ScreenSounds

Dedicated to reviews and news of music for film, TV and games

Friday, April 16, 2010

NEWS FROM COSTA COMMUNICATIONS


From Costa Communications:-

Composer Austin Wintory Scores

A Little Help

Premiering at the Seattle International Film Festival

May 20 – June 16


Los Angeles, CA – Composer AUSTIN WINTORY’S latest project, the indie-drama A LITTLE HELP starring Jenna Fischer (The Office) and Chris O’Donnell, will premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival (May 20 – June 16). A LITTLE HELP is written by, and marks the directorial debut of, THE KING OF QUEENS creator Michael J. Weithorn. The film tells the story of a recently widowed, single mother who finds herself entangled in a series of lies in order to take care of herself and her 12 year old son.

The music to A LITTLE HELP is unique among other films Wintory has scored because of the particular role the music plays within the film (seamlessly filling the gaps between famous classic rock songs and new, original Jakob Dylan songs). Overall, "dramatically/darkly comedic" were the operative words for the score's direction, arrived at via close collaboration with director Michael Weithorn and producers Joe Gressis and Dena Hysell. While instruments like electric guitar, bass and drums form the core of the score, “it's not a rock score, and the cues actually run the gamut from off-kilter waltzes to purely textural electronic cues,” explains Wintory. For the end of the film, he wrote a song called "I'm Lucky" with Céleigh Chapman, who also performs.

Last year, Wintory scored Paul Solet’s psychological-thriller GRACE, which premiered at Sundance and won the Jury Prize at France’s Gerardmer Film Festival. Solet asked Wintory to come in early on this film to create music for the actors, and help set the tone for the film. He created over 20 minutes of score based on the script, never intended to be used in the film. Wintory received critical acclaim for his score to CAPTAIN ABU RAED, which won the Audience Award at Sundance. The Los Angles Times singled out his score for CAPTAIN ABU RAED as an Oscar® contender, and he was selected “Best New Film Composer” by the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Wintory’s received a BAFTA nomination for his score to the video game FLOW.

Austin Wintory taught himself how to compose, orchestrate and conduct in high school, later attending NYU and USC. His first short film won a scoring competition and resulted in Wintory conducting the premiere at New York’s Lincoln Center. At USC, Wintory studied under Grammy® nominee and National Medal of the Arts winner Morten Lauridsen, and also Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominated composer Christopher Young (The Shipping News, Spider-Man 3). During this time Wintory also began full-time scoring, writing music for over 150 student and independent shorts.

Wintory is currently completing his score for Bob Celestino's thriller LEAVE and will reunite with director Amin Matalqa for WELCOME TO NOWHERE. Wintory is also working on a new, as-yet-unannounced, PlayStation3 game.


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