Fargo Song Picker Finds Obscure Gems to Underscore Quirky Criminality
It was weird enough that bleakly funny Minnesota noir series Fargo (Wednesdays on FX through June) kicked off its third season last month with an eight-minute interrogation set in Cold War East Berlin. Adding to the strangeness was the spooky recording of of an ancient Russian folk song performed by the Ural Cossacks Choir, which played throughout the scene. Maggie Phillips, the artist-turned song picker who supervises music selections for the series,
Music Supervisor Frankie Pine on Nashville‘s Original Sound
Award-winning Music Supervisor Frankie Pine knows how to orchestrate powerful sounds to accompany action and drama — her extensive credits for film and television include Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, Aaron Sorkin’s series Newsroom, and the Academy Award-winning movie, Traffic, for which she nabbed a Grammy nomination. Pine oversaw music for Dead Man Walking,
The Music of the Emotional First Season of This is Us
This is Us was this year’s break out show that everyone can’t stop crying about. The first season came to its heart-wrenching conclusion last night, but fans didn’t witness the death of Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) as previous episodes hinted they might. What could be an overly saccharin family melodrama becomes a tightly woven emotional power punch thanks to sincere performances and a thoughtful score by Siddhartha Khosla. Founder of the band Goldspot,
How The Man in the High Castle’s Composer Set the Dystopian Tone
Based on Philip K. Dick’s chilling 1962 alternative history novel, The Man in the High Castle has become Amazon’s most watched original series. Set in a world where Hitler’s Reich and Imperial Japan were victorious in World War II, the action explodes from the opening scene with high stakes tension and a season long mystery. Composer Dominic Lewis wrote the first season’s score with Henry Jackman and took over the reins in season two.
How Sidney Hall Composer Created the Film’s Score Using Only a Computer
Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Elle Fanning (Maleficent) star in Sundance selection Sidney Hall about a young novelist struggling with his own fame. Listen closely and it might surprise you that a single artist created the music. Composer Darren Morze wrote the film’s score and recorded it himself using instrument samples and his own audio creations on the computer.
Our Complete 2017 Oscars Coverage
And here it is, the complete guide to our 2017 Oscars coverage. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool.
Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Original Score
We’ve gone big for our Oscars coverage this year. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool. Learn more about the nominees for Lead Actor, Foreign Language Film, Costume Designers, Documentary Short, Editing, Live Action Short, Actress in a Supporting Role,
Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Original Song
We’ve gone big for our Oscars coverage this year. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool. Learn more about the nominees for Lead Actor, Foreign Language Film, Costume Designers, Documentary Short, Editing, Live Action Short, Actress in a Supporting Role,
Legion Composer on the Mind-bending Music of the New X-Men Show
Marvel’s Legion is premiering tonight on FX and it’s going to be unbelievable. In fact, you should probably be careful not to believe everything you see. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) plays the X-Men character David Haller who learns that his schizophrenia diagnosis may not be what it seems and neither is the world around him. As he explores the powers he possesses and embarks on a journey to become Legion,
Hear the Score From Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2
Director James Gunn has once again taken to Facebook to give us a fresh look at how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is coming together in post production. His latest reveal focuses on the film's all important score; no Marvel film has better music than the Guardians franchise—even the title of the sequel is a nod to song.
The score for the film is being recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios,
The Music of A Monster Calls Captures the Hope of Humanity
A Monster Calls is a simultaneously explosive and fragile tale that finds some of its most powerful moments in the quietest scenes. Celebrated composer Fernando Velázquez carefully molded the score to cradle audiences as the tender story unfolds. The film illustrates the imagination of a young boy coping with his mother’s illness, but Velázquez reveals how the story transcends the fairytale. “It’s a movie about why we do movies,” he explains.
Composer Jake Monaco on Building His Instruments, Scoring for Pixar & More
Composer Jake Monaco has worked on everything from big budget comedies like Keeping up with the Joneses, to children’s animations like Amazon’s The Stinky and Dirty Show and the recent Pixar short Piper. Nothing is off limits to Monaco in his search for the perfect sound- he explains how instruments made from everyday objects like vodka bottles, or a $6 wok from Ikea, help him hit the right notes.
Chopped & Screwed: How Moonlight Composer Morphed Acoustic Music into Rumbling Soundscapes
Composer Nicholas Britell played classical piano as a kid, attended Juilliard School's Pre-College program and studied music at Harvard University. But Britell brought an entirely different skill set to bear when director Barry Jenkins asked him to score coming-of-age Oscar contender Moonlight with "chopped and screwed" southern hip hop in mind.
What, exactly, is 'chopping and screwed'? "Basically, it’s when you slow down tracks so the pitch goes really low and you get these deep-end,
Composer Justin Hurwitz on Creating La La Land‘s Gorgeous Score
The collaboration between writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz has produced three of the most musically ambitious films of the last seven years. Their first, which began its life as a student film and ended up becoming a major calling card for both of them, was Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. The original concept for the film, as Hurwitz explained it to us in 2014, was to make a sixteen millimeter black and white vérité style movie,
Oscar Watch: Academy Award-Winning Composer Lightens Up for Secret Life of Pets
Nominated for eight Academy Awards over the past decade, French composer Alexandre Desplat has a gift for infusing somber period pieces incuding The Imitation Game, Philomena and The King's Speech with majestic scores. But Desplat also has a playful side. For animated hit The Secret Life of Pets, which opened in July, Desplat shifted gears from his Oscar-winning Grand Budapest Hotel music to score the New York City misadventures of runaway dog Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) and rebel pet leader Snowball the Bunny (Kevin Hart).
Composer Joby Talbot on the Many Musical Influences in Sing
With stars like Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, and Scarlett Johansson lending their voices, Sing is sure to be the must see family movie this Christmas (the official release date is December 21). The anthropomorphic animation about following your dreams features music by composer Joby Talbot. In a movie about a singing competition, the music becomes a character all its own. Talbot’s task was to weave together a score amidst a story featuring over 100 songs made popular by artists from Aerosmith to Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Composer Michael Levine on Scoring Landfill Harmonic
Few people would have the creative vision to construct an entire orchestra from a mountain of trash, but such is the story of the Paraguayan town featured in Landfill Harmonic. Nearly ten years ago, the community came together to build instruments from the garbage flooding their home. The recycled music makers gave local students an opportunity to learn to play symphonies and propelled them to international acclaim.
The story was so transcendent that it attracted the attention of eight-time ASCAP award winner,
Manchester by the Sea‘s Composer on Scoring Kenneth Lonergan’s Masterpiece
Ever since screenings at the Sundance, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, and now just this past weekend at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s haunting Manchester by the Sea has been generating awards season buzz not just for Lonergan and the solid cast headed by Casey Affleck, but also for composer Lesley Barber.
Barber, who lives in Toronto, has earned international acclaim over the past two decades for her film scores,
Talking to Composer Abel Korzeniowski About Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals
When I interviewed Abel Korzeniowski in August of 2015, it was to discuss his work on the small screen, specifically Penny Dreadful. Yet what had drawn me to his work, long before I ever knew I’d be speaking with him, was his score for Tom Ford’s A Single Man. Lush, at turns haunting and, from beginning to end, totally gorgeous, Korzeniowski's A Single Man score became a major part of my listening rotation.
Darren Fung on Scoring The Great Human Odyssey
Composer Darren Fung’s sweeping score for PBS’ The Great Human Odyssey earned him a Canadian Screen Award for best music, but he almost didn’t take the project on. When anthropologist Dr. Niobe Thompson first approached Fung about the job, the response was unsure. “In all honesty, I kind of thought when Niobe had his vision of what the music was going to be, he couldn’t afford it,” Fung remembered.
