"Hello, my name is Robert ToTeras and I’m a film composer in Los Angeles."

I can’t tell you how many times a day I write that exact sentence. Of course there’s always room for variation:

"Hey, my name is…"

This one is a little bit like snapping your fingers for a waitress. "Hey" just never sounds very nice.

"Hi, my name is…"

The makes me sound too perky, like a playboy playmate.

The strange thing about being a film composer is that I spend only 50 percent of my time involved with music in any way. The rest of the time I spend hustling. I’m talking straight-up, Mack Daddy, 1970s, corner drug dealer-type hustling. As an indie film composer your job is essentially to make your living appear out of thin air. The main components of my business are not my collection of guitars, exotic stringed instruments, my three powerful and buzzing Macs or even my fancy private sample libraries.

The most important things in my business are the Internet, an e-mail list of old clients, a list of potential new clients, a website, envelopes and stamps. By the way, getting an agent or manager doesn’t change anything. This year I finally picked up some representation, but I seem to be hustling more than ever.

"Hey remember me?"

I’ve always found it easy to speak to people in person, but when it comes to e-mail I’m very shy. I never know what to write in the follow-up e-mail.

"Hey Steven, it’s Robert ToTeras, we met at Marty’s house on Saturday and you said you needed a composer for your film."

The problem is that Steven met 250 other people at Marty’s house on Saturday and 150 more people at Jack’s house on Sunday. How are they supposed to remember who you are? Maybe you could distinguish yourself by showing them your belly button or giving them a kiss on the lips?

Several years ago a TV producer asked me what I did before I came to LA, and I told him I had worked as a professional blackjack gambler. I have a few exciting stories but mostly this job involved sitting on my ass all day in the high roller pit of the MGM Grand. I would pretend I was a rich, arrogant music producer while the woman pretending to be my girlfriend would count cards and tell me when to lay down the big money. I once stuffed over $200,000 in cash into a pair of Sean Jean cargo jeans. I guess that’s kinda cool. However, it wasn’t my money, it was my employer’s money. Other than eating for free at some amazing restaurants (try Tom Colicchio’s ‘Craftsteak’ at the MGM), and meeting some really smart and interesting people, I actually found the job itself to be a little dull.

The producer was fascinated and couldn’t stop asking about it even when I told him there wasn’t much to tell. Afterward he said, "You should tell everyone you ever meet about your past and they’ll never forget who you are." He was right. Suddenly a strange part time job that a college friend drafted me into turned into a compelling narrative. I really love Los Angeles, don’t you?

"In case you didn’t get my previous e-mails…"

There’s always another e-mail to write, or answer. There are follow-up e-mails and most importantly, there’s the one I like to call "the Nudge." That’s the follow-up to the follow-up. When you’ve gotten little or no response to the follow-up, that’s when you employ "the Nudge." The first rule of "The Nudge" is that it must be brief. We’re getting into harassment territory so we at least don’t want to take up too much of their time. The second rule of "The Nudge" is that it must some newly minted professional detail that has not been mentioned before:

"Hey, just wanted to let you know I recently finished the score for The Fat Butterfly’s Skinny Wife. You can check some of the music on my website."

"Do you know if they still need anybody… Where are they getting their music from?"

My morning usually starts on the Internet with Mandy.com, IMDB Pro, Film Music Magazine, ProductionHub or Variety. I am leaving out dozens of others. It’s surprising how many directors and producers look for composers this way. I’ve gotten legitimate, well paying jobs through Internet classifieds. Another way to find work is looking at IMDB Pro to see what films are posting and then focus on productions that probably won’t be able to afford top or even middle tier composers.

A very good friend of mine has gotten a lot of work this way. First he’ll send a demo to the production office, then call a week later to follow up. Warning: this is a very cold call. The production is usually not even thinking about music at this point. But sometimes this can actually work to your advantage. If they like your music, you’ve now just alleviated the huge pending headache of finding a composer. In the Wild West of indie film composing, anything’s worth a shot.

"Do you have anything that sounds like…?"

Demos are a huge part of my day: There are more than 50 production music houses in Los Angeles that contract with freelance composers. Do they need your action demo or your Indie comedy demo?How about your"Contemporary Retro Lounge" demo, or your "Epic Hero Orchestral Melancholic Action" demo? The glorious problem with being a working composer is that you’re always creating new music. That new music (if it’s halfway decent) needs to be highlighted in new demos. It should also be up on your website by the way. Demos get old rather quickly if you’re a composer. In the last 10 weeks I’ve sent out 5 action music demos, 3 temp demos for editors, 3 romantic comedy demos, 3 ghost writing demos, 2 trailer demos and 2 video game demos.

A few times a week I’ll get an e-mail from my manager saying, "Do you have anything that would sound good in a Detrol (or Tylenol, or Baseball, or Volkswagen, etc.) commercial?"

The answer is usually no. So now all other work stops, because commercials pay really well but have to be done very quickly. So I’ll download video from the ad agency and write something completely new. This new music is then synched with the video, compressed and uploaded to my server where it can retrieved, accepted or rejected by the music team at the ad agency.

If it’s accepted, you have a nice pile of money to make you forget that you just spent 3 hours writing music to underscore two women talking about their mutual bowel constipation. If it is rejected, you essentially have… some pleasant constipation music.

All said, I love being a film composer. I work from home, I’m never in LA traffic and I make strange and loud noises for money. What more could you ask for? I actually love the hustle as well. Because I love what I do, I love talking to people about what I do. I think that’s what makes the whole thing easy to stomach. And if it’s ever a problem, I just fire up some pleasant constipation music and I’m well on the road to feeling regular again.

Robert ToTeras is a film composer in Los Angeles. Robert recently scored the suspense feature "Forgotten Pills" starring Larry Bishop (Kill Bill) and is currently scoring the documentary World's Largest. Robert's music has also been featured on the CBS show The Unit and in the comedy feature Kabluey starring Lisa Kudrow. You can hear Robert's work at www.film-noise.com.