Rick Reifenstein

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....

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...

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...

Got into Evans City last night at around midnight. Up this morning to see Dad and Gary Streiner on a local TV morning show to talk about the festival and the screening. Things are starting to ramp up now. Gotta run and help get things ready. My set will start around 5pm. Write more later... 

Since Sunday I've been pulling some late nights (2 am) finishing up the score for the video that will be shown Friday at the 40th Anniversary screening of the Night of the Living Dead. There were some challenges surrounding hitting the right feel for the various sections of the video; but in all I eventually got where I needed to be. I tried out some new soundfonts. One in particular is a fabulous Orchestra patch that I converted into an EXS24 patch. Great keyboard mapping. I think it really helped put 2 of the pieces for the video right where they needed to be. Gary asked if I would play on Friday night before the show. So I'll be dragging along my small rig. Just the M-Audio keyboard and the laptop. Was thinking of bringing the Juno for some of it's great FX but since it will be 40 degrees and outside...I'll stick with the mobile digital set up. After this weekend I'm taking the week off from the studio. I'll miss working on the Living Dead Festival music, but...

Saturday was Morgan's birthday party. She wanted a halloween theme this year so we had spooky music and sounds; Amie made creepy spooky food. Emily made great decorations and all the kids had a lot of fun.  In the studio we had the rough video come in from Gary Streiner early Saturday. I started working on it Saturday night; then it it really heavy Sunday. I had already had a piece completed that I added more instrumentation to as well as some sound effects. Adding the new instruments and their parts as well as the sound FX took longer than expected. By 9;30pm I had something to send up to Gary back in Evans City. We had a meeting over Skype at 10pm. We went over what I sent, listened to it with picture. The music and sound FX together in the beginning seemed too much and the sound FX during the first part of the video was not fitting with the feel that Gary wanted. The pictures were of the cast and producers of the film; starting with George Romero and going through the cast. Gary...

Last night my Dad called to talk about all the interviews that he and Gary Streiner has been giving in Pittsburgh concerning the Living Dead Festival. Seems like all the news outlets are waiting till the last minute to cover the story. I talked to him about the possibility of a "Living Dead Festival" music CD. I would like it to come out by the first of the year. I wrote a lot of music for the Festival, but not all of it will see the light of day.  Speaking of music for the festival; Gary Skyped me into the beginning of the spotting session for the Night of the Living Dead retrospective video. There most likely won't be a lot of separate cues for the video. Basically one big cue with swells and instruments coming in and out for punching up certain images. I should get picture tonight then score it over the weekend. My goal is to have something to send to the post house and Gary on Monday morning. I took last night off from the studio since I won't have picture till to...

In case your coming to The Living Dead Festival screening of the "Night of the Living Dead" you might want not to read any further. SPOILER ALERT!!  I was on the phone with Gary Streiner on Tuesday night to talk about the score for the video retrospective that is being produced for the festival. it will focus on some great memorabilia from the film. Posters and other promo material. After a few demos that failed to hit the mark; we agreed the soundtrack needed to convey the same eerie feelings that the opening music in the film conveyed. Which mean I get to recreate that classic B movie horror film sound.  Theremin , cheesy organ, and scratchy strings. There will also be some sound design aspects of the soundtrack which I will take care of too. Eerie wind and some sound clips from the film. I'm building a Windows machine that will have my really cool windows only but very cool MiniMoog and ARP 2600 virtual synths. The MiniMoog is a must for this project in order to create...

I've been searching for a central space where people can come and find out what's new in the studio. My journey in sharing music and my musical life in cyberspace started in 95 when I started postin gmy music on mp3.com and soundclick.com. Eventually mp3.com sold out to catering to the Pop Stars on big labels and cared less about the indie artists looking for exposure and online distrubution. I left mp3.com but stayed on soundclick.com. Three years ago I started using MySpace. I have really enjoyed MySpace and owe a lot of my being discovered by people all over the world to MySpace. However their recent commitment to signed artists worries that they go down the same path as mp3.com. Meanwhile I need a cost effect (for me) online way to get information about me, my music and the music itself. So here I am. While my music is hosted on Soundclick.com and you can purchase it from there and Nimbit; this page will be the root of it all. Come here for news, new music, and photos. In c...