019s Advanced Composition class in the past. For eight weeks leading up to the scoring session, he worked to prepare them for the big day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all helped each other out, because some of them have done this before, and for some of them, it\u2019s their first time,\u201d Volpe said. \u201cIt was really amazing to see them come together and get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The night before the session, the students learned about the technicalities of physical performance, and participated in a \u201ctaping session,\u201d where sheet music is printed and taped up for the musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the parts had to be printed out, and any errors had to be checked,\u201d Khan explained, \u201cand then we put the scores together. You have to use tape\u2026 [otherwise] it won\u2019t fold very well for the musicians, and it also makes noise. The whole process is super analog.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Davidson, a music composition major, had written music for the short film Game Boys and Top Spin<\/em>, and had only ever heard it played through \u201cmakeshift\u201d or virtual orchestras.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do it yourself at home, a lot of it is sampled instruments and virtual instruments,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are always limitations with that because you can\u2019t get a computer to program everything. But when you get it recorded by a live orchestra, you\u2019re completely opening up your entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a first of its kind for film schools in the country,\u201d Kulewicz said, \u201cfor Chapman and Dodge and CoPA, and hopefully for many more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Dodge and CoPA students collaborated with Hollywood Scoring to marry music to film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4984,"featured_media":19769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1050],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaboration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4984"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/dodge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}