Without a doubt, my love of Music in the Movies has emboldened me to write and produce the three musical-dramas that make up the Trilogy: Beautiful Noise; Beautiful Noise 2 - "Serenade"; and Beautiful Noise 3 - "Heartlight". While I really like the Storylines of all 3 films and the Characters I've created, it's the Songs I'm selecting that tie everything together and that will hopefully transport our audiences to places that Dialogue and Scenarios alone couldn't accomplish. Music is a universal language and its ability to help a Spielberg, Scorcese, Eastwood or Coppola to drive their Storytelling to new heights also works wonders for independent filmmakers. Just look at the impact that the original songs from the Academy Award winning indie crowd-pleaser "ONCE" had on that little film. Or give a listen to the score of Edward Burn's new film, "NICE GUY JOHNNY", and then tell me how much those cool little tunes mean to that new indie gem. It's simply amazing to me how a piece of just one song, or a simple orchestral theme, inserted in just the right dramatic moment, can fill us up with every emotion the filmmaker aches for us to feel.
Think about it. Remove a John Williams score from a Speilberg classic; or the variety of rock music from any given Scorcese film; or the simplicity and touch of Clint Eastwood's sparse yet haunting piano phrases in many of his movies; or the sweeping score from Coppola's Godfather epics, or Simon & Garfunkels tunes from The Graduate -and then tell me how much it would have changed how we feel about the work? Okay, okay...so my baby-boomer examples show how long I've been around...but you get the point, right?
My first exposure to combining sights and sounds on film was with my work on commercials 20+ years ago that, for better or worse, became memorable. That experience led me to work with musicians, producers and recording engineers from every musical genre on albums and prime-time television specials on a hometown project called "Holiday Aid". All that was followed by years of promoting concerts with artists as diverse as Beatle Ringo Starr, The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, The Monkees, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Miranda Lambert, B.B King and the late, great Ray Charles, to name only a few. So yeah, the Music has always meant something special to me. And now, the Muse is helping me fuse my love of Story & Films with the Gift of Song in a way that powers me through 15-18 hour days like I was a teenager. It's a groove that I hope lasts me the rest of my filmmaking career.
The first Beautiful Noise film, now in post-production, has a Soundtrack bursting with lyrics and melodies from pop legend Joni Mitchell, the incomparable David Poe, and new names for some of you like Kimber Cleveland, Chris McCarty and Doug Frasure. And the task of rearranging and producing some of the great songs in the film has fallen to my music co-producers Mo Katiraee and Roger Hughes and an eclectic, dynamic group of Sarasota-based musicians I've met along the way. Names like Clair Franklin, Brett Jones, Bud Buckley, Dean Johanesen, Bobby Brader and many other Suncoast artists may appear in smaller type in the end credits, but make no mistake...they are no less important than anyone else on our Team.
The Story we're trying to tell may be the Heart of the Beautiful Noise Trilogy - but the Songs are the Soul of the three films. We hope the Soundtracks move, inspire and encourage you to spread the word about our little musical-dramas...
Steve
