May Marcus come in?

Sorry to be a late sod. I've brought Marcus Brody, Indiana's long standing friend and comrade, to the party. Just love him. The song morphed out of control during the recording process, so I am not sure how well this now represents him. Close your eyes. Can you see/feel him?

Duelling scouts

I've got two tracks just about finished. The first track is based on the film Duel, as I've said before. It is very heavy and quite unconventional. I like it, but I don't envy the person who gets it as a song.

The second piece is much more straight forward. I recorded an acoustic guitar idea that I've had lying around for a while. Without this project it probably wouldn't have seen daylight. It is very pretty (I think). I'd had the art of song writing in mind, but the feel is a bit more rural and calm than anything I've seen Spielberg do, so I've changed the subject to Boy Scouts. Spielberg got into film making when he borrowed his dad's movie camera at the age of twelve to complete his first film for a Boy Scouts photography merit badge. Awesome. The feel of the second piece fits this perfectly. The merit badge and photography in general are also suitable.

Maybe I'll try for a third...

You ugly.

So I'm just about finished with my tracks. They're all mixed, I'm just gonna listen to them for another day or two before I hit that "render" button.

My Dennis Nedry track turned out to be a sort of Morricone-style cowboy theme. I have no idea why. I suppose Dennis is the kind of guy who'd see himself as a badass hero/outlaw. It's a nice little galop with some church bells for good measure.

My Toodles track is a 17-second rag piece. I feel a little bad for whoever gets this one, because I'm kind of forcing a melody on them - maybe there's a way around that, I don't know! But I found myself making up my own lyrics to it immediately, so I think it'll work out somehow. I love ragtime, and since Toodles is a very old man, I thought that might be the kind of music he would have listened to as a kid.

For my third track (Reese's Pieces), I tried to do something not necessarily experimental, but...unexpected maybe? I thought about what style of music I could do that nobody else would. And I have no idea where this idea came from, but I thought about those jump rope/hopscotch/double dutch songs little girls sing on the playground. I honestly can't remember any of the ones I heard for double dutch, but hopefully everyone knows what I mean. Closest one I can think of is "U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly! Yeah, yeah, you ugly!"

So anyways, I decided to do that. Don't have a jump rope, and I can't imagine they're very loud, so I went outside and got a stick and whipped it in front of the microphone. Also added some clapping and some bucket drumming. It took everything in my power not to add more instruments, but I thought even the bucket might have been overdoing it. I wanted to keep that "playground" vibe and make it as basic as possible. Absolutely no melodic instruments. I suppose that's an IML first?

Good luck to whoever gets that one. Hopefully it's not too out there. I thought the name "Reese's Pieces" already kind of lends itself to a kids rhyme.

Here is the entire ensemble:

 

So anyways, I think mine will be a fun challenge for whoever gets them. Will upload the WAVs by the end of the weekend, probably!

Dan

Duel, and possibly others

I will be composing a backing track on the subject of Duel, the 1971 feature film directed by Spielberg in which a hapless driver is terrorised by a truck driver for no apparent reason. The film is very tense and suspenseful. There is almost a supernatural element to it. It will be hard to capture the feel in 30 seconds, but I have some ideas.

I may also do a piece on the general art of story-telling if I have time. Spielberg has said that he sees himself as a story-teller primarily and that his medium is film rather than the written word.

Two ideas, with maybe a third coming?

As of now, I have 2 tracks I want to do.

The first will be about Dawson Leary and his film obsession.
The second will be about Elmer the dog and the movies he found himself in.

I have a third musical thing I'm working on, but I haven't decided yet if it is IML-worthy.  It may be a bit too wierd...

John Williams

For my first track I claim Spielberg's relationship with John Williams as his chief composer. I'm going to try and use old school music tracker software to write the music as well so it might end up as a chip tune! My second track is going to be about Torch Beams! I think they're often referred to as Godlights in his films, I tend to refer to them as ... Torch Beams! Let the fun commence.

Willie Scott

My backing track is going to be on the subject of Kate Capshaw and the love that bloomed between leading lady and director on the set of Temple of Doom (I think, I haven't really researched this).