{"id":5645,"date":"2011-07-27T13:22:15","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T17:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/?p=5645"},"modified":"2011-07-27T13:22:15","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T17:22:15","slug":"shawn-clement-on-a-quantum-quest-with-intense-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2011\/07\/27\/shawn-clement-on-a-quantum-quest-with-intense-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Shawn Clement: On A [Quantum] Quest with Intense Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/header.jpg\"><\/a>Award winning SONAR user &#8211; composer\/producer Shawn Clement is at an exciting point in his \u201cintense\u201d career:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>His credentials and track record have allowed him to open an office\/SONAR studio at the heart of Paramount Pictures.<\/li>\n<li>He just had a major successful event at The Kennedy Center in DC where his music was\u00a0premiered during \u201cA Tribute to the Wounded Warriors.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>On July 29<sup>th<\/sup> he will be hosting a score party at Paramount Pictures for his original music in \u201cQuantum Quest, A Cassini Space Odyssey 3D.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/header.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5651\" title=\"header\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/header-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" \/><\/a>Little did he know, when in 1996 Shawn Clement took on a \u201cgig,\u201d that he would be stapling a movement to the universe\u2019s musical bulletin-board.\u00a0 \u201cReality TV &#8211; what\u2019s that? Who\u2019s going to take interest in that?\u201d These were some of the questions flying around the conference rooms of major television networks back then.\u00a0 Well it just so happens that still to this day 95% of us get sucked into the inevitable antics of <em>The World\u2019s Wildest\u2026 The World\u2019s Scariest\u2026\u00a0 The World\u2019s Most\u2026 <\/em>You know, those shows that catch your eye when you\u2019re flicking through the channels and catch a quick glimpse of a Corvette being severed in half by a semi-truck; and there it is \u2013 wham \u2013 a half hour later and you have neither moved from that channel, nor your seat for that matter.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5664\" title=\"Shawn Clement at Desk\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Shawn-at-board-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" \/>Well it just so happens that SONAR user Shawn Clement was (and still to this day is) the music behind one of the biggest Reality TV franchises with titles including <em>World&#8217;s Wildest Police Videos<\/em>, <em>World&#8217;s Scariest Police Chases<\/em>, <em>Avoiding The Moment of Impact <\/em>(2&amp;3) and <em>When Good Pets Go Bad 1 &amp; 2 <\/em>(Fox Television); plus <em>The World&#8217;s Most Amazing Videos<\/em> (NBC), <em>The World&#8217;s Most<\/em>&#8230; (series for Discovery Communications), and the <em>World&#8217;s Scariest Ghosts<\/em>, hosted by James Coburn on ABC.\u00a0 In the huge volume of music written for these shows all in SONAR, Clement sparked a new musical genre that for years now, has dominated primetime viewing. ASCAP presented Clement with a most impressive award \u2013 the prestigious \u201c<em>ASCAP 2000 Film and Television Award<\/em>\u201d for <em>Most Performed Underscore<\/em>, recognizing this accomplishment.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong><em>CW AR:<\/em><\/strong><em> Combining the decline of recorded music sales with the ease of making great sounding music in home project studios with DAW\u2019s such as SONAR X1, many people are getting into the \u201ccomposing\u201d field. What brief yet specific advice can you give for aspiring young composers that are looking into this field of work?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><strong><em>SC:<\/em><\/strong><em> I would say be prepared to work extremely hard and be able to wear a lot of hats.\u00a0 You\u2019re a composer, producer, performer, and engineer\u2026 all of it.\u00a0 Also, it\u2019s very important to be a team player.\u00a0 \u201cMany\u201d people create a film or TV show [together] \u2013 not just one person.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5666\" title=\"Clement Skywalker 1\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/clem-skywalker-4-300x160.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/>Although a very important and relative element to Clement\u2019s business, Reality TV is just one facet to his 10,000-foot view in the music industry.\u00a0 His diversity and knack for writing, producing and composing hair-raising intense music has brought him into a full spectrum of genres in film, television and video games.\u00a0 It\u2019s also led him into some very unique projects that are off the beaten path from the normal role of a composer.\u00a0 This can be exemplified by his recent participation scoring the music for \u201cA Tribute to the Wounded Warriors\u201d which was presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Clement was singled out as the composer\/producer who could effectively arrange the music for this show.\u00a0 The star-studded event was a \u201cspectacle of Patriotism and emotion supercharged with the intense sounds of Shawn\u2019s music,\u201d said Cakewalk\u2019s Steve Thomas who attended the event.\u00a0 Jon Anderson, vocal soloist and lead singer for the band <em>Yes<\/em>, was one of the performers for the event who was joined by Ulysses James, David Sheets and Choral Director Carol Connors to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong><em>CW AR:<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0 How did you get yourself in the space to create music for this show and what was the technical process for pulling it all together?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><strong><em>SC: <\/em><\/strong><em>With any project, you first have to understand the film.\u00a0 Meaning, really know the story, characters and what role the score is going to play. Every production has its specific needs. Say for instance when I created the Wounded Warrior\u2019s Hymn, this was a live performance, so what I needed to do was realize a \u201cmock-up\u201d version of the music so that others could hear where I was going with it.\u00a0 For example, I would send my \u201cdemo\u201d off to Jon Anderson so that he could put together what he was singing on it.\u00a0 Keep in mind that the \u201cdemo\u201d needed to sound as much like the real thing as possible so that anyone involved could really believe in it.\u00a0 Beyond that, all the tracks in SONAR would then get broken down and sent out to my orchestrator so that it could finally be realized in written music form for the orchestra to play. We had 106 players with a 247 piece choir, and Jon Anderson singing on 2 of the movements.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Paramount-1s.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5671\" title=\"Clement Paramount 2\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Paramount-1s-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a>With being around film and TV for a good part of his career, it only makes sense that Clement has ended up somewhere epic; somewhere that rivals his musical ability and gives him the opportunity to \u201croll\u201d with the movers and shakers that make the entertainment industry revolve and evolve.\u00a0 That very spot is Paramount Pictures in Hollywood CA.\u00a0 Last month Clement started moving some of his gear from his SONAR studio north of California to the heart of Paramount Pictures where he will align his talents and ideas with some of the biggest names in the industry. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for me and I am psyched to be here,\u201d Clement told Cakewalk AR on a recent trip to Paramount Pictures.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the best of all worlds for me, I am still keeping my SONAR studio [ranch] in the hills north of LA, but I will also be using this 2<sup>nd<\/sup> room to meet with producers, showcase my work, and create and record all kinds of ideas when they hit me.\u201d\u00a0 Clement\u2019s current studio setup includes a V-Studio 700 along with SONAR X1b where he uses the DAW to sometimes record and produce over 150 tracks a session.\u00a0 Shawn told us, \u201cI\u2019ve stayed with SONAR over the years because it\u2019s rock solid and it has everything I need at my fingertips &#8211; it can be as simple or as complex as I need it to be.\u00a0 My world is fast, and the editing features alone on SONAR X1 save us a ton of time and allow us to focus on creating music, not fighting it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>CW AR:<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0 What are a few specific features in SONAR that you utilize the most and how do they apply to your work?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>SC:<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0 There are so many!!\u00a0 The main thing for me is the intuitiveness of the program.\u00a0 Nothing is<br \/>\nworse than when you have all these creative ideas flowing and then you get hung up dealing with a DAW that you can\u2019t figure out.\u00a0 With SONAR it\u2019s very transparent, and things just get done as they get worked on; having said that, SONAR still has all the bells and whistles that you need.\u00a0 I love using the built-in Synths, as well as all the effects that come with it. \u00a0I also really love the transient shaper, the Skylight View, and also being able to freeze audio and then edit that frozen audio, very cool and useful stuff!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5674\" title=\"Clement Skywalker 3\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/clem-skywalker-300x164.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" \/>With credits on television shows such as <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Entertainment Tonight, Extra Magazine<\/em>, <em>The Guiding Light, Ally McBeal, Donny and Marie, Married&#8230; With Children, Another World, The Maury Show, Wasteland, As the World Turns, Crime &amp; Punishment, and American Idol <\/em>[and that\u2019s just to name a few], one would think Shawn Clement was just a one-trick-pony for mainstream television, but in fact it\u2019s just the opposite.\u00a0 Proof of this notion can currently be heard in IMAX theaters all over the United States where once again Clement was soloed-out as \u201cTHE guy\u201d who can pull off the music for one of the grandest projects in a decade: <em>Quantum Quest, A Cassini Space Odyssey 3D.\u00a0 <\/em>For this project, a project so intense and heartfelt, Clement actually recorded his score with an 80+-piece ensemble of the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra at the Skywalker Scoring Stage north of San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>CW AR:<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0 What was the process creating and recording the music for Quantum Quest?\u00a0 Did you score all the music in SONAR by yourself at your studio and then literally translate it into sheet music?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>SC:<\/em><\/strong><em> Quantum Quest was a much layered project.\u00a0 I wrote everything in SONAR and recorded a lot of specialty tracks, such as Guitars, Theremin, Bowed Vibes, Waterphone and many synth tracks.\u00a0 At that point I pulled out the tracks that were going to be played by the live orchestra. \u00a0We had about 80 live players, so those tracks were all orchestrated out for the orchestra to play. \u00a0I recorded up at Skywalker Ranch, which was amazing.\u00a0 What we ended up with was tons of pre-recorded tracks that were done at my studio in SONAR along with the live players.\u00a0 In some instances we would have 90 tracks of pre-records from SONAR along with 80 live players; pretty thick! <\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5676\" title=\"Clement Skywalker 4\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/clem-skywalker-2-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" \/>The premise of<em> Quantum Quest, A Cassini Odyssey <\/em>is based on education and the solar system.\u00a0 The uniqueness of the film lies in the fact that it was initiated by NASA, uses actual content from ongoing NASA missions to mesmerize its viewers with stunning 3D visuals, yet it\u2019s based around educating theater-goers on our Solar System by infusing content from 7 different actual space missions.\u00a0 The film was co-created and co-directed by Dr. Kloor, a nationally acclaimed scientist with other credits including &#8220;Star Trek: Voyager and Earth: Final Conflict.&#8221; \u00a0Dr. Kloor has been on record stating, &#8220;I am delighted that my friend and colleague Shawn Clement has decided to add his brilliant and thoroughly original musical talents to our space adventure. I know his musical contribution will help &#8216;Quantum Quest\u2019 fly high.\u201d\u00a0 Clement is just as grateful for the opportunity to work on the film. &#8220;This was one of the more rewarding gigs in which I&#8217;ve ever participated,&#8221; he told us. &#8220;It&#8217;s probably one of the proudest scores I&#8217;ve ever done that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 I would constantly get gratitude from sections of the orchestra. \u00a0For example I would hear, &#8216;Thank you for those parts,&#8217; and, &#8216;I never get to play this way.\u2019\u00a0 You just don\u2019t hear that too often from players and I appreciated it very much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5681\" title=\"Jason Alexander\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/quantum-VO-300x160.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/>Another unique (and exciting) aspect of the film involves the characters voice-overs.\u00a0 A meticulous cast was assembled and includes some weighty names such as Amanda Pete, Samuel L. Jackson, William Shatner, Jason Alexander and James Earl Jones to name a few.\u00a0 The creators even went an extra step and included Neil Armstrong in the cast for an adrenalin shot of authenticity.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>CW AR:<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0 What was the process of the meetings with the film creators before you started making the music?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>SC:<\/strong>\u00a0 Basically, we spotted the film. There were 2 directors on this project.\u00a0 We did our first spot up at Skywalker along with the sound-design team because sound-design was also playing a very big role in the film &#8211; and I was also overseeing all of the audio post aside from scoring the film.\u00a0 So, we would go through scene by scene discussing what types of sounds and music would work with what sequences in the film, and also how sound-design and music would work with each other.\u00a0 The second spotting session was at my studio and focused just on music.\u00a0 At that point there was a temporary score that was laid in by the editor as a guide.\u00a0 All and all I pretty much ignored the temp and the directors let me run with it.\u00a0 We did talk about specific elements that needed to happen in certain scenes to accentuate the drama, characters, story line\u2026if there were specific things that needed to be sung, where songs would go and all that sort of stuff. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5678\" title=\"Clement Skywalker 5\" src=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/clem-skywalker-3-300x163.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" \/>For a guy with a very admirable personality who has over 25,000 pieces of music under his belt, one would think Shawn Clement may be ready to entertain an early retirement, but it\u2019s actually just the opposite.\u00a0 \u201cI feel like I am just getting started actually.\u00a0 This move to Paramount Pictures has inspired me to dig even deeper into my musical vocabulary and I am fired up to take on new and interesting projects.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I could live without making music even if I wasn\u2019t here; I\u2019d be making it somewhere&#8230;\u201d Shawn told us with a good smile at the end of our conversation.<\/p>\n<p>This\u00a0week, Shawn and his team will be hosting the Original Motion Picture Score Release Party for <em>Quantum Quest, A Cassini Odyssey,<\/em> at Paramount Pictures.\u00a0 We congratulate him and his team on such a great level of success with this project, and we are honored that another great musical composition such as this one was created in SONAR; and of course we wish Shawn all the best, on and off the musical playing field.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">More Information:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.clemistry.com\" target=\"_blank\">Shawn K. Clement\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cakewalk.com\/sonar\" target=\"_blank\">SONAR X1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/products\/productdetails.php?ProductId=1098&amp;ParentId=436\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0V-Studio 700<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cakewalk.com\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Cakewalk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Award winning SONAR user &#8211; composer\/producer Shawn Clement is at an exciting point in his \u201cintense\u201d career:\u00a0 His credentials and track record have allowed him to open an office\/SONAR studio at the heart of Paramount Pictures. He just had a major successful event at The Kennedy Center in DC where his music was\u00a0premiered during \u201cA &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2011\/07\/27\/shawn-clement-on-a-quantum-quest-with-intense-music\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Shawn Clement: On A [Quantum] Quest with Intense Music&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,855,808,990,49,1,193],"tags":[141,1477,1478,1479,1480,122,883,290,1481,35,1440,1482,1309],"class_list":["post-5645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artist-news","category-awards","category-cakewalk-pro-user-spotlight","category-industry-news","category-sonar","category-uncategorized","category-v-studio-700","tag-composer","tag-jason-alexandar","tag-jimmy-r-landry","tag-music-for-american-idol","tag-paramount-pictures","tag-producer","tag-quantum-quest","tag-shawn-clement","tag-skywalker-studio","tag-sonar","tag-sonar-x1","tag-the-worlds-most","tag-v-studio-700"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}