BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!
A composer’s galactic rise to the top
What do Spiderman: Homecoming, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pinky
and the Brain, and Zootopia (among many, many others) have in common? The multi-talented Cameron Patrick. Cameron is a composer, orchestrator and arranger and has worked on numerous Hollywood feature films, TV shows and recordings.
As part of an orchestra, Cameron played the violin for the score of the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, and the viola on Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Trek: Beyond.
As an orchestrator and arranger, Cameron helped bring numerous famous scores to life. To say his contributions to the Hollywood film and television industries have been varied and valuable, would be an understatement. “I particularly enjoyed working on
Star Trek: Into Darkness with composer Michael Giacchino, as I am a long-time ‘Trekkie’,” he recalls when asked which score he enjoyed working on the most.
Cameron has undoubtedly had an incredible journey.
All great journeys start somewhere, however, and Cameron’s started as a
talented young boy from Brisbane, interested in playing the piano and violin.
Some years later, while at the University of Queensland, Cameron pursued film scoring and started dabbling in composition. “Ever since I saw the original Star
Wars film (Star Wars: Episode IV - A
New Hope), I was hooked on film music,” he says when asked how he chose his area of study.
“I marvelled at how I could relive the movie every time I listened to the music.”
After graduation, Cameron applied for the ‘Scoring of Motion Pictures and Television’ course at the celebrated University of Southern California.
“My application was accepted only two weeks before classes started, so I jumped on the plane and the trajectory of my life was changed forever.”
An illustrious career of nearly three decades followed Cameron’s graduation from USC.
While still active in the Hollywood film scoring scene, Cameron took an interest in shaping the orchestrators, arrangers and composers of the future.
For the past five years, Cameron has been involved with the Queensland Music Festival and its Score IT! competition.
“It is one of the things I do that is closest to my heart,” he says when asked about his involvement with the QMF. This state-wide film scoring competition challenges young secondary school composers to create an original composition for a short film produced by Griffith Film School. Cameron will be one of the judges at this year’s event.
“To see the range of entries we get every year — the extraordinary depth of talent, the dramatical and musical maturity displayed by the students — it is nothing short of extraordinary,” he responds.
Cameron recently moved back to Australia and is located in Sydney, where he is the Head of Screen Music at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
I asked Cameron what his advice would be to a young boy just learning to play the violin, or a student pursing film scoring. He urges students to “always keep alive that part of you that got you interested in music in the first place.”
Ever since I saw the original Star Wars film (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope), I was hooked on film music. I marvelled at how I could relive the movie every time I listened to the music.”