AUDIO | BUILD HEARD ABOUT


THE GORFAINE/SCHWARTZ AGENCY,widely recognised as one of the entertainment industry's pre-eminent organisations for representing music talent, boasts a star- studded movie and TV composer roster featuring such luminaries as John Williams, James Horner, and Thomas Newman. GSA talent agent since 1993 and pioneer of an interactive division, Cheryl Tiano describes her role as “representing extraordinary composers for all forms of visual media”. “I believe interactive entertainment is the medium of choice for the 21st century,” says Tiano. “When it was first made known to me I became very intrigued with the world of games and found it consisted of some of the most interesting, intelligent and creative people I have ever known. I became really passionate about it and decided that, in addition to film and television, interactive media should be a major focus for our agency. It’s now an incredibly significant part of our business.


WELL COMPOSED “In games, I generally see composers being treated with an enormous amount of respect and often afforded a great amount of creative freedom,” Tiano continues. “I would say that’s why a lot of our composers who write for films want to score games, because they enjoy the process. And the people they’re dealing with are often very creative – it’s an amazing collaborative experience. “One thing I find really wonderful is how,


to the person that’s playing the game, the music is such a rich part of the experience. They’re hearing the music over and over unlike with a film where you hear it once. It’s very much a part of the games players’ lives.” Cut back to the mid-to-late nineties, and


many in our industry still yearned for a coming time when the choice of composer would be not so much who could we afford, but who would we like – who we felt was best for the job at hand. Now we’ve been here a while and have found that ‘who would we like’ and ‘who is best for the job’ can sometimes prove to be fundamentally different concepts. Most long-in-the-tooth game audio


professionals can cite their own distressing yet amusing stories of misguided executives trying to effect and even force horrible mismatches of composer to game, based purely on personal preference or marketing considerations – like the drum and bass DJ who would be ‘perfect’ for our new kids’ cartoon RPG title (plus we can hang out and he can autograph my stuff). However, for most informed professionals, who they would like is, of course, who would be best. The fact that such a mighty talent bastion


as The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency has its gaze so determinedly set on video games is a clear indicator of just how far we’ve come


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over the last ten or so years. Music score is widely, and rightly, recognised as a hugely important contribution to the overall play experience, and in many cases, budgets no longer preclude film talent and orchestral recording. This is even to the extent of enabling some notable willy-waving – ‘we’re so big and successful, we hired so-and-so big name who wrote the music for all these massive movies.’


One thing I find really wonderful is


how, to the person playing the game, music is such a rich part of


the experience. Cheryl Tiano, Gorfaine/Schwartz


SOUNDS FAIR Perhaps that’s fair enough, and in one sense, it is impressive. After all, plenty of film composers who may never have touched a game controller have written very effectively for video games - often with excellent support and guidance from a point person in the developer or publisher’s domain who is taking the role of ‘music supervisor’. And judging from those film composers for games I’ve interviewed, it’s generally a very positive experience creatively for them, and a world away fromfeeling painted into a compositional corner by temporary music tracks edited into a working version of a movie. However, hearing the music over and over unlike with a film where you hear the music once is just one factor that marks games apart from moving pictures – even for so-called cinematic games. This aspect alone may require a different mind-set and


approach – and even a different or specific additional skill-set. Many of our most celebrated so-called ‘game composers’ bring all the raw composition chops and technical/production expertise of a film composer, plus a hugely valuable deep cultural knowledge of games and many key insights about gameplay. This works together with the refined ability to write so-called ‘interactive music’ in relatively unintuitive structural forms, always with a weather eye on how their output will work alongside the game’s sound and dialogue components during many hours of repetitive play. Most are avid gamers themselves and arguably, that makes a real difference. Can someone who writes music for films


‘get it’? Absolutely. Specific artistic sensibilities, interactive composition, production expertise and cultural understanding aren’t unique to some game music Illuminati. But, for a great game score, they are surely required in the talent mix somewhere. In some instances this is achieved by additional music expertise within the dev team – persons present with the skills to articulate a clear vision and technical delivery method to a composer who has possibly never even thought outside the linear box. Alternatively, you could just hire a


composer who has been around our unique and fascinating block several times, having written music for multiple video game titles. Perhaps that’s why Gorfaine/Schwartz’


Cheryl Tiano just signed up a clutch of distinguished UK ‘games’ composers?


John Broomhall is an independent audio director, consultant and content provider. E: develop@johnbroomhall.co.uk www.johnbroomhall.co.uk


MAY 2012 | 63 John Broomhall looks at the role the film composer can serve in the games industry


Composition in games Service: The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency Platforms: Multi-platform www.gsamusic.com


The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency’s Cheryl Tiano (Above) believes composing in the games industry is an especially collaborative process. (Top) Composer Jason Graves conducting


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