Hello <<First Name>>,  

USC Animated Shorts

In the spirit of continuing to share the things I've created while at USC, this month please enjoy two student animations I worked on, "Fair Trade" (animated by Ann Lee) and "The Rise and Fall of Benny Shooting Stars" (animated by Connor Jacobs). You can watch them at the links below.

Fair Trade

The Rise and Fall of Benny Shooting Stars

And you can hear the latter's title song, Shoot for the Stars, in full below (this is my attempt at pop):

Shoot for the Stars

"Fair Trade" is unique in that the animator wanted the music to replace what would be her characters' dialogue (if that doesn't come through very well, I made my own mix, which unfortunately doesn't have sound effects: Fair Trade (composer mix)). Like the trombone imitating a teacher's voice in the Charlie Brown cartoons, I had to come up with a musical phrase that sort of sounded like what the character was asking or talking about, and yet also made sense in context, musically. It was a really fun challenge, and I am happy with how it turned out. It also helped that I had such great musicians to record with (they are all listed in the credits... including the girl that played 5 different woodwinds instruments (no, not all at once)!!).

Benny Shooting Stars was a hilarious project from the start. A mockumentary about a fictional pop star (that may or may not have been modeled after a not-so-young anymore Canadian pop star's story), it screamed for a song. So, you get to hear what happens when I try to write a pop song. It was a really fun process, and the guy who did the voiceover for Benny in the film sang the lead vocal for the song. Again, I had some more great musicians that were able to record remotely for me or in their own home studio (Fair Trade was recorded at USC's John Williams Scoring Stage), and they are all in the credits for this one as well.

I hope you enjoy watching as much as I enjoyed working on these fun shorts!

That is something unique about this email list. I will share things here that may never find a home in my public online portfolio. The reality is, I can't simply post everything I make; my website needs to be a focused, whittled down showcase of some of my best work, yet there are still these outliers that have a story behind them and are still worth sharing somewhere.

Carnegie Hall in December

Tickets go on sale later this week for the benefit concert I am orchestrating for. Check out Carnegie Hall's website for more info. That list of performers just keeps growing! This will have been the largest orchestration project I've ever been a part of; over an hour of music, performed live to picture. Hope you can make it!

Holly Star

In other news, Holly Star is now in revision land, but coming together gradually. That is all I can say for now! Meanwhile, the director's previous film, "Swing Away" (which I did not work on, but saw at the Greek Film Festival here in LA), was recently released into select theaters around the US as well as on demand.

Thanks for tracking with me, and as always, stay tuned.