Last weekend I joined Anna and the gang to shoot the trailer for Gorilla Theater Productions' latest children's play, Pippi Longstocking. Of the trailers I've shot for GTP, this was the easiest overall. Learning from past mistakes, I found myself with a shooting script by Anna and a separate room to shoot everything in with just the actors needed, greatly reducing the background noise. Lighting was not ideal, but we made it work, and I'm quite pleased with the old-newspaper like texture I was able to get fiddling with the contrast and saturation during editing.
The music track in the background is called "Piddlyday." I cranked it out over a couple hours while editing the footage. Again, I'm fairly happy with it. It might show up in house music if that doesn't complicate things technically. We'll see.
The kids on this production are a blast, I haven't been too involved until recently, but many of them were off book (memorized their lines) by the second rehearsal. That's unreal. They've put our teen and adult actors to shame through that accomplishment alone, and as the trailer only hints at, they are hilarious. I'm also quite excited by the horse Anna has constructed. I provided some materials but the actual sculpting is all her. It's going to be awesome. I'll try to get her to post some photos when she can.
So... spread the word! Come on out! People should come see this beyond the actors' parents and firends. The kids are doing a great job, with a nice blend of returning vets (several from Secret Garden) and first timers with GTP (including the wonderful Pippi). We're returning to Sojourner's Church, where we staged Secret Garden after having such a positive experience working with them last time. It's lovely safe environment for children's productions like this. It's also got a lot of seating capacity so, again, the more the merrier!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Recent Music: "Saucer Sauce" and "Station Sprawl"
Here's a couple songs I've composed recently not attached to any projects.
Saucer Sauce
This one was my first experiment messing around with a 6/8 signature. 6/8 time came to my attention due to it being a frequent signature used by my all-time favorite composer, Charles Mingus. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when my dabbling in jazz produced an almost raver dancer tune. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece which evokes many Cartoon themes with a retro 50s sci-fi twist.
Station Sprawl
This one was a bit more layered and challenging. The base beat was added last and really gave a shape to what was initially a little too repetitive a tune. It's also my first foray into 7/4 time. I don't know, I've just been on a weird time signature kick lately.
Saucer Sauce
This one was my first experiment messing around with a 6/8 signature. 6/8 time came to my attention due to it being a frequent signature used by my all-time favorite composer, Charles Mingus. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when my dabbling in jazz produced an almost raver dancer tune. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece which evokes many Cartoon themes with a retro 50s sci-fi twist.
Station Sprawl
This one was a bit more layered and challenging. The base beat was added last and really gave a shape to what was initially a little too repetitive a tune. It's also my first foray into 7/4 time. I don't know, I've just been on a weird time signature kick lately.
Films, Scoring and GTP Activities
Films and Scoring
For the last couple of weeks, mostly while recovering from a minor back injury, I scored a short film based on the script, for a friend of mine. I'm quite pleased with the outcome, as it was done at rather breakneck speed with a total of 7 tracks in about 12 to 15 hours accumulated. As the film is to be shot next week ideally, the finished product may require tweaks to the music and additional tracks. Admittedly I suspect one track will need slight remixing and another slowing down a couple BPSs. When it's all officially finished, I'll post them.
Incidentally, I'm very interested in doing more of this kind of thing.
The film is written and being directed by the same friend I'd previously mentioned GTP helping make a film last March. The reason for that film's silence is that it fell into a series of shooting cancellations and schedule juggling hell with its fairly large cast. With half the film shot and sitting on my hard drive, we're all hoping that perhaps next year we can pick it back up, get all the actors together and finish what we started.
I am also hoping to start work on a long talked about film project of my own next year, though that is still a very wait-and-see prospect at this point.
Gorilla Theater Productions
GTP is going strong. I haven't been posting much as I'm not too involved these days. In my last post I had mentioned the line up for the rest of the season would include a children's fantasy adventure, a Scandinavian classic, and something from the Bard. Instead of the of the fantasy play, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Anna opted for Pippy Long Stockings (which has been cast and is currently rehearsing) having fallen for its script. She also decided that it would allow more production energy to be focused on the last play, which will be Macbeth. The fact that we're talking about it and already starting to plan for it when their are two plays to put on before it should give some indication that Macbeth is going to be big. At least, big by Gorilla standards. I'm very excited about it. Expect to see promotions in the near future as we head into November.
I've already started working on the score for Macbeth and have a few tracks finished that will likely make the final cut. I did get a little ways on the fantasy score, with one track finished that I'll share down the road. I'm planning to do trailers for all of these plays as of now, but as the season picks up at work we'll just have to see.
As for the Scandinavian play, it is still in the works but I'll let Anna announce that when she's ready. I will say that it is minimalistic in nature, so their isn't a great deal of advanced preparation necessary like with Mac'ers.
For the last couple of weeks, mostly while recovering from a minor back injury, I scored a short film based on the script, for a friend of mine. I'm quite pleased with the outcome, as it was done at rather breakneck speed with a total of 7 tracks in about 12 to 15 hours accumulated. As the film is to be shot next week ideally, the finished product may require tweaks to the music and additional tracks. Admittedly I suspect one track will need slight remixing and another slowing down a couple BPSs. When it's all officially finished, I'll post them.
Incidentally, I'm very interested in doing more of this kind of thing.
The film is written and being directed by the same friend I'd previously mentioned GTP helping make a film last March. The reason for that film's silence is that it fell into a series of shooting cancellations and schedule juggling hell with its fairly large cast. With half the film shot and sitting on my hard drive, we're all hoping that perhaps next year we can pick it back up, get all the actors together and finish what we started.
I am also hoping to start work on a long talked about film project of my own next year, though that is still a very wait-and-see prospect at this point.
Gorilla Theater Productions
GTP is going strong. I haven't been posting much as I'm not too involved these days. In my last post I had mentioned the line up for the rest of the season would include a children's fantasy adventure, a Scandinavian classic, and something from the Bard. Instead of the of the fantasy play, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Anna opted for Pippy Long Stockings (which has been cast and is currently rehearsing) having fallen for its script. She also decided that it would allow more production energy to be focused on the last play, which will be Macbeth. The fact that we're talking about it and already starting to plan for it when their are two plays to put on before it should give some indication that Macbeth is going to be big. At least, big by Gorilla standards. I'm very excited about it. Expect to see promotions in the near future as we head into November.
I've already started working on the score for Macbeth and have a few tracks finished that will likely make the final cut. I did get a little ways on the fantasy score, with one track finished that I'll share down the road. I'm planning to do trailers for all of these plays as of now, but as the season picks up at work we'll just have to see.
As for the Scandinavian play, it is still in the works but I'll let Anna announce that when she's ready. I will say that it is minimalistic in nature, so their isn't a great deal of advanced preparation necessary like with Mac'ers.
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