Andrew Morgan Smith is a veteran film music composer who has scored over twenty feature film and television projects. In the last five years, he has scored more than forty-five projects across all media. He has also worked with and provided additional music for Nathan Furst, the composer of Act of Valor and Need for Speed. Smith studied film composition under composer David Newman (Tarzan, Ice Age, Galaxy Quest, The Sandlot), and orchestrator Jack Smalley (Last of the Mohicans, The Mothman Prophecies, The Limey) at the 2010 Aspen Music Festival. As a multi-instrumentalist, he was classically trained in both composition and music media at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Smith…
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Interview…Production Designer William Eliscu on Art Direction and Graphics for Film and TV
To those of you who may not know this, I am a licensed interior designer and have made a career working for design firms in the hospitality market. As much as I love the site, GoSeeTalk is just a hobby. I’m a designer, and as designers, we create art. More specifically, functional art. We craft experiences for hotel visitors who can interact with a physical environment. In similar respects, production designers, art directors and the like do the same, only they take audiences on a visual journey. Among the many things we have in common, we’re devoted to contrivances like mood and atmosphere which aid in storytelling. Scan through the…
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G-S-T Review…Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
After four decades, it’s possible that some Star Wars fans probably didn’t expect significant new yarns could be spun in the universe they love so much. Well, with Rogue One, Gareth Edwards and company crafted the mother of all lead-ins to that tale which took place a long time ago. That’s right. In case you hadn’t heard, Rogue One happens right before Episode IV. So it’s a really bold move leaning a modern story up against the crawl that started it all. While the prequels are something that (increasingly, and over time) many fans wish hadn’t happened, there are some redeeming elements to those films. As such, Rogue One serves…
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Off the Shelf…Disney’s ‘Zootopia’
Disney’s latest Blu-Ray offering is something that feels classically Disney, yet has the awareness and modernity of something like the studio’s frigid Princess pic. Zootopia trades ballgowns and musical numbers for a sweet-natured but surprisingly adult story. Sure it gets a candy coating, thanks to the conceit of a civilized mammalian populus, but while not intended as a straight-up comedy, this cuddly whodunnit is an all-out laugh fest. We loved it in the theaters, and this is just a blast at home; now we can go frame by frame to take in all the grandeur of the flora and fauna directors Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, and their team crafted. It’s a delicious…
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Interview…Brian Tyler on Taking Big Hollywood Sound to the Concert Hall
Brian Tyler has been composing bombastic themes for Hollywood blockbusters for nearly two decades. But as his sound is nearly everywhere these days, you’d think he’d been at the forefront of adrenaline fueled music for a lot longer than that. There’s a lot to be said for Tyler’s prolific output; he’s a household name and Brian has amassed quite the hit list. Part of our reason for talking to Brian this time around was to talk about this next stage in his career. Don’t worry, he’s not giving up scoring actioners, but he is putting more focus on his music project Madsonik and his upcoming live concert feature with the…
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G-S-T Review…Zootopia
You really have to give Disney a hand for getting back in the animation game. Thanks to hits like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and last year’s Big Hero 6, Disney is once again a major force in the industry. Change is inevitable, and as things go, producing features using drawn animation could only have lasted so long. CGI powehouse Pixar hit their stride long ago, but now it is the Mouse House who is seemingly ahead of the curve when it comes to pixels and the digital arts. As the studio has come in and out of greatness, one thing has been constant – they are fantastic storytellers who are able to draw in…
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Exclusive: Director Matt Schrader Offers A Look Into ‘SCORE: A Film Music Documentary’
Have you ever wondered why certain film scores stick in your head? Have you ever found yourself humming the bars from Jaws, more terrified by John Williams‘ iconic two-note motif than the (robotic) shark which hunted Roy Scheider and the citizens of Amity Island? So much of that has to do with the craft, and, moreover, the creative skill of the composer. For example, how easily can you recall the theme to Back to the Future?…that was Alan Silvestri. Your kids love the infectious sound/songs of Frozen?…then thank Christophe Beck. You ever imagine yourself as the Caped Crusader and instinctively hum the theme to Batman or The Dark Knight?…give Danny Elfman and Hans…
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Off the Shelf…’Inside Out’
Pete Docter has long been a fixture of Pixar, and like he said in his commentary on 2009’s Up (he also reiterates it here as well), “when something is a success, it perpetuates the myth that it came fully formed out of someone’s head“. He wants everyone to know, that is so not the case. In a meta way, Inside Out is a filmic representation of how the studio tries to find the story through experiences, rather than create it. At the animation powerhouse, there’s no genius locked away in an ivory tower who comes up with all three acts of the story perfectly. Nor does the production team go on auto pilot…
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Off the Shelf…’Tomorrowland’
Brad Bird has an affinity for telling heartfelt stories and infusing them with incredible amounts of whimsy and delight, charm and inventiveness. The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and now Tomorrowland, Bird is proficient in spinning yarns that are as nostalgia-fueled as they are forward-thinking. Tomorrowland presents itself as a duality, which is to say Bird shows us the best we as a society might hope for in a distant future, but also offers a cautionary tale about not taking action while we have the chance. Now it’s not doom and gloom. In fact, it’s fun and fanciful and more so because of the characters, not just the inventions. We are thrown…
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Off the Shelf…’Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection’
Walt Disney Animation has always been at the forefront of the animation curve, and nothing says that more than a casual glance at their vast catalog of beloved and award-winning pictures. But while people will forever remember the accomplishments of the Mouse House, and the subsequent laurels and praise, there are many times where the feature is the end product of a lot of trial and error. To make things more clear, many films are the direct result of techniques and methods tested in a variety of the studio’s short films. Furthermore, some now famous directors and luminaries got their start with a trial run – once they showed competency and…
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Strange and Wondrous Times: Six Years on the Web and A New Baby At Home
A few weeks ago, Brad Bird’s latest film, Tomorrowland, hit theaters. It’s had a mixed reception but we can’t really weigh in on the consensus. Why? We haven’t seen it yet. How did we not see one of the most anticipated films of the year? Well there’s a reason for that (that little nugget I’m holding in the header image has something to do with it), and, truth be told, I’ve missed a few other very notable films this year as well. I lead off with mention of Brad Bird specifically to bring up a line from his 1999 film which has been going through my head for many months…
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G-S-T Review…Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
In 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes was an unexpected hit, that’s for sure. Rupert Wyatt made a film more about the human connection than the Apes and therefore was able to showcase sympathy and compassion ultimately downplaying the gruesome fall of man. It was a great film and now, in 2014, Matt Reeves puts his stamp on the series with an equally impressive follow up. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes perfectly compliments Wyatt’s efforts with a story that is a contrast in many ways but he continues in an equally engaging and fulfilling way. It’s an astounding film which this time focuses less on humans…
