Kevin

Great to hear!

There's still plenty of time for anyone to sign up!

What's everyone's Steam ID? I would love to have more film score friends on there.

Thank you for this. Will you join next time? Was the clip too long for you? We've had a lot of people interested in the contest.

The good news is that this contest has sparked a lot of interest in at least half a dozen composers.

Hello everyone, After the success of the last Composers Challenge with a clip from the award winning video game 'Dear Esther', I have started another Composers Challenge but taking it into the science fiction/action category. Mass Effect 2 is an award winning video game and a part of the most loved game sagas in history. Its mix of science fiction, action, drama and sheer epic nature makes it the perfect candidate for a challenge: The scene is from the action-filled opening. I picked this scene because it allows the composer is weave together this sequence musically and be able to flex his/her musical muscles: For those of you unfamiliar with this scene, our protagonist Commander John Shepard and his crew aboard the SSV Normandy are on patrol for enemies in the Terminus Sector. They come across something they were not expecting to find. Do not be scared away due to the length of the scene and feel like you need to score it wall to wall. Depending on where you choose the point of where the music should start and stop, there could actually be less music in the scene than in the previous challenge of Dear Esther. But I do promise that the next Composers Challenge will have a shorter scene. The deadline for this challenge is August 1st. Either the composers can: a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist. b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent. It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished. In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10 and also ranking each entry against each other. The two voting methods will be averaged and the top three will be announced. Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to. The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference): a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending). c) A copy of Mass Effect 2 purchased via Steam or Origin. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com. Best of luck to everyone and have fun! Kevin PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from the original Mass Effect scores will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.

Hello everyone, First of all I would like to thank everyone for their submissions to the Composers Challenge. I was glad that we received so many entries that crafted the Dear Esther sequence in their own ways. Let's down to business. Only the top three will be announced. The winner of the Dear Esther Composers Challenge is Ray Juden (Entry #2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSOVxQ_m1V8&list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD&index=2 Second place goes to SkyLynx (Entry #1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EffVklLA0EQ&list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD&index=1 Third place goes to JB Francis (Entry #4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWZz34hBVRk&list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD&index=4 Congratulations to Ray for his winning entry. At this time, everyone can share their reviews on all of the entries because it is a good idea to give feedback to the composers on how they did. Thank you again for everyone's participation in this challenge. There will be a new challenge starting next week. Stay tuned for more details. Kevin

You can give informal reviews too if you like. Any feedback is good.

Hello everyone, So we have received all of the entries for the Composers Challenge, now it's time to vote. All the composers have received an email from me with a link to a Youtube playlist. The composers have one week to vote on and rank the other composers' entries. After that the rankings will be compiled and the winner will be announced. Again, if you are a composer for this challenge, please check your email (or junk mail) for my email. For those who just want to review the entries, here is the link (but your votes will not be counted). https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD Again, The composers have until May 17th to cast your votes. If anyone is curious about the next composers challenge, I have an action scene in mind from a popular epic science-fiction video game. Thanks to everyone for their support. Kevin

We're half way through the challenge and we've had quite a few people sign up through various websites.

A different challenge. Thanks!

We're always welcoming anyone to try out.

Thank you for your interest, I hope you give it a go.

I know it has been a while since I have posted on this board and I know that it has been a while since I've done a Composers Challenge, so I decided to start a new one. Here is the clip: The clip that I have is from an award-winning video game called Dear Esther. Basically, Dear Esther is a game where you explore this uninhabited island, listening to the narration read out letters to his wife. You learn that the narrator lost his wife (Esther) in a car crash and he's trying to figure out why. The narrator maintains that the driver of the other car in the crash (Paul) was drunk when the accident occurred. But we do not know precisely what happened in the crash because the narrator freely admits to forgetting or mixing up various events and when they occur. You also get the sense that Esther's death has left a huge void in the narrator's life and he is mentally broken by it. Other notes: 1) The writing on the side of the cliff recalls the Apostle Paul's journey to Damascus which is found in the Biblical Book of Acts, which adds to the theme of this clip. 2) References to the other characters such as the hermit, Jakobson, and Donnelly. The hermit was a legend of a person who came to the island to achieve some type of solace. Jakobson was the first non-legendary person to visit the island, he was a shepard who came to the island with the goal building a property to secure him a wife and children (it did not work and he died 2 years later). Donnelly was a writer who explored the island and wrote about its history, he later died of syphilis. 3) It is not clear if the island is an actual place or the island is in the mind of the narrator. I believe that this is a good clip for a composers challenge because we have both dialogue and sound effects in one scene without the music (it is hard to find a scene where the music can be removed). There are many ways to interpret the clip musically (for example; the mystery/suspense of the climb because we do not know where we are going, the dramatic moment of how the narrator's story changes, and the final lasting monologue). The contest runs from today (Feb 27th) to April 30th. I feel that giving two months to write five minutes of music is more than reasonable. After April 30th, voting on the various entries will start. The prize for winning the contest will be announced at a later date. Thank you for your attention and I hope everyone has fun.

I have a signed copy of Copernicus' Star that I am willing to part with.

I think that's true. He wasn't even the best Mr. Conductor. George Carlin was.

I think mine would have to be Paul.

Deckard is human, end of story.

This isn't meant to be an inflammatory post but I certainly know who will respond instantly to it. Am I the only one who thinks that Twin Peaks isn't that good? I'll explain. I think the reason why I feel this way is that there were too many subplots with characters that were not that important in the show and the subplots took away (or took up space away) from the main plot of the show. The murder of Laura Palmer is the reason why everyone tuned in. Had the show's writers stuck to the main story and characters with only a few subplots (even turning it into the TV-miniseries rather than a TV-show) and wrapped it all up at the end of the miniseries, it would have been remembered as one of the best series ever produced. The reason why people stopped watching Twin Peaks was because it took too long to solve the murder of Laura Palmer because the subplots were taking up unnecessary episode time. By the time when the murder was actually solved, [relatively] no one cared. And then the show went really downhill after that.

Some people like to point out that Star Trek: DS9 was the beginning of the end of good old fashioned Trek and the idea of being on a permanent space station showed that the writers were finally starting to run out of ideas. I, for one, disagree. Deep Space Nine, in part, changed how the game was played. After two relatively uneven seasons, the solo episodic nature that served the previous incarnations of Trek were dispensed with and more expansive story arcs emerged. I would argue that since the premise was about a static space station, it allowed for the overarching stories to be implemented compared where a moving starship from mission to mission. Starting in Season 3 and ending in Season 7, some of the finest moments written for Star Trek were broadcasted. Deep Space Nine presented a darker, gritter version of Star Trek. It was much more of an show for adults than TNG ever was, with challenging story themes and much more action than TNG ever had (the only Star Trek to ever have one of its episodes not broadcasted because it was too violent. The teenagers who watched TNG became adults watching DS9. It took many of Roddenberry's ideas of Star Trek being a perfect utopia, lit them on fire, and tossed them out a high apartment window. Avery Brooks (who has disappeared off the map since the conclusion of Deep Space Nine) was perfect for Benjamin Sisko, a captain who was not afraid to make the tough decisions, particularly if the decision was in the 'grey' area. His performance in "In the Pale Moonlight" is stunning to watch as Sisko tries to rationalize the events past in the episode. The ensemble cast was varied and strong over the years with all the characters getting serious character development in one form or another (even Quark, the comic relief of the show). I was a bit curious about the inclusion of Worf at the start of Season 4, but it turned out to be the right decision (Worf got far far more character development in DS9 than he ever did in TNG show or movies). All in all, it carried the flame for Star Trek with flying colours in the 90s and that deserves some respect. (I made this discussion elsewhere but I thought I would bring it here to create discussion).

Do you think Jesse ever paid for the wine that they had in the park?

For those of you who don't know, Before Sunrise is a 1995 film starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and it's about two people who meet on a train and spend a romantic night together but they know it's only their one night together. It's more of a romantic drama than a romantic comedy. Before Sunset is a 2004 film and it is set nine years later when our two characters meet again and have to deal with how each of their lives have turned out since their one night together. For myself, I think I would pick Before Sunrise because it's a little more pure and 'fairy-tale' like where the Jesse-Celine romance is being developed rather than the rather grounded Before Sunset which sheds Before Sunrise's escapism and deals with the aftermath of Before Sunrise.

Does anyone have an opinion on various internet critics or in general about them? On the one hand, I do enjoy some reviews that the Nostalgia Critic and some people do when they make fun of a movie that obviously bombed and is hilariously bad (like Batman and Robin). Also, when the critics do serious analysis on various topics or seriously compare old movies vs new movies, it's more rewarding than seeing the reviewer make lame jokes about a movie I don't care about. On the other hand, these reviews not exactly high art (and I'm not saying it from a snob point of view). Making fun of a movie that bombed and isn't in the public conscience at all is like kicking someone when they're down. Plus, anyone can nitpick absolutely any movie down to bits. It's better to create something than it is to criticize something that someone else has made. What do you guys think?

Here's mine: Main Title - Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Jerry Goldsmith Attack of the Batwing - Batman - Danny Elfman The Lazarus Project End Title - The Lazarus Project - Brian Tyler Show Me Your Firetruck - Backdraft - Hans Zimmer [Edit of] Messages from Earth - Babylon 5 - Christopher Franke End Credits - Das Boot - Klaus Doldinger Farewell Ladies and Finale - Lonesome Dove - Basil Poledouris Reunion and Finale - Randy Edelman Far Away, Cowboy's Dream and All The Pretty Horses Medley - All The Pretty Horses - Marty Stuart & Co Where Dreams Are Born - Artificial Intelligence - John Williams The Right Stuff - The Right Stuff - Bill Conti (Kunzel conducting) End Titles - A Fish Called Wanda - John Du Prez Laurens Walking - The Straight Story - Angelo Badalamenti "All Systems Go" - The Launch - Apollo 13 - James Horner [Edit of] Chaplin & Smile - Chaplin - John Barry You're Going Back & Finale - Defending Your Life - Michael Gore End Title - The Untouchables - Ennio Morricone Mine is a bit eclectic to say the least. I try to have one cue per composer.