Cool Commercial Shows How Composer Lalo Schifrin created Mission Impossible…Fantastically
As a composer, I really got a kick out of this commercial spot for Lipton Yellow Label Tea which shows how a composer, a very famous one, creates the music for a major pop culture event: Mission Impossible. The music has lasted for decades since the television series and then with the movie remakes with a bonafide star Tom Cruise.
Check it out. I wish I had a room where these players would drop from suspension wires whenever I needed them!
Interesting how infectious that theme is and how it has lasted the test of time – mainly because of that cool rhythm. Could it be Lalo Schifrin‘s Argentinian upbringing? Tango anyone?
And yes, the tea does things for me, though I prefer the pearl jasmine tea I get down in Chinatown at $100 per pound. Man! Just talking about makes me want to go brew a pot!
Enjoy!
Andrew
Great Acoustic Guitar Tracks – Royalty Free Music
Just added 7 great tracks from Nicky Needle. We are so fortunate to have so many great Acoustic and Americana options in our royalty free music library.
Check them out:
 Composer: Nicky Needle Beautiful acoustic guitar solo. Lullaby-like and comforting. Price: $34.95 |
Music To Stir the Blood
- Cinematic, Action Music
We’ve just added a bunch of new powerful, dramatic and often heroic, sometimes dark music soundtracks to our Underscore-Drama section of the Online Royalty Free Music Store.
Check out these and the entire collection.
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Massive, grand and climactic orchestral pinnacle, followed by a warm yet thoughtful epilogue. Excellent for triumphant yet bittersweet epic endings. “Victory is ours, yet at what cost?” Very dramatic, with high production values and stunning realism. Keywords: Grand, Epic, Dramatic, Climax, Powerful, Orchestral, Massive, Filmic. By Dave Klotz.
- Let Them Try
An orchestral rock guitar hybrid that builds and then releases into a gentle classical guitar and strings theme. Effective for a film underscore that needs an edge with a tender heart. A hero with a heart? By Proofsound. - Memories of WW2 –
Passionate , sad , noble French horns , strings , piano, oboe ,el. Piano ,harp 1min 56sec – by Alex Khaskian - Mrs. Tinkle
Magical big Hollywood like Harry Potter meets Mrs. Doubtfire. By Sebastian Morawietz. - No Way Back
Intense, bold, big orchestral rock metal hybrid. Action, action, action! Similar to stuff from the Hans Zimmer school of scoring. Blockbuster sound. By Proofsound. - The Getaway Plan
Insistent bass and guitar riff with pounding drums drive this action filled rock track. Great for a Guy Ritchie type Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels action piece. By Robert Wayne Johnson. - Yup It’s The Big Action Cue
A massive, dramatic, hollywood style film cue suitable for anything involving frenetic action and excitement. Huge orchestra, powerful drum, chunky guitars and industrial elements make this cue perfect for any battle, chase, or disaster sequence. Keywords: Action, battle, chase, huge, orchestral, hollywood, adventure, power. By Dave Klotz. - Burning The Witch
Exactly like it sounds. By Marinho Nobre.
Pandora’s Secret Music DNA Equals Millions of Human Hours
Great article in the NY Times about how Pandora actually determines the individual elements of their Music Genome Project. Interesting that it is so human labor intensive, given the technology aura of the company.
And how do you get your music into their engine? One guy with an overflowing desk.
Also interesting to note that founder Tim Westergren was a film composer who had to decode film director’s likes and dislikes on a daily basis. Sounds familiar!
The sound of hollywood, Maurice Jarre dies at 84
PARIS – A French musicians guild says Oscar-winning film composer Maurice Jarre has died at the age of 84.
Jarre is best known for writing the haunting song “Lara’s Theme” from the film “Doctor Zhivago.”
SACEM head Bernard Miyet cites Jarre’s family Monday as saying the composer died in his California villa.
Jarre penned dozens of scores for some of Hollywood’s most prominent directors.
He won Oscars for his music for “Doctor Zhivago,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” and “Passage to India,” and was nominated for an additional six Academy Awards.
Jarre was born in 1924 in Lyon, France, and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris before starting his career composing scores for theatrical productions. He has lived in the U.S. for decades.
“A man must die in order to live”- how loglines apply to film… and life!
Essential Communication
The ability to boil down a story to it’s minimum is at the heart of crafting a logline. It’s filmmaking 101. What’s a logline? It’s the sentence(s) you read in the TV guide excerpt, or on the movie poster or in the reviews. But what’s interesting is that this exercise in concise articulation is very powerful. It can be applied to every project you work on regardless of industry.
When I was working as an MTV VJ, I realized early on that just reading the teleprompter made for stilted, boring and ridiculous presentation. I started scanning the script beforehand, boiling it down to the 3 or 4 essential points I needed to make, and then paraphrase the script. It made for much more relaxed, natural conversation. Over drinks with my friend and persuasive communications presentation coach, Dan Broden, we discussed how this was one of the secrets he teaches to Fortune 500 CEOs and superstar athletes. Basically, it’s boiling down your presentation to its essentials, being prepared. It’s kind of like having a logline for what you are discussing.
President Obama does this very well. Filmmakers, though they have less at stake (some would say arguably) must perfect this skill to be able to pitch their project successfully. As do lawyers, sales people, even parents. And when direcing your film and discussing it with cast, and crew including editors, composers and art directors, you need to be able to clearly define what is happening from the big picture to scene by scene moments.
“A ________must_________in order to ____________.”
Fill in those blanks and you can see how concise, clear and articulate you become. And if you speak it like the movie voiceover guy, then you’re sure to have a blockbuster. 
From Filmslinger:
A logline conveys the dramatic story of a screenplay in the most abbreviated manner possible. It presents the major throughline of the dramatic narrative without character intricacies and sub-plots. It is the story boiled down to its base. A good logline is one sentence. More complicated screenplays may need a two sentence logline.
Crafting a logline takes a great deal of practice and an understanding of basic dramatic structure.
At a minimum, a Logline must tell:
- who the story is about
- what he strives for.
- what stands in his way.
A logline does not tell the whole story. Using these three story elements, a good logline depicts the dramatic narrative in a clear fashion.
Read full article at Filmslinger.
- Andrew Ingkavet is Head Monk, Executive Producer and Composer for 300 Monks, an audio agency providing custom music scores, music supervision and music licensing to film studios, ad agencies and independent producers.