Images of China

December 2, 2008 by George Shaw.

I just posted a video documenting my trip to China back in March. I’ve included breathtaking views, a slice of modern life, and some things I just thought were amusing.

For the soundtrack, I used music from my Legendary Warriors album. It fits so well, it’s almost as if I had written the music to those images. The CD also makes a perfect gift for the holidays, so I’ve lowered the price for the CD’s by $3.
To purchase the CD: http://cdbaby.com/cd/georgeshaw3

I recommend clicking the link below, and watching the video in high quality:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5aUXgZl-Vw

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George on MTV

November 13, 2008 by George Shaw.

Who says classical musicians can’t ROCK? I always wondered what it would be like to rock out on stage in a rock band, and I finally did, and it was a thrill.

And this Saturday, you can watch my brief moment of rock stardom when my band, MOZART’S BIATCH, performs onstage in MTV’s “Rock Band Battle,” on Saturday, Nov. 15th. The show runs 1 hour and airs at 1pm and again at 10pm.

Also check out our myspace page, where you can hear an original Mozart’s Biatch theme song that I co-wrote with our singer, Joyce Lee.
http://www.myspace.com/mozartsbiatch

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Adrenaline Rush: Performing for Several Hundred

October 27, 2008 by George Shaw.

This weekend I conducted the world premiere of my concert suite J-ok’el: Legend of La Llorona with the Golden State Pops Orchestra. It was a thrilling, gratifying, and tiring day.

I was a little bit jittery going on stage, but rather than being nervous, it was mostly from the excitement and energy of being in front of a live audience of several hundred. After accepting the applause and giving a brief intro to my music, I stood in front of the 60 or so musicians on stage and could just feel the electricity in the air. Once I brought my baton down for the first note, it all melted away and I simply had fun bringing my music to life for an attentive audience. The orchestra’s performance was superb, they followed my every move, and the only real flaw in the performance was when I accidentally whacked the music stand with my baton. One my friends in the audience mentioned to me afterwards how loud that was….oops.

The orchestra in costume for the Halloween themed concert. Can you spot the banana?

Afterwards, I was busy meeting people who had so many wonderful compliments for me, and signing CDs. One guy, Bill Wrobel, who runs a website called filmscorerundowns.net, emailed me the next day to tell me that my music was “one of the surprise highlights of the concert.”

I realized that I don’t get to connect with live audiences and meet new fans in person much. Most of my work is done at home in the studio, so I’m hoping for more opportunities in the near future to conduct and present my work to the public.

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Also, check out some of these recent interviews that I did:Scoring in Hollywood (Oct. 3, 2008)
http://edmoy.blogspot.com/2008/10/scoring-in-hollywood.html

Interview on Wake UP! Explore your Passion (Oct. 8, 2008 - live podcast) - Interview about how I overcame obstacles and became a film composer (and do what I love in life).
http://ryanray.com/blog/?p=217

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Conducting the Golden State Pops

October 7, 2008 by George Shaw.

Here’s some more info about my upcoming concert with the Golden State Pops Orchestra. I’ll be conducting the world premiere of J-OK’EL: LEGEND OF LA LLORONA, a concert suite from the film that I scored.

The Halloween themed program will also include:

Hans Salter & Paul Dessau: House of Frankenstein, Suite
Frank Skinner: Abott and Costello meet Frankenstein, Main Title
Max Steiner: King Kong, Suite
Bernard Herrmann: Mysterious Island, Suite
Bernard Herrmann: On Dangerous Ground, Death Hunt
Irving Gertz: Deadly Mantis
Joseph LoDuca: The Messengers, Main Titles
Danny Elfman: Nightmare before Christmas, Suite
Steven Fox: Unleashed
Jerry Goldsmith: Twilight Zone, Suite
Henry Mancini/Hans Salter/Herman Stein: Creature From the Black Lagoon, Suite

The concert is on Sat. Oct 25 @ 8:00 PM
Venue: Warner Grand Theatre
Address: 478 West 6th St., San Pedro, CA, 90731
Tickets/Info:
http://gspo.com/concert.asp?nav=Schedule&cID=53

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Wish I was in Hawaii

September 21, 2008 by George Shaw.

I just found out that the film I just finished mixing yesterday, is set to play at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Holy crap I wish I could to Hawaii to surf and
watch films. I just don’t have any money to make it there.

The film is This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday, directed by Long Phan. And it looks like the shorts program that it’s playing on is pretty awesome. Julia Kwan has a film playing, as well as J.P. Chan, someone who’s work I’ve seen before at a festival a couple years ago.

It’s playing on Sunday, Oct. 12 @ 8:45pm (Shorts Program 4)
http://www.hiff.org/

A scene from the film:
http://vimeo.com/1763935

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Chopin and Meeting the Perfect Girl

September 19, 2008 by George Shaw.

Here’s a beautiful and poignant scene from THIS WILL ALL MAKE PERFECT SENSE SOMEDAY, based on the famous Haruki Murkami short story ON MEETING MY 100% PERFECT GIRL ONE FINE APRIL MORNING. Starring Chris Dinh & Leni Ito. The film is directed by my buddy, Peter Phan, and I’m a fan of his beautiful flowing style. I was inspired by Chopin when I was composing for this scene…anyways, I’m getting back to work to finish writing the final scene of the film, enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/1763935

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Legendary Warriors release

September 11, 2008 by George Shaw.

My new album, Legendary Warriors, is released today. It is inspired by my love of martial arts films from Asia, so I set out to compose music that would evoke images of warriors from the past. It contains epic themes scored for orchestra with traditional instruments from China and Japan, including erhu (Chinese fiddle), bamboo flute, guzheng (Chinese string zither), taiko drums, and many more. A friend of mine that I gave a copy to, enjoyed the album so much, he got it on with a girl while listening to the album. True story. Maybe you will get lucky too if you buy my CD.

I also made a behind the scenes video, which was a lot of fun to do. Watch it on youtube (you can watch it in High Quality too):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L99qrn_tWl8

Legendary Warriors is available on CD and mp3 formats from CD Baby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/georgeshaw3

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Also available on DVD is, Asian Stories, a comedy that I scored earlier this summer. The film stars James Kyson Lee (Heroes) and Kathy Uyen (who is in the upcoming Harrison Ford film, Crossing Over) as a mismatched couple staying two steps ahead of disaster. Check it out on Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, or where ever it is you get DVD’s.

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I will be conducting the world premiere of a suite of themes from J-ok’el: Legend of La Llorona. It will be performed by the Golden State Pops Orchestra on October 25th (8pm, Warner Grand Theater) in Los Angeles. The Halloween themed program will also feature music by Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, and other notable film composers.

For tickets and info:
http://gspo.com/concert.asp?nav=Schedule&cID=53

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Asian Pride Porn / Comic News Insider Feature

September 3, 2008 by George Shaw.

ASIAN STORIES came out today on DVD. Check it out on Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, or where ever it is you get DVD’s. And no, it’s not in the adult only section of your local video store. Though if that’s what you’re looking for, check out this hilarious spoof directed by Greg Pak, ASIAN PRIDE PORN. Features David Henry Hwang, and Mike Kang (director of The Motel, and West 32nd) plays a delivery boy.

Video: http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/asian_pride_porn/

Also, this week on Comic News Insider podcast (Episode 155), I was mentioned in their segment called “The Top 3″, where the hosts each pick 3 cool new things to recommend. I was really entertained by the funny banter between the two hosts. Check out episode 155, I’m mentioned toward the end, so if you want to skip forward, it starts at an hour and 14 minutes in.

http://www.comicnewsinsider.com

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Asian Stories premiere/afterparty

July 30, 2008 by George Shaw.

Last Friday ASIAN STORIES, had it’s theatrical opening. I was at opening night along with other cast/crew. It was really exciting, this is the first film I’ve worked on that has had a theatrical release in North America.

The poster and I just outside the theater.

The screening went well, aside from a technical problem that made the picture look really awful, it was dark, fuzzy, and flickering in some places. Had something to do with an HD camera and only having an S-video cable…but the music sounded great in the theater. The music was even louder in some places than I expected to be…I’ve gotten so used to not hearing music in big Hollywood movies b/c of all the huge sound fx. And the audience was laughing a lot, it’s definitely the kind of movie that’s best to experience with a group of people.

Afterwards, I got to go up for a Q/A with the people that worked on the movie. Ron the director, absolutely praised me in front of everyone, mentioning how I came in just weeks before the release to write half an hour of original music with the deadline ticking down. He claims I did it in 10 days, but it was more like 2 1/2 weeks to write, record, and mix the score. And I couldn’t have done it with out the help of my 2 amazing guitarists: Eugene Huang (http://www.myspace.com/eugenehuang) and Bo Han (http://www.myspace.com/bohanmusic). They recorded all the guitar parts, and sent me the final tracks that I only had to drop into my sequencer and mix with my own drums/synth parts. And fortunately I didn’t have to score the entire film, as they had some really great songs from the band Thomas’ Apartment (http://www.myspace.com/thomasapartment). I really dig their songs, and have been listening to them ever since!

My friend NaRhee Ahn, who directed a Korean American romantic drama that I scored (PURITY), mentioned later that she’s never heard a director ever give so much praise to a composer. On a side note, 2 years ago, PURITY and ASIAN STORIES both premiered at the same time in adjacent theaters at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. That’s when I met Katz Ueno, the associate producer on ASIAN STORIES, in the lobby prior to the screenings and handed him a CD of my music, and hence how I became involved with the film.

The funniest behind-the-scenes story of the night, was about how one of the crew members found a book in the director’s car, and it was some type of dummies guide to directing. Apparently Ron (the director) and his producer Kris, learned all about filmmaking by going to Barnes and Noble and hanging out there and reading all the books on filmmaking. There were even moments in the shoot where Ron would open up his directing book and point at a picture and tell the cinematographer he wanted the shot to “look like that.”

Ron is such a funny guy, and I can’t wait to see his next film!

Cast & Crew from L-R: I didn’t catch the name of the first guy…Ronald Oda (short guy in front), behind him is Kirt Kishita, Me, Wendy Ho, Kathy Uyen, James Kyson Lee, & Gabriel Lozano.

The afterparty took place at Blue Dahlia, a really cool wine bar with a chill and relaxing outdoor ambience. Kathy Uyen organized it, and I had a great time hanging out with friends and people who came to see the movie. A lot of people came up to me to tell me what a great job I did with the music, and it was so nice to get wonderful compliments from people in person. I do so much of my work alone in my studio, that it’s wonderful to meet and connect with a real live audience!

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Hear more of my music on reverbnation

July 21, 2008 by George Shaw.

It’s been an exciting few weeks, my new soundtrack album has been released (J-ok’el), and I’ve been hearing so much enthusiasm from fans who’ve bought the CD. I even did a CD signing the week it came out, and it seems weird to me that anyone would want my signature, especially after looking down at the album I just signed and seeing just how terrible and unreadable my handwriting is. Several people have asked me how to pronounce “J-ok’el”. Well, the “J” in spanish sounds like “Y”. So it’s pronounced “Yo-kel”.

I also played a Rockband charity tournament (the rockband videogame…I’m not a good enough performer to join a band), and my band WON! It was amazing, and to play drums in front of a crowd of screaming people was such an adrenaline rush that I haven’t ever experienced in all my years playing in orchestras and concert bands. And all the proceeds go towards Mercy Corps’ COMFORT FOR KIDS, a program helping earthquake survivors in Sichuan, China.

Read more about the rockband charity tournament on my alivenotdead.com blog:

I also put in some long nights to do a last minute score for a really funny comedy called ASIAN STORIES. It stars James Kyson Lee (from NBC’s Heroes), Kathy Uyen, and Kirt Kishita, and is having a one week theatrical release in Los Angeles, beginning July 25th at the ImaginAsian Center in downtown LA. It will be releasing on DVD on September 2nd. This is one of the best films I’ve worked on, and I’ve found myself laughing at scenes even after I’ve seen them multiple times. It’s that funny!

You don’t have to wait for my next release to hear more of my music. I put up some exclusive tracks you can download for free if you sign up for my mailing list on reverbnation.com/georgeshaw. You’ll also get email updates about future releases, upcoming movies, and new tracks you can download for free. You can also grab widgets of my music and share them on your own website or myspace page, they even automatically update when I load new music, so you’ll be the first to hear my latest stuff.

Some of the exclusive tracks you can download now are suites from short films that I’ve done, such as:
*Willie Mays and the Infinite Sadness, an emotional and moving fantasy, that required some really big lush orchestral music (it was temped w/ Horner’s Beautiful Mind, and Elfman’s Big Fish).
*Creswood Hotel, a suspense film done in a very Hitchcockian style, and the score is an homage to Bernard Herrmann.
*The Story of Maureen and Malcolm, a charming romantic fairy tale made by some very talented film students in the UK.
*The Complex, my very first full-length feature film score for a very low budget horror film that will likely never be seen. But I’m very proud of the music, as the director gave me the freedom to do what I want. The suite consists of the main titles and one of the big supernatural finale pieces that allowed me to do something dark but with hints of the magical orchestrations in Williams’ Harry Potter scores.

http://www.reverbnation.com/georgeshaw

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