Laser Hotline has published a new documentary on the music of The Matrix. The 50-minute film focuses on composer Don Davis and his involvement with The Matrix Live, a live to picture concert, which the composer last conducted on May 17, 2014 in Stuttgart, Germany. The composer talks about his musical background, his influences, how he first met the Wachowski siblings on the thriller Bound and his experience working on the original The Matrix in 1998 and 1999. The documentary also shows footage from the concert in Stuttgart and the concert rehearsals. Check out the full video after the jump.
Category: Composer Interviews
Behind the Music of ‘Godzilla’
WaterTower Music has published a video featurette on the music for the monster movie Godzilla. The video features interviews with composer Alexandre Desplat (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The King’s Speech, Philomena) and director Gareth Edwards, as well as footage from the recording sessions of the score at Sony Pictures Studios. Check out the full video after the jump. A soundtrack album featuring Desplat’s music will be released tomorrow, May 13 and is available for pre-order here. For the full album details, visit our previous news article and click here to stream the entire album. Godzilla starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn and Bryan Cranston opens nationwide this Friday, May 16.
Hollywood Composers Discuss Music for Action Movies at Newport Beach Film Festival
This past Sunday, the Newport Beach Film Festival Seminar Series presented the composer panel Lights, Camera, Action – Music for Action Films (and other genres). Tim Greiving moderated a panel of film composers who – challenged with the on-screen fights and explosions – offered insight into how the score works in harmony with the film’s visual elements, sound effects and getting all the elements to co-exist. Participating composers included Christophe Beck (Frozen, The Hangover) who discussed the challenges of scoring this summer’s Edge of Tomorrow directed by Doug Liman and starring Tom Cruise. Christopher Young (Spider-Man 3, Entrapment) talked about his music for this year’s Chinese martial arts action movie The Monkey King, which became one the nation’s highest grossing film at the local box office.
Hans Zimmer in Conversation with Junkie XL at IMS Engage
On April 16, the International Music Summit (IMS Engage) hosted an unmoderated conversation between Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight, Inception, The Lion King) and Junkie XL (Divergent, 300: Rise of an Empire) at the W Hotel in Hollywood. The composers who have been collaborating on a number of projects in the last couple of years talked about the evolution of electronic music and its impact on film scoring. Check out a video of the full one-hour conversation after the jump.
From EDM to Film Music: Junkie XL Conquers Hollywood
Over the last year, Junkie XL aka Tom Holkenborg has quickly risen to the top of the Hollywood film music scene. Just within the last eight months, the composer had his first three major Hollywood features released in theaters, including last summer’s thriller Paranoia starring Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford & Gary Oldman and this month’s two top-grossing movies at the domestic box office, 300: Rise of an Empire and Divergent; and he is currently in the process of composing the music for another high profile production to come out in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road. Growing up in Holland in a family of multi-instrumentalists, the composer was in his teens when the first samplers became available to the general public in the early 80s. “That was the time period where I really got my feet wet with electronic music and I knew from that point on what my future would be,” the composer says.
Creating the Music for ‘300: Rise of an Empire’
WaterTower Music (via Deadline) has published a video featurette on the music of the historical action epic 300: Rise of an Empire, which topped the domestic and international box office this past weekend. The video features an interview with the film’s composer Junkie XL (Divergent) who discusses building new instruments for his score, as well footage from the music’s orchestral recording sessions at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. The soundtrack album for the film directed by Noam Murro, produced by Zack Snyder and starring Sullivan Stapleton, Rodrigo Santoro, Eva Green, Callan Mulvey, Jack O’Connell and Lena Headey is now available on Amazon.
Awards Contenders in Conversation
The Hollywood Reporter published its yearly roundtable conversation with a number of film composers in contention for the major awards. This year’s participating composers include Hans Zimmer (Rush, 12 Years a Slave), Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks), Alan Silvestri (The Croods), Steven Price (Gravity), Christophe Beck (Frozen) and Henry Jackman (Captain Phillips). The composers talk about the biggest musical challenges on their films this year, their own personal favorite scores of their career and whether they look at box office numbers of the movies they scored. Check out the full 45-mintutes video after the jump.
Scoring ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Production Diary
Peter Jackson has published his final production diary of the year for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug focusing on the music for the fantasy epic. The video features interviews with composer Howard Shore who is joined at his writing studio by Doug Adams, author of the book The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films. Also interviewed are Jackson himself, conductor/orchestrator Conrad Pope and a number of musicians who performed on the score. The video also features footage from the score’s recording sessions, which fully took place at the Wellington Town Hall in New Zealand for the first time. Check out the full production diary after the jump. The soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is now available on WaterTower Music and the movie is playing in theaters nationwide.
John Williams on ‘The Book Thief’
TrailerAddict has published a video interview with John Williams about his music for the film adaptation of Markus Zusack’s novel The Book Thief. During the conversation, the Academy Award-winning composer talks about why he wanted to be part of the project, the score’s relationship to the film, his collaboration with director Brian Percival and his process for creating the score. Check out the full video after the jump. Sony Classical will release Williams’ score for the film on November 19. Check out our previous article for the full album details and click here to listen to audio clips from the score. The Book Thief starring Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson and Sophie Nelisse follows a young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a new family in World War II Germany.
Behind the Music of ‘Thanks for Sharing’
A behind-the-scenes video featurette on the music for the comedy drama Thanks for Sharing has been published. The video features an interview with composer Christopher Lennertz (Identity Thief, NBC’s Revolution) who performs one of the score’s theme on piano and talks about creating the score and the choice of instrumentation. Check out the video after the jump. Milan Records has released two soundtrack albums featuring the composer’s score, as well as the songs from the film. Thanks for Sharing directed by Stuart Blumberg and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad, Joely Richardson, Patrick Fugit and Alecia Moore/Pink opens in theaters today.