VAN NUYS, Calif. – When film and television productions shut down, everyone in the entertainment industry from caterers to composers lost their jobs. When composer Darren Fung created the soundtrack for the PBS series Equus, Story of the Horse, he planned to take his orchestra on tour, but unfortunately, the show could not go on.
“It’s really tough in L.A., especially for musicians and musicians who are working in film,” said Fung. “The work is drying up. There’s a few things that are sort of left in that pipeline, but that pipeline is going to dry out soon.”
When Fung couldn’t conduct his work in front of a live audience, he decided to gather a full 60-piece orchestra and record a live version to put on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. But since musicians couldn’t get together in person due to Safer At Home orders, they had to record themselves individually.
“We said, ‘oh, let’s just do it virtually, hahaha.’ And so we did,” recounted Fung. “We ended up, you know, asking some of our friends from across the country and beyond to record themselves with iPhones playing the parts. Again, film music is perfectly set up for this sort of thing.”
The result is an orchestral masterpiece that mixes musicians with scenes from the nature series with Fung conducting in the middle.
Now, after three months of a COVID-19 hiatus, Hollywood is getting ready to get back to work, but this time, under new guidelines. These restrictions are expected to remain in place until a vaccine is developed.
“We’re all hoping that the floodgates will burst open and there will be a lot of work that will come afterward, but we’re waiting for that to come,” said Fung.
When it comes to entertainment, Fung believes studio musicians are better equipped than others to handle the changes. While production designers rely on large crews to build sets and actors have to work together, studio musicians can largely work alone or online.
“Studio musicians, I think, have had to pivot,” said Fung. “The nice thing about film music is that we’re actually already set up quite well to do stuff in isolation. You know, whether you’re syncing with an orchestra or syncing with two or three live players, that’s all the same.”
The California Department of Public Health issued a received health order once again closing movie theaters and it’s unknown when they’ll be allowed to reopen.
“It’s really hard to kind of put in words what music does to your spirit,” explained Fung. “You know, you hear anger, you hear sadness, you hear all the struggles and the challenges. Music just makes life interesting.”