Grifters, Drifters and Hustlers

Here at the Ear Inn after show for a much needed drink. (L-R: Writer Sammy Buck, Composer Andrew Ingkavet, Writer Cheryl Davis - some of the participating artists in RIMT19 - photo by Composer Dan Acquisto -hear his work in the upcoming RIMT21 )

We survived and even prospered - the 19th Raw Impressions Music Theater event has ended. But wait there's more this weekend and next with whole new teams of composers, writers, performers and directors creating new 10 minute musicals.

As I said in my previous post, I find the act of creating fast and furious to be exhilirating, freeing and inspiring. Highly recommend it as a creator and an audience member.

Oh, and our theme was Grifters, Drifters and Hustlers - not that these fine folks are in anyway...not to besmirch their characters.

Creating Fast and Furiously

This past Friday I went to a meeting with about 40-50 people – actors, directors,writers, composers, producers – and after hearing the actors sing a song each, we were split into teams, given a theme and told
"Go write a 10 minute musical. And it will be produced and performed the following weekend.
Oh and you have 48 hours for a first draft."

Well my team's show is going pretty amazingly well (there are 8 teams) and you're all invited to it this coming Sunday and Monday evening 7 and 9pm in New York City.

Check Raw Impressions for info/tickets. It will sell out. I'm in the event RIMT#19-Guitar-based music theater - "Grifters, Drifters and Hustlers."

And there's something about creating as quickly as possible. A teacher/mentor of mine says "Write Like Mad!" And I was like, why? It's only an exercise. "Well, you'll one day be in the situation where you have a string quartet to write/orchestrate in 24 hours. Get in the habit of writing as quickly as possible."

It's good advice. Most commercial jobs I've worked on in the last 5 years have been,
"We need it yesterday! Can you give us a broadcast-quality produced demo by the end of the day? And if we like it, you'll have time for revisions." (perhaps another 24 hours.)

There's a lot of talk about quick decision-making lately. The Boston Globe ran an interesting article summarizing the whole state of this recently Malcolm Gladwell (famous for "The Tipping Point") has a current best-seller "Blink" about how we make decisions in the blink of an eye and then spend hours, days, weeks and even months rationalizing, justifying to our conscious-left brain why it's the right decision.

I find that when you shut down the editor in your brain and just create as quickly as possible, you reach for intuitive, instinctual choices that really are at the core of your "true voice."

As the great teacher of composition, Nadia Boulanger once said, "Never ignore the obvious." and “Everything we know by heart enriches us and helps us find ourselves. If it should get in the way of finding ourselves, it is because we have no personality.”

Word!

Jazz-based Film Scores

Otto Preminger's 1955 film, The Man With the Golden Arm is one of those works that has been at the convergence of my worlds as a Composer and a Visual Designer (worlds colliding!) I had never seen the film until last week though was thoroughly familiar with the opening credit sequence or white lines on black background and the unforgettable crooked arm logo design by Saul Bass. Bass is also known for his design of the shower scene in Psycho which Hitchcock handed completely over to him.
View opening credit sequence.

Elmer Bernstein's music is one of the first jazz-influenced scores and makes sense to the story. Frank Sinatra's drug addicted Frankie Machine, the man with the golden arm, so named for his golden touch as a card dealer for an illegal poker club is back from rehab and has learned to play the drums. He wants to change his life and join a big band.

Elia Kazan's 1951 film Streetcar Named Desire with score by Alex North may be the first score to use jazz. But the Man with the Golden Arm comes up again and again as such an influential film. The confluence of forces of being in the right place at the right time, the perfect graphic design, a big named star and of course the powerful and unforgettable motif in Bernstein's score. Bernstein often called himself Bernstein West to differentiate from the other Bernstein, the New York-based Leonard who also contributed some great film scores including "On The Waterfront" and of course, "West Side Story" based on the play for which he also wrote with Stephen Sondheim.
One of my favorite soundtracks of recent past is Michael Giacchino's for "The Incredibles" with Grammy award-winning big band arrangements by Gordon Goodwin.

More evoking film tension through music

As we started to discuss evoking tension on screen in a previous post on Blood Simple, let's turn to another Coen brothers film which shared some of the same ironic black comedy.

It's a delicate thing to add music to a scene. This is a short clip of the first killing in Fargo. Less is more and the mounting tension is so delicately evoked with high strings/electonic textures. As the situation starts to build low horns/strings creep in. The decision to kill quickly moves to a fast crescendo of drum rolls, screaming brass and cymbal rolls among other things. Also note the stunned silence after the climax.

It's effective and well within the harmonic language of modern film scores. Fargo was made 9 years after the Coen brother's debut with Blood Simple in 1985. Obviously having a string of hits enabled them to have a larger budget and Carter Burwell's orchestral score reflects that. No cheesy synth sounds here. Carter is in the enviable position of being the "go-to" Composer for not only the prolific Coen's but also the gifted (and busy) director Spike Jonze.

Disney starts to transform

Some new changes are starting to appear at Disney now that the Pixar thing has happened. Composer-Songwriter Alan Menken (of Pocahontas, Little Mermaid fame) is signed to a non-exclusive multi-year, multi-picture deal. Perhaps the Pixar process of keeping it all in house is starting to spread in the new Disney. Also major animation directors are starting to return.

I grew up listening to and loving the work of the Sherman brothers with their amazing work in Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, the Aristocats, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins, the mega hit "It's a Small World" among many, many others...it's truly amazing how much great work they did.