As a bit of context, I auditioned for an animated series as composer (found it on Casting Call Club, it’s very handy if you’re looking for potential projects you can become composer on.) The animated series is called “A Kitsune’s Kiss” (btw yes I am allowed to say the name of the project as I got permission first!)
I got SUPER excited when the director called me for an interview (it wasn’t like “extremely professional”, more of a “do we get along” kind of thing. This call also happened over Discord too.) I then got the job, and now I’m super excited to be working on it. Of course this is a YouTube animated series (think something like “Helluva Boss” or something along those lines.) I have a long way to go before hitting spaces like BBC or Sky etc.
So, whenever you see a project you find interesting (that’s if you don’t have people contacting you of course.) How do you feel when you get the gig? I always get excited to work on stuff, as composing for media is something I am really passionate about!
Interesting. Did you use your real name on the Casting Call site?
I’ve done one student short film. It was indeed a bit scary, feeling like I might not be able to do a good enough job. But I think I did, working with her on what she had in mind. She seemed to like it.
You can do if you want, I have my display name on there as my credit name - “Mark (“Nowa”) Taylor” to be exact.
All you need to do is go into the “open projects” tab and you can filter the roles to show just “Musician”. I honestly thought it was just for Voice actors but no you can find a whole cast and crew application thing for everything!
It’s certainly a starting point! As word of advice, don’t feel intimidated by other people’s submissions either for composer roles!
So I can give a clear answer, do you mean what my approach is to auditioning as a composer for (X) project, or do you mean the interview process? I don’t wanna accidentally give the wrong answer and wanna make sure I understand the question before answering ^^;
Hi Mark - Thanks for the reply! I am referring to the auditioning method used to get your composition either listened to…or do you seek out the requirements/needs and then compose to a specific/set requirement.
Ah ok, so typically on CCC (casting call club where i get most of my gigs) whoever has the project created for people to audition on, they usually listen to all the auditions given to them before choosing who to choose (sometimes they choose all the auditions.)
However, when I see a project I am interested in tackling, what I do is I read through whatever the project is about, then I scroll to where you can audition as composer, now I do one of 2 things (if I can’t do 1, i’ll usually do the other):
I will audition with a track I have composed fairly recently (provided it fits the context of what the project is going for). I usually set it so only the director can see it so people don’t like… take the idea or anything.
If they attached a temp track, then I do the same kind of process, but with the temp track it narrows it down so I can see what fits best.
I never compose anything for the project before actually getting the gig, a main reason being that you don’t exactly know if you are actually going to get the gig or not…
Hope this makes sense and if you need me to elaborate lmk.
Great update thanks- I looked at the CCC website and had not seen this before! Interesting!
What I did note is that many of the projects listed show unpaid!
Not surprising given the music/video world but then I was looking from the outside so to speak!
Until now I have been composing and sending the Reels out for interest or attention to documentary film makers! Or create my own music/video to keep YouTube topped up!!!
Yes a shot in the dark indeed!but always enjoyed “Pink Panther“ and have written a song parallel to the theme of “PP”
yeah, you can filter it so it just shows the paid ones if i remember correctly, but yeah a lot are unpaid, but it’s certainly a good starting place to build up a portfolio