My Resolutions for 2014

Okay 2014, I'm ready for you! Here's what we're gonna get done this year: 1. Break bread with as many interesting, creative, effective, and real people as possible. 2. Inspire, encourage, and/or enrich the life of at least one person every day. 3. Resist all negativity, distractions, and apparent defeat like Teflon, living every day by the mantra, "Stay positive, stay focused, and do the work!" 4. Complete two feature film screenplays...

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Scoring Films - Part 2: Ten Questions To Ask Your Director

I was 15 when I got my first job flipping patties for his royal highness, the Burger King. As anyone who has plied the fast food trade knows, the burger-making process is the essence of streamlined simplicity with a final product that is utterly predictable, every time. If you've never had the privilege, trust me, it's a riot. Heel, ketchup, mustard, pickles, patty, cheese, crown, wrap, and down the chute. Over and over again. Oh, to relive...

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Mandela to Me

I still remember the first time I bought a "Free Mandela" pin. Sting concert, BC Place in Vancouver, 1987. Amnesty International had a table of assorted pamphlets and wares and I picked the button partly because it was the most colourful thing they had, but mostly because it was hip to display back then - even if, like me, you had no idea who Nelson Mandela was. The pin did, however, get me thinking. Who was this person the world seemed to think...

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Scoring Films - Part 1: Where To Begin?

Visit Paul's YouTube channel to hear his music in films  Occasionally, over a glass of this or that, I get asked the question: "When you scored that last film, how did you know what music to put where? And how did you come up with that stuff in the first place?" I wish the answer was simple. It would sure make me sound smarter at dinner parties. But as any songwriter knows, creating music always involves some strange dance of mathematical,...

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