After a successful inaugural year, ASCAP composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek's Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival returned to Poland for its second installment. Aimed toward educating aspiring film composers, the festival featured classes, concerts, seminars and screenings among other events to inspire those in attendance to pursue their passions. Festival attendee Pawel Jeleniewski – a Polish pianist and dedicated composition student – shared his thoughts after attending this year's Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival:
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I have just returned home from Transatlantyk Film And Music Festival in Poznań, Poland a few days ago. I attended Transatlantyk master classes - a series of lectures by film music industry fames such as Mark Isham, Rolfe Kent, Peter Golub and Richard Bellis. It was the second event and, for me, the most valuable element of the entire festival.
Richard Bellis is an American, Emmy Award-winning composer, as well as a member of the ASCAP Board of Directors. You could easily say that he "stole the show" at the 2012 master classes (similar to the previous year's George S. Clinton). He had a total of three excellently prepared and professionally executed lectures. His were the most interesting of them all, the first being about the importance and justification of composer's work for film, the second about the financial aspects of film scoring, and the last about methods of composing for picture.
While some information from this year's master classes overlapped with things said the previous year (which is understandable, as people are allowed to ask questions and not all of them attended last year), this year's lecturers talked more about the business of film scoring – the common prices for studio rentals, fees for orchestrators, copyright, etc. – which was a very good program choice.
Overall, I learned an awful lot during these few days.
Find out more about the Transatlantyk Festival at http://transatlantyk.org/en.