What We Do
We create original music, lyrics, and in-house recording for stage and screen, offering a complete workflow from brief to final handover.
Scott distils more than 30 years of performance, writing and composition into his many roles:
- Writer/lyricist
- Composer
- Arranger
- Orchestrator
- Musical Director
- Conductor
- Project Coordinator
- Recording Engineer
- Digital Audio Editor
- Music mixer
Have a collaboration or commission in mind? Know what you want? Not sure what you need?
Contact us to get the ball rolling!
Music Composition
When it comes to theatre or film, it is not enough to write good music, the music must serve the STORY, and this is where Scott shines.
Scott is equally at home with the nuance of INTIMACY and HEARTBREAK as with the unapologetic boldness of in-your-face HILARITY. A master of genre, he creates a unique and consistent musical vocabulary for each project.
Listen to how he evokes familiar styles while infusing them with freshness and originality.
I love how we connect with music. This is perhaps why I am drawn to music for film and theatre, and to the great storytelling trinity of character, content and form. This is also what drives me as a singer: to live vicariously through each self-contained story, to relish each cathartic moment, and to rejoice in the power of song.
Scott Cameron
OUR MUSIC SERVICES INCLUDE:
- COMPOSITION of original songs, themes and scores for film, television, theatre or concert hall.
- VOCAL ARRANGEMENTS (solo artists, BV’s, choral, a cappella etc.)
- ORCHESTRATION for small or large ensembles.
- SCORE PREPARATION.
TALK TO US ABOUT:
- Calculating a BUDGET to realise your ideal outcome.
- Defining what RESOURCES are feasible within a specific budget.
- Determining whether music is really necessary, and how it will FUNCTION.
- Defining the TONE and STYLE of the music to fulfil your project or story.
- Advising what music, if any, needs to be written or sourced PRIOR to production.
THE BRIEF
Every project starts with a brief:
This might be as simple as, “I need a 10-minute orchestral celebration to celebrate to open a new concert hall!”, or as detailed as a shot-by-shot scene and character breakdown of a film, with every music cue listed.
Whether it is an integrated collaboration (as in musical theatre where the music develops alongside the book and lyrics), or an additive collaboration (as in film where the core writing begins after the rough cut), or a solo commission, all parties should agree on the intent of the project and the purpose of the music early in the process.
Lyrics
With Scott as lyricist and composer, you get words and music in perfect step: in intent, metre and phrasing.
What comes first, the words or music?
–The CONTRACT!
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Lyrics are stylised language but they are NOT poetry: whereas poetry is designed to be read, mulled over, or occasionally spoken aloud, lyrics are meant to be SUNG, and should be comprehensible on first hearing. This is not to say lyrics cannot have depth. On the contrary, Scott strives for lyrics with wit, clarity and simplicity, that are singable.
Being a singer, Scott appreciates how lyrics “breathe” to complement character, performer and meaning.
As with music, an effective brief is crucial to getting the lyrics you need:
Are they intended for a film, musical or cabaret? Are they sung by a character in the film, or recorded by a pop singer to be played under a particular scene or sequence? Are they used for ironic or comic effect as in “Stuck In The Middle With You” in Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS, or to intensify the empathy for the character as in “Both Sides Now” in LOVE ACTUALLY?
When it comes to lyrics for Musical Theatre, Scott recognises that they not only express an idea, they also reveal character within the context of a broader story. True Cabaret songs however, are typically self-contained to tell a complete story, but otherwise share many conventions with musical theatre.
Recording
We offer a complete audio workflow from conception to final mix. Smaller projects can be realised in-house. For larger projects such as orchestral scores we can coordinate recording spaces, musicians and technicians as required.
Our intimate recording space accommodates a string quartet, soloists, or a vocal ensemble of 8-12, and is suitable for scoring to picture or for standalone music. Where necessary we may offer a digital reference (mockup/demo) prior to recording live musicians.
I appreciate the fetish for brash, bing-bang-boom scores, but I also treasure those subtler moments: something heartfelt with texture and depth.
Scott Cameron
Some projects benefit from a combination of both acoustic and sampled instruments: samples may provide a wider sonic palette than otherwise feasible; and live musicians provide the expressive “glue” to make them believable.
Despite the ubiquitous rise of digital orchestras and sample-based recordings, we prefer to work with live musicians. As good as samples have become, musicians are without peer for their expressive nuance – you cannot capture the subtleties of a violin virtuoso via a synth keyboard.
Additionally, the smaller the orchestration, the more exposed digital samples become; the larger the ensemble, the more time-efficient it is to work with live musicians.
