AMERICA! version 2
Added 2017-08-03 15:47:40 +0000 UTCI actually made it to the second round! The agency emailed me, saying the client liked my sample, but could it "swell" or "get bigger" towards the end? So then, the second round involves a smaller number of people, sweating as they try to figure out exactly what the non-musician clients mean by the revisions they've asked for, making changes and hoping they're right, all on an even tighter deadline - because I guess they think "oh you've already made this music once, you should be able to totally change it in a day or two, it's just like editing a Word file, right?"
Anyway, I did this, which has some pretty swell "swelling" with the organ and the drum. I think it turned out pretty damn good, but I never heard back from the agency .. and that was the last time I tried making music for commercials.
It did end up on TV anyway, though. When I worked for WCVE (Richmond PBS station) I became the director of the City Council show. The old show opener was outdated (video of 1980s cars driving around the city streets??) and ugly, so I made a new one and used this music as the opening theme. I gifted it to them when I left 5 years ago, and as far as I know they're still using it.
