Jeanna Murphy: Blog

Last week my Studio 51 boss sent out an email to see if anyone was interested in writing a theme for the Harpo Productions logo.  It was going to be a really fast turn around basically less than 24 hours.  It was already 5 pm and the project was due to him by noon the next day.  The Logo would run every-time they ran anything affiliated with Harpo Productions and it would debut on Oprah’s Oscar special that runs tonight! 

I of course emailed right back and said I was in!!

I work swing shift at my day job so it killed to wait to start this till I got home.  My brain was buzzing with ideas.  I got up super early that next morning and wrote till noon sending him 3 demos.  I got to cue it to a video of the logo graphics, which I don’t get to do very often and so it was super fun.  Then was the wait….anyone who knows me knows I don’t wait well.  I got to my day job and a couple hours in I get a call from my boss.  He said there had been 50 song submissions, the lady who shall remain nameless herself listened to them and narrowed it down to 10 songs from 8 composers and I was one of them!!

Can you believe it!  The lady herself pushed play to listen to my songs?!  Well, she probably had someone else press play for her but she listened none-the-less!!

As you can probably guess it was very hard to concentrate at work after that.  Harpo needed some quick edits by the morning and some variations of the cue that they liked so I ran home during my break and brought my laptop back with me.  Thank the Lord we were slow that night and I got my edits pretty much done in a couple of hours.  I sent them out that next morning, called my Studio 51 boss and asked if there was anything else they needed and he said no. 

Then I waited for a week…

Monday I called him and asked if he had heard anything and he told me that they had passed on mine.  I was bummed but at least finally knowing was better than waiting.  Went to work and, again, a couple hours into my shift he called me back.  He said “you’re not going to believe this but you’re back in the running”.  Apparently after he talked to me earlier he got the call that Harpo had bumped all of the songs and asked those composers to resubmit.  He said that my name was specifically mentioned!  They had said that I was closest on instrumentation and vibe!  They even said my name right!  I was of course elated.

My boss said that this turn around was even faster.  He needed demos for this round no later than 5:30am my time the next morning…it was already 5pm and I would be at work till 11pm!  I pulled my first all-nighter ever that night.

I got home, took a quick power nap, slung back a double shot espresso drink and started writing.  By 5 or so I had sent my boss 6 demos.  Then the wait again.  I tried to sleep but of course that was easier said then done and so I just spaced out to a bunch of Friends episodes till work because that’s all my brain could handle.

That evening I got the email that another Studio 51 composer from England got the gig but that I should be very proud of myself for how far I got.  And I am!!!

Of course I would have rather gotten it then not but wow was this whole experience fun.  That was the best fried brain experience ever and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!!!

I’m doing it guys!  And I’m getting closer and closer!!