Hello and welcome to another HMC Newsletter, Cinemaniacs! Ealan here with a little background into my love of music and cinema.
But first off, just a reminder to join us today for our live stream discussing the 80s John Hughes classic Pretty in Pink! You’re gonna want to hear my story about the theater experience I had. Trust me. 😅
Join us at 4PM PST/7PM EST as usual, or watch on-demand on YouTube, or listen to the audio-only version on your commute through your preferred podcast app starting the day after the live stream (Wednesday February 25th).
“Your strangeness is a signal that you’re listening to something others ignore.” – Diego Maren
I was very young when I first noticed a movie’s musical score. I believe I was only 5 years old, in fact. It was when my parents had rented An American Tail from Blockbuster, the classic animated film produced by Steven Spielberg about the Mousekewitz family trying to find a better life in America.
From the very start of the main theme, there is a solo violin leitmotif – only 10 notes – that made my ears perk up, and tickled something deep within my soul. Ten notes was all it took to convey a beauty and sadness that cut through all the nursery rhymes and happy, bubbly children’s music any child is raised on, all written in a major key.
An American Tail was just the beginning. I continued to seek out scores by James Horner (may he rest in peace). Once middle and high school came around, I religiously listened to Horner’s masterpieces while I did my homework, huddled on my bed, playing the CDs on repeat (which I still have in my possession).
Braveheart, Titanic, Legends of the Fall, Mighty Joe Young, and to this day, Willow—the fantasy adventure about a simple Nelwyn farmer on a quest to become a great sorcerer—remains my all-time favorite score.
There are several leitmotifs and themes that rival a John Williams score, as well as some incredibly unique uses of a Japanese flute called the Shakuhachi played by the brilliant performer Kazu Matsui. His talents would be showcased in many other James Horner scores, which is one reason I was drawn to him in the first place. The Shakuhachi can be equal parts beautiful and haunting, and is one of the most difficult flute-like instruments to play, which makes me respect the talents of Kazu Matsui tremendously.
Long story short, my yearning to have movie scores playing in the background set me apart from my group. of friends We are all best friends even to this day, since we all have similar interests and can make each other laugh heartily. But movie scores? That was one thing that even my best friends couldn’t get behind. 😂
But having listened to movie scores for so many years motivated me to seek out a degree in audio engineering, so that I could ultimately create my own music and make it sound professional. I even dabbled in writing original music and even scored some animated shorts, trailers and one full-length feature film while I lived in L.A. circa 2010.
But like anything with Hollywood, it’s all about who you know, and the guy that I collaborated with often didn’t end up going anywhere, unfortunately. Then once we moved up to Northern California, that officially put that dream on the back burner.
These days—since Horner’s passing—I love a good James Newton Howard, Philip Glass, Howard Shore, or Hans Zimmer score, for example, but most especially Thomas Newman. I absolutely love it when a director uses music as an integral character within a movie, and not have music just a “bed layer” of sound underneath.
I still don’t comprehend how so many casual movie watchers will never take notice of a movie’s musical score. But then again, I have to remind myself that I’m just…weird. 😄 But I’m okay with that now.
So that begs the question: What jumps out at you when watching a movie other than just the plot? The moving story line and themes within it? The acting performances? The sound design? Cinematography? Clever dialog? What makes it memorable for you? We’d love to know. ♥️
With that being said, if you find yourself extra bored this week and need some music playing in the background, you can listen to my SoundCloud where I have many cues uploaded from past projects in which I needed to write a musical score. Enjoy!
Alrighty! We hope you have a wonderful week! And embrace your “weird!” 😎