Film Scoring
and Related Disciplines
Film Scoring Portfolio
Yosemite Suite
I Love to score to picture. In particular, picture with a compelling story. In May of (2023), my wife and I visited Yosemite in celebration of our Anniversary. Before leaving home, Bonita asked me if I was bringing our camera? I hesitated, then replied, “I guess so”.
The camera that we’ve owned for a couple years is a Sony A7RIII, and I had never really taken it out of the house before. I mean, why take an expensive camera to schlepp around dirt trails, doesn’t my iPhone take good pictures? The decision to take the camera would eventually lead to some breath-taking video of spectacular waterfalls, overflowing from the record rainfalls from the previous winter. I don’t claim to be an expert photographer, but it’s pretty hard to take a bad picture in Yosemite.
So, I edited the footage that we brought back, and was so inspired by it, that I composed a suite comprised of four movements titled, ” The Falls, The Trees, The River, and The Rocks”. I think it’s some of my best orchestral work and hope you enjoy the video.
Coming 2026?
Like many underfunded animated films, Harvest is currently stuck in pre-production. Based on a short story by the late Joan T. Zeier (my Mom), and expanded as a screenplay by Jeremiah Zeier (my nephew), is a classic tale from a distant land of the past.
Fortunately, because animation requires the music, FX and voiceovers to be created first, we actually have a video storyboard to share. Due to my impatiance, I’m posting it here for public viewing, and hope you enjoy it. I think it aptly demonstrates another side of my composing chops.
Spitfire Audio Albion Colossus Trailer Score 2025
I always get sucked into these contests, thinking this time I’m gonna win it. All said and done, there’s no entrance fee and it’s always a fun challenge. This one was particularly interesting because we got to create the entire soundtrack from whatever elements were at our disposal.
I threw a lot of ingredients into the mix and even played some guitar. In the end, I wound up with a consolation prize of another video for my composer page.
Score the World - Film Scoring Competition 2023
This was my entry in the 2023 Score the World Film Scoring Competition. The challenge was to score a sequence of excerpts from the 1939 classic film “The Little Princess” starring Shirley Temple. I chose to keep the music totally orchestral to match the period and also kept it playful to compliment Shirley’s character. I also mixed the music at a soft level to ensure not stepping on any dialogue.
Apart from not capuring a prize, it was still an enjoyable experience and I always learn something new. The judges critique included that I used too many stops and starts in the music. In my defense, I just scored what they gave me. After viewing the winning entries, it was clear that the judges favored the big ornate orchestrations, especially in the “romantic scene”. To be fair, it was common practice in the 1930’s to overplay romantic scenes with lushly embellished arrangements, but my modern scoring sensibility would not allow me to go there.
In my opinion, none of the winning entries played to the action as well as my score in the last scene where she’s escaping from the police. I really think they could have benefited from a few stops and starts. Enjoy.
Foley The World Contest - 2nd Place Winner for 2022
Anyone who knows me well, knows I’m a sucker for contests that require skill and have cool prizes. The Foley the World contest proved to be a worthy challenge and I walked away with a bunch of Sound FX libraries to add to my existing arsenal.
The assignment was to create the soundtrack for the provided video of about 2 minutes. Most, if not all of the clips are from the pre-sound days of cinema. The video contains a header and a trailer, which I chose to use a modern sound design approach, and the rest is from an assortment of library sound FX clips. Some of the scenes contain 15 to 20 audio clips that are edited and have added effects. The talking voices were done by me, pitched up for the “ice wagon kid”. It was definitely a lot of fun and I walked away with 2nd place.
DC's Stargirl
The video clip was provided along with dialogue and sound FX as part of Spitfire Audio’s 2021 scoring competition. With over 4000 entries, winning the prize, which would have been cool, was not my sole objective. It was a great opportunity to score a network series Superhero action sequence. My version may be a bit heavy-handed and “over-the-top”, compared to Pinar Toprak’s original score, but I wanted to have some fun with it.
My personal highlight from the Stargirl reel is the short theme that breaks out when she lifts her scepter to save the school bus full of kids. What I love about scoring is how it inspires music that would never have been written apart from the film. I further developed that theme and used it for the 20-second credit roll at the end of the video.
Film clips and Commercials with RZ Music
Paradise (selected scenes) Lamplight Entertainment
Directed by Jonathan Flora
These are just working clips from the film, before the final mix, but it demonstrates the score pretty well for my purposes.
Jonathan is a brilliant director and provided a playground of opportunities for mixing diverse music with sound design. The film went on to win 1st prize at an LA Film Festival.
Cutting Corners (selected scenes) An Excellent Journey Production
Directed by James Choiniere
An unmixed ruff cut for music demonstration purposes. This was an emotional film which always inspires good music. Both of these scenes demonstrate transitions that I think work well. The first scene is notable for how it starts with light party/lounge music that transitions into something much darker as the scene develops.
Trailer Music
From Wes Craven Dracula 2000
This was a short trailer that needed a minute of suspensful piano music before Rob Zombie comes blasting in. I would have liked to have added a few orchrstral elements but was under pretty tight direction to keep it simple. It paid well compared to most of my scoring gigs. No complaints.
RZ Commercial Reel
This is a series of mockup commercials made for commercial pitches. We created all of the audio using music from my existing library and recorded voiceovers by Bonita and myself. The video is from existing commercials.
Have a Nice Armageddon
This video was made using mostly stock footage with the exception of my brief cameo appearance as the Antichrist. The original objective was to write some dark scary music, and it’s always easier to write certain genres with some visual stimulation, so voila, here’s the result. By the way, this story is totally fiction. Any similarity to the real Antichrist or the actual Armageddon about to take place on the Earth is purely coincidental.