Meet Pat Shafer | Director & Composer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pat Shafer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pat, why did you pursue a creative career?
I started making music for film because I was unsatisfied with the music libraries available to me as a filmmaker. I could not afford to hire my own composer, so rather than waiting for the right music, I decided to make it instead. Shortly after, I started making music for other filmmakers who faced the same dilemma but couldn’t solve it themselves. I discovered that my natural ability to pick up almost any instrument translated into telling stories with music, and decided to pursue it in tandem with my career as a filmmaker.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a teenager, I briefly took guitar, piano and vocal lessons, but had to stop to focus on my academics. But making music has always come naturally to me. It’s like a second language, and sometimes the only language I know how to articulate myself in. Like most screenwriters and directors, I always have particular music playing while I come up with new stories, or particular music in mind to compliment the tone of the scene. When coming up with scores, I often write as if I am an actor in the scene. It is my job to respond to what going on in the scene in a way that compliments and transforms the tone. My experience as a director has help me exponentially as a composer, because it allows me to communicate with directors in a language they understand. Rather than technical specs of instruments, they tend to speak in emotions and beats and tone.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Whenever someone is visiting, I like to take them to my favorite bars in my city. I’m a big fan of Idle Hour in North Hollywood. If I want to dance or listen to some live music, I might take them to Zebulon, the first bar I came to when I moved to Los Angeles. I’d probably take them to brunch the next day at one of my favorite breakfast joins, and then hit the Griffith Park hiking trail or Los Feliz flea market.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Robert Burns was the first director I ever made a score for other than myself. He trusted me to score one of his shorts in 2020, before I had even seen a cut. I’ve been working with him ever since, and think we work really well together as creatives.

Website: https://www.patshafer.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justpatshafer/

Image Credits
Image 1 – Headshot, by Brook Lee Karner Image 2 – Still from “Eyes Like Yours” directed by Gabrielle Chapman Image 3 – Still from “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down” directed by Pat Shafer Image 4 – Still from “River” directed by Joshua Hernandez Image 5 – BTS photo on set of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down” taken by Emma Francis