5 KILLERS

started work on Robert Luketic's film 5 Killers. Looks fantastic, and great op for me- lots of thriller music!

Jason and Twitter

I'm feeling very lucky. No sooner do I complete recording on GOATS than I'm invited to spin some music for Jason Reitman's UP IN THE AIR. So far a minimal score, but with some lovely flavours and eccentric instruments. Incidentally apparently he has quite a twitter following, and his recent visit to my workshop was featured. Never been on twitter myself, so not sure what all that means.

GOATS and the KENTS

I have been scoring Grant Heslov's "The Men who stare at Goats", based on the non-fiction book. It's going very well, and Grant is a wonderful director to work with. Imaginative and fluid. Work was interrupted by the loss of my mother, Alixe. A close friend and confident of mine, she was working with children, and planning her retirement when she was killed in an accident. It was a shocking loss for me and my brothers, and we still can't quite believe it. http://alixekent.blogspot.com So now I am back in LA, and working again, and very much supported by friends. It feels good to be busy, and focused on the business of living, even as I continue to process this all.

can you bow a tamborine?

Well Bugger, it's been months since I updated this thing. So let's see, what has happened?

Well of course both 17 AGAIN and GHOSTS of GIRLFRIENDS PAST have been released (2 weeks apart). It was rather nice for a while to have all these billboards around the city with my films on them. These 2 scores were the first to be created in my new workshop, and I rather think something has changed in my writing. Or is it just that I am no longer working in my living room?

Meanwhile I have been working on Grant Heslov's new film, which we refer to as GOATS and has an incredible cast including George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. Grant is a very creative and open minded director, so we are having some fun exploring sounds and colors. It's also my first time using Omnisphere (which, for the geeks, is a plug-in synth) and that is both brilliant and baffling. The score is turning out to be lots of strummed instruments, twanged ones, bowed ones, shakers and tamborines and frame drums, and odd sounds from my collection, plus some textural elements and strings. I think. So far.

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Reading material- I have 2 books on the go; Chris Jones OUT OF ORBIT about the astronauts that were stranded in space after the Columbia disaster, and Adyashanti's THE END OF YOUR WORLD - really suprised and delighted by this book- I'd never heard of him before reading it.

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This weekend I am aiming to have a street strum, or a cappucino catterwalling, which is really just cruising from cafe to cafe with a posse of friends with instruments. Each time we land and get our lattes we can break into soft song; either a lovely sweet and melodious idea, or an intrusive and noxious one, but it's an experiment so we shall see. Culture needs more visceral and immediate experience, less passive, and I'm always interested in this stuff, creating interactions.

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We are also aiming to put together a storytelling burlesque musical this year. It's in early stages.

Big Noises in the Hall; in the Bar

2008 ended well for me, recording at the Lucas Ranch in Marin for the 2nd time this year. A superb place to record, with great players from the San Francisco Opera and Symphony orchestras. The film is Mark Waters' GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST, which I think will become a classic. It is out in May 2009........................ For me GGFP was an opportunity to do some big dramatic symphonic things; the story has some real drama to it, and lots of motion. I loved working on it, but I always have a great time working with Mark, he is such a master filmmaker.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> In January I shall be at the Sundance Film Festival, but without a film. Thing is I have often been to film festivals when I did have a film playing, and I never enjoyed it much. Too many official things to do I guess. So this time I am going just to explore, socialise, and play, and see if I can enjoy the fest. Somehow I also got myself a gig there, which is a big participation thing called the Magnificent Howling Audience Score-Shop. I love being in audience participation things, and so I have dreamed up this idea that involves several composers and a whole lounge/bar of audience, and it will be extrordinary!

sounds, noises, dances of defeat and triumph

It's September, and having had a marvelous Burn in the NV desert, I am back to updating gear, installing new sounds, and getting to grips with Mark Waters' new film, The Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past. It's early stages, and I am searching for themes and tones at present. I like to find a lot of character in the music, rather than simply do a standard fill-in-the-blanks kind of score. So I am exploring interesting instrumental voicings- you know, bagpipes, ukuleles and such. It's fun, but so far I haven't figured out what sounds will really stick to the film (make sense with the movie without sticking out like a sore thumb). The studio gear has been a bit grumbly. I have one computer which always requires me to do a dance each morning before it'll work... you know, turn it on, launch an app, have the app crash, reset something, relaunch... and then it works! Same thing, every day! I should give the machine a name so I can talk to it. Meanwhile I did a gig in August which was great fun (thanks Christy Crowl), my first in ages, and played on Meredith Meyer's radio broadcast. And my musical mayhem events [http://notoriousdespicable.blogspot.com] keep happening, and there's another coming up in 2 weeks. So things are fun.

Hitting Marin to record SEVENTEEN

A great trip to San Francisco to record the score to Burr Steer's SEVENTEEN. The adventure with the Team was great fun, and the orchestra sounded fantastic. We stayed in SF, and commuted up to the Skywalker stage in Marin County- beautiful country, and a world class studio. The music called for a full orchestra, and the players delivered such magnificent and dynamic sounds it really was a wonderful experience. Also got to see Wall-e at the screening room there; what an amazing and beautiful film. And a great score by Thomas Newman. Now back in LA, flown by my friend and fellow composer Stephen in a tiny plane. Happy after a marvelous trip. [Top pic- engineer Greg. Bottom- we jam in Burbank Airport as flight is delayed.]