Congratulations to my sister and brother-in-law for making me a new nephew.
Mother and Baby are well!
The end of 2010 is quickly arriving.
Here's what I'll be ending my year with:
- Listening to some Daft Punk Tron Legacy magic.
- Reading the Dies the Fire series by SM Sterling
- Writing a violin solo for my friend Stella
- Beginning work on music for the Murder-Mystery web series Curtain Call by Michael Stromenger
- Catching up on Dexter and Boardwalk Empire
- Playing with new software called Melodyne (this thing is a beast!)
- Taking the Arkansas Contractors Business and Law test (for my other job)
- Shipping a bunch of gifts for the Christmas Holiday.
- Playing Crackdown 2 finally (I've heard it's not that good, but I don't mind, I can always just replay Halo Reach)
That's a lot to do in 2 weeks, but I think I can handle it.
TronSoundtrack.com 34.98 Deluxe Edition
Amazon.com 11.88 Disc
iTunes 9.99 Digital
At first when I heard that Daft Punk was going to be creating the music for the new Tron film... I felt let down a little. Actually I felt let down a lot.
The original film Tron was one of those movies, as a kid, that I was constantly re-watching and really wishing that I had a light cycle. When it was announced that they were creating a sequel that was finally more than a thought, I was excited for it, but I couldn't understand the choice of composers.
Don't think that I dislike Daft Punk, because I actually like them quite a bit. It's just that their brand of music up until now seemed too... happy.
To me the world that Tron inhabits is very dark, very expansive, and very, very sinister (I mean... I guess one could call it a cyberscape). It didn't seem to me that Daft Punk would be appropriate for this world (unless they were taking the film in a completely different direction from the first, but that wasn't what I was seeing in the trailers). In my mind I couldn't figure out how the film could possibly be good with two hours of "Around the World" underscoring the solar sailers, disk fights, and the other crazy shit, you thought I was going to forget the light cycles, didn't you?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4]
And then Daft released some samples from the score. It was not what I was expecting to say the least. It was as if the French DJ duo had taken a bunch of downers but remained like hyper-bots throwing their electronic instruments into minor keys and reading up on how to orchestrate for strings.
A friend of mine, Herr Vogler, commented that it sounded as if "someone had their Dark Knighty o's" referring to how similar the sound of Daft was to that of the string writing from Hans Zimmer's (and James Newton Howard's) Dark Knight score. I had to agree that the sound was indeed very similar. Another similarity can be heard by some of the brass stings they used, which sounds very close to another Zimmer score released this year... Inception.
When I heard the full score, I was able to hear the brilliant marriage between Daft Punk's electronic synthesis and acoustic orchestral instruments.
The cue "Overture" starts off the score. Taking a little while to build up with a dark pad, and introducing the theme slowly in the horn section, it really feels expansive. At about a minute and a half in the synths can really be heard joining the huge sweeping orchestra, putting a nice exclamation point on the opener.
In a lot of the cues, the synths are quite obvious, but blend supremely well with the orchestra. In "The Son of Flynn" Daft begins with an arpeggiated synth figure that reminds me of something Muse would do before breaking out into some rock riffs.
One of my favorite cues is "Outlands". It has a very quick sounding figure in the strings that is expanded into more string sections throughout the piece. Eventually the brass joins in and helps the cue build to its climactic ending. Very cool string writing!
"Adagio for Tron" may be the closest cue to something resembling complete orchestral knowhow, Even with the synth figures entwined in the terrific writing, I still find it very organic. And how can you not love a piece that also includes organ? Ending with a cello solo, this piece is also one of my favorites!
Even though I had been disappointed about the potential to have an electronic Daft Punk score for Tron, I almost couldn't believe my own delight at a couple of the floor ready house electronic cues included in the score, namely "End of Line" and their early single "Derezzed." The only difference between these cues and classic Daft Punk is the fact that they were written for a movie. So awesome. They get my heart pumping and my feet tapping. Makes me very excited to which images they match up with in the film!
For as much as I dreaded this score, I would call this not just a pleasant surprise, but a most welcome guest in my collection, and a definite addition to my favorite scores of 2010. I would also be remiss if I didn't write that this score is inspiring some truly grand ideas in my little human brain... but more on that at a future date!
So Ben L. and I participated in this years National Novel Writing Month, and I thought I'd share that we completed the challenge!
Without going into detail about the different ways in which we broke rules (you're not supposed to write with a partner, etc...) we probably spent between 20-25 days total on the project.
You may ask "Were all of those days in November?"
My question to you is... can I include the parallel universes that are on different calanders?
Anyways, we did it. We collated all of our words last night and came up with a little over 51,000. The neat thing about that is... we still have about a third of our story left to write (I never thought I'd write that much... ever.)
You may wonder when you get to read it. Well, let us finish it first... and then let us edit it as well. How long do those things take? I dunno, I've never done this before.
The tentative title of our book: Meta Pneuma - The Search for the Necronomicon
It's totally steampunk!
In honor of the thanksgiving holiday, and the fact that this is my 101st post on the wordpress blog, I'll keep it short and sweet.
Happy Thanksgiving
I've always been a sucker for movies that are set in space, or have an element of space or spacey things in them. Having said that, it's probably no surprise to you that I really love sci-fi movies.
Some of my favorites are The Fifth Element, District 9, Sunshine, Star Wars, Event Horizon, Independence Day, Avatar, WALL-E, Star Trek, Moon, Pitch Black, Deep Impact, Apollo 13, Contact, Aliens, Serenity, Firefly (I know this isn't a movie... but it's pretty damn brilliant!), etc...
You can see from this list that some of these would never make a "best of" list in a lot of people's opinions. However, despite the negative points, I like these things because there are space based things... or aliens.
So with that, I finally watched the trailer for Battle: Los Angeles. It looks pretty awesome, and it has one of my current favorite actors Aaron Eckhart. It also has Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan. With a $100 million budget and a director hailing from Johannesburg, South Africa (Jonathan Liebesman), I have high hopes for this movie. I'm not expecting District 9, but I hope at least it'll be better than a Roland Emmerich alien invasion film circa 2010.
Another film that is out right now is Skyline, which looks like it'd be right up my alley, but I've decided to hold off until it hits Netflix based on Ain't It Cool News' reviews.
One funny thing I found out while looking up info on B:LA was that Sony contemplated suing the Strause brothers over Skyline based on the fact that they may have used some of Sony's resources while working on B:LA to finish their own film.
With this knowledge, is there an alien or space film you recommend I see?
A friend of mine recently sent me a recording of a live solo violin performance, and asked me why it didn't sound very good. The problem, he stated, was that the sound was very flat and sounded compressed, not like previous recordings in the same hall with the same recording equipment.
I was excited, not only to help a brother out, but because I actually learned about ways to measure this particular problem in one of the classes I took at PSU... finally, tuition is paying off... sort of.
I knew, that I would need to use a frequency or spectrum analyzer to see visually, what we could hear aurally. The program I used is a free download called Spectro. And can be used as a plug-in within your Digital Audio Workstation of choice... even garageband.
Each Example sample is also pictured with the corresponding spectrum analysis.
Example #1 (compressed):
stats:
- Bit Rate - 192 kbps
- Sample Rate - 32.000kHz
Example #2 (non-compressed... er, technically, less-compressed):
stats:
- Bit Rate - 256 kbps
- Sample Rate - 44.100 kHz
You'll see in each of the spectral analyses that the partials reached are very representative of the sound. The first example barely reaches 3,900 Hz, while the second example reaches as high as 22,000 Hz.
I also think that you'll be able to hear the difference in sound as you listen. Example #1 sounds very flat, and almost as if it's low fidelity. While the second example sounds more "live in the room", and much richer.
My friend and I are agreed that the loss of fidelity most likely occurred during the initial bounce when the transfer was made from the original disc to mp3.
You can see from this comparison picture that the lower the bitrate, the less dynamic of a range that will remain in the acoustic envelope of sound... basically you're losing a good portion of the overtones, which is definitely part of the music (even though you may not even notice it).
Ideally, you would want a Lossless rip, or for most types of music, 320 kbps... minimum 256 kbps. Anything less and you start losing a lot of sounds, or at least the sounds that help make up the music you're supposed to be listening to.
So now, with this information, you can see why it's important to use greater bit rates when ripping your new Mastodon CD, or downloading a copy of the soundtrack from Beauty and the Beast from your favorite online music store.
For Halloween I got a really great treat!
I was one of the winners for Film Score Monthly's Halloween giveaway of Michael Giacchino's score for the horror remake Let Me In.
I'm stoked because not only do I love Michael Giacchino's music, but I also love to win things!
I've heard a couple cues from this score already and I thought that it was a really good, creepy version of music similar to Lost.
I'm super excited to be getting this in the mail and getting some good listening time.
So happy halloween to you!
I found this on syfy's site blastr.
"What if Beethoven had composed Darth Vader's theme" is the question their site asks.
My answer... it would probably have more scalar movement within the transitions.
Anyways... for your viewing pleasure:
Just got home from seeing Jackass 3D, so I thought it'd be a good time to respond to Mikey the Pikey's challenge:
…my favorite movies…ever. The ones I don’t think I’d ever like to be without. The “deserted island” list, if you will. These are the movies that, should I encounter them randomly on television, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and watch them, regardless of where they are in the film.
This is kindof an impossible task, because there are so many films/movies that speak to me in one way or another. So I'm making the list of those movies that match the second half of the above mentioned criteria, something that, if I randomly come across it, I'll stop and watch.
After compiling the list, I realized that there aren't a lot of heavy dramas in there. It's not because I don't like them, because I do, and I watch them a lot, often multiple times. But I guess I was going for the criteria set up by Mikey the Pikey. So, with that written, here is the list:
The Fifth Element - (1997; dir. Luc Besson; Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker; composer - Eric Serra)
I know the list is in no particular order, but this movie was the first in my mind, primarily because it's my most favorite movie. I first saw this the year it came out, and I must say that, for me, it hasn't lost any of its lustre. There are funny things, and serious things. An always beautiful Milla, and one of my favorite actors Gary Oldman. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's space based science fiction (after all, I was a space studies major (for about six weeks)).
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - (2001; dir. Peter Jackson; Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortenson, Ian McKellan, Ian Holm, many other huge names!; composer - Howard Shore)
Of course, I absolutely love the entire trilogy, but if there's one that I watch more than the others, it would be this one. I think it's because there's nothing better than the beginning of a journey, epic or otherwise!
How The Grinch Stole Christmas - (2000; dir. Ron Howard; Jim Carrey, Jeffery Tambor; composer - James Horner)
This one gets some heavy rotation around the end of year holidays. I don't know why, but its pretty damn funny, and fun to watch. Favorite line that I quote often, "am I eating because I'm bored?" Even now I'm chuckling.
Muppet Treasure Island - (1996; dir. Brian Henson; Tim Curry, Billy Connolly; composer - Hans Zimmer)
This one I probably never would have watched because when I first saw it, I was a junior in high school and thought I was maybe a little too cool for the muppets. After my friend convinced me otherwise, I learned that I was in fact not too cool for the muppets, but perhaps not cool enough. Thank you Tommy C.!
Kung Fu Panda - (2008; dirs. Mark Osborne, John Stevenson; Jack Black, Ian McShane, Dustin Hoffman; composers - Hans Zimmer, John Powell)
I'm a sucker for a lot of the recent animated films beginning with Shrek and running through How To Train Your Dragon. Kung Fu Panda is just one of the ones that I like to have playing when I'm doing anything!
Talladega Nights - (2006; dir. Adam McKay; Will Ferrell, Gary Cole, John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch; composer - Alex Wurman)
A lot of people (and critics) panned on this movie, but that wouldn't be the first time that I enjoyed something that others don't. I think people dislike the character that Will Ferrell plays (in most of his films). As for me... after a couple viewings, the performances grow on me. I actually don't know if I could live without Talladega Nights anymore.
O, Brother Where Art Thou? - (2000; dirs. The Coens; George Clooney, John Turturo, Tim Blake Nelson; Music - T Bone Burnett)
I love everything about this period piece. The music, the characters, the acting, the setting, and the story (Homer's Odyssey). I could watch it anytime. Anytime at all.
Run Fatboy Run - (2007; dir. David Schwimmer; Simon Pegg, Yank My Area (sorry, Hank Azaria), Dylan Moran; composer - Alex Wurman)
This charming movie is fun to watch and makes me feel good too. And ever since Shaun of the Dead, I've been a fan of Pegg's. This is no exception. I usually look forward to anything that Pegg is a part of.
Shaun of the Dead - (2004; dir. Edgar Wright; Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield)
Even though this film had original music, the soundtrack contains a lot of existing music. And actually, it is one of my favorite soundtracks to listen to completely from start to finish due to its arrangement. So, aside from the soundtrack, the film kicks ass! Zombie killing is great fun, especially when done with and Edgar Wright slant.
Star Trek - (2009; dir. J.J. Abrams; Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana; composer - Michael Giacchino)
Look, another Pegg film. But seriously, I love this film. When it came out, I wasn't keen on going to see it because it just didn't look like it would be impressive. Thankfully, my buddy/partner Ben L. dragged me to see it. That was a good thing, because its awesome! The cinematography is spectacular, and I love the character performances. I also love Giacchino's score... but you probably already knew that.
That's 10 films... but I can't stop there, so here are some alternates:
Army of Darkness - (1992; dir. Sam Raimi; Bruce Campbell; composer - Joseph LoDuca)
I watched this movie at least once a week my freshman year of college. I used many of the soundbites for ringtones. It has a cue from Danny Elfman. I don't know if I need to say more than that.
Crank: High Voltage - (2009; dirs. Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor; Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam; composer - Mike Patton)
High octane. Great unintentional video game movie. Awesome hodgepodge score by Mike Patton of Faith No More fame. Statham rocks my face.
Shawshank Redemption - (1994; dir. Frank Darbont; Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman; composer - Thomas Newman)
When I first learned that this story was written by Stehpen King, my appreciation for him grew by leaps and bounds. When I learned that Frank Darbont would be directing AMC's The Walking Dead (starts on Oct. 31st) it gave me the feeling that I wouldn't be disappointed... that and there'll be zombies (Jesus... why do I like zombies so much?). Great movie. I love when other things reference it. For instance, Family Guy. When they performed a cue from the original score, it helped remind me of another reason why I love this film!
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999; dir. George Lucas; Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd; composer - John Williams)
Chastise me if you must, but this is my favorite Star Wars film... based purely on its associative properties. It may not be the best one, but it is the one that is related to some of my fondest memories. The score from this film, was the only music in my car that summer for so many road trips that took place. I will never regret the decision to make this my favorite, not until programmed nanites rearrange my brain's synapses.
The Bourne Supremacy - (2004; dir. Paul Greengrass; Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles; composer - John Powell)
I really love all of the Bourne films, but this one will forever hold a place in my heart because of its score. This was the score I listened to when I made the decision to actually go back to school to pursue my music composition education with the intent to compose for media. So thank you Mike S. for that!!
Well, there you have it. A list of films off the top of my brain that I would enjoy life just a little less without. There are so many that deserve to be on the list... but I honestly don't want to keep looking up some of the information.
What can I say... I'm lazy.
I'm still over here in Chi Town, bankrolling my future, and trying to make my dad a pantload of money. When I'm not working, I'm usually surfing the net, or just vegging out (it's a lot harder managing a railroad company than I imagined).
I try to read, and I try listening to music, but I usually just end up reading about music. A couple things I've heard about but finally have actually gathered some information on is some upcoming releases that have me absolutely drooling!
Human Target by Bear McCreary
This is being released by La La Land Records on Oct. 19th for $24.95.
I'm excited about this score for a couple of reasons... Bear McCreary scored the lion's share of the remake of Battlestar Galactica. Secondly, the score was performed by a live (and at times, HUGE) orchestra, and anytime that happens in the current entertainment market, I feel obliged to support that!
I never really got into the show, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed by the score.
Elfman/Burton Boxset
I think the title pretty much says it all. This is the culmination of their work together, which is weird, because neither of them are dead yet ( ...I kindof assume that they are going to do more together). It also has other goodies that help justify the price... a little.
You can pre-order the december release at burtonelfman.com, and be forewarned, they're asking for $500 for this! Holy shit. $500?! And they are only making 1000 of these. So the question is, are there 1000 fanboy's with $500 dollars burning a hole in their batman shaped money clip? And the even greater question, does my mom know that I want this for my birthday?
Even if she does, that is a lot to ask... however, if it were to be a combination birthday/christmas gift? Maybe then? I keed... Christmas is about '8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus' (I'm quoting Ricky Bobby).
But seriously... I'm not above begging.
Avatar
This rare artifact will be released on November 16th with a suggested retail price of $54.99, but can be pre-ordered from amazon for $35.99.
This version will have tons of extras, including more footage in the film itself (even more than the recent version that was released, er... re-released, er... showed recently in theaters. Anyways, they have lots of things on here like documentaries and deleted scenes and other cool goodies.
I'm just really excited to watch some Blu-Ray Avatar in my living room. I initially thought I might wait for the 3D version... but I don't think I want to buy a 3D TV yet.
So there you go. Three things that I'm excited about. Am I missing anything?
Every once in a while I like to listen to some new stuff to keep my creative juices at least from being stagnant. Every once in a while I go through an "electronic music" phase. Right now is one of those times.
So here is what is going through my ears now:
What cool toys. I want one.
Recently, Bungie and Microsoft released their newest addition to the Halo franchise called Halo Reach. So far, I haven't had the opportunity to play the game, but from what I've heard, read, and seen, it definitely looks like it could be the most epic of all those that came before it.
Up until now, the scores previously released haven't been high on my playlists, with the exception of Stephen Rippy's score for Halo Wars. Recently, I have spun the score for Halo ODST but it didn't have the effect on me that Reach does.
The scale of this score is a lot bigger than the previous efforts from O'Donnel and Salvatori. Not only is the sound grander, but the soundtrack is much longer as well... two discs with well over an hour and a half worth of music.
The first track is well titled: "Overture". As soon as it begins, its not hard to tell that the quality of O'Donnel and Salvatori's orchestral samples have definitely improved since their first Halo score. Musically, they're using a very middle eastern flavor, slightly reminiscent of Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia. I don't know if it's the orchestration, or the samples, but the overall sound is much fuller on this album. The choir or vocal sounds are also produced better and have a much more "real" sound than the earlier scores.
Through listening to this, I notice something that I hadn't in listening to any of the other scores; at 2:46 of "Overture" they have a variation of their Halo theme, and the orchestration they chose reminds me of the opening half of the melody from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
A lot of the score is very string heavy with percussion, and at times they include brass as well. But they also include some very cool electronic sounds and distorted guitar and bass.
One thing I noticed in a cue called "The package," was a melody (0:16) that was so very similar to the first half of the "Fairy Tale Theme" from Shrek (0:12). This theme returns at different points around the score.
There are a lot of massive (length) cues on this score. Fitting for a game; many of them have parts that shift into semi-unrelated material. This makes sense, I presume, as one travels through the different parts of the accompanying video game. Sometimes, the electronic elements are well blended with the orchestral parts.
One great cue that shows development over all the franchise's scores is "Tip of the Spear." It includes the entire original melody, and throughout the first half of the piece it develops that into a complete idea. At about 3:04 the idea completes itself and the track continues on with an electronic idea that is unrelated.
Throughout, the team throw in snippets and slight variations of their original Halo theme, helping to tie this score in with all those that came before it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this score and look forward to playing the game. (I think my brother already got it for me for my birthday. If that's true, thanks bro! w00t w00t!!)
Figured I should put this (ain't it cool article) and this (amazon link) on the blog before I closed my eyes.
Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be my birthday (or Oct. 5th (which isn't my birthday, but the joy from this would be near that))!
Oh happy day!
The Dark Tower is a series of seven books written by Stephen King. They are his answer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and they are EPIC... epically awesome!
The first time I read through them was my sophomore year of college (the first time). I remember having a discussion with Mike S. (who doesn't have a blog to link to... I mean besides the Curtain Call production blog. Okay, I'll link to that one then) about how the first book is very unlike the two that follow.
Ever since I read the series and made the decision to make music my life, I had hoped that eventually I would be in a position to be part of the team that worked on the music if the series were ever put on the silver screen or the small screen.
It looks like I've missed the boat for both mediums (TV and movie). I saw a link from Mike yesterday that led me to a deadline article discussing the deal that was recently reached. This deal would allow Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman, and Brian Grazer to produce the books into three feature length films and a TV series with Universal/NBC.
Obviously, its my dream to see these books as visual media, but I definitely felt a lot more comfortable when JJ Abrams had secured the rights to create the films. I felt that his style would be more in line with the style of the books, but that fell through due to Abrams' schedule (apparently he's popular right now?!).
So now, its the team team that created A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code. Both decent films, but a far cry from the subject matter that is The Dark Tower.
That's all neither here nor there. It's going to happen sometime, by someone. I can only hope that its going to be good. But now that it has potential again, everyone and their mom are making armchair casting decisions... so why not me?
Here's the plan. Howard says that he's going to direct the first film, and the first season of the television series with Goldsman writing. So my thoughts are that the entire production doesn't necessarily need to have only one composer (not that any of them have only one anyway. I mean just look at the first season of Fringe, which has three separate credited composers. And look at Kick Ass, which has 5 credited composers.)
Who would be the good choice for composer on this project/s (besides me... anyone? Please?)?
- Michael Giacchino - If this project had only one person scoring the entire thing, I would want it to be Michael. If there were one overseer of other composers for this project, I would want it to be Michael. With the work that he's done on Lost, Fringe, Star Trek, and his countless other great scores, I would completely trust him with the sound palette and music for the Dark Tower universe. Potentially this choice may be my lingering feelings of having Abrams lead the project.
- Marco Beltrami - He's done some great stuff. I would like him to contribute to the music from Roland's younger years. Maybe this is some typecasting from 3:10 to Yuma, but I'd like to hear it.
- Carter Burwell - I think if Carter tapped his Fargo side, he could write some tunes for the Calla.
- Mark Isham - I wouldn't want him as the singular composer for the project, but I think his style would be great for some of the episodic material. Very ambient and atmospheric, I think he'd write some great stuff for following the beam.
- John Powell - I think John would be great for blending the orchestral with the electronic. He would be one I would consider as overseer for the entire project. Powell is still my number one choice for Ender's Game though, so if that project came up and were to conflict with The Dark Tower, then he'd only be able to contribute a small portion of music. If that were the case, I would want to hear Powell's "Blaine".
Overall, I based my decisions on the subject matter. I don't think a purely orchestral score will completely fit this project, because of the dimension hopping, the timelines involved, etc... But one cool thing about this story is that it has flavors of many things. It has classic western, New York City, crazy weird fantastical locales, Stephen King's home, alternate realities.
I'm not saying that this project couldn't be done by a few different huge names (ie. Hans Zimmer) but I just want the music to go a little deeper than what he may do... although I wasn't disappointed with Inception, but it still sounded like the samples that he uses for everything else. Nor would I mind if John Williams were on this project, but I think it needs more than brilliant huge orchestral writing and development of leitmotifs.
In one article (or article's comments) someone said that if the developers don't consider this project their legacy, they may do a huge disservice to the material. For me, this also applies to the score. Much like Howard Shore's approach to LOTR, whoever does this project I hope considers this their magnum opus. The project to which the rest of their life's work will be compared. No pressure, but if this isn't good... that would be bad.
All this being said, Ron Howard has most often worked with James Horner, who I wouldn't mind taking this project. Danger motif, here we come.
So there you have it. Now it's all up to KA. But in the meantime, have you read these books? If so, who would you choose?
Now that the Film scoring program that I was going to attend has been cancelled, I've found something to do in the meantime.
I'm going to work on the railroad a bit longer (to save up some more dinero for future endeavours), but I'm also going to write a freaking novel. I know, I know. I'm not really a writer, but I'll have help.
My friend Ben and I are going to get busy writing a small epic, based in a steampunk world. I know, right? Steampunk is awesome!
Anyways, Ben recently brought to my attention NaNoWriMo, more specifically, National Novel Writing Month. The premise is that during the month of November, the challenge is to write (minimum) 50,000 words.
I know what you're thinking, and the answer is "of course I'll have time to do both the writing challenge, and compose a film score for Mike Stromenger's Curtain Call, and work as a manager for a railroad office full time.
Anyways, more than any of these things, I am super excited to get back home to my wife, which is only less than a week from now.
Actually, this has nothing to do with Gotham, what it does have to do with is the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program and it's existence in my life.
It has been cancelled due to lack of participants. Apparently a few of e students who were enrolled were not able to follow through with the commitment (for whatever reason), and the program couldn't exist with so few participants.
Needless to say, i was pretty bummed out. I was ready for the adventure and the work/experience.
So what do i do now? Well, i think it may be time to start looking for the elusive "job in the industry", not that i lack for things to do, but... you know, a brothas gots to get paid!
Now i can put my efforts into existing projects, like Michael's Curtain Call, while searching for other jobs. The dream... partnering with Ben Larson and taking the music by storm.
In other, more redeeming news, today is my seventh wedding anniversary. Good job Ruth, and i miss you.
In other fun news, i was just at Sturgis riding around on a motorcycle, that was fun!
...until I return to the PNW. I'm very excited for this, because it's been a while. The downside is that I'll only have a few days before I move.
"Where am I moving," you ask, to which I would respond, "haven't you been reading my blog religiously?"
And then you would say sheepishly, "sorry, but I've got better things to do."
With a look of flabergasted surprise, I exclaim, "wow, and here I thought we were friends!"
To which you reply, "those who assume..."
Yes, yes. Well, I'm enrolled in a year long film scoring certification program, which is located in Seattle... well, more specifically on Mercer Island. And if everything works out, Matthew (my future roomate/current friend) found us an apartment right on the island. w00t!
So because I've never been east of I5 in Seattle, I've been doing some research, and here are a couple pictures:
...at least in the race to come out with the first iPod/Phone/Pad DAW control.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is a convenience thing in order to control your Digital Audio Workstation.
After reading this article from Create Digital Music, it left me feeling a little sad inside. I figured that Apple would definitely be the first to come out with a native application for controlling it's own DAW. It's one of the things that I've wanted for a while in my studio, so that when I'm laying down a track on my digital drumset I don't have to get up and walk over to my keyboard to stop recording.
Not only was MOTU first to release this, but they're giving it away to users of DP 7.2. If I didn't love Logic (Apple's DAW) so much, this would be just one more thing... but I do love Logic. So I will continue to wait... but not too long Apple.
I want it. NOW!!!! (Dammit, I'm an American) I want it yesterday!
Not much going on right now (besides my current day job).
Waiting for Mike S. to finish filming Curtain Call so that we can start chatting about the score.
Just got the score for Iron Man 2 (Amazon.com, iTunes). It's okay, but I'm still really obsessed with the score for Inception(Amazon.com (cheaper than iTunes for this one!)). I'm also excited about the score for Predators, which doesn't get released until next month, or this next week at ComicCon (if you're one of the lucky few), oh yeah, and the Batman Special Edition 2-disk set (La La Land Records).
Also, Matthew has begun the hunt for an apartment for us in Seattle. Exciting stuff!
Not too much else, so I'll leave you with this picture:
It was brought to my attention by my wife on Facebook, and is from The Telegraph.
Also, I'd like to see some new blog posts (I'm looking at Herr, Mikey, Stromenger, Matthew), because I'm sick of twitter feeds and I want some actual meat to the information I'm taking in.
I have to say, upon first listen to this score I wasn't surprised, and for some reason, it didn't overly impress me.
I don't know why, but the brass sound that is a Zimmer standard really irritated me. I kept going back to thinking the brass sounded exactly like that of Pirates (which the timbre of it does) and my ear rejected the sound.
Another reason for the possible distaste... could be the overall ambient sound of the score. I get it, a lot of the movie centers around people going into dreams and doing stuff, and ambience is very dreamlike, but can be boring. These bits actually reminds me a little bit of another Zimmer score: Frost/Nixon.
So I left the score alone for a couple days and read a couple reviews (1, 2) of the movie and score, and I'm glad to say that I did, because sweet baby Jesus, this is one frakkin' awesome score!
It's big, beefy, and really quite epic! It's crazy and seems very logical for the subject matter. It has everything (but woodwinds... I keed, I keed) from sweet mind blowing action cues, to very open ambient/atmospheric chords (not as cool as Debussy's Nuages, but still damn cool).
If you're a fan of the action cues, then you need to listen to "Dream is Collapsing". It ends with huge brass stings and an octave motif in the strings. Its so huge that I have to turn down the volume a bit so my coworkers don't get mad at me.
Another great, quick-feeling cue is "Mombassa". This cue is very reminiscent of some of the Dark Knight music because of the loop-like synthy percussion. But its so cool! The way Zimmer weaves the synths with guitar strings and the percussion. This definitely gets the blood pumping!
I'm not sure how much Zimmer used the trailer music for reference, or if he had any input on the trailer music when he was composing, but there are a couple spots where the familiar brass sting is quoted, and it's so awesome to hear that. Zack Hemsey did such a great job (coloring between the lines) with his music for the third inception trailer, that many people confused him with Zimmer, but that's a good thing. Having written that I must say that one of my favorite parts is the score is when the stings happen in a very strange and wonderfully orchestrated manner, at about 2:30 in the beautiful cue "Paradox".
I'm very excited to see this movie, especially after having let the score marinate and then blow my mind.
This weekend I was able to see three movies with various members of my family.
The first was Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I went in thinking it would be a fun, popcorn film with a score by one of my favorite film composers. And that's exactly what I got. Despite all the deaths in the movie, it is very lighthearted and fun, and Powell's score plays this really well. One of the main themes was similar to what he did for the Assassin's Tango in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It was a fun movie to see and listen to.
The next film I saw was The Last Airbender, which seems to be mostly rejected by critics... 8% on rottentomatoes.com is really not good.
However, I have a softspot in my heart for Shyamalan, and I definitely liked the story behind the movie. I was very disappointed in the writing though. I didn't do a ton of research about this film before I saw it, so I didn't know that Shyamalan wrote it. I only thought he was the director, so I thought this would be his chance to redeem himself. In the writing, he failed. There were quite a few lines that were very unnecessary, following in the direction of The Happening. The redemption for me of anything bad though, is James Newton Howard's score. It definitely exemplifies and encompasses the world. It is very warm and rich. I love it a lot.
And finally, a film you should see if you loved Predator, Predators!
Holy shit this movie is awesome! It stays right in the vein of Predator in almost every respect. The effects were great, especially since the predators were not CGI but practical.
And the score completely stood up. It was a great homage to Silvestri's score to Predator, which was awesome. Debney's score to predator had some great quotes, and some great new features, like some wicked synth. It was like listening to a new recording of the old score, because this style is far removed from the Zimmerish action scores of this era. It was wonderful and quite nostalgic. I loved it and wished that more were like this (but if more were like it, it probably wouldn't be so special).
The one thing I didn't like in this score though, was an electronic percussion loop that Debney used for about 15 seconds in the last fight scene.
Overall, however, loved it!
I hope that you all had a great fourth of July. Mine had an unexpected surprise... The wife was able to fly out to minnesota to hang out over the weekend. So, not only was that awesome, but she also informed me that my Varese Sarabande recording of Star Trek had came, so now I get to enjoy that too!
Anyways, I'll continue the hard work in preparation for my next adventure.
busy.
I forgot to mention it on here before I shipped off to the land of sugar-beets and soy, I'm going to be pretty busy working the next couple months, so posts here my be a little more sporadic than they are usually.
I've gots ta work, so I can afford to go to the PNW film scoring program.
So for this week, I hope you are doing well.
The Chronicles of the Nerds invited me onto their podcast this week.
So i told a short anecdote about the inception of their intro song, and contributed overall to their stream of consciousness conversation.
Go check it out, and if you haven't yet, you should subscribe!
I don't know how you all feel about this, but it makes me very, very happy.
I just read that there is going to be a Star Trek Deluxe Edition score release that includes:
...over an hour of additional, unreleased music and sequences it into a chronological presentation of nearly 100 minutes of music from the film, including the final film version of the Main Title.
The elaborate and beautiful, 2-CD packaging includes a 28-page, full-color booklet (in the dimensions of a Blue-Ray disc case), with new liner notes by Starlog Magazine founder Kerry O'Quinn.
This is being (edit: the offering is from Varese Sarabande, but can be ordered from SAE) offered by SAE, and will be released on June 17th. This may just become a graduation gift to myself. Thank you 8 lb. 6 oz., newborn infant Jesus.
While I'm here, don't forget to contribute to the Curtain Call Kickstarter Fund. Help support this effort, and feel good that you're helping me gain experience.
The last couple weeks have been hellah busy. Lots of rehearsal for my senior recital. The Ruth and I went to San Francisco for our friends' wedding (congrats Greens!).
Then we got back from San Fran and had to clean the house in order to create a clean space for my parents impending visit.
Next is more practice for my recital, and rehearsals for the Bloch Sacred Service choral concert.
Then on Thursday, my Senior Recital, which was pretty awesome... more on that later. Then on Friday, my friend Stella had her recital, in which she played one of my compositions. Then on Saturday, my friend Matthew had his recital. Sunday, the last concert I will be involved in as a student at PSU.
Whew. That was a lot of stuff.
But now I'm done (for all intents and purposes), and ready to let my brain rest for a second.
Next up: go to North Dakota and build some railroads to earn money to pay for the PNW Film Scoring program.
But now for the recital. I loved it. And why shouldn't I? I wrote the music. But seriously, I was really happy with it, and my professors seemed pleased as well. Even better though, I think my friends who performed enjoyed it as well.
Alright. Not really to arms. But, Curtain Call (17 episode murder-mystery web series) does need your help. Michael Stromenger (director, writer) has started a "kickstarter" project to try and get some financial backing for the project.
Kickstarter is an online program for people to make donations (small through large). The goal in this case is $2500. If you could help out, that would be spectacular. There aren't many days left to reach the goal, and we aren't that far away from it. If the goal isn't reached, you won't be charged your donation. If it is reached, you won't be charged until June 11th.
here is Mike's video on facebook
and here is the kickstarter page.
In other news, I got an email from PSU telling me that I will be graduating summa cum laude. Is that good?
Nah, but seriously, I am so excited. I've been accepted into the Certificate Program at the PNW Film Scoring Program. It seems like a logical next step for someone getting their Bachelor's in music composition, and who wants to score films, videogames, and TV shows.
The program lasts from September through the beginning of July. Location: Seattle. This means huge life changes coming up. Stay tuned.
Here is the cover for my finished Senior Recital Music book. It's thick (about 3/4 of an inch) and heavy... and honestly, pretty cool.
Now that that step is done, I'm working on the program notes and the program.
Also, working on the logistics for rehearsals, which is kind of stressing me out. Anyways, back to it. Have a good week everyone!
