Rick Reifenstein

April 21 “Amelia” soundtrack in the studio… Started working on the soundtrack for my brothers film “Amelia” this weekend. The title track started a little slow. The music I had written before the session sounded forced. I kept “plunking” away at it and eventually came up with a lovely yet haunting 3/4 piece that worked very well. Chris said it sounded “exactly like what I was hearing in my head!” Monday’s session was the start of the underscore recording. The film has no dialogue. It’s all voice over so the music is constant and helps support the action. So I wrote and recorded about 2 minutes of music in about 4 hours! Some of the cues are as short as 8 seconds; yet contain a dozen tracks. i got to have some fun with one cue that features Amelia finding the magic dragon statue. I thought synthesizers would convey the idea that this thing had magic. I wanted it to be mysterious sounding but not scary. It was a fine line, however it turned out very well. Chris again was very happy and a...

I received word today that giant boxes have arrived at the offices of Healing Circle Message HQ in California. The instructional home message DVD is complete. This is exciting. I have 5 songs on the disc all of which will be made available in CD form in the near future. In the meantime support me by supporting the projects I have written music for. If you interested in the DVD visit: Therapeutic Massage at Home: Learn to Rub People the RIGHT way! www.healingcirclemassage.com/instructional_dvd I completed 2 new tracks for a super ambient space electronic CD I'm working on. I'll be releasing on my own through Amazon. Sunday and Monday I'll be working on recording the score for Chris Reifenstein's short film titled "Amelia". Also stay tuned for some Space Rock coming under the name "Control Z".

April 02 Film making Brother and other stuff… When my brother was down visiting a couple of weekends ago; he shot scenes for a short movie he quickly wrote that would center around 2 sisters. The Sisters Reifenstein were of course the little stars that were stars of the film. The photos were from the scene where the oldest sister discovers a mysterious object that gives her powers of precognition. Now she has to determine does she use her power to save her bratty little sister from harm? Stay tuned and you’ll find out. View Full Album On the music front; the soundtrack for the Healing Circle DVD has all been sent to California and is being edited into the DVD as I write this. So far they will use 5 of the songs. Healing Circle will also be producing a companion CD for sale along with the DVD. I’ll need to write some more songs to fill out the DVD. I should only need 10 more minutes. My day job has been busy this week. We have a new exhibit centered on Edgar Allen Poe which has generate...

March 27 Healing Circle DVD soundtrack and new project on the way.. Last night was spent finishing up a few mixes for the Healing Circle Message DVD. Five songs in all have been completed and excepted by the Director. Whether all five make it in the DVD I can't say. This has been tough for me. I usually write things in minor keys and add a lot of tension and release. I felt for a message video tension was not something that would work well. By 11:30 pm eastern time all the files had transferred over to the editor on the west coast. Now it's on to contracts, cue sheets and paperwork. UGH! But it is a necessary evil. Not that I don't trust the purchaser; I've known her for a while. It's just that it is good to have all things documented in case of outside influence toward the negative. Next week I'll concentrate on getting the CD together to sell through Cafe Press. Heard from my brother today. He's got a rough cut of the short film he shot during his last v...

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...