Who are the up and coming film composers? (1 Viewer)

[Brian W. Ralston]

Maybe you guys can check out two of my films being released theatrically within next year and see if you like the scores there.

One is called 9/TENTHS and stars Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of a Woman, Three Muskateers) and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond on "LOST", "24"). It is directed by Bob Degus who produced Pleasantville for Gary Ross. A trailer can be found via IMDB or www.9tenths.com. Actual score music from the film is used in the preview reel/trailer. (I think the real video version is better than the larger Quicktime version actually).

The other film is GRADUATION starring Adam Arkin, Shannon Lucio, Chris Marquette, Chis Lowell and Riley Smith. It is directed by Mike Mayer and produced by Jane Sindell (Seabiscuit producer) and Bob Degus.

Snippets from both scores are on the music page of my website www.brianralston.com. 9/TENTHS is a more "classical" score featuring Solo Viola, Solo Flamenco Guitar and Solo Female Soprano with orchestra. GRADUATION is more "hip" and has a younger feel featuring electric guitar and at times a more "rock/punk" feel with orchestral elements.

We would like and are working to have a soundtrack release of the score for both films, but nothing is official yet with that.

Enjoy!

 

[Holadem]

I remember checking out your page. Didn't you score an episode of Angel? Which one?

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H

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

Yeah...that was a while ago. I did a few scenes in the first couple episodes of Season 4 of Angel. But we were tag teaming those episodes, so the whole episodes were not mine. Only certain scenes I was asked to help out on.

Ever since, I have been working on establishing myself in the "film" world as opposed to the "TV" world...which is a very different animal for a composer. Producers see film composers and TV composers differently. (even though there really is little difference, the guys doing the hiring think there is). Only a few have been successful in both, like Michael Giacchino and Chris Beck, etc...

And since working in film is really what I want to be doing...I have been focusing on building my ""name" and contacts in that area more so than TV ever since Angel. It has been a long road...but things are starting to happen again with the film stuff, so that is good.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

Brian,

Thanks for posting your site. So far I've listened to, and enjoyed your selection to 9/TENTHS. Each element is used very distinctly, providing a nice overall color. I especially like the use of the viola. How long is the entire score, and how long did it take for you to write it?

Please keep us updated on your future projects, and best of luck!

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

Hey Kirk,

Thanks for listening. I am glad you liked the score excerpts that you heard. The entire score is almost 50 minutes of music. I had about 6 weeks to write, record and produce the score. That is about the normal amount of time on a film. Some film have less time and some have more.

For example, on Bob Degus's next film, DEATHLESSNESS, he has already asked me to do the score for him. They have not even shot the film yet. He wants me to write some musical themes BEFORE shooting and take them to the set for the actors to listen to. That is unusual. But, he feels music is very important to the feel of his films.

Usually a composer is the last person hired on a film as the music is always the last thing done on a film. The picture has to be edited and "locked" from changes before one scores the movie. In the case of DEATHLESSNESS, it will shoot in Detroit in Feb '07 or so. So it will not be ready to officially score until the editing is done, sometime next summer (July-August??). But conceptionally, we are working on the score right now based off of my impressions of the script. But again...most composers do not have that luxury on a film. Bob is the exception when it comes to music...which is cool. He is a great director to work with.

For GRADUATION I was hired in late Feb '06. I scored the film through till the second week in April. So again...about 6 weeks. In that score, there is a little bit less music because the film also has a lot of songs in it. (Which of course one would expect a lot of songs in a high school era film). There is about 35-40 minutes of score in GRAD.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

For those who've been turned on to Howard Shore by his work on Lord of the Rings, I highly recommend two totally incredible scores by him, both for Cronenberg films: Crash (the Cronenberg sex-and-car-crashes film, not the more recent film of the same name) and Naked Lunch.

I love 'em both. Naked Lunch is largely a surreal, droning orchestral sound with Ornette Coleman saxophone solos over top. Crash is almost entirely electric guitar, a very brittle and hypnotic sound. Both of them are tremendously important to the mood of the films.

I imagine both are very hard to find in stores these days. Heck, they were hard to find when the films came out.