Although the last couple of months have been hectic, I still found the time this week to pop down to London for the inaugural Screen Music Connect event. And what a treat that was. With keynote speeches from powerhouses like Christian Henson (of Spitfire Audio fame) and performances by the legendary Debbie Wiseman, the day was packed with interesting discussions and informative debates about the current state of the film/tv/game music industry and what it means to be a part of it.
Some of my favourite moments actually came from the talks that involved the discussion of Artificial intelligence and the debate of A.I.’s role in threatening musicians’ creative role within the industry. By compiling variables, patterns and mood, an artificial intelligence system has the ability to throw music together writing (albeit a smidge underdeveloped) a custom piece of music. But this raised a question: how can Artificial Intelligence be creative? Moreover, Is it even possible? Well, the short hand answer is no. Binary machines lack empathy, an absolutely essential core element of a creative process. In saying that though, artificially created music does have its place. It can be particularly useful for library music, low budget or projects where originally scored music isn’t a priority etc. However, the growing understanding of how Artificial Intelligence may be utilised in the future seems exciting and will hopefully provide many engaging insights, not just to the potential collaboration that could be harnessed between creative practices and artificially inseminated creative controls, but also to the inner workings of a humans mind when exploring various creative pursuits.
As the afternoon went on, something I found of particular interest was how many opinions differed regarding how the industry is operated when it boils down to creative passage. It seemed oddly polarising.
After the event was finished I was lucky enough to catch up with some of the guest speakers at the event including Richard Jacques, Patrick Jonnson, Olivier Deriviere, John Broomhall and more. For some, working as a film/tv/game composer it seems to be predominantly business that take up around 80% - 90% of the composers average work week. Suggesting that the creative, and musical based elements make up a mere fraction of the overall division of labour when it comes to a composers lifestyle. On the other hand though, one of the other frequent things mentioned is that all you need to do is write. Constant writing - without focus on others progress. This most likely gives way to the more lucrative elements of working in a creative profession. Having the freedom to explore your own creativity and working with others to complete large scale projects is largely gratifying and probably the most attractive elements of such a role.
The opinions varied on the matter and I wondered why. How can there be such diametrically opposite perceptions of the same industry?
Something I will need to discover myself, I think. At the end of it all, I came away from the event a few business cards lighter and the kick in the backside I needed.
S