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!

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

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)!

• 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

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)!

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

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

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

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

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

Watch the video on youtube

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