The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures

As a full time working film composer I am always trying to improve on my knowledge about the business as well as the technical aspects of this tough yet gratifying craft. Jeff Rona's Reel World is a great to read, Un-boring view into the world of the film composer. At many points I must confess, I couldn't let it go out of my hands. He uses many of his own case scenarios as a very active film composer to enlight us on a few lessons learned and succeeds on bringing on several points missed on most books if this genre. I had a Reel Blast. Either you are just jumping into this, or you have been on it and just want to make sure you are doing things right, this book is a must have, hats-off piece for your career.

Not much to say besides, I love this book. Had it not been so jammed with great info, I would have been more turned off by the typos and somewhat disjointed nature of the read. However, if you're trying to learn the basics of film and tv score, check it out.

This book not only gives you the information you were after when you bought the book in the first place. It is also joy to read. There is a perfect balance between raw information, interviews with the biggies (John Williams, et cetera), and tips on how to think about film music. This is NOT just another fluff book that the author wrote simply because his last three scores were rejected and he needed the money. If you do not find this book to be incredibly helpful then you have either been making film music for 30 years already (even then I find it hard to believe that you didn't find it helpful), or you are just nutts!

Like many musicians, I have a great interest in film scores and, if it weren't so tough to make a good living at, I'd love to have pursued scoring to picture as a career. This book, however, is a great introduction to the world of film scores and covers all the bases at an introductory level. You'll learn about the business side (dealing with clients, sticky politics between directors and producers, etc), the technical side (the equipment you'll need, what it all does, etc), and the musical side (developing themes and so on). He also includes interviews with several other prominent film composers, which is great because he asks the questions other musicians would ask.Rona's style is quite approachable, as evidenced by the column he's written for Keyboard magazine for years. In fact, my only criticism of the book might be that some of the chapters are taken directly from his past columns and the result is sometimes a choppy transition from one chapter to the next. Overall, though, that's a pretty small nit to pick about what is otherwise a great introduction to the world of film scoring.