I've been away from this site for a few months now thanks to a supremely busy spring and summer. First, Vacation! had it's NYC theatrical deubut with some pretty stellar reviews from the Villiage Voice and the New York Times. Congrats to Zach and everyone involved with the film! If you still haven't heard the soundtrack it's available here.
Following Vacation! I was busy assisting my employer with logistics and press for his opera, which I had the pleasure of seeing during a quick trip to London in June.
Since then I've been working on Sushi Girl. Directed by my good friend Kern Saxton and featuring a veritible who's-who of cult film icons. This heist film is full of incredible performances, homages to 70's grindhouse, and sharp dialogue. I'm writing furiously in hopes we'll have score and sound mix wrapped by the end of august. In the mean time check out the trailer, premiered at this year's San Diego ComiCon, and this interview with Mark Hamill and Noah Hathaway.
I collaborated with Kern Saxton on this scene in hopes of luring investors.
We discussed the music on and off for a while. He was interested in a fully-orchestrated electronic score ala Brad Fiedel's score for Terminator. I had some ideas of my own, so I did a demo that had an acoustic, gritty vibe. Kern liked it, but asked for a demo that conformed more to the Terminator aesthetic. Four demos later, I revised my original idea and we had ourselves a scene.
The sound design has lots of fun elements. This scene lives and dies on production tricks. The violence is essentially well-edited footage that makes it feel real. The sound design takes the same tact. Looking at the raw footage, you lose any sense of foreboding or tension. My goal was to make sure attention was drawn to the more frightening aspects of the scene: the razorblades, slingshot, the impacts etc.
I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the film.
