I spent most of this year composing for Maya and the Three, but I still squeezed in a few orchestration gigs.
First up is a unique project, and while I actually worked on it a while ago, it was just released. The film was Annette, from French director Leos Carax. I somehow ended up in Belgium teaching Simon Helberg how to conduct. Even crazier is that I am in a scene holding a poster of him with Adam Driver (highly unusual for an orchestrator)!
It was a blast teaching Simon. He is a real pianist, so he knew music already and I just had to teach him that when conducting an orchestra it does not really matter what he does, the players watch the concertmaster (in the real world and in the movies), so his job was just to look cool (and it is all about the hair). Here’s a clip where you can check him out and see how you think he did! Check out the full movie on Amazon Prime.
Next up was a good old fashioned action movie: Snake Eyes. This was my first time orchestrating for German composer Martin Todsharow. I always enjoy getting to meet a new composer and figure out how to get the sound they want on the scoring stage; we had lots of interesting conversations about how to approach this score. I produced it from Melbourne, the orchestra recorded it in LA, and Martin listened in from Berlin!
After that I orchestrated another film for composer Mark Mothersbaugh, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. It will come out on October 1st.
Fil Eisler is still hard at it, and earlier this year I orchestrated his score to the upcoming film The Desperate Hour, also due out later this year. We recorded a string orchestra in Europe for this one, and I have to say by this point I can probably produce remote international sessions in my sleep.
Speaking of upcoming films, I also worked on another one that fans have been looking forward to for some time now: Bob’s Burgers! This one was a little different from my usual orchestration gig. I got a call from Fox sometime last year putting me in touch with the show’s creator, Loren Bouchard. Loren is himself a musician, and he already had several songs in progress as part of the movie. We struck up a collaboration to figure out the best way to bring the signature Bob’s Burgers sound into the world of the big screen. In addition to working on the songs with Loren, I also orchestrated and conducted the score. Look forward to this one soon!
