Filmmaker, musician and entrepreneur Scott E. Moore has come a long way since his teenage garage jam sessions. He has released solo albums, toured the nation, worked for MTV and produced gorgeous, ethereal wellness films. He has formed his own multi-service production agency, Wingtip, and now he has composed two hours of music for Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey’s 21-day Meditation Challenge soundtrack.
His diverse skill set has provided more than just a living for himself and his family: He’s also accrued a wealth of unusual life experiences. He’s shot a music video for VH1 on horseback in Cairo, filmed the removal of a kidney in an operating room and viewed microscopic images alongside world-class scientists working to cure Alzheimer’s disease.
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What were you working on before this opportunity with Deepak came up?
I had just started my own agency (Wingtip.net), combining diverse skill sets that I bring to the table that overlap music and film production. So that’s kind of a weird thing, people always go, which one do you do? And I kind of do them both off and on. I started working in broadcast TV as an intern in the late 80s and continued to work for MTV Networks/VH1 for about 20 years. I left my full-time producer/director job in 1995 to go freelance and make time for music pursuits and other film opportunities like music videos. I made my first record in ’95 and made four subsequent records, and spent a lot of the late 90s touring as a modern folks-blues singer-songwriter. During that time I also did freelance TV production jobs and consulting for places like TNT, Turner Classic Movies, VH1, USA Global Japan and others.
Then, I was the creative director at TheVisualMD for five years, a website that provides visual medical information to people who want to better understand health and science.
Tell me more about the VisualMD.
TheVisualMD was renowned for their mind-blowing medical images (like in-utero infant development, for example), so my job was to take their powerful images and then come up with stories and marry it to interviews and storytelling and the music and the sound design.
| “For me, coming from an entertainment background and being a musician, every story I tell has rhythm and dynamics to it.” |
When you have to explain how the body works, or if you want to teach someone about weight loss or Alzheimers, these are things that might intimidate people because nobody wants to feel like they’re having a biology lesson. But you can make something dynamic and compelling using music, sound and the powerful images that TheVisualMD themselves created. For me, coming from an entertainment background and being a musician, every story I tell has rhythm and dynamics to it. I feel like you can viscerally pull someone in with that and you can treat them like smart individuals without going over their head. That’s really what I try to do with anything I’m working on: to teach something without dumbing it down.
So how did you go from creating videos for TheVisualMD to working on Deepak and Oprah’s Meditation Challenge?
Deepak was one of our colleagues on a project on the physiological science of emotional bonding between mother and infant. An old colleague who was working with Deepak on this meditation challenge told me they wanted to raise it up a couple of notches. Even though a lot of people participated, the product wasn’t at the quality level they felt it should be, so they had an existing producer and they just brought me in to compose music. I worked with Rich Tozzoli; he and I do a lot of film composition work together.
So the person who handles the Chopra Center Digital Properties was in a crisis. And I just so happened to have just started my agency, and this project would be right up my alley. Ironically, I had started playing atmospheric, soul music live in a yoga studio, which would sell out every month. I played Deepak some of that music, and that’s when it all kind of came full circle and I got the opportunity to do this project.
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How long did it take to complete the project?
We did two hours of original music in about five weeks, which is a really big endeavor. We brought in musicians from around the East Coast who could bring different things to the table. Because technology allows us to work in a variety of studios, [for] our first recording/composing session we did a four-day retreat at a lodge on a lake that I had access to, a recording studio. We wanted to put ourselves in a peaceful, open place if we were going to create music that would help people achieve that very feeling. So that was cool. And it got a little bit more intense as we approached deadlines, but it was just fun, you know? It was like scoring a film without the pictures.
What was the role of Deepak and Oprah in this process?
[The team] had a script that Deepak would read, and a list of emotionally charged words that were the outcomes, [depending on] what emotional states they wanted listeners to focus on. Sometimes it was confidence, sometimes it was adventure and sometimes it was peace.
The structure of the project was that Oprah would recite an intro, and then Deepak would do this kind of mantra — usually something about focusing on being your best self and how you are connected to his earth. I didn’t work directly with Oprah on this project, so I couldn’t tell you if she’s nice or not — she’s definitely a professional!
The whole thing was very rewarding and very similar to film score work because you just have to close your eyes and picture what Deepak was talking about.
| “A five-minute film, if you’re smart and doing your work right, can go by really fast and leave somebody with a really enriching experience that inspires them or teaches them things they didn’t know before.” |
As you made this beautiful music, what did you hope listeners would get out of it?
What we were trying to do was allow someone to… take a journey. I try to do that with my film work, too, and make sure it’s focused on the editing. A five-minute film, if you’re smart and doing your work right, can go by really fast and leave somebody with a really enriching experience that either inspires them or teaches them things that they didn’t know before, or takes them somewhere where they haven’t been, and that’s what keeps me going.
So what’s next on your agenda?
My own agency and a colleague of mine, Eric Feldman, we’re creating a passion project. Imagine an hour-long documentary on a fascinating individual [that’s] only five minutes long. That individual is someone you know who you feel the world should know. The subject of one documentary is our friend Ray Levier, an amazing musician who found his passion for drums after surviving a serious fire [during] his childhood.
These videos aren’t released yet, but at the end of the year we are going to launch our site with five profiles and a profile about the project. Some of the characters are quirky and some have a lot of talent and some are just these beautiful human beings. [Eric and I] thought if we were going to make something for ourselves to showcase what we’re capable of, tell stories we’re passionate about and try to do some good in this world, this would be it.
A Sneak Peek of Scott E. Moore’s Passion Project:
I got an insider look at one of the pilot segments for Scott’s “It’s Who You Know” project. After viewing this piece on Ray Levier, it’s clear that the intimacy of the set (it’s just Scott and Eric behind the scenes) generates an emotional honesty that you wouldn’t get when employing a full film crew. The visual template is clean and simple. The mix of music and well-placed silence mirrors the nuances of Ray’s emotional story. But I don’t want to give too much away — this piece, along with four or five other films, will be released in early 2014.
Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.
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