Things I forgot to mention...

In the last post I wanted to talk about the scoring of the video that was made for the Living Dead Festival in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Night of the Living Dead. The pictures that were used in the footage were a combination of stills from the making of the movie and promotional material made at the time. Gary Streiner and I worked really hard in finding the right mood. The first mood that would be an obvious choice is horror right? Yes BUT there is a nostalgic reason for making this video. It was to showcase the makers and cast of the original film. So there has to be a feeling that goes with that kind of remembering. One of the ways I work is through sketching out ideas in the sequencer, then adding to, taking away or just plain old throwing out pieces till something hits the mark. So I would have a meeting with Gary, I would then go and compose something. Then send the track to Gary. The next morning I would find an email that would say things like "closer, but more..." or "I like it, but not right for the section..." or "Now we're getting some where." We would have Skype meetings and talk about the movie and sections of footage and how we wanted the audience to react. Sometimes we would come full circle and end up wanting a piece that I started with in the beginning. But I think you need that kind of exploration. Of course there where times when I thought I was finished and Gary would say something like "...I had an idea. Let's do xyz.....sure it will screw up your cues but I think it would be great! " So I'd go back and add a few seconds. Or sometimes totally rewrite a cue like I did for the "Portrait" section. Gary didn't like what I wrote originally, but like part of a piece I wrote weeks prior. I tried working with it but it went no where. At 11pm I started on a new piece. I tried a different time signature. I had listened to Elfmans work on Nightmare Before Christmas as well as some other composers work that was done for a horror film and I realized the music was written in 3/4. I thought I'd like to try that. A dark, haunting piece in 3/4 would give Gary what he was looking for. Something spooky, yet appropriate for the Portrait sequence honoring the makers and cast of the film. The music came together quickly which is always a good sign. It grew on Gary and ended up in the video. 

Something that always worries me is mastering. I'm not the best sound engineer for mastering. Probably because by the time I get to the mastering part of the process my ears are beat. Due to budgets I'm usually mastering my own stuff. As a result I'm nervous about whether it will sound as good as it does in my studio. This video was no exception. I played the pieces on various rigs and got different results from each of them. Luckily though the music sounded live exactly as it did in my studio. Whew! 

back home after "The Living Dead Fest"

We got in around 11:30 pm last night. I had a great time spending the rest of the weekend after the Festival with my brother Chris. He is a filmaker so we talked about the business and about some of the new projects he has planned for the coming year. We watched some movies and caught up on basic family stuff.

Now starts the post mortem on the Living Dead Festival. Luckily most of that doesn't fall on me. I do however think about where I go from here. I am planning on releasing a CD that will contain all the music written for the Festival as well as music played at the festival prior to the screening. Stay tuned for more details. It looks like I could pull off a physical CD and downloads. There are other projects scheduled in the studio; but I am having a hard time letting this one go. It was a lot of fun, and cool to associated with one of the landmark horror films as well as one of the most influential films in horror film history. Working with Gary Streiner as well as seeing how Jack Russo and Russ Streiner continue to have the movie work for them; as given me some ideas for promoting my own projects. 

I plan on taking this week off and creatively recoup. I plan on watching a lot of movies.

What a night....of the DEAD!!

Our day started early with a production meeting around 10 am. We then headed over to the park around noon to start setting up for the event. Jack Russo and Russ Streiner came around 3pm. Most of the day was hurry up and wait for various vendors and equipment. As with most theatrical productions it all came together during the last hours before the gates opened. I started playing around 5:30 as people came in. I played for about 2 1/2 hours. I just had the M-Audio keyboard and the softsynths on the Mac. It was a great night. Around 300 people came to see the 40th Anniversary Screening of "Night of the Living Dead". When darkness came the music was feeding right into the spooky loveliness of  Halloween. The temperature dropped rapidly after the sun went down. But with hot cider and freshly popped movie style popcorn we stayed semi-warm. It all came to a close around 10:30pm. Gary, my Dad and the rest of the crew went down to the local pub for a beer. Then home to some left over pizza and coffee. I climbed, exhausted into bed around 1:30am.

I can't believe it's all done. At least until the next event....