There’s a vitality to director J.J. Abram’s latest foray into the Star Trek universe. While he may not be going where no man—or this series in particular—has gone before, it appears his goal is to give the series forward momentum that can be sustained even if he doesn’t return to the helm. Certainly, Abrams leaves the franchise in a much better place than where he found it. What you look for in a Trek film largely depends on what generation you belong to and outside of that, what series you most align yourself with. There’s a rich history through the various decades that Trek lived through on the boob tube.…
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FourScore Match-Up #15: “The Great Space Race”
At warp speed, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness is set to scream into theaters this week. So with that in mind it seemed like the perfect opportunity to dust off our FourScore series to help kick off new and upcoming entries to our running feature (which has been long overdue for another installment). Today, we look to the future and also to the past to champion some of the best soundtracks to some influential and seminal space-themed films that boldly go where no one has gone before… With that said, today we’ll examine one of the funnest space operas of all time, a suffering franchise’s adrenaline fueled reboot that brought together (probably for the first time) fans…
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Soundworks Collection Profile: Michael Giacchino
Now that the announcement and full teaser trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness have been released, lots of questions have been raised about J.J. Abrams’ sequel. Questions like who is Benedict Cumberbatch‘s character John Harrison? and recently “Are You the 1701?“. But no question is more important to us film score geeks at G-S-T than “What will Michael Giacchino bring to the table for the next Star Trek film?“. Granted Michael already provided the score for the 9-minute prologue (which plays before The Hobbit), but even he admits that that theme may in fact change for the final product. Why? Well because J.J. and the team at Bad Robot are deep in post-production…
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Ohhh, Look…Pixar Short 'La Luna' On-Line NOW!!
Most audiences on the planet automatically know that when going into a Pixar film they’ll be wow’d by great visuals and, more importantly, superb storytelling. But of equal and sometimes better quality are their fantastic short films like Partysaurus Rex. Case in point; this year, with Brave, we got the studio’s first Princess story but while it didn’t have quite the impact they regularly offer fans, the short La Luna couldn’t have been better. A wondrous story about a boy, his father and grandfather and their celestially custodial family business La Luna is magical and has the makings of a classic…if you could consider an animated short a classic that is. Today it showed up…
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Michael Giacchino – Live At The Meyerson Symphony Center
Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino has won hearts around the world with his themes to Up, Star Trek, Lost among many others. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra invited Michael to conduct a retrospective concert this past weekend and it was an experience to say the least. His already thrilling music became even more vibrant as it echoed off every surface in the majestic hall of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. That plus the amazing contributions from the University of Texas at Arlington Festival choir helped make the themes you thought you knew and loved even more colorful on the evenings of May 18th – 20th. The air in the symphony hall before Michael…
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Exclusive: Video Interview…Film Composer Michael Giacchino
To close out their Masters of Film Music series, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has invited Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino (pronounced “Juh-keen-oh“) to conduct a retrospective concert from May 18th – 20th. The set list, which he’s calling Stories of Islands, Balloons and Space, will include a number of his most popular and well-loved themes/music including Lost, Up, Star Trek, Super 8 and Ratatoulie. While he’s garnered plenty of acclaim and accolades this will be one of the few time he’s ever conducted his work. But before he takes the stage for his 3 night engagement (the first time that an orchestra in the United States has performed a complete range of his work), he agreed to meet with G-S-T for an exclusive interview. Join…
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Exclusive: Interview…Film Composer Michael Giacchino
This week, Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Super 8, Up, The Incredibles) will hold an exclusive 3 night engagement with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The retrospective concert experience will feature a set list of Giacchino’s finest works with an added bonus; Michael himself will be conducting his well-loved themes at the Meyerson Symphony Center from May 18th – 20th. In a very fun and informative interview from his office at Pixar, Go,See,Talk got to speak with Michael to discuss his influences, his passion, his process and how he weaves his musical magic. 20 minutes is nowhere near long enough to spend with this gifted musician (honestly I have pages of things I wanted to ask him), so before our on-camera session with him…
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Dallas Symphony Hosts “The Masters of Film Music” w/ Michael Giacchino
Oscar-winner, Pixar golden boy and creator of some of the catchiest and most memorable tunes in recent years, Michael Giacchino’s musical genius knows no bounds. His exciting, weighty and frenetic themes have been the unseen heart and soul in stories great and small, from video games and TV shows all the way up to big budget animated films and blockbusters. If you were emotionally invested in any Pixar, Bad Robot or other adventure/sci-fi production in the last decade, you were no doubt under the spell of maestro Michael Giacchino. This week, acclaimed film composer Michael Giacchino will hold an exclusive 3 night engagement with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The retrospective concert experience will feature a set list of…
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Ohhh, Look…Sound and Scoring Featurette for 'John Carter'
Andrew Stanton’s first foray into live action filmmaking hit theaters hard this weekend (but not enough to take the top spot at the box office). While the visuals transported us to an otherworldly epic so too did the sound and music of John Carter. In this featurette, Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino and Supervising Sound Editor Jonathan Null of Skywalker Sound briefly discuss their process and give us a glimpse into the scoring and sound design for John Carter. Have a look and thanks /Film for the heads up. Enjoy! Sound and music are always underrated so it’s neat to see it highlighted or appreciated even in a video as short as this. How many…
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FourScore Match-Up #10: "Evolution of the PIXAR Score"
The Pixar catalog has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 25 years. While they have won countless millions of hearts in all age ranges, Pixar has come from being a cutsey little animation company (started by John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs) making commercials to an animation powerhouse. They are gifted story telllers who give such life and depth to inanimate objects like toys, cars and robots. Like anything, with growth comes change and progress. That said, most should have noticed both their stories and musical scores taking a more adult approach. Starting with Randy Newman’s light and airy themes, the soundtracks to the films in Pixar’s resume have blossomed to…
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The 82nd Academy Awards: Na'vi for "Suck it, Cameron"
Well boy was I very very impressed with the Oscars last night. While I’m not going to do a very thorough recap of the Oscar, I’ll simply say that they again were an amazing success. Following a similar path to the look and feel of last year’s show (hosted by master-classman Hugh Jackman), the 82nd Oscar ceremony went a slightly more funny route but still retained oodles of class. That’s something that I believe has been missing in recent years and I’m glad to see the return to form. So while I’m not going to give the nominees, the winners and an entire dissertation of my thoughts, here’s a quick rundown of…
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Off the Shelf…'Star Trek'
I can proudly say that after years of being a “born and raised” Star Wars fan, I am now starting to lean the other way…no, not the Dark Side, but I believe I am becoming a “neo-Trekker”. Weird, but this is the best ‘sci-fi’ film I’ve seen in a while and it really got me considering the other Space Opera property that I had overlooked for so long. Also Star Wars has just become continually disappointing since Episode I, so for me this is a welcomed change of pace. So here we are with J.J. Abrams‘ masterful direction of a Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman screenplay (we’ll forgive them for their Revenge of…
