So this website (basically the blog of my projects) is woefully out of date. I have 2.5 years of catching up to do, and will try to do so over the next few months, but will be back-dating the posts and keeping it current going forward.
Justice League Dark
One of the great things about working on the various DC Universe Original Movie animated film soundtracks is that there’s a process in place that makes it a really smooth project, at least on the artwork end of things. I know who I need to contact at Warner Bros., they get me the various home video key art assets for the cover, as well as some production backgrounds, and then they send me a watermarked, time-code stamped DVD of the …
The Expendables 3
Working on a current film title is always exciting, for a number of reasons. With The Expendables 3, we got to see the film way early. Granted it wasn’t high art, but I found it entertaining. It also gave me a chance to get a sense of what scenes were important and what the design aesthetic used in the film itself is. Probably the biggest challenge for this project was the timeframe in which it had to take place – …
Wild is the Wind
Until I was handed the project, I’d never heard of Wild is the Wind, the 1957 George Cukor film featuring a score by Dimitri Tiomkin. A majority of the projects I work on are relatively more recent, so it was fun to handle the artwork for another nearly 60-year old film. Paramount has a great online archive of their artwork assets, but occasionally a title will arise (like First Love) which isn’t yet in the system. In this case, the film was so …
The Naked Gun Trilogy
Producing a single score soundtrack can be a lot of work. When it’s a trilogy box set, that’s like cramming three projects into one, and can be a bit overwhelming Thankfully, for The Naked Gun Trilogy, I worked with Neil S. Bulk to make this the best album possible. He spent an ungodly amount of time going through all the various recorded takes for each film, picking the proper version, and noting good alternate options for bonus tracks. We knew that we …
The Addams Family
I’ve always loved Marc Shaiman’s delightfully fun score to The Addams Family. The thematic score is immensely hummable, and when it was clear that we were able to do a new expanded soundtrack release of the music, I immediately dove right in. We got the bulk of the music from DATs, but there were a few cues that were on analog sources which we had transferred. What that meant was that we not only had the full score, but we also …
The Case Against 8
When composer Blake Neely asked me to design the artwork for a release of the score to his new HBO Documentary film, The Case Against 8, I was honored that he thought of me. Back in January, I had quickly put together the artwork for a promotional album release of the score, but this was going to be something he would be selling – so the quality of the product had to be ramped up. I was provided the layered key …
Leo Birenberg
Composer Leo Birenberg wanted a simple one-page website, so I was up for the task! Using a basic WordPress theme (Twenty Twelve), we tossed in a jQuery poster slider, a musicplayer, some news, and a photo and bio. That was pretty much it, basing the back-end database off previous work I’ve done to allow for client updating. Update June 2015 Leo wanted to have project pages, so I restructured the posters as a “Project” WP custom type, as well as …
Altered States
John Corigliano’s score to Altered States is truly magnificent. Containing a gorgeous love theme, as well as some rather unique and modern orchestral writing, it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Score, losing to Michael Gore’s score to Fame. I had the opportunity to art-direct the CD reissue of the album; at the request of Corigliano, the program was to remain the same, with no additional music. The original LP cover was recreated from the theatrical key art elements, and a …
D.A.R.Y.L.
My original memory of D.A.R.Y.L. was actually reading the novelization – I don’t think I saw the film for years after that. One of the movie’s memorable aspects was the thematic score by Marvin Hamlisch, culminating in the Teddy Pendergrass song, “Back Where I Belong”. Flash forward to 2013, and we’re finally going to be putting out an album for the film. Working on D.A.R.Y.L. was smooth sailing – everything was sourced from the original stereo 1/4″ reels, and we even had …