Indiana Jones: Prequel Fan Film

May 25, 2008 by George Shaw.

After you see the end, see the beginning.

The Release of the long-awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fills a nearly 20-year gap since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade thrilled audiences in 1989.

In the meantime, the fans grew restless with the wait and grew even more disappointed in Hollywood politics. In that time, many fan films sprang up, trying to fill the gap. But one fan film has stood out above the rest. Dubbed the “True Indy 4” by diehard fans all around the world, Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Templars was made on a shoestring by an unlikely convergence of pros and non-pros. The feature-length film was shot in three countries over four years, and boasts impressive production values.

A true labor of love, a 12-minute action teaser of the films opening is now available to view online:
High Quality Quicktime version:
http://web.mac.com/directorlawrence/Templar_Updates/Treasure_of_the_Templars.html

Lower Quality Streaming version:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v12768359fxNNf9ms

It has been an absolute joy to be a part of this film, and to live out my dream of composing music for an Indiana Jones adventure. This film features a “younger” Indiana Jones (in his twenties, I believe), and is a prequel to the original trilogy. The current teaser features my original music starting around 4 minutes in. The first four minutes of the video weren’t even completed in time for me to compose music for, so what you’re seeing is all freshly finished.

The music you hear in the teaser is just synth demos, I am seeking to raise some funds to hire a few live musicians to record the score. Indy would be deeply grateful for your support (he deserves to have his epic adventures accompanied by the lush and exhilarating sound of real musicians, and not some cheesy synthesizer)!

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100% of donations will go towards recording studio expenses and hiring live musicians. And in addition to supporting struggling musicians, you can get your hands on some exclusive albums:

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• Donate $20 or more and receive a Limited-Edition promo CD of my recent score to the film Sailfish, a sports drama which opens theatrically in China this summer during the Beijing Olympics. It features over an hour of a romantic themes and rousing competition music.
• Donate $50 or more and receive the Sailfish promo CD and a compilation CD of some of my own favorite pieces from various film scores that I’ve written.
• Donate $100 or more and receive a Sailfish promo CD, a compilation CD of my work, and an autographed CD of the final Treasure of the Templars score along with a thank you and your name printed in the CD liner notes.

Submit your donation via Paypal, just click the link below:

or copy and paste this link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=maestrosc%40gmail%2ecom&item_name=Treasure%20of%20the%20Templars%20Music%20Donation&no_shipping=0&tax=0&currency_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8

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Indiana Jones Fans

March 24, 2008 by George Shaw.

For all you Indiana Jones fans, and film score fans, I am seeking donations to help with the recording of the score for Treasure of the Templars, the upcoming feature-length Indiana Jones Fan Film and exciting new prequel to the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film is a labor of love from dedicated Indy fans, and will be released around the end of May, after Indiana Jones 4 comes out.

As a composer, writing in the style of John Williams is both an honor and a dream come true. I remember the Last Crusade as one of my earliest experiences of seeing a movie on the big screen in a theater; Williams’ bold and iconic theme was etched into my memory. I am hard at work at composing an original score with my own new themes in the stylistic vein of John Williams’ original Indiana Jones scores. Here’s my new love theme to wet your appetite.

http://georgeshawmusic.com/templar/Templar_LoveTheme-Demo.mp3

I am seeking to raise some funds to hire a few live musicians to record the score. Call me an old fashioned musician, but I hate hearing cheap scores that are done with synthesizers, and this style of music just wouldn’t stand up without the contribution of living, breathing musicians. Indy would be deeply grateful for your support (he deserves to have his epic adventures accompanied by the lush and exhilarating sound of real musicians, and not some cheesy synthesizer)!

---

100% of donations will go towards recording studio expenses and hiring live musicians. And in addition to supporting struggling musicians, you can get your hands on some exclusive albums:

---

*Donate $20 or more and receive a Limited-Edition promo CD of my recent score to the film Sailfish, a sports drama which opens theatrically in China this summer during the Beijing Olympics. It features over an hour of a romantic themes and rousing competition music.*Donate $50 or more and receive the Sailfish promo CD and a compilation CD of some of my own favorite pieces from various film scores that I’ve written.*Donate $100 or more and receive a Sailfish promo CD, a compilation CD of my work, and an autographed CD of the final Treasure of the Templars score along with a thank you and your name printed in the CD liner notes.

Submit your donation via Paypal (send to george@georgeshawmusic.com or maestrosc@gmail.com)

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Many thanks for reading this far, and a special thank you to anyone who donates.

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FISTS OF RIGHTEOUS HARMONY DVD release on Feb. 19th

February 13, 2008 by George Shaw.

FISTS OF RIGHTEOUS HARMONY is being released on DVD on Tuesday, February 19th 2008. It’s an Action/Adventure/Martial Arts film about centuries-old Kung Fu superheroes fighting crime and evil. I composed an original track for the opening title sequence, and a bunch of my other tracks are also featured in the soundtrack.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m eagerly awaiting my copy of it. Based on the trailer, it looks pretty cool for a small indendent film. Some of fight scenes look pretty exciting

The movie is already available online for rental (through Blockbuster and Netflix) and on sale online at every major website that sells DVDs online. You can purchase a copy for around $10 before the release, and then the DVD will be sent to you on February 19 by the respective seller. Take advantage of the cheaper selling price by ordering before the release date.

You can go to the website, http://www.quickjampictures.com/ which will be updated by the February 19 release date with the addition of deleted scenes and other info as well as a sneak preview for the sequel, THE FENG SHUI CURSE.

Watch The Trailer on YouTube (My music is featured in the first and last 3rd of the trailer):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYJ0UmRs0a8

(Rent the DVD):

Netflix:
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Fists_of_Righteous_Harmony/70086388?lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=1420711086_0_0

Blockbuster:
http://www.blockbuster.com/search/movie/mostPopular?keyword=fists+of+righteous+harmony&x=25&y=12

(Purchase the DVD):

MTV:
http://shop.mtv.com/The-FISTS-of-Righteous-Harmony-MTV-Home_stcVVproductId26682985VVcatId420851VVviewprod.htm

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-9359866-3249614?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=fists+of+righteous+harmony&x=0&y=0

Blockbuster:
http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/movieDetails/383095

Tower Records:
http://www.tower.com/details/details.cfm?wapi=111646681

CD Universe:
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7549373

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Interview with Eye.D Magazine

January 30, 2008 by George Shaw.

Wanted to share an interview I did for Eye.D Magazine, an online publication. You can read the interview here:

http://eyedmagazine.com/articles/Shine/index.php?articleID=32

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Teaser Trailer for UFO Film

December 4, 2007 by George Shaw.

Check out the new teaser trailer for an upcoming UFO movie (Noche Sin Cielo) that my good friend Benjamin Williams is directing next year. I wrote original music for this trailer.

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Sailfish

November 26, 2007 by George Shaw.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is approaching an end, and I feel like I need to drag myself out of a lazy stupor. Fortunately I finished recording and mixing my latest score about a week ago, and was able to enjoy the holiday and take some much needed time to relax, veg, watch some movies, play video games, and spend time with friends and family.

I really needed a little time off to recharge myself, I’d been feeling burned out from composing non-stop since May, I’ve written over 2 hours of music in the last 6 months for a variety of projects. The most recent is a Chinese film entitled SAILFISH, was shot in Beijing and is being released by Warner Brothers China next year.

I’m told some of the actors in SAILFISH are pretty big stars in China. I’m not familiar enough with Chinese cinema to know how famous these actors are, but their performances are fantastic. I barely understand Mandarin (My Chinese is at a level of that of a 5 year old), but I was able to understand the emotions and actions of the scenes just from their body language and tone of voice.

At one point, I got notes from producers and it was all in Chinese, I had to wait a few days to get a translated version, and even then it was hard to decipher the notes due to some bad translations and lack of timecode. That’s one interesting challenge I had never faced before, though I was able to figure everything out by talking to the director over the phone. In a world of quick and convenient communication via email and text messages, sometimes a phone conversation is what gets the job done.

SAILFISH is a heart warming and romantic movie about a boy growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution who dreams of becoming a champion swimmer. And it is one of the most beautiful and thematically driven orchestral scores I’ve ever written. Some of my favorite melodies that I’ve ever written are in this film. You can listen to a suite of themes on my myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/maestrosc

There’s also a cue from my score that is being featured as a demo for the new CineHarp Glissandi sample library. Some composer friends of mine that I went to school with created a sample library of harp glisses which I put to good use. It was nice to have some realistic sounding harp glisses, though they are no replacement for a real harp player. There were a few times when I wished to start and end on specific notes, or to stay within a certain range, but you can really only get that kind of specificity with a real musician. It did beat trying to slide my finger up and down my keyboard though! Take a listen here:

http://www.cinesamples.com/samples.html

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Film & TV Music Awards Nominations

October 5, 2007 by George Shaw.

The Film and TV Music Academy recently announced their nominees for the 2007 Film and TV Music Awards. What’s really cool is I have an astounding 3 nominations in 3 categories.

I’ve been nominated for:

Best Score for an Indie Feature Film
George Shaw - J-ok’el

Best Score for a Short Film
George Shaw - Hit Me

Best Score for a Student Film
George Shaw - The Revengers

Also, two of my awesome collaborators on J-ok’el were also nominated for awards. John Rodd, my mixing engineer was nominated for Best Scoring Mixing, and Noah Gladstone my music contractor was nominated for Best Contracting. I’m really proud of them!

What’s even more amazing is I’m going up against several more established composers. In the Indie Feature Film category, one of the nominees is Christopher Lennertz (he’s scored several Medal of Honor video games, From Russia with Love video game, Supernatural, and the upcoming Fox film, The Comebacks) who actually mentored me this past year when I was in Film Independent’s Project: Involve, a mentorship program for young filmmakers. He’s been such a fantastic mentor to me, and one of the most generous and helpful persons I’ve met in the industry (and he’s also nominated for the Education Achievement Award). I’m just honored to be put in the same category as him.

In the short film category, Michael Giacchino is nominated for the short film from Pixar, Lifted. Lifted was nominated for a short film Oscar this year, and is really amazing. Plus Giacchino has done some pretty big projects (Alias, Lost, The Incredibles, Mission Impossible III, Ratatouille, just to name a few). And two of my friends and orchestrators on my score to J-ok’el are assistants to Michael. Michael is a really wonderful guy, I first met him when I was still in college and was invited to a recording session for Alias during its 1st season. Another one of the nicest guys I’ve met in the industry. He was actually my second choice for a mentor, though I went with Chris Lennertz (and fortunately he said yes) because he’s had more experience working on small indie films.

So my chances for winning are slim, but as they say, it’s great to be nominated! Perhaps I have a more even chance in the student film category!

Feel free to take a listen to the music I’m nominated for here:
http://georgeshawmusic.com/nominations.html

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Indiana Jones stop motion parody

August 7, 2007 by George Shaw.

A friend of mine created a 30-second stop motion piece for the Heinz YouTube Commercial Contest. It’s a parody of the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones must escape the tomb while dodging booby traps, including a huge boulder. I parodied the Indiana Jones theme by writing a partial inversion of the melody (meaning it’s upside down). I had fun emulating the style of John Williams, and it made good practice for my upcoming project, a feature length Indiana Jones fan film, Treasure of the Templars.

Watch the video on youtube

Indiana Heinz mp3Demo tracks:
Love Conquers All (charming romantic comedy)
Driven (explosive action)

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Victim

July 12, 2007 by George Shaw.

Victim is a twisted feature length horror/psychological thriller, and is the most unusual and experimental score I have ever written. There are 2 different sides to the score. The first is dark and disturbing, using a lot of synths, backwards piano, electric violin, sounds I created by striking, rubbing, and bowing inside a piano, and other unusual percussive and processed sounds. The other is orchestral and covers the emotional human part of the film, and in particular, is centered around a creepy lullaby theme that I wrote. The lullaby represent’s Rachel’s theme, and it’s constant presence lurks behind the character of Rachel who is almost never really seen onscreen.

I’m being vague as to what actually happens in the film, as I don’t want to give anything good away….or disgust you. You’re probably thinking this is another one of those gory horror films like Hostel or Turistas, but given the low budget nature of the film, it’s not really all that graphic. It’s more just extremely F’d up and twisted in a mental and emotional way.

Anyways, the difficulty in writing this score was finding the dark and twisted tone to compliment the disturbing nature of the movie, particularly to immerse the audience in the psychological trauma experienced by the main character. The psychological nature however gave the music a dramatic role, as it has to convey feelings that can’t be seen or spoken of, and puts you inside the mind of the characters. It was a very daunting task to undertake.

The recording sessions were both exciting and exhausting. I slept very little in the two weeks leading up to the sessions and felt a little out of it when I was conducting the orchestra. The studio we used wasn’t designed for such a big ensemble, we barely fit the 10 strings we recorded on one day, and the 7 brass on the other. Also the air conditioner made too much noise during recording, so we had to shut off the air whenever we were holed up in the studio. It got so hot, it felt like a sauna, or one of those really hot yoga rooms. Which isn’t so great when you’re trying to concentrate on making music, and we weren’t exactly dressed in bathing suits either (though that would have been nice).

In the end we got what we needed to record despite the grueling temperature. The musicians were all fantastic, and I had my good buddy/engineering extraordinaire John Rodd recording the music and keeping us all focused.

If this were infra-red, everything would be red. Photo by John Rodd.

I overdubbed some amazing violin and wind solos in my own studio. My amazing violinist, Nicole, played some beautiful solos, as well as electric violin. And the beautiful expressive oboe solos were performed by Kate Green. Erin Wilson is the beautiful voice you hear in the…uh….I’ll call it the transformation scene for now.

Click below to hear excerpts from the Victim Score.
Victim Excerpts mp3

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Just a Nice Guy: Full Series Available

June 14, 2007 by George Shaw.

Watch the series on Youtube:
Part 1: The Problem
Part 2: The Lesson
Part 3: The Risk

This project began with a handful of scenes needing music in part 1. So I worked out the timings and the chord changes ahead of time, so everything would line up with the changing moods in the film. Then Bo Han came over and we recorded him playing the guitar parts. The one portion that I ended up recording on guitar, is the romantic theme for the Amy character. I had come up with that particular voicing and style that both Phil (the director) and Bo thought I should play the part, since I had the feel of it down already. My shoddy guitar playing doesn’t come close to Bo’s awesome technique, but I went ahead and did it and it came out ok. Though I’m very critical of my own playing, and wish it was better. After I laid down the rhythm guitar track, Bo improvised the melodic part over my chords.

What’s amazing is we hammered out all that music and recorded everything in a 5 or 6 hour stretch. I spent the next day programming the drums and mixing down all the tracks. It was a lot of fun to work on, and a nice little get away from the horror music I’ve been writing for the last month.

For episodes 2 & 3, Phil reused the music from the first episode in the recap sequences, and it fit perfectly, and gives the whole series a nice continuity. For the final scene in episode 3, Phil needed some emotional music that started off somber and transitions into the “happy ending.” So I sat down at the keyboard and improvised a piano solo, I literally spent 5 minutes on it and sent an mp3 to Phil to get his thoughts. He asked for very subtle changes, so I took what I improvised and reworked it to fit the scene better and recorded my playing on the keyboard (so much easier than playing guitar for me). And that’s what you hear in the final product.

Click here to listen to the entire score suite

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