Game Changers: How to Prepare and Navigate GDC

WITH

Senior Director of Membership Film, TV, & Visual Media, ASCAP

JENNIFER HARMON

Founder, Defiant Talent Management & Vice President, G.A.N.G.

SABRINA HUTCHINSON

Composers

FINISHING MOVE

Officer, G.A.N.G.

ATSUSHI SUGANUMA

MODERATED BY CHANDLER POLING (Co-Founder of WHITE BEAR PR)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8 12:00-1:00pm (PT) / 2:00-3:00pm (CT) / 3:00-4:00pm (ET)

Game Developers Conference (GDC) has long been the international destination for the video game industry. It’s one of the few moments in time when gaming companies come together to showcase their breakthroughs in video game development, celebrate independent creators, and award the best in-game audio and music with the G.A.N.G. Awards. This seminar will explore how one navigates the conference to make the most of the experience and network with fellow composers, audio directors, and music executives.

Jennifer Harmon is the Senior Director of Membership for Film, TV & Visual Media at ASCAP. She began her career at ASCAP as a member of both the Rhythm & Soul and Film &Television Membership teams, alternately taking calls from chart-topping rap artists and film and TV composers. In her life before ASCAP, she worked in academic research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience and has been published in both fields. Now she applies her analytical background to researching domestic and international royalty issues for ASCAP members. Her passion for educational outreach has led her to co-produce ASCAP’s Television & Film Scoring Workshop and to take the lead with ASCAP’s partnerships with the Game Audio Network Guild and Education Through Music – Los Angeles.

For more than 25 years, Sabrina Hutchinson has been in the business of elevating and supporting musicians and sound creators. In 2021, she founded Defiant Talent Management, an agency representing composers for TV, film, and video games.

Previously, Hutchinson founded and ran Defiant Public Relations, an award-winning entertainment PR firm specializing in sound and music clients.

As an entertainment industry insider and super-connector, she is passionate about delivering great results to clients and helping them strengthen relationships and connect with new audiences.

Hutchinson currently serves as Vice President of the Game Audio Network Guild and has lectured at NYU, UCLA Extension, and Emerson College.

Finishing Move is an award-winning production duo composing music and sound design for games, television, and film. Formed in 2013 by long-time collaborators Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White, Finishing Move is best known for their work on The Callisto Protocol, Borderlands 3, Microsoft FlightSimulator, Crackdown 3, and Halo Wars 2. With a sound best described as a hybrid-electronic score, the duo prides themselves on a cutting-edge sound design that combines synthesis, sampling, and live instrumental performances into unique sonic textures. They won Best Original Instrumental for Halo 2 Anniversary at the 2015 Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards, and were nominated that same year in the following categories: Music of the Year, Best Original Soundtrack Album, Best Original Vocal Song Pop, and Best Audio Mix. In 2017, they were nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for Original Score-VideoGame for their work on Halo Wars 2. The real-time strategy video game also got Trifon and White nominations for Best Interactive Score, Best Cinematic Cutscene Audio, and Best Audio Mix at the G.A.N.G. Awards in 2018. In 2019, they were nominated for The Hollywood Music in Media Awards for Original Score-VideoGame for their work on Borderlands 3, as well as in a total of five categories at the 2020 G.A.N.G.awards including Music of the Year and Best Interactive Score. They also won a Broadcast Production Award for Best Production Music Album that same year. In addition to their multiple game scores, Finishing Move has released artist albums Hypecine (2016), In harmony (2018), and Sleep State (2020). In 2017, they released a signature software instrument called Posthuman for Native Instrument’s Kontakt.

Atushi Suganuma currently serves as Senior Manager, Sound Design at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe/ Playstation Studios in the UK. He previously worked at Square-Enix Japan as Audio Director and then at CD Projekt Red in Poland as Audio Director, 18 years in the game industry with 11 years in the leadership of talented audio professionals in Japan, Europe, and currently in the UK. Recent AAA game credits include the Final Fantasy XIII series, Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Dragon Quest X, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Next-Gen, and more. Recent global recognition and Awards nominations from those game titles are The Game Awards, NAVGTR Awards, Hollywood Music in Media Awards, G.A.N.G Awards, and CEDEC Awards to name a few. Atsushi is an active speaker and a passionate contributor to the Game Audio Community globally, such as Game Audio Network Guild, working alongside industry-leading highly talented professionals to advocate and foster the community globally to further pursue excellence in-game audio. He participated in conferences such as GDC, Audio Engineering Society international conference, IGDA, and CEDEC Japan.

Chandler Poling is a co-founder of White Bear PR, a public relations firm specializing in publicity for composers, songwriters, music supervisors, and film & music festivals around the world.  Throughout his career, Chandler has run successful Oscar, Golden Globe, Grammy, BAFTA, and Emmy campaigns securing nominations and wins for his clients.  His clients have been featured in national and international publications, such as Time magazine, Vanity Fair, New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, LA Times, and Rolling Stone magazine to name just a few. He created the first-ever composer-focused panel at Comic-Con San Diego, the world’s largest pop culture convention.  These panels are now an ongoing tradition – a platform for composers to discuss their craft and meet their fans. In addition to producing and moderating panels, Chandler has been invited to give lectures on PR for composers at Berklee College of Music, Royal College of Music, NYU, USC, and internationally in Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna, Krakow, Cologne, Ghent, and others. In Los Angeles, he is a radio DJ for the independent station Dublab where he hosts a monthly program called Studio Soundtracks featuring conversations with music professionals in the film, television, and video game industries. He is proud to be part of the founding leadership of the Alliance for Women Film Composers and Vice President of Qweerty Gamers, a non-profit LGBTQ video game advocacy organization.

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Wednesday, March 8, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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