The 2017 Dallas International Film Festival brought many amazing films and documentaries to DFW, but few hit as close to home (musically speaking) as Matt Schrader‘s feature, SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. Schrader’s film profiles various personalities and titans in the industry to chronicle the history of film music, reaffirm its importance in our culture, and attempt to explain why certain scores continue to resonate decades later. I can honestly say I’ve been a music fan longer than I’ve been a film fan, and as such, forgive the pun, this doc was music to my ears. We spoke to Schrader in 2015 while he was in the middle of interviewing the composers for…
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Sweet Trailer…’Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’
Jimmy Kimmel showcases some bad ass trailers, and after wowing us with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Captain America: Winter Soldier and the like, here now is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Maybe he likes films with a hefty colon in the title? Anyway, this second (third if you were at SDCC) look at rock star Zack Snyder‘s Bats v Supes epic throwdown has all the making of greatness…unless you’re the internet and have picked holes in everything from Batfleck, to Doomsday looking rather underwhelming, or Jesse Eisenberg looking like Jerry Lewis just stumbled into the wrong movie. Well, you can’t please all the people all the time. We…
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Interview…Composer Penka Kouneva on ‘The Woman Astronaut’
Film and game composer Penka Kouneva has worked for 15 years in Los Angeles on a variety of projects from games, to shorts, to feature films. Her own music is a blend of her Eastern-European upbringing, classical training, modern film & game music, and influences ranging from rock, electronica, Medieval chant to non-Western music. A woman composer role model on the vanguard of the rising momentum for women creatives in entertainment, Penka Kouneva made Hollywood history as the first woman Lead Orchestrator on films with a budget over $100M – Ender’s Game and Elysium. In various capacitites, she has had notable collaborations with the celebrity composers Hans Zimmer (orchestrator: Pirates 3,…
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Exclusive: Interview (Part II)…Steve Jablonsky’s Big Break, His Process, and Living In Michael Bay’s World
In Part I of our interview with film composer Steve Jablonsky we talked about his recent score for Ender’s Game. A major player in the word of film music Jablonsky has made a name for himself contributing to and fully scoring some of the most successful blockbusters in the last decade. Working with the likes of Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer, Jablonsky has become an in-demand composer and he continues to score films for some of the biggest names in the industry. So jump right into Part II as we discuss Steve’s big break, scoring a slew of horror remakes for Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes and of course…
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G-S-T Review…Ron Howard’s Rush
With so many box-office bombs populating cineplexes, it’s really comforting and refreshing to see another Ron Howard film on the big screen. Does anyone realize that there’s been 6 Fast & Furious movies made between Rush and A Beautiful Mind? Guess you can say it takes time to make a quality product, but it’s not to say Howard hasn’t kept busy since his Oscar win. While Howard’s films haven’t all been great, it’s safe to say he’s never made a bad film (we’re gonna cut him some slack and just forget about The Dilema, ok?). That said, when he’s on, he is on and most of his films – specifically the…
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Exclusive: Interview (Part II)…Film Composer Harry Gregson-Williams Talks Tony Scott, Hans Zimmer and His Career
A veteran of the film music world Harry Gregson-Williams has composed scores for more than 50 films including The Town, the Shrek series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many, many others (including the Metal Gear Solid video game series), in addition to a slew of Tony and Ridley Scott films which make up a large portion of his career. In Part I of our exclusive interview we talked about his recent film The East and learned that the success and bulk of the score was less to do with him and more his assistant Halli Cauthery getting his big break on an amazing film. Harry was extremely open to this interview and touched…
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Hans Zimmer's 'Man of Steel' Soundtrack Gets a Two-Disc Special Edition
Even though June 14th is so close we can almost touch it, we’re still going to have to wait just about three weeks before we get to see Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot blaze across the screen. From the trailers and marketing campaign to the actors and the creative team, there’s really nothing about this production that doesn’t scream epic blockbuster hit. Yet as much as we’re ready to be blown away by the visual marvels Snyder will unleash, we at GST are even more pumped to hear the sound that Hans Zimmer brings to the film. As of right now Zimmer’s score will be released on Tuesday June 11th and…
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FourScore Match-Up #14: “No Sword, No Sandals, No Service”
The FourScore battle today will focus on the ambitious and landmark period piece films pictured above. They sit atop a heap of sword and sandal imitators and show us that an epic is ever grander than a mere four letter word used to describe it. Summer’s just begun and it already feels like it’s in full swing (read: IT’S HOT). Even though it’s sweltering outside, we film fans can always retreat to the cool comforts of a theater (or home theater). That said there’s something majestic and enjoyable about seeing our on-screen heroes do battle in the harsh sun-cooked sands that really makes for some truly memorable and iconic cinema. So which humble…
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Hans Zimmer Scoring Zack Snyder's 'Man of Steel'
From one great DC hero to another, maestro of Bwaaah, Hans Zimmer looks to trade the depths of Gotham for the heights of Metropolis. That’s right Super-friends, for his next project, Zimmer will be going up, up and away to score Zack Snyder’s Superman film. With his work on the final Nolan Batman in the can (you can listen to samples of it here), Zimmer is free to begin work on the Zack Snyder-directed, Christopher Nolan-produced Superman reboot titled Man of Steel which is slated to soar into theaters about a year from now on June 14th, 2013. Yet, in the long history of many a failed/unrealized Superman project, as…
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FourScore Match-Up #13: “The Spy Who Loved Me”
Different scores for different spies. The film world is chock full of secret and double agents both great and small. From covert operative to fire-and-forget sleuths of the incendiary kind, these masters of disguise are really only as good as their orchestra. Sometimes a spy film calls for things to be slow and low yet other times a preponderance of bass is needed to aid in their bombastic exploits. Yet, like the old saying goes, you really do need to the right tool for the job. The following composers are equally skilled and succeed in making their respective spies seem larger than life. While they’re all great, today’s FourScore looks to find the…
