This past Thursday, Turner Classic Movies held the awards ceremony for its annual "Young Film Composers Competition". Over 500 people entered this year and scored a small film clip from a silent movie that has never been released. In this case, the film was Souls for Sale, a 1923 silent film. After a few rounds of judging, the entries were narrowed down to five finalists. The grand prize winner would receive a $10,000 cash prize, and score the silent movie to be aired on TCM, with composer Hans Zimmer mentoring them through the process.
The ceremony was held at the Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. After some introductions by the TCM folks, Hans took to the podium to give some advice to the five composer finalists. His advice comes from the heart, and the best line he had was: "Never let your wife prevent you from buying equipment. A house will not buy a synthesizer, but a synthesizer can buy a house."
They then presented the awards, by showing the one clip they scored for the final round, each time with the entrant\'s music. Everyone was a winner just for getting to the "Final Five", and runner-up prizes were handed out, with the average value of $2,500. The grand prize winner, Marcus Sjowall, received the $10,000 cash prize, and will be scoring Souls for Sale which will be recorded at Todd-AO when it\'s finished. SoundtrackNet hopes to provide more coverage of that session when it comes up, so stay tuned!
For more information on the Young Film Composers Competition, visit the official website at Turner Classic Movies.