In Triggerfinger, the threat facing our heroes in “The Walking Dead” continues to expand beyond the realm of the undead. Despite the external threats from other humans, we also get the sense that the greatest growing danger may in fact be coming from Shane. For that reason, you will hear new developments tonight in the Shane Theme, as detailed in the video blog:
This weekend I was honored to take part in the closing celebration of the EMP Science Fiction Hall of Fame’s “Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition.” For the past 18 months, the museum has had remarkable memorabilia on display, including two vipers, a cylon raider, costumes and many props from “Battlestar Galactica,” as well as recorded interviews from dozens of the series’ cast and crew.
(photo courtesy of Jill Watson)
For the “Galactibash” last Friday, the EMP invited cast and crew for a QnA panel. On hand were such alumni as Tahmoh Penikett (“Helo”), Luciana Carro (“Kat”), David Weddle (writer / producer), Bradley Thompson (writer / producer), Michael Nankin (director), Mark Verheiden (writer / producer), Glenne Campbell (costume designer) and myself.
Photographer Randy Halverson approached me a few months ago about collaborating on his next video of time lapse photography of the night sky. When I saw his footage I was instantly inspired to compose an original score. ”Temporal Distortion,” the result of our labor, is finally available online:
Io9′s geek-tastic description of this video was that it “will make you feel like a Cylon sleeper agent staring at the stars.” (from Io9.com) I most certainly agree, but would take it a step further. Looking at the night sky from this perspective reminds us that we’re a small part of a much larger whole. The images of the stars are awe-inspiring and majestic, yet framed in a perfect, Earthly context by the trees and foliage along the bottom of the frame.
“The Walking Dead” returns to close out an amazing sophomore season with tonight’s episode, Nebraska. This week’s video blog discusses a new character theme heard in Nebraska, Herschel’s Theme:
This scene is one of the most powerful in the episode because it gives us a glimpse into Herschel’s conflicted past, and without using a single word of dialog. The Herschel Theme is a melancholy tune in G minor, played at a very slow tempo by a solo viola:
I recently collaborated with a very talented animator named William Levin in a new episode of his webseries: He Shoots, He Scores:
The premise is a little eccentric: Hollywood composers are interviewed by someone impersonating comedian Richard Lewis and hilarity ensues. Levin produced one last year featuring an actor playing “John Williams,” but this episode is the first where the composer is played by the actual composer in question: yours truly.
It’s time once again to get in the holiday spirit with a new “Eureka” holiday special! Everyone involved with this episode knew it would be difficult to top last year’s O Little Town (a processs I chronicled in a previous entry), but I believe we managed to take this series, and perhaps holiday specials in general, to a whole new level of ass-kickery with Do You See What I See? Check out some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of our insanely fun recording sessions:
Do You See What I See? certainly raised the stakes visually compared to last year’s special. The episode features four distinct styles of contemporary and classic animation. When writing the music, I had to measure up to the exciting imagery, match each style with a distinct musical style, infuse every cue with holiday instrumentation and various Christmas carols and do it all while still preserving my quirky, signature “Eureka” sound. I had my work cut out for me, and knew from day one this episode would be one of the greatest challenges of my career thus far.
I’m a bit late posting this week’s blog entry because I needed some time to absorb the episode’s impact, and to get fan reactions before I offered my own commentary. Because the music I wrote for Pretty Much Dead Already is some of my most powerful yet for “The Walking Dead,” I didn’t want to trivialize it by cutting it up into excerpts, so there are no audio or video clips this week.
Before going any further, I must point out that the remaining blog entry will deal almost exclusively with the final scene. The words “SPOILER ALERT” do not begin to describe how important it is that you watch the episode before reading any further. So, if you haven’t watched the episode, please go to your DVRs, TVs, iPods, Computers, DVDs or whatever you have and watch it first. Ok? Good. Here, we go…
Tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” Secrets, allowed me to further explore the exotic folksy instrumentation of the score. One of the instruments I featured was the hurdy gurdy, as detailed in this week’s in-depth video blog:
The hurdy gurdy was not the only unusual instrument I used for this score. I also wrote for Paul Cartwright on the electric fiddle. Paul’s a fantastic instrumentalist I have worked with on virtually every project I’ve ever scored. He was featured prominently throughout “Battlestar Galactica,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Dark Void,” “SOCOM 4,” and “Caprica” just to name a few.
I am proud (or should I be ashamed?) to announce that BuySoundtrax has just released my newest Zombie film score: Chillerama Presents… Zom-B-Movie. The CD is available now from the label’s website and the first hundred orders will receive copies autographed by myself, director Joe Lynch and Young Beautiful in a Hurry frontman Brendan McCreary. For those hoping to stuff their digital stockings this holiday, the album is now available on:
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Zom-B-Movie is the “wrap-around” segment of the larger anthology film “Chillerama,” which has been experienced in exclusive drive-in screenings around the world this fall and debuts on BluRay / DVD on November 29th. I sat down with director Joe Lynch for a blog-exclusive chat about the blood, sweat, tears and various other bodily fluids that went into the creation of Zom-B-Movie and its recklessly ambitious score. (Be warned, this video blog is probably not safe for work!)
SPOILERS BEYOND: This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” Chupacabra, is one of my favorites because it lets us really explore Daryl, one of my favorite characters. He is ever determined to find Sophia out in the woods and continues to search for her on his own. Unfortunately, he accidentally falls into a ravine where he is stabbed by one of his own arrows and must fight oncoming zombies and his own blood loss in order to survive. During all this, he is motivated by visions of his brother Merle. I underscored these visions with droning beds of hurdy gurdy and harmonium, as detailed in this week’s video blog:
These sequences with Daryl were a challenge because they needed to be both dream-like and yet also suspenseful. So, I had to choose my instrumentation carefully. In addition to the bed of ambient instrumentation, I also used low percussion to create a primal, tribal heartbeat:
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