Writing to Music

I write to music. Before I start writing I actually go through my iTunes and put together my own soundtrack, factoring into the tone and type of script I'm writing at the moment. I can't remember if I've always done it, when I was writing the shorts, but I know I remember doing it a lot on the thriller.

In that particular case, I pretty much had the score for The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum on repeat. I've always been a huge fan of movie scores, starting with The Rock back in 1996. I remember having putt-ing competitions with my brother and I would bet him that if I made this putt, he would buy me The Rock soundtrack. (Hey, 16 bucks was a lot of money for me at that age). I never did make those putts but I did get the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer's pounding music was awesome and fueled my own nocturnal, let's-pretend-we're-Navy-Seals adventures.

From there, I've just always had an interest in them. I've loved listening to them and see the movie playing in my head...but I digress. Point is, I have a lot of scores in my iTunes and scores are great to write to...unless you're writing a comedy. Then you need to bust out some rock...classic rock...preferably from the 80s. Which is what we did for Glory Days.

Actually, what happened was that Travis and I would talk to my best friend and former roommate Chris about football. He played in high school and so he knew quite a bit about it. Obviously, he knew the idea and the story, and being a music fan himself, actually put together a soundtrack for us.

A modified it quite a bit over the last couple years as we've rewritten. Since our last two scripts have been comedies as well the soundtrack essentially carried over. It's features a lot of Journey, AC/DC, Survivor, Van Halen...those great bands from the 80s. (Nothing quite like Thunderstruck to put you in the comedy mood.)

I prefer writing to music though it only works when both sides of a partnership are writing, writing and not writing together. Since we're now into rewriting the sound track will have to be put away for a bit.

I'm getting a little sick of the songs anyway...maybe someday I'll get back to the scores.