Battlestar Galactica: The Plan & Razor by Bear McCreary (Review)

I’m going to be straight forward and honest here. I’ve never watched Battlestar Galactica. The only times I tune into the SyFy Channel are to watch terrible made for TV movies like Sharks In Venice starring Stephen Baldwin. Anyway, I have heard nothing but praise for Bear McCreary’s work on the series. Granted, taking a look at his filmography probably won’t impress you and the films he’s done aren’t gonna do more in the impressions department, but let me tell you right now that this is some great stuff.

The score is a combination of two separate Battlestar Galactica “events”. The Plan is more or less a 2-hour movie that aired after the completion of the series. Razor can also be considered a stand alone film (it aired between seasons). For thematic and cohesive purposes McCreary decided to combine the two scores for this unified release. I almost didn’t believe what I was hearing when the first track started. “This is music from Battlestar Galactica?” is pretty much what I said aloud. I rarely dabble in TV scores because they usually lose focus over the span of seasons and most of the score is filler. LOST is one exception to this. I found the second exception. Every track here is genuine storytelling. Thematic and melodic material carries you on an amazing journey. The music stands on its own in an immense way. It’s a rock infused percussion propelled soundscape with ethnic flavors that creates an immersive atmosphere.

This was my first Bear McCreary experience and I’m hooked. I know I’m probably missing the big picture here since I haven’t looked at the other seasons’ scores, but I love what I hear here. My initial impressions of Battlestar Galactica have changed. Never would I have imagined to find such grand and emotionally driven arcs in a score to a series for the SyFy Channel. Listen to the first track and I guarantee you’ll want to continue. If you’re a fan of modern scoring you will love it. I can’t speak for purists or traditionalists because they are stubborn and think anything that isn’t a 70 piece orchestra is bad. If you’re a Battlestar Galactica or Bear McCreary fan then I’m sure you know how great this is. If you are not fans of either then jump in and take a listen.

82nd Annual Academy Awards Recap

Oscars have come and gone again. This year I can’t lie. I enjoyed the telecast immensely. While the Oscars have become rather predicable it was nice to see a few curve balls. I truly believe that Art Direction and Cinematography were the two hardest categories to call; there just wasn’t an “above the rest” nominee to me. Great surprises were Ben Still in Na’vi attire and a few hilarious skits from Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number felt a bit out of place but was good. I loved that Kathryn Bigelow won and James Cameron didn't. First female director to win an Oscar is a pretty big milestone. She deserved it though because The Hurt Locker was a perfectly crafted film. Also happy that Avatar only went home with 2 Oscars. The movie is not that good! I enjoyed it immensely, but am sick and tired of the praise everyone is giving this movie.

There were some things that bogged down the telecast and initiated eye rolling from me. I love Jeff Bridges and love that he won, but his speech was just too boring, Sean Penn again comes in and makes everyone feel awkward, and then there was the Step Up 3 rehearsals going on during the score montage. I mean, honestly what the hell? That was the most insulting and ridiculous thing I have ever seen to those scores. How can you play these immense compositions while break dancers jump all over the place and do the robot? If scores do one thing it's that they accommodate imagery and nothing was in sync from what I saw. It was a horrendous misfire.

The score category this year was a sure win for Giacchino, which I could not be happier that he won. I remember playing the first Medal Of Honor in 1999 and loving the score. That was more or less the beginning of his career. Over a decade of following him and loving every score he composes I saw him get his Oscar. A well deserved Oscar. Hans is my boy, but even he knew he wasn’t going to win I’m sure. Giacchino swept every other award possible and let’s face it, Up is pretty damn amazing. Guaranteed tears every time.

Great telecast and well deserved wins make this the best Oscar ceremony in a couple years.

Extraordinary Measures by Andrea Guerra (Review)

Extraordinary Measures is a film that looks like it should be a Saturday night movie on the Hallmark Channel. Yet somehow it stars Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford. Italian born composer Andrea Guerra did the score. I was first introduced to his work with some of the amazing stuff he composed for Hotel Rwanda alongside Rupert Gregson-Williams.

With Extraordinary Measures Guerra takes a non intrusive approach. Some of the music borders saccharine and cliche, but there are a few tracks that call back to that style I heard and loved in Hotel Rwanda. This is a piano and strings score that relies on the arrangements. He utilizes electronics occasionally more for percussion and to add some tension and conflict to the sound. Tracks like “Her Eyes”, “The Lake”, “Breakdown” and “On The Road” shine through though because they find a way to step apart from the formulaic material of the film.

The sugar coated part of the score is melodramatic and just rushes in forced emotions. Do not get put off by the first track, which is incredibly cheesy. There is heart and real emotion in this score. It just requires a little digging to get the sweet candy shell off. This score is an honest attempt at lightweight emotional scoring for a PG family drama. The music just never excels, and while there are some genuine cues of real emotion there is also some melodramatic stuff we have to cut through to get to it. Guerra is another recent foreign composer who is starting to get more work in Hollywood and I can't wait to hear more from him.

Armored by John Murphy (Review)

John Murphy is a British composer whose known for his extremely modern scoring techniques. He loves to infuse rock and orchestra to create these synthesized soundscapes. His work on Danny Boyle’s films are the highlights of his work. I absolutely loved his score to Sunshine, it was such a huge part of the film.

Now, Murphy is known for doing some “lesser” quality films too like Basic Instinct 2 and The Last House On The Left. His style was a perfect fit for Armored I must say even if the film itself was a total misfire. The score does stand on its own and those who like Murphy’s style should get good milage out of his work here.

I feel like the first and last tracks (which contain the main theme) embody Murphy and all of his style. I love the synth loop with the strings. As the score progresses though we lose the momentum of that first track. The theme gets revisited in a few tracks like “Warehouse”, but it’s hard to pick out any memorable tracks that really connect. That’s what I look for. I look for music that connects to me emotionally, and it can be any sort of emotion. The problem here is that most of the score here has no depth beyond the surface. As an exercise in style it gets a thumbs up because it’s definitely a decent listen and John Murphy fans should thoroughly enjoy it. All in all I wasn't expecting much here but was actually surprised and delighted by what I found.

Legion by John Frizzell (Review)

Let me start off by saying that Legion was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in recent years. However, I have found many great scores in quite awful films. Legion is not this case. John Frizzell has never composed anything that has ever connected with me. Wait, I take that back. I actually liked the score to Dante’s Peak, but I credit James Newton Howard’s writing on that since the theme is amazing. Frizzell’s music is usually as formulaic as the movies he composes, which aren’t the best projects to begin with. Just to name a few films he’s done: Whiteout, The Reaping, First Born, Primeval, Stay Alive, Cradle 2 The Grave, Ghost Ship, Thir13en Ghosts, Alien Resurrection, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

Legion is terrible material to be given as a composer. There is only so much you can do with one of the worst scripts to hit the market since Ultraviolet, but at least Klaus Badelt managed to make it stylish. Here we get nothing out of the ordinary. Pulsing strings and overbearing synth modified vocals at inappropriate times. Some of the structures actually lead me to believe that The Dark Knight may have been used as a temp track, but that’s just my speculation.

The score never stands on its own. I can barely tell you what the main theme is. There are a couple attempts at drawing out some emotion and it’s of course a piano melody. The one glimmer of light I found in the score is the track “Die Like One Of Them”. You can feel the embodiment of thematic structure that you wish somehow found its way into the rest of the score. Then again this is the score to Legion; a film starring Paul Bettany as a rogue angel protecting a trailer trash baby from God's army at a gas station in the desert.

A Sincere Prospect Now Available On Amazon.com!

In my last semester of school I made a short film. The script is a very personal one and incorporates a lot of themes that I have experienced in my life. I wanted it to be the last thing I made in school because it was sort of a culmination of everything I made beforehand. I was fortunate to have my own World Premiere at the prestigious AFI Silver Theatre in August, 2009. The film is now available for sale or rental on Amazon.com’s Video On Demand service.

Please support the film and take in all of its strengths and weaknesses. Would love to hear any feedback anyone has and thank you in advance if you do decide to purchase it.

On a related note the film features an original score by Daniel Laufer who also wrote an original song for the movie. With film music being a huge part of my life as a person and a filmmaker I found communicating with Daniel the easiest part of the filmmaking process. There was absolutely no guesswork and everything he sent me struck oil the very first time.

Written, Produced & Directed By: Kaya Savas

Starring: Brad Bradley, Mark Spilman, John Wheeler & Christine Carter

Music By: Daniel Laufer

Product Link:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Sincere-Prospect/dp/B0038EOH9A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-video&qid=1266548076&sr=8-2

You can download Daniel’s score for free here:

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/52886

The Hurt Locker by Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders (Review)

I missed The Hurt Locker in theaters, but ended up buying it on Blu-ray just based off the word of mouth. The film is quite a masterfully crafted piece of tension. However, what is probably the most unnoticed element to that tension that goes way beyond the direction and editing is Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders’ score.

When Marco Beltrami surfaced as one of Hollywood’s “go to” composers I was never really impressed with his work. To me it just seemed like he would churn out stock scores that followed genre formulas. The first score of his that made me eat my words was his brilliant work for The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada. I told myself that if he would compose stuff of this calibre more often I’d be a Beltrami fan. He then went ahead and composed 3:10 To Yuma and ended up getting an Oscar nomination.

Hans is the father of pulling the blanket off of ghost writers. Composers like John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, James Dooley and many more have him to credit for their opportunities in this industry. Buck Sanders is to Marco Beltrami as Lorne Balfe is to Hans Zimmer right now. He started doing additional music and producing for Beltrami and now he has an Oscar nomination to his name.

The score itself is a hard stand alone listen. It’s mostly ambience with a slight identifiable structure. The two incorporate synths and some ethnic instruments to create atmosphere and setting, but it’s really hard to get attached to this score without seeing the film. The main theme carries this score. It’s incredibly dreary and pessimistic. It’s most notable in the track “The Way I Am”. That track embodies what I love about the score in that it is incredibly personal towards the characters. This isn’t a “war score” or an “action score”. It’s a nerve wracking journey that speaks uneasiness. The track “There Will Be Bombs” is an homage to Jonny Greenwood’s score to There Will Be Blood. Those who have seen the movie or know the score will get the sound similarities.

All in all if you told me that this score was composed by the same duo who did Max Payne then I probably wouldn’t believe you. However, that is the truth and while the score has a tough time standing on its own it is incredibly effective for the film it was composed for.