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.

Harry Potter: Sorting Hat revisited

Here’s a CollegeHumor Harry Potter parody I scored recently. CH requested a few spooky cues as well as simple orchestral accompaniment for the Hat (sung by Josh Ruben once again- he also directed)

Kudos to the Puppet Wrangler on this one! That hat looks exactly like the original.

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!

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!

Moving to LA / The Hoodie Song

Big news: I’m moving to LA next week!

Chicago has been a great place to build momentum over the past 4+ years, but the timing feels right to get out where all the film infrastructure is (NYC was very tempting too).  I’ll miss all the talented musicians and filmmakers I’ve had the pleasure of working with here.

I’ve somehow managed to trick my great friend Jason Jackson into co-piloting a moving truck across the country so I’ll have some entertainment for the trip.  Speaking of Jason… I had the pleasure of recording him recently, as the operatic voice of a (usually) inanimate object:



Kudos to Dan Gurewitch for writing the song (and starring in the video for that matter), and to the following killer musicians for some very fun sessions:

Man Vocals - Jon SteinmeierHoodie Vocals - Jason JacksonCello - Lilianna WoskoGuitar/Bass - Max Crowe

Show 'n Tell Show: behind the scenes

Earlier this year I completed a theme song for Chicago’s live graphic design talk show, The Show ‘n Tell Show. My friends at Optimus made a video for it featuring Chicago’s improv puppet troupe Felt and have posted a few behind-the-scenes pictures of the shoot here.



I’ve also posted some candid (read: blurry) photos from the shoot on my facebook page.



Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the final product (I cameo in a labcoat taking cloud readings near the end):

show n tell show from hogwash media on Vimeo.