The Real Deal

Pioneering Reality TV Composer Shawn Clement Branches Out

Shawn Clement

In his relatively short career, composer Shawn Clement's trajectory has been fueled by undeniable talent, striking musicality and pure instincts. His dark orchestral sensibilities have created the picture-perfect underscore for over 120 feature film and television projects. A virtual chameleon, navigating between the worlds of television, film and video games, Clement has established a reputation for rock-solid quality on all of his projects by always creating his score directly to picture. This approach has helped define the cinematic qualities of his work.

Clement's music has permeated broadcast television over the past five years on such top-rated network reality shows as World's Wildest Police Videos, World's Scariest Police Chases (1-9), Surviving The Moment of Impact (2-4), Stupid Behavior: Caught on Tape and When Good Pets Go Bad 1 & 2 (all for Fox Television); plus The World's Most Amazing Videos (NBC), The World's Most...a series for Discovery Communications, and on ABC - TV Guide's Greatest Moments 2003, The World's Scariest Ghosts and Are You Hot?

Shawn was the hot composer in the emerging reality television market before anyone realized that "Reality" was hot and he is now credited with establishing the definitive dramatic musical style of the reality genre. Recognizing his success, ASCAP presented Clement with the a film and television award for Most Performed Underscore in 2000.

Although Clement dominates this notable niche, it's simply one facet to a multidimensional composer. He has scored We Married Margo, an independent feature that debuted at the 2000 Slamdance Film Festival in Utah and won the Audience Favorite Award at the HBO/U.S. Comedy & Arts Festival in Aspen. With a cast that includes Kevin Bacon, Cindy Crawford and Tom Arnold, the comedy, directed by J.D. Shapiro, contains music that Clement describes as "every style known to man, including Latin, Jazz, cartoon, circus and orchestral textures." Last Chance, a film with Tracey Walter and Tim Thomerson, won Best Original Drama at its festival debut in April, 2000 in Houston, Texas at the World Fest. It is also winning at film festivals worldwide, including London, Germany, Korea and Los Angeles.

Clement's credits include the acclaimed network series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, (1997-98). He has composed for feature films, such as: A Rock and a Hard Place (Showtime), A Fate Totally Worse Than Death, starring Christopher Lloyd and Jonathan Brandis, and One Way Out (Arrow Entertainment), starring Michael Ironside. Clement's music has also been heard on such television show as Entertainment Tonight, Extra Magazine, The Guiding Light, Ally McBeal, Donny and Marie, Married...with Children, Another World, Wasteland, As the World Turns, Crime and Punishment, Ray Bradbury Theatre, The Heights and California Dreams.

In addition to scoring, Clement is one of the few composers who is also an accomplished songwriter. While composing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer he also created songs that have reached cult status, as evidenced by the overwhelming response from the show's aficionados on the Buffy websites.

A mastery of musical gear has won Clement endorsements from Yamaha, Cakewalk, Music Software, Seymour Duncan, Dean Markley Strings, Rocktron, Lexicon, EMU, Frontier Design and Peavey, just to name a few.

Clement's sensibilities as a live player are one key to his artistry. "I take my first impulse and make it work," he says. "I grew up playing in bands, so I have that whole psychology of being able to play all night in different styles."

Conversely, his appreciation of the masters of film composition -- including Korngold and Herrmann -- inspire his classic sense of drama. "Experience is my best teacher and I've learned that music can't get in the way of what's going on -- music is another actor in the film; it creates an alternative form of dialogue to reinforce the visuals."

With this philosophy in mind, Clement is currently developing music for the experimental feature film, Low, in collaboration with writer/director, Jamaal Fort. "Low is a fantastic project for creative exploration," says Clement. "The score, thus far, is a synthesis of classical and contemporary styles, augmented with tribal instruments."

Constantly on the lookout for a new challenge, Clement has entered the world of multimedia, creating scores for video games such as Disney's Donald Duck: Going Quackers, Warner Brothers' Batman: Vengeance, which earned him a 2002 AIAS Award Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, and its sequel Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, which earned him a 2004 G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild) Award Nomination.

For now, exploding into the world of features and dramatic television and with an enviable lock on the world of reality television, Clement remains the composer of choice for a host of feature and television producers. Some of the most recent additions to Clement's resume are the last season of Comedy Central's, The Man Show and I'm Still Alive for UPN.

Additional projects include the Sims 2 video game by Electronic Arts, to be released later this year, season 2 of the Fox reality series Totally Outrageous Behavior, to be released this fall and the IMAX animated feature 2004: A Light Knight's Odyssey, starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Slater, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anne Archer, Michael York and James Earl Jones.