Music in Short Films

Growing up I had numerous influences of music in my life. From playing the saxophone from 4th-12th grade, to listening to my classically trained sister sing in concert. Music has always been prevalent and I have found that melodies are what drives my mind. For the life me I couldn't remember lyrics without studying a printed piece of sheet music. But the way music progressed was something I could always follow and even predict.

I've always wanted a good musical accompaniment with any video work I've done. For the video below I had found a song I enjoyed the melody to and from there all I needed was something to put on screen. With a little help from a friend, I was able to make one of my favorite pieces of work.

Air from Skyler Bocciolatt on Vimeo.

Using both the hits of the choreography and the music I had a blast editing and the possibilties of which direction  I took the short were endless. While this was just a small project I shot on a whim. I applied the same idea of music being a character in the film with my Junior level film "Before Your Eyes." 

"Before Your Eyes" follows a young man who is given the opportunity to look back on his life. Drawing upon the strong bond that can exist between father and son, this story looks at the actions we make when pushed to our greatest limits. Throughout the film there are only two scenes with written dialogue. Music was able to fill this space and help evoke any emotion from the film that typically would be exposed through dialogue. 

Last night I also began to watch "Walt Disney's Animations Studios Short Films Collection." Each short animation was introduced with interviews of the creators of the short. They talked about how music inspired them and that for a specific short "Lorenzo" they searched hundreds of tango scenes just to find a song to use, and in the end it was the first one they had listened to. The trailer can be scene below and all of the shorts are available on Netflix.

It was so interesting to me that the creators were able to make a story out of music they found. Even if there aren't lyrics the melody and progression of any song is a story. For me, I want to continue to find these stories and provide a moving image for as many as I can. The ways music and film complement each other is like no other thing in this world. These mediums are what people turn to to escape there problems and worries; they are necessary for society to function and I want to create them for the rest of my life.

'Girl Meets World': An Automatic Marketing Winner

I was very cautious going into my first episode of 'Girl Meets World,' Disney's new (as of 2014) spin-off of the popular 90s ABC sitcom 'Boy Meets World.' I, probably like you, followed the life and love story of Cory Matthews and his girlfriend (later wife) Topanga, and fell deeply in love with best friend-sidekick Shaun Hunter.

'Girl Meets World' takes place more than a decade later. Cory and Topanga's daughter, Riley, is trying to navigate her tween years -- and problems that go with them -- especially in regard to bonds with family and friends. At John Quincy Adams Middle School in Manhattan, Riley finds being a student more difficult because her dad is a history teacher there, and she's in his class. Her mom, a lawyer, is involved in her social life and owns a trendy teen hangout. Among Riley's classmates are best friend Maya (who reminds us oh so much of Cory's childhood bestie Shaun), crush Lucas, and quirky Farkle (son of Cory and Topanga's classmate Stuart Minkus).

You can see why I was nervous. 'Girl Meets World' had (and still has) some big shoes to fill, with its predecessor having a seven season run. But I had to watch it. I mean, they got Ben Savage and Danielle Fischer to reprise their roles as Cory and Topanga. So I watched the pilot. Then I watched the next one. Then I binged the entire season.

Whether you're a fan of 'Boy Meets World' or not, 'Girl Meets World' is important and I'll tell you why. I haven't watched a show on Disney Channel by choice in years, but I had to watch this one. 'Boy Meets World' ran from 1993-2000 and a lot of their fans are now parents. As a generation of new parents watch characters they watched as teens become parents themselves, Disney is perfectly targeting adults and teens with this new show.

Not to mention, we're all guilty of claiming the children's programming back in our day was way better than the crap they make nowadays. Well now the youth of America is experiencing the brilliance of Mr. Feeny and his lessons. Only this time it's Cory giving the lesson, not Feeny. Just imagine how satifying that must be for those parents. 'Boy Meets World' was a genius franchise to build on. You can watch season 1 of 'Girl Meets World' on Netflix.

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens is scheduled to be released on December 18th 2015, and I have to say, I couldn't be more excited. Star Wars was my childhood. My father loved the series and introduced me to it at a very young age and I have been obsessed with it ever since.

It has been many years since the last Star Wars movie so in order to get my fix I had to resort to Watching The episodes of the children version. While I an not proud of this I have to say I ended up loving that as well. I guess its just something about the Jedi and there code that I find intriguing.

Regardless, the new Star Wars is directed by J.J. Abrams and will be top on my list of movies to go see. If you are someone that hasn't checked out Star Wars in the past I would recommend that you watch the other films before watching this one.

The Jungle Book - 2016

Disney is set to release a new version of The Jungle Book on April 15th 2016.

The cast will consist of many well known actors such as Bill Murray Ben Kingsley Idris Elba Scarlett Johansson Lupita Nyong'o Giancarlo Esposito and Christopher Walken

I personally am very excited for this film to be released. One of my all time favorite childhood memories is watching the Jungle Book with my family. I am very interested to see what they change and how big of a success it will be.  This is a timeless film as is, so seeing the modernized version should be quite an experience. 

 

 

The Director, Jon Favreau Has worked on many huge hollywood films such as Iron Man, The Avengers, and The Wolf On Wall Street. In my opinion the film is in good hands.

Check out more here

Hands Down BIG HERO SIX is one of the Greatest Disney Movies of the year !

Big Hero 6 is an action packed comedy about "boy- genius" Hiro Hamada, who develops a strong relationship with Baymax--- a plus sized inflatable health-care robot made by his brother. This was an excellent movie. Walt Disney Animation Studios, presents the team behind "Frozen" and "Wreck- It- Ralph", and now "Big Hero 6". (Great job team you've done it again!  #Favorites! )

In recent Disney Animations I feel that the plot is more developed and brings a lot of stimulation to the viewers. I first noticed this with Frozen. Instead of the bad guy being introduces to the view as soon as the movie starts we have to figure out towards the end who really is the villain. In Frozen's case it was Prince Hans.. Which I didn't really see coming.

In Big Hero 6, it was even more complex... First, you have Hiro and brother Tadashi both geniuses. Then the relationship between the Professor Callaghan and Alistar Krei. The relationship between Hiro and Baymax. Then we come to find out Yokai's connection to Hiro and Alistar. All very complex and a bit confusing I might add, but extremely complex. I enjoy movies that do not provide me with enough information to know what is going to happen next.

Overall, this movie was a touching movie. As a young adult I never get tired of watching anything cartoon, disney, or animation related. Disney just keeps getting better from animation, to story complexity, and for filling the audiences enjoyment.

Hollywood and the Animated Movie

Once upon a time, Disney Animation was the only studio making blockbuster animated features. Today, animation is perhaps the most crowded of all the film genres in Hollywood. Disney Animation never used to have any competition, but in recent years Disney has been overshadowed by it's sister studio Pixar and other studios like Dreamworks Animation.

With so many studios producing so many animated films which studios and films are able to stand out, if any?

To start, we will start with the once dominant Disney Animation. Up until very recently Disney has been struggling. Ever since the end of the "Disney Renaissance" in the 90s, which includes the studio's films from The Little Mermaid (1989) to Tarzan (1999), Disney has struggled to maintain it's top dog status in the animation industry. For a while, that spot was taken by Pixar. However in the last few years it appears that DisneyAnimation may be making a come back.

Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and Big Hero 6. Have all been well received by both fans and critics alike. Many are calling this new era of Disney films the "Disney Revival" or simply a return to form for the studio. I would have to agree with this sentiment. The Disney films between the Renaissance period and these more recent films, such as Chicken Little and Home on the Range, seem to be missing the classic feel that most of it's successful films have. They were focused more of flash and flare than on the emotional stories, which the studio is famous for. These newest films are a return to form in that the stories one again focus on the emotional relationships between friends and family, and I think this has made all the difference in getting audiences to connect with them. If Disney continues on this streak they may very well have another Renaissance on their hands. I think that Disney, although it will probably never be as dominant as it once was, is still one of the few studios that stands apart from others in terms of it's style, storytelling, and over all quality animation.

Pixar, which has long been a fan favorite studio for many years,  seems to have stumbled a bit in recent years. Ever since it's first film Toy Story, Pixar had been consistent in producing quality, original animation. However, recently the studio has been releasing more squeals than new content, and the sequels have been lack luster at best. There is the legend that the founders of Pixar came up with all the ideas of all their films in one day and have been using only these ideas (aside from the squeals) over all these years. Is it possible that the studio is finally running out of those ideas?

I don't think anyone will disagree with me when I say that Cars 2 was absolutely awful. Monsters University wasn't quite as disastrous, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as the first installment. Brave, while beautifully animated received mix reviews. Pixar's upcoming film Inside Out is an new franchisee for the studio. It will be interesting to see if they can redeem themselves and do their once flawless filmography justice with this new content.

Moving on to a Non-Disney studio, we have DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks is arguably, and easily so, the only other animation studio currently that has as much brand recognition as Disney Animation and Pixar. DreamWorks has been extremely successful in recent years, with many popular franchisees including Shrek, How to Train York Dragon, and Madagascar.

Most of DreamWorks recent films have been well received by critics. Mr. Peabody & Sherman, received generally good reviews, while How to Train Your Dragon 2 received excellent ones. The studio has two upcoming films. Penguins of Madagascar is another installment in their already popular Madagascar franchisee, while Home is a completely new film. Home was originally supposed to be released this month, but has been pushed back until March, switching it with Penguins of Madagascar. It begs the question of whether or not there are problems with the production and if Home will be up to par with recent studio standards. 

 But these three studios aren't the only players in the field.

         

Illumination Entertainment has had huge success with their Despicable Me franchisee, while Blue Sky studios has long been successful with their Ice Age films and now their Rio franchisee. Animal Logic has had recent success with The Lego Movie, and is also known for the popular Happy Feet films. Sony Animation is probably at the back of the pack, their only big success has been the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies, but they have several films in the works now- including the cringe worthy Angry Birds.

With so many different contenders it's a wonder that the animation industry doesn't cannibalize itself. It may very well be on the way to doing so. As a fan of animation I can't help wishing that more of the studios would focus less on producing so many films, and instead focus on making the ones they do produce as high quality as possible. Unlikely that will happen, as this is Hollywood we are talking about, but come on a girl can dream.

Talk To Me

When doing casting for an animated film, it is important to pick who you want to voice your characters.  Lately it seems as though there has been a huge push to cast stars to voice animated characters.  Though a possible way to sell a film, sometimes casting stars in animated features detracts from the overall value of the film.  When I watch an animated film, I enjoy not being able to recognize the voice of an actor, for then I can suspend disbelief entirely and really put myself into the world of the film.  Immersing yourself the world of a film is much harder to do in an animated film.  Characters do not completely resemble real people and the world does not look like our world as we know it.  Stories told in animated films often involve fantastical elements such as magic and talking animals.  It can be hard enough to enter the world of an animated film without a recognizable voice that drags you back to the real world.

One of the best examples of a wonderful choice for a voice actor is Jodi Benson.  Benson voiced Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.  Her beautiful speaking and singing voice add a lot to her character.  Her voice sounds soft and young which fits the character perfectly.  The Little Mermaid  was Benson’s first time acting in an animated feature.  Her voice was fresh, new, and unrecognizable.  No face could be put to the voice, so it made the role of Ariel seem more realistic.

Lately, Disney has strayed away from using the voices of relatively unknown actors, which has decreased the quality of their films.  The most recent example of this is the use of Idina Menzel to voice Elsa in the film, Frozen.  Idina Menzel has an incredible voice.  She is a wonderful performer and actress on Broadway, but I don’t think that her voice fits the style of a Disney princess movie.  Her voice was too powerful for the role and definitely too recognizable.  Her voice didn’t match the timbre and styles of the other characters in the film which was fairly distracting.  Her voice was also very recognizable.  All I could think as I watched the film was that Elsa should be painted green and wearing a witch hat.  Her strong voice distracted me from the character Elsa, and ensured that all I could think about when Idina Menzel was singing was Wicked.

I’m not saying that studios shouldn’t cast stars as these characters because sometimes stars may have a voice that truly fits the role.  For example, Matthew Broderick voices adult Simba in The Lion King.  I cannot tell that it is Matthew Broderick, however, which allows me to suspend my disbelief and really get into the movie.  It is as if Simba has his own voice with its own tone quality and timbre.

I suggest that studios be very careful when they cast voices in animated movies, for though casting a star may help to sell a film, it can take the audience out of a movie and make it less effective.

Big Hero 6: Review

Hey guys, so guess what I saw last night. It's okay take your time to think about it. Did you guess Big Hero 6? Then you guessed right! I figured I would do a little review of this film for my post today!

Quick summary of the film for those you who don't know what it's about, much like me going in. The film revolves around Hiro, a young boy genius who teams up with Baymax, a robot designed for health care services (kind of like a nurse), and a group of college age teens- to fight an evil villain by using the advanced tech they design themselves. It's also based on a Marvel Comic book, which is a plus for me because you know how much of a superhero/comic book nerd I am.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this film. I had seen a few trailers for it and heard the song Fall Out Boy made for the soundtrack, but that was about the extent of my pre-knowledge going into the theater. This is also Disney's first Marvel film outside their extremely successful live action series the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" since they acquired the rights back in 2009, so I was interested to see how a different one of their studios handled the material.

I was actually extremely surprised and impressed by the film. For what sounds mostly like it's going to by a fun and goofy adventure film for kids, the backbone of Big Hero 6 is surprising the emotional relationships between Hiro and his brother, Tadashi, as well as between Hiro and Baymax. I found some of the best moments of the film to be those scenes in which these characters interacted and bonded.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this film was the setting and world building. The film takes place in the fictional "San Fransokyo", which is obviously a hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo. The setting adds to the East meets West ideas of the film, and is brilliantly realized. All the shots of the city are interesting and intricate, and one of my favorite things about watching the film was discovering what was done to blend the cities together.

The only critique I can really give this film is minor, but it must still be said. I felt as the the secondary characters, Hiro and Baymax's friends and teammates, did not get as much time to shine as they deserved. That's not to say each of the characters were not unique or interesting, but we don't really get the chance to learn much about them other than their personalities. I know this is because the filmmakers wanted to spend more time with Hiro, Baymax, and Tadashi as they are the center of the film and it's message, but it would have been nice to learn at least a little more about some of the other characters who make up the Big Hero 6 team.

That being said, this was really fun to watch and overall a pretty great film. It's a fun film to go see with a bunch of friends. If you are a fan of Disney or animated films in general I would definitely recommend you go see it. I would give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Toy Story 4

Today Bob Iger announced that in 2017 Disney and Pixar will release Toy Story 4. Just that sentence gives me a bad taste in my mouth because Toy Story 3 ended the trilogy and my childhood so 
perfectly. After the announcement there was an outcry online about ruining the story that the three films completed. The director John Lassester who directed the original made it very clear that the decision to make the film wasn't about money but was instead just a great idea. 

          “We love these characters so much; they are like family to us. We don’t want to do anything with them unless it lives up to or surpasses what’s gone before. ‘Toy Story 3’ ended Woody and Buzz’s story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another ‘Toy Story’ movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movie—and I wanted to direct it myself.” 

I'm not the type of person who will rule out any film or idea until I see it. Yes it's still annoying that they are changing the trilogy but just like Star Wars, the more films the better. They have built this wonderful universe and I trust that they will honor all the previous installments. I can't wait to see what Buzz, Woody, and the gang are up to and where their next adventure will take them!

Netflix the New Media Titan
      Its the recent phenomenon that captured America by storm, it is what 95% of college students are doing right now, and it is why children under the age of 4 are going to ask “what television was for” when they grow up, it is Netflix. 

         This new fad is a company that provides subscribers a platform for on demand Internet streaming for movies and television shows. It also has the much less used DVD mail rental service, all for less than ten dollars a month. Forbes listed it as 30^th in its most innovative companies list. According to Wikipedia the company was established in 1999 and approximately ten years later it had ten million subscribers and offered over one hundred thousand titles. Then by 2013 is more than tripled its amount of subscribers.

      

      Netflix didn’t stop there; I suppose the company got tiered of just being the medium to films and television programming. That is why in March of 2011 Netflix began producing its own original content to be premiered strictly off of Netflix. Netflix now streams a plethora of “Netflix originals” as well as rebooting and continuing other series, which it bought the rights to such as:

• ·      House of Cards
• ·      Arrested Development
• ·      Hemlock grove
• ·      Orange is the New Black
• ·      Lilyhammer
• ·      Knights of Sidonia
• ·      Love
• ·      Derek

      Netflix is also planning to team up with larger studios such as DreamWorks Animation and Disney to release new series based off of existing shows or franchises. Netflix was nominated for and won a Golden Globe award for its original series “House of Cards” and just this year its original document “The Square” was nominated for an academy award. 

The Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer is out and I'm gonna talk about it

Hey friends. So, a few days ago a bootlegged version of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer leaked. It spread around really fast and a lot of people saw it, so Marvel ended up releasing the trailer officially in HD- even though it was not supposed to be released until next Tuesday during the Agents of Shield episode on ABC.

Basically it was the best day ever for Lindsay, comic book movie nerd. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it because it looks awesome.

So there's a lot of interesting things about this trailer.

First of all, this film looks much darker than the previous Avenger's film. (And really any other Marvel film's in this franchisee). This is an interesting direction for Marvel to go in, as they are generally loved for their "upbeat and fun" comic book films (Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, etc), while DC usually tends to go on the darker side (Dark Knight, Man of Steel, etc.). This is not to say that none of the Marvel films deal with darker themes, but overall the tone of most of their movies is fun and lighthearted.

But, it has seemed that since the release of the first Avengers film, Marvel has been progressively getting darker. Iron Man 3 was similar in tone to The Avengers, but the squeal to Thor was literally titled Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Solider which came out last April was certainly their darkest and most serious film to date. So it is not a complete surprise to see this new Avengers film going to that darker place, but when in comparison to the first film this squeal looks especially gritty.

For those of you who don't know much about comic books or the Marvel cinematic universe, you were probably a little confused by Ultron (the scary robot villain quoting Pinocchio). Some quick background, Ultron is a Artificial Intelligence (kind of like Jarvis, from the Iron Man movies) and he is created by Tony Stark (in the comic books he is created by Hank Pym, but that is not important, I'm just adding this detail as not to offend any of my fellow nerds) to help the Avengers protect and improve the earth. However, as his programing evolves he decides that the best way to protect the Earth is to wipe out humanity.

That song that plays during the trailer is in fact "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio.

A lot different from the version in the trailer, am I right? Disney did something similar when they released the trailer for Maleficent last year, remaking the classic song "Once Upon a Dream" to sounds more dark and eerie.

He quotes it in reference to the fact that he has evolved past humanity and the humans who created him can no longer control him like a puppet. Marvel was able to so blatantly reference/use disney music because Marvel is actually a property of Disney. I never would have thought to put a music from a children's movie behind a scary robot villain, but it somehow works extremely well. Ultron pretty freaky.

Basically to sum up my thoughts, I think this is an extremely effective trailer and I'm super excited to see where they take this film.

Hans Zimmer, The Great and Powerful

Many times in life we look for something to inspire us, something to give us some kind of guidance. And for many of us, music does this. It is meant to create something within us to make us want to look for more, or to not give up, or even to help us mourn. Music covers everything and it is our best friend who is always there for us. It picks us up when we have fallen. It teaches us to stay motivated and go for our dreams. It tells us stories of heart break and death, things we relate to. Music does it all, and it does it for every single person in this world. 

When I was little, most of the movies I was attracted to were mainly disney movies. Most of these disney movies were musicals. But some had some kind of sound track that helped build the plot. As I got older I obviously watched more than just disney movies, and I found myself looking at more than just the film. The music that played during the story helped me believe more in what I was watching. And I found myself looking up several different soundtracks, composers, and downloading all of the songs I had witnessed during the films. These songs stuck with me so much that I wanted to listen to them everyday. And I can tell you right now, had there of been no music in these films, I probably would not have liked the film as much or felt as connected to them as I did, and still do.

Obviously there are many different composers and each of them have their own style.

However one of my absolute favorites would have to be Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer has composed music for over 150 films! And that’s only films. He’s also done television in his lifetime. If you have seen Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, 12 Years a Slave, or the classic disney movie The Lion King, then you have been graced with the music of Hans Zimmer. Hans had his big break when he composed for Rain Man in 1988. The movie deals with two brothers 

whose father has just died. The father leaves one of 

them a huge amount of money, and leaves the 

other one close to nothing, so they decide to travel across the country together. Being that this movie takes place mainly on the road, Hans wanted the movie to be different than any other road movie. Normally road movies are found to have a lot of music containing guitars, or stringed instruments and so he wanted to create something new. He did this by using mainly an electronic keyboard, and he also incorporated flutes into it. The soundtrack was very airy and misty that created a bit of sadness that the film needed, and it matched the emotion of the story completely. The film’s soundtrack was nominated by The Academy for Best Music, Original Score. The film definitely got him much attention because it led him to many other projects.

Another soundtrack that got him much attention was Disney’s, The Lion King. Hans worked with Elton John, as well as Tim Rice, and he produced a score. This soundtrack is very well known throughout the whole world. It was made in three different countries, and it is known as the best selling soundtrack album in an animated film in America. It has sold over 7 million copies. More than half of those copies were sold the same year it came out, in 1994. Hans won an oscar for this film for best music, and original score in 1995. However, one of my favorite scores that Hans has done would have to be his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean. Hans was originally asked by Director Gore Verbinski to work on the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl. However he was working on another score, so he did not officially work on it, he only helped the other composer Klaus Badelt with it. However once the second movie came rolling around, he couldn’t help himself and he completely immersed himself in the score. He worked on the1st,  2nd,  3rd, and 4th of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I loved his work in these movies because he was able to catch the life of a true Pirate and somehow not make it corny. And while doing all of that, he also helped build each character. Depending on what race they were, he could have influences from many different cultures.

"You try to treat each film as an autonomous movie, but at the same time, there's great fun in revisiting old friends, as it were. We now have Penélope Cruz playing Angelica, who's Spanish, so I felt that there could be some Latin influences in the score for On Stranger Tides. I've been a big fan of Mexican guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela for years now, and I asked them if they wanted to come and play with us. We've been having a really great time with them being part of the musical world this film gets to inhabit.” -Hans Zimmer, Pirates Wikia

He was nominated for these movies several times and won many awards. For Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, he won the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in 2012. He was also nominated by the World Soundtrack awards in 2011 for Soundtrack Composer of the Year for his work on Pirates, Inception, How Do You Know, Megamind, The Dilemma, Rango, and Kung Fu Panda 2. For Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man’s Chest, he won the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in 2007. He also won it the same year for The Da Vinci Code. He was also nominated for his work on the 2nd Pirates film by the Grammys in 2007 for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture. And for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, he won the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in 2008. Needless to say Hans Zimmer’s work on Pirates was awesome. I'm curious to see if he works on the new Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which is suppose to come out in theaters July 2017. Fingers crossed he does work on the film score!

 Hans Zimmer is one of the best film composers out there. His music never fails to be different each time. He is able to create such a specific sound for each story and represent each character differently, yet keeping them similar at the same time. If you haven’t payed close attention to the detail of his music, then I suggest you start. What makes Hans so great is that he does this because he loves it and I think that shows in his music. He isn’t doing it for the money, or just because he has to, he is doing it because he chooses to. He loves it and will continue to share his love for it with the ears of the world. 

"If something happened where I couldn't write music anymore, it would kill me. It's not just a job. It's not just a hobby. It's why I get up in the morning."- Hans Zimmer

Check out the best of Hans Zimmer in the video below, you won't regret it!