by Joshua Curtis
Daily Lobo
Student Mark Oates said he had to do a lot of promoting to get his company, MarkMusic Production, off the ground.
Now that it's up and running, he no longer has to work at Walgreens. He supports himself by composing scores for movies through the company, he said.
The score is the background music in a movie that builds and fades, he said. A score is different from a soundtrack, which is a series of songs by featured artists, he said.
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"To see a scene without music - it's dry," he said. "The music enhances the scene. If it's sad, it will make it more sad. If it's emotional, it will create a certain kind of intimacy."
Oates is majoring in music composition and has two years left in the program.
He has scored horror, animated and drama films. Some of his work includes scores for the movies "Junk," "Lady Liberty" and a short animated film called "Djinn."
Oates said he uses financial aid money for living expenses and his own money for his business.
Oates said the score is an integral part of the movie. It can give a different feel to the film, he said.
Oates said he can't watch a movie without studying the music.
"I don't even watch the movie," he said. "I listen to the movie. I listen for how the music is placed in the film and what the musical devices are. I also try to catch a little bit of the story, too."
Oates has a studio in his home, which consists of computers, hard drives, monitors and large speakers. He works alone and composes all of his music on his computer.
"Pretty much any instrument is at my disposal," he said. "However, there is a certain intimacy that I can't re-create."
Oates said he uses musicians to capture the intimacy a computer cannot.
There is a trend toward using computers for scoring, he said. Software and hardware costs about $10,000, while a live orchestra would cost that much hourly, he said.
He would prefer to use a live orchestra if he had the resources, he said.
Neighbor Mark Soliz said he is enthusiastic about Oates' work.
"It's cool. All these people - movie producers - coming in and out," Soliz said. "I went down and listened to samples, and it was very professional stuff."
Oates said because California is shipping much of its movie production to the Albuquerque studios, it is a good place to be a composer.
"I want to spend more time writing (and) even less time working on school," he said. "Writing is more important than math homework."
