THE EPIC SOUND BLOG

Our collection of bite-size, audio related stories from around the web.

Time for some horror music


February 28, 2012

It’s horror time :) Check out our score for ‘The Face’, a short film by director Svend Ploug Johansen:
 


 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

Category Epic Sound,film sound,music Tags , , , , , , , —

The Sound and Music of ‘War Horse’


February 24, 2012

Another great feature from the SoundWorks Collection – this one’s on the sound for Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’:
 

From director Steven Spielberg comes “War Horse,” an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him.
 
When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.
 
In the exclusive SoundWorks Collection video we talk with Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer Gary Rydstrom and Composer John Williams.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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80 Reasons Why John Williams Is The Man


February 9, 2012

Legendary film composer John Williams turned 80 yesterday, and Empire Magazine has a brilliant feature up featuring.. you guessed it, 80 audio examples of his work.
 

February 8 is John Williams’ eightieth birthday. Williams is indisputably the world’s best-known movie composer, creating cinema’s most memorable themes, imaginative scoring and telling collaborations (his next film with Steven Spielberg, Lincoln, will be their 26th together).
 
The stats speak for themselves: over 140 composing credits, 5 Academy Awards, 3 Emmys. His recent Oscar nods for The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn and War Horse bring his nominations tally up to 47, the most of any living person (and second only to Walt Disney).
 
Yet his significance goes way beyond cold facts and figures: for any movie fan over the past 40 years, he has literally created the soundtracks of our lives and as we have grown up, his music has grown up with us.
 
If he had just given us Star Wars then his place in the pantheon would be assured but factor in Jaws, Superman The Movie, Indiana Jones, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter and his impact on pop culture is incalculable.

 
Do check out Empire’s feature right here – this one’s not to be missed!
 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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Video interview: ‘Drive’ & ‘Contagion’ composer Cliff Martinez


January 26, 2012

Over at Tracksounds, Christopher Coleman posted this video interview with ‘Drive’ and ‘Contagion’ composer Cliff Martinez:
 

Cliff had just come back from an early morning screening and mentioned he was running on a few hours of sleep as his duties as a Jury Member of Sundance were starting to take its toll on Day 6 of the festival, however Cliff was pleased to sit down with me for this interview.
 
We discussed his work on DRIVE, CONTAGION, his working relationships with his directors and his experience as a Jury member at Sundance 2012.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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The Sound and Music of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’


January 17, 2012

Another great feature from – this time on the sound for ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’:
 

In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Sound Re-recording Mixer Michael Semanick, and Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor Ren Klyce.
 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 English-language drama/thriller film. It is the second film to be adapted from the Swedish novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. The first was a 2009 Swedish-language/English dubbed film. The 2011 film was written by Steven Zaillian and directed by David Fincher. Daniel Craig stars as Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara stars as Lisbeth Salander. In essence, the film follows a man’s mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 36 years, and may have been murdered.

 

 





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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John Williams: From ‘Jaws’ to ‘Star Wars’ to ‘War Horse’ and ‘Tintin’


January 4, 2012

There’s an excellent feature on John Williams over at The Wall Street Journal – do have a look:
 

Mr. Spielberg credits the composer for making him “a better director than I could have ever been without him.” Recalling the blockbuster that made them both household names, he describes the “esoteric” placeholder music he’d selected as a model for the “Jaws” score—and how Mr. Williams forced him to reconsider.
 
“He said, “Steven, it’s not an intellectual film. It’s a pirate movie,” the director says, adding, “John is like a great writer. He rewrites me musically every single time.”
After the success of “Jaws,” Mr. Spielberg nicknamed Mr. Williams “Max,” after Max Steiner, who wrote the first memorable original feature film score (for “King Kong”) and helped establish the orchestral language of the movies.

 
Read the full feature on John Williams here.
 
(via @YvetteJJackson)





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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Interview with sound designer Gary Rydstrom


December 21, 2011

Over at the Unidentified Sound Object blog, Matteo Milani and Federico Placidi have a fine interview up with Academy Award-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom:
 

USO: What does it mean for you to associate a particular sound to a visual event (identifying it in a vast catalogue as big as the sound library of SkySound)? What are the mental or purely instinctive paths competing in making the choice?
 
GR: Something magical happens when a sound effect is added to picture – and it’s not predictable. After all my years of doing it, I still depend on experimenting, putting sounds against image and seeing what happens. First time I did this, as a film student, it amazed me how sound could “open up” a movie, how the combination of sound and visual could create something greater than the sum parts. Having a great sound library is essential, but the real secret is how one uses it.
 

 
Read the full interview with Gary Rydstrom here.





  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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In-depth audio interview with composer Michael Giacchino


December 20, 2011

Another great, in-depth interview by Daniel Schweiger over at Film Music Magazine, this time with composer Michael Giacchino on the music for MI4 and more.

 

Spying is a dangerous business, one where your survival depends on stealth and disguise, a skill set employed at barely above a whisper. On that account, it’s likely that Michael Giacchino wouldn’t last long as a member of the Impossible Mission Force. After all, his music is just having too much damn fun saving the planet with seconds to spare.
For if he took on the terrorist 1% with pulse-pounding action in “Mission Impossible 3,” Giacchino’s newest IMF assignment for “Ghost Protocol” steps up the stylistic adrenalin to truly impossible runs of excitement and suspense. It’s an A-ticket adrenalin ride through retro spy rhythms, exotic musical locales and brassy action writing that seems like a superhero score waiting to happen.

 

Check it out below:

 

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  Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact

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