RANTOUL AND DIE

THE AMORALISTS licensed a track of mine for this promo video by David Fishel.  If you’re in NYC and find this teaser as intriguing as I did, go see “Rantoul and Die” between now and July 20th, 2013!

Back from NYC

I’m back home after an 8-day adventure in NYC! I attended the Vimeo Festival, made some new talented friends, and planned out a future music video. A few pictures below, Add me on facebook for more!

An amazing performance by Miwa Matreyek involving double-projection, her own shadow, and some beautiful animation.

Camera parade

Early Cogitat Ergo Sum sketch

Two of my most favorite collaborators/friends Angeline Gragasin and David Fishel finally meet!

The illustrious Dr. Reggie Watts kicks off Vimeofest with a talk about… something.

Longtime collaborators / CollegeHumor buddies Vince Peone and Josh Ruben gave a talk!

GOODY! TWO SHOES

I recently had the pleasure of scoring & sound designing this video, directed by the wonderful Celia Rowlson-Hall. She describes it thusly:

watch me demolish a city, perform in a broadway show, stroll through the jungle and turn into a ghost… all over a pair of shoes.

I’ve been following Celia’s work for a few years now and it was a real treat to team up. It was a fun challenge to figure out how to complement the stream-of-consciousness visuals in a compelling way… I’m pretty excited about the godzilla-soundscape-into-broadway-sassiness-into-electro-jungle-ominousness-into-bittersweet-death-music-with-ghost-breathing approach we landed on :)

Thank you to all the great musicians who helped out on super-short notice:

Shannon Stone - tenor sax, clarinetWalter Simonsen - trumpetAngeline Gragasin - vocalsMax Crowe - guitar

Also, thank you Richard Howarth for assisting with sound design (as with last week’s post!)

Special thanks to frequent collaborator David Fishel (who also assistant directed and edited this video) for the introduction.

Enjoy! Then check out more of Celia’s films and choreography here.

Sundance

I’m off to Sundance with my old Chicago friends Eric Bednarowicz and Joe Martinez. I’ll be there the whole time, drop me a line if you want to meet up!



Also, worth a re-post: David Fishel’s 3-channel video for College Humor’s 2010 “Galactic Empire State of Mind”. Music by yours truly, vocals recorded by James Czeiner in NYC. Fullscreen it and enjoy!

Cogitat Ergo Sum

http://vimeo.com/17467930

Well hey, a film I posted about last december has finally been released! Congrats to director David Fishel on wrapping up this ambitious 12-minute short. It was a nice challenge making music that pulses, swells, and occasionally waltzes.

Thanks to these very talented musicians (remember Eleanor from last week?) for playing on the score:Eleanor Weigert - clarinetScott Copeland - trumpetMichael Beach - violin/viola

I must give a shout out to the amazing Frankie Cordero who played and “designed” Felix (you’ll see..) I’ve had much fun working with him in the past too.

Davey Dance Blog - Field of Dreams

I shot* the above video for my buddy David Fishel’s Davey Dance Blog on a recent midwest vacation. He describes DDB thusly:

A project started while traveling Europe during Spring 2007. Armed only with an ipod and a Canon, Davey picks a location and a pop song. Then Davey records an improvised dance.

He’s now made over 120 of these! They always make me smile.. here are a few of my personal favorites:







* stood very still while holding a fancy camera. You might say the first video is a retrospective of my DP work.

Pipe Dream released

It’s hard to believe this day has come: Pipe Dream, a film I finished scoring 2.5 YEARS ago* has finally been released. It’s interesting to hear the musical approach of a younger me and I look back on this one fondly.

I’ve written a bit about it before in a previous blog post:

Vocals by my great friend Alice Wedoff, who’s also an amazing theater actress.

The goal for this score was to match the tone of the film with something like an echoey French pop song interwoven into sweeping/dreamy swells and neurotic sound design. I used a mix of synths, a broken guitar I found in an alley, orchestral elements and more to get it there.

This was also a fun challenge because it required French lyrics– and I don’t speak French! Solution: I sang a temporary track of the melody (in gibberish), David wrote lyrics to match, then Alice came in and nailed the real thing. Voila! (Ok, one word of French…)

I must give kudos to our good friend Joel Anderson for his top-notch sound design, and of course to director David Fishel for not only making the thing but also having the persistence to get through many a technical setback. Here’s his description:

This is a cute little short I shot on 16mm in Paris in 2007. When backing up the hard drive it was on before making the final mix, the hard drive crashed and I lost everything. It has taken until now to rebuild it from the negative and complete it, thanks to the help and support of many friends.

summary:Set against the less than conventionally romantic backdrop of the Paris Métro, “Pipe Dream” tells the unlikely connection between two would-be lovers despite social, cultural, and linguistic boundaries.

Chicago Screening

I’m excited to be returning for my 3rd year to the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival!

Tortue, an experimental short I scored for David Fishel will be screening before the documentary “Sound It Out”:

Saturday, April 16th, 3 pmWicker Park Arts Center, 2215 W. North Ave



You’ll find this and other films listed on Saturday’s screening schedule, here. Come say hi, Chicago friends!

New Score Preview

I recently finished a score for the David Fishel film Cogitat Ergo Sum, and thought I’d share a few snippets with you.

Here are 2 versions of the “pulse” theme which propels several scenes, followed by a swelly dramatic thing that accompanies a montage sequence:



And here’s a waltz which comes later, followed by the reprise for the end credits:



It features these very talented LA musicians:clarinet: Eleanor Weigerttrumpet: Scott Copelandviolin/viola: Michael Beach

Poster:



Happy Holidays!

Nightmare Before Xmas Parody

I don’t have anything Thanksgiving-themed to post, but I do have something holiday-related. This is a piece I did music and sound design for earlier this year.. a parody of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.

As with Web Site Story, I:1) didn’t have sheet music so did my best to recreate all the parts by ear.  (I’m of course using samples and a few great musicians rather than a real orchestra) Here is the original if you’re curious to compare.2) thoroughly enjoyed dissecting this track and figuring out what makes it work. Danny Elfman is one of my all-time favorites and this was a real joy to work on. A very intensely-fast-paced-race-to-the-deadline kind of joy.

That’s Jacob Carlson on vocals (as Danny Elfman!) and one of my Chicago favorites, Gerald Bailey on trumpet. Last, and surely least importantly, I cameo (vocally) as a drunk priest at 0:55.

The lovely claymation is by Chelsea Manifold, and a few nice visual effects are by the wizards at Gloo Studios.

As for my friends at CollegeHumor: Josh Ruben and Vincent Peone directed, Ben Joseph wrote & produced, and David Fishel edited.

Pipe Dream score

Part 1: (intro and buildup, 2min length)



Part 2: (narration into HIT at 1:10, 2min length)

Above is some audio of a dreamy score I made last year for the film Pipe Dream (again by David Fishel). It still hasn’t been released but when it is I’ll be sure to post it.

Vocals by my great friend Alice Wedoff, who’s also an amazing theater actress.

The goal for this score was to match the tone of the film with something like an echoey French pop song interwoven into sweeping/dreamy swells and neurotic sound design. I used a mix of synths, a broken guitar I found in an alley, orchestral elements and more to get it there.

This was also a fun challenge because it required French lyrics– and I don’t speak French! Solution: I sang a temporary track of the melody (in gibberish), David wrote lyrics to match, then Alice came in and nailed the real thing. Voila! (Ok, one word of French…)

Tortue (my first score)

I safely made it to LA! While I unpack, take a gander at the first film I ever “scored”, which happens to be a one-shot 6-minute video of a turtle swimming around. My friend David Fishel sent it to me randomly one day and asked if I’d like to put music to it.

I did my best to follow my instincts, as I’d never written music to picture before. I played accordion, trumpet, a cheap synthesizer I had at the time, and even hummed a bit. It was a pretty eye-opening & fun experience for me.

Coincidentally I’m scoring a new film of David’s right now… more news about that soon.

Scare Tactics (puppet sound design)

One more post before hitting the road to LA…

“Scare Tactics” is a live action puppet piece co-directed/co-produced by the great Frankie Cordero and the also-great David Fishel.

This was a lot of fun to sound design.. my favorite part was recording the vocalizations (vocal parts besides the actual narration, which is by Andrew Schoen). Turns out my go-to guitar/bass expert Max Crowe is great at screaming so I had him handle the numerous freakouts for “Charlie”. I handled the narrator character’s vocalizations (e.g. grunting for the fence jumping at 0:47, ugh!’s and such for the fight scene at 1:20)

Back to packing!