Use of Well Known Songs

I was walking back to the top of campus alone from the TV studio. I was scanning the campus in an almost paranoid fashion. It was cold, there was no one outside, and I could almost merge into the quiet, it was surreal.

The Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" came into my head. But like I often find myself doing I was free styling it after the first two lines and the song transformed. It became darker, more creepy, and could fit into a trailer for a horror story. I see how the song would be mixed in my head and it would be awesome.

Anyways I started thinking about this and how movies have done this before and how effective it can be. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher used a creepy remix of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin in the movie trailer and set a mood prior to even watching the movie. Horror movies often use nursery rhymes or innocent sounding or popular songs to creep out the audience.

I found this to be really cool because it's such a simple concept. I also found it to be rather funny because I am using this idea in the "Happy Birthday" short with the song Happy Birthday.

Musical Adaptations

As a drummer, I find myself listening and tapping along to music on a constant basis. There is never a time when a there is a song (or multiple songs) stuck in my head. I like a wide range of music, but mainly stuff I can drum along to. I was a band geek in high school, and lead drummer when I was a junior and senior; this meant that I had to help out with our biannual musicals. At first I was very bitter and disinclined to participate, but I quickly found a soft spot for musical theater, and medleys from musicals and movies that we played in concert.  My favorite was the percussive score from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Because of this, I began watching film adaptations of famous musicals, as well as attending many shows. I am very interested in taking part in film adaptations in the future, as well as possibly producing, directing and/or editing music videos.

Here's a short list of my favorite musical films:
Grease (only the first one, the sequel was garbage)
Most Disney animated musicals (Lion King, Aristocats, Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, etc.)
Little Shop of Horrors (I recommend this to anyone who has not yet seen it)
Sweeney Todd (a great Johnny Depp/Tim Burton film, yet a little graphic for the weak stomached)
Wizard of Oz (such a classic)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (it's even weirder than the title would suggest)

I could go on, but I'll keep my list for now to the ones more people have probably heard of.
More to come in later posts if others share my strange infatuation :)