About
The Full Story
Joseph Reitz is a US based composer who has composed music for multiple award-winning shorts and feature films produced out of LA and Toronto. Joseph is known for having a versatile writing style, composing music for a wide variety of genres and styles.
"Music has been a part of me since I was a young boy."
Joseph discovered his passion for music when he was in the seventh grade. More specifically, his love for film music.
"I remember hearing the score to 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and really loving the sound. I noticed quickly the reoccurring themes throughout the film and how they were used to tell the story."
Joseph began collecting soundtracks not too long after, starting with 'Dead Man's Chest'. Soon after, he began writing his own scores.
"I wrote my own Pirates music to whatever story I created in my head. I used Hans's themes and also created some of my own. It wasn't perfect. For example, I wrote the main theme in 3/4 instead of the correct time signature of 6/8. I also started the tune on beat one instead of as a pickup. But this little process of trial-and-error sort of helped me understand how music speaks with each other and moves around the score. A few years later, I began writing my own tunes. However, it was all on paper. I never heard what the final product was until my parents purchased me Sibelius in High School. Sibelius was the coolest thing in the world."
It was around this time Joseph began considering doing this as a full-time job.
"I began writing more religiously in High School. I didn't have much of a social life, but that was okay with me."
After High School, Joseph studied music in college and then after, worked odd jobs until he was able to move to Toronto to begin his filmmaking journey.
"It took a lot of leg work to snag my first gig...which happened by accident, admittedly. I was working on a short that fell through due to some on set drama and the producer gave me another film. This was 'Silence'. I remember having an extremely short time to write this score. It was only, what, fifteen minutes? But I only had a few days. With this being my first project (with the exception of some sketches for a YouTube channel), it was rather stressful. But I digress. This film led to a few others with the same director. And those films led to films with other directors. And there you go; my career was taking off."
Joseph's filmography continues to grow as he has two more projects in the pipeline which he is set to compose this year (2023).
