Creating Sound for Video: Creating as a composer and filmmaker

SoundClouder Jonathan Ochmann is a freelance filmmaker and composer from western Germany. Jack of all trades, Jonathan writes screenplays, has directed short films and is a visual effects artist. He also dabbles in composing music for video.

Jonathan uses SoundCloud to showcase his experience in both composing and directing. When he connects with a filmmaker interested in his work, Jonathan also offers help with visual work advice. “That way, I’m pretty much always ending up doing work on both ends and not getting enough sleep.”

Being able to juggle both work as a sound and video creator comes down to finding creators who are even more successful and hardworking as inspiration to improve his work. “I’m always looking for people who work harder than myself, who are smarter and more creative and most importantly more critical of my own work than I could ever be due to the inevitable lack of objective distance I have to it. Obviously it becomes increasingly harder to find these people when you keep pushing yourself and try to work 15 hours every day but when you do it’s really rewarding. Very few things are as much fun as working with people who have similar work ethics but hopefully completely different backgrounds and interests that expand your creative and personal horizons.”

Stumbling across a vast network of creators was Jonathan’s biggest surprise when he signed up for SoundCloud to have a place to store his compositions.

“After I saw that beautiful waveform player on a science blog, I totally judged it by its cover, which led me to sign up with the sole intention of hosting some compositions that I had written, not knowing that there was a whole community of creators and listeners behind that initial appeal of the user interface,” he said. “And it turned out that a lot of filmmakers and game developers were already using SoundCloud to look for new material and I was approached by a number of different people who asked if they could either use my existing music for their work or if I would be interested in composing original music for projects,” Jonathan said.

In light of this, Jonathan points to personal connections that he’s made with people on SoundCloud as the best part of his SoundCloud experience.

“When you live in a digital realm almost 24/7 like I do and are almost exclusively interested in super geeky stuff, it can be a little hard to find people in your physical surroundings to bounce ideas off of, or just have a good chat without boring them to death. And I guess that extension of one’s reach is a quality of the Internet in general, but for me specifically, SoundCloud has provided a platform and an interface to connect with a bunch of really talented people.”

This wraps up our series of hearing from creators who have experimented with video. Have you ever composed or created music for video? Let us know in the comments. We’ll be sharing more stories from the community so stay tuned.