New Film: OBSELIDIA

No, Tomás has not taken on another film, he has his hands full with his current one, lol.  However, one of his older films, “The Table” was directed by actor, writer, producer Chris Byrne, who has come out with an absolutely amazing looking film called ‘OBSELIDIA’, written and directed by Diane Bell, produced by Matthew Medlin and Chris Byrne, and Chris as one of the stars of the film.

OBSELIDIA has been selected to play in the US Dramatic Film Competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and Tomás and I just received this fantastic news last night.  We are so happy for Chris, and his whole team.  Congratulations everyone!

Below is a photo of Chris directing “The Table” along with the one sheet of “OBSELIDIA”

You can visit the web page here.

Read more at the Imdb here.

Become a fan on Facebook here.

Read about the Sundance acceptance here.

Chris Byrne directing the short film 'The Table"

"OBSELIDIA" - One Sheet

Tomás and I want to let Chris know how happy, excited, and proud we are of your drive, your passion, and the quality of work you continually put out there for the world.  You were an absolute joy to work with, and we hope to collaborate again someday soon.

Best of luck with this film, and we are greatly looking forward to seeing it.

What Tomás is Giving Your Film.

There was an interesting article in the LA times yesterday, an interview with composer James Horner concerning his collaboration with “Titanic’s” James Cameron on his new film “Avatar.  It is a very expensive film, and James Horner, an Oscar -winning composer, is most likely making at least a million dollars on it.

In the interview, Horner explains what he is doing to create a memorable, unique, and completely different sounding score to go with the film:

From the LA times, below:



JH: I had to create a sound world that was really quite different than anything I had used before. It wasn’t simply a matter of using instruments from New Zealand or Iceland or Lapland; I had to create new instruments, too, a whole library of instruments and sounds. I also found indigenous instruments and digitized them and changed them slightly. I used a lot of voice and digitized that to create a sound world for myself, a palette of colors so that I was able to create worlds that satisfied [James Cameron] and his need for this new world to sound appropriate as a place that you had never been to. It had to be different and alien yet at same time to have a very warm quality and an organic quality. The score needed to be very grounded, too, as I said. The score is very thematic even though the colors are very exotic.

GB: That’s interesting about the created or altered instruments. Could you be more specific?

JH: There were a lot of vocal sounds I took from various places. These were odd vocal sounds that I would manipulate digitally and there were interesting flutes, for instance, from South America and Finland that I wanted to be more abstract. I also have instruments invented from scratch. They were programmed. There were a lot of instruments that sound like flutes of different sorts, but they were combined with gamelan-sounding instruments. The gamelan is Balinese. The word itself means ”orchestra.” The individual gamelan instruments are these bell-like sounds. A lot of the percussion for “Avatar” is gamelan-based or sounds gamelan-based. So this has this sort of quality of ringing bells, like Indonesian music. It’s a very pretty fusion of different worlds that gives the place itself a quality that is magical. Using it for percussion, rather than drums or other things, gives a sort of magical glow to everything. And as I said there were a lot of instruments that I invented and worked on with my programs. I was very particular.

James Horner describes the process that Tomas does on every film very eloquently.  The irony is, Tomas used to be the guy that was creating the sounds for other composers, who then took the created instrumental sounds and wrote the music.  We decided many years ago that Tomas should be writing with his own sounds and stop working for other composers.  (Let it be known here that Tomas never worked with James Horner). James Horner has a guy, or many guys, working day and night on whichever is Horner’s sample-based software/hardware/computer system of choice to create this world.  James gets to listen, choose his favorite, and write with it.

Tomas, working on Independent Films, does all of the creation work himself, which can take weeks, sometimes months, then he gets the luxuty of sitting back and writing the score.  This takes much more time, as he is one man doing the job of five men.  The ultimate irony is, a small film that does not pay much, is going to get a score that can rival any million dollar Oscar winner’s score, any day.

The only drawback for a director is the score can take a little more time.  But, once it is finished, as always happens to Tomas, people will be blown away by what they hear, and wonder where “this guy” has been and how come they never heard of him?

I am not writing to give Tomas a big head, or justify why a film takes so long.  This has been his track record, and every director he has scored a film for will tell you that. Perhaps someday that budget of a million dollars will come along, and Tomas can hire an assistant, and the film will be finished faster.  Until that day, he works tirelessly, no matter how much he is paid, to give the director everything he has inside of himself, and more.  He comes perilously close to making himself physically ill, from overwork, lack of sleep, too many cigarettes – that is where I come in, to try and get him to rest, eat better, drink less coffee, smoke a little bit less.  It causes us to bicker sometimes, but I can never really be angry with him, as I see the work ethic he has, and the relentless drive for perfection, and when all is said and done, his music blows me, and everybody else away, every film, every time.

You can read the full LA times article here.

Thanksgiving Was…..A Work Day!

Since our 27 year old Volvo has been in the shop a bit longer than anticipated, we did not go up to be with Tomás’s family yesterday.  In fact, the day before, I realized we had precious little food in the house, and all of our neighbors were out.  I decided to walk to the nearest Giant Eagle Market, which is 2 and a half miles away.  I made it a personal goal, and you know the old story Grandpa would tell you when you were complaining about something, that he had to walk five miles to school uphill every day?  In the snow? (even if he was a southern California Native….)

Then as you grew up you made the joke “uphill both ways, right Grandpa?” (Or Dad, or whomever is trying to use this particular way of telling you to quit whining).

Well, I just found out that in Pittsburgh, it really is uphill both ways, lol.  I LOVE this city!!

Anyway, I purchased a few basics to make a dinner that would last a few days, and Tomas and I worked the rest of the day.  We woke up on Thanksgiving, and after a relaxing cup of coffee and fresh juice drink for breakfast, we went to work, and worked all day – it was blissfully quiet, and once we got over not having any fresh pumpkin pie, and wishing we could have enjoyed a legitimate day off, we made some good headway into rebuilding a few music emulator banks for Reel 2, plus I got some work done on my novel.

If anyone is a “Dexter” fan, the real Thanksgiving for us was Sunday’s episode – Dexter’s Thanksgiving – “Hungry Man”.  It just does not get any better than that.

Happy Black Friday, Everyone.  We are in, watching the first sleet turn to snow, and yes, still working.

 

 

Music Editorial Rears It’s Ugly Head.

Last week, Tomás sent off three versions of an important cue  for “Ravana’s Game” to director David Eblan. He likes all three, and has narrowed it down to two.   The reason this cue is being called ‘important’ is simply because it is one of the main characters themes, and every time throughout the film, when we see this character, there will be a version of this theme around or under him. It may be featured, it maybe underscore, but  it will be there. Consequently, it is important that both the  Director and the Composer are happy with the cue.

This is the fifth ‘important’ cue insofar as establishing main characters themes.  All of these have been in Reel One.  There are new characters we meet in subsequent reels who will have their own personalized themes written. These themes make up the whole of the score.

Before Tomás can go on to Reel Two, and while David makes his final pick, Tomás has to go through every character’s theme, and start the dreaded “organizing”, a combination of Music Editing,  assisting, and Composer assisting.  The Composer is assisting…..himself.  It almost has an “X” rated feel to it.

No such luck.  It is lots of paperwork, cue organization via melody, harmony, instrumentation and elements.  It requires a completely different head space than writing, and is often much more exhausting without the creative reward.

In a nutshell, Tomás would much rather be writing than doing this, however, this is absolutely necessary for the score to start flowing at a nice clip, with no need to suddenly be interrupted because something is ‘missing’, and the piles and piles of  paperwork, and hundreds and hundreds of banks of sounds do not need to be searched through.  Everything is in it’s place, and this is essential for optimal creativity and productivity.

Still, it is the drudge work, and the little I can do to speed things along, I do, but ultimately, it is his style of organizing, his office, his space, and his computer.  As much as I wish I could wave the magic wand and have it be finished, it is his composers studio, and only he knows how he wants it organized.

I spent enough years assisting composer John Williams and his editor Ken Wannberg to know there came a point where there was nothing I could do to help them through the ’slosh pile’.  I could only turn my attention to my own.

With Tomás, I am doing the same – dealing with my own piles of desperately needed organization, and remembering that I make a mean cup of coffee, a mean sandwich, and a mean scowl when I hold out a handful of vitamins to get him through the day.

Upward and Onward!

Ravana’s Game – When The Scary Part Happens.

Two days ago Tomas was working on a cue that is quite ominous – it is the beginning of the setup for one main character’s theme, and it gets more eerie as the film progresses.

This happens to me every time – I am not consciously aware of the music playing throughout the house all day, but it is subconsciously making me very skittish.  A gust of wind, a creak upstairs – I start noticing these things.  They seemed particularly loud last night, and it does not help to remind myself that we live in a very old forest, in a 110 year old house – for some reason those very facts make me even more jumpy.

I reassure myself that it is a good cue when it has me this rattled, and go to sleep.  I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror.

And no, I do not know what the silver button is on my shoulder. That is the least of my worries.

Worse than the silver button and the yellow eyes? I am smiling in this picture.

Tomas is writing the main theme tonight for another character, which is mainly a minor-y mournful electric guitar cue.  We will take another photo tomorrow and see if I am no longer possessed by Ravana or one of his minions.

From New York back to Pittsburgh – Home Sweet Home

We are back from our wild 12 hours in New York, where “American Dumpling” was warmly received at the Chashama Film Festival, despite it being a small venue, a ten a.m. screening, and a rather damp, drizzly day.

Never mind that as we crossed from New Jersey into New York, over the Verrazano Bridge, and off at 38th St, we heard a really bad dragging sound.  I was hoping it was the rather mangled road we were on, but no such luck.  It was still dark, and behind us, the bridge was still glowing blue in the 6 a.m. pre-dawn sky.

We made a left onto 4th Ave,. pulled over, and Tomas got down on his hands and knees in rain pooled gutter, only to see that the ‘engine splash guard’ had come partially off, and was not about to budge, either back into position or just do us a favor and break clean off.  We only had to go down to  17th Street, where director Aminta Goyal and her husband Michael lived, so after a bus went by and splashed all over Tomas, who was already dressed in his good clothes, we decided to park the car on 17th and deal with it after the festival. Buses splashing water on a person who dressed up is something you laugh at in a movie, right? It is a sight gag. Do not try this at home.

We staggered down the street to Aminta’s, where we were greeted with great joy, hugs and kisses.  Her husband Michael was wonderful, totally easygoing and welcoming, considering we were  two strangers who were so tired our eyes were rolling in our heads. Seriously, how many people let anyone in their house at the ungodly hour of 6:45 a.m., and be nice to them?

They made us coffee, and we all sat in the living room and talked excitedly until Michael realized it was time to go.  I had changed into something decent, and did my best with eyeliner and mascara, which can work miracles, well, sometimes.

Subway from Brooklyn into Manhattan - we fit right in.

Onto the  Subway, into the city, where we made our way to the venue, below.

Aminta finds the festival, we wandered right by it and were weaving up the street

When we went inside, we immediately collapsed onto the chairs, offing jackets, scarves and purses, when I realized I needed to see if our Dumpling cards were placed with the other films cards. Sadly, Eileen, the director, had not had the time to make up new cards and get them out, so below is a very tired me peering down at the stage, wondering where the cards are.  A very tired Tomas took the picture, and I think it is perfect, as the out-of-focus shot is physically how I felt.

As I was wondering where the cards were, I heard my name being called behind me, and to my great surprise, an on-line friend I had invited showed up with his wife – what a treat to finally meet someone you have only known through cyberspace. John and his wife Eve were delightful and John took the time to write a review of the film on his blog, which you can read here. They also gave a DVD copy  of the film to some entertainment reporters they knew, in the hopes that they would write up a review in an actual newspaper. We were overwhelmed.

After the film played, Tomás and I did the Q&A, which was being filmed, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what we said.  Aminta reasured us that we did fine, but we were blithering idiots at that point.

We met a lovely woman, Louise Chu, who works publicity, marketing, and promotions for film, theater, and special events.  She had some excellent suggestions for “Dumpling”, and gave us her card.  I passed this information along to Eileen, and we shall see what comes of that.

Tomás and I extend our thanks to Ariel Vered and Rick Kariolic for their  support and enthusiastic reception of “Dumpling”.  You guys were great, and we hope to see you next year.

Afterwards, the six of us went to Chinatown, where we indulged ourselves in Vietnamese food and drink, and had so much fun we could have stayed until closing time.  Eve expertly herded us through the city into the subway, not an easy task, let me tell you.  She noticed I was weaving a bit at the corner, and I wrapped my arm in the crook of hers, and together we made all made it to Chinatown.  Somehow she multitasked propping me up, while making sure not to lose either of our husbands or Aminta and Michael.

Tomas manages to get a shot of Chinatown and not get swallowed by the crowd

Regretfully, was time to go, as we had a long drive ahead.  John and Eve headed towards their subway entrance, and we headed back to Aminta and Michael’s, where we had to deal with the car, and then wound up recapping the day, along with about a thousand other topics.  We left their flat at around 6 p.m.

The drive back was a challenge, we got lost on the New Jersey Turnpike, just as the skies opened up with ferocious intent. Once we crossed from New Jersey back into Pennsylvania, we felt like we were home!  Well….not quite.  There was still the whole state to go through, more storms, a deer in the middle of the freeway which was a near miss, luckily, no one, man or beast got hurt.

All in all, we were up for forty hours straight, and although we made it, it has taken a few days to get back to a semi-normal sleep pattern.  As you can see, my eyes refuse to open, but I am still smiling!

How far have we driven? Who are you? Where am I?

Tomas took some spectacular pictures of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and people, but we will sprinkle those throughout other posts.  For now, we are back, and back to work.  As I wrap this up, Tomas is mixing cue 1m5 for “Ravana’s Game”, to send off to director David Eblen tonight.  David was very understanding concerning this trip, and we appreciate it, as he knows that if he needed us to do something like this for “Ravana’s Game” long after the score was written, we would do it in a heartbeat.

All in all, it was a wonderful time, and we want to thank John, Eve, Aminta and Michael for adding an extraordinary human touch to what would have been a nice, but ultimately grueling experience.

Oh, and I forgot, as Aminta and I were standing on the corner down the street a bit from the festival, waiting to go in, a young woman with a smart blond ponytail and a brisk step, walked by me, and her yoga mat smacked me firmly in my lower back, nearly causing me to fall flat on my face.

Aminta gaped, then laughed and said, “Wow, I’ll bet you felt like you were back in L.A., huh?”

Actually I didn’t.  The Los Angeles twenty-something blond perky yoga matties walk the 9 steps from the yoga studio to their  gigantic SUV’s where they throw all of their ‘portable yoga gear’ in the gaping maw of the back of the SUV, right next to the bags of groceries from Whole Foods, bottles of wine from Trader Joes’s, and assorted items ordered from “Mommy and Me”.

I have been hit with a lot of things in my time, but never a yoga mat.  To add insult to injury, it was pink.  Bashed by a pink yoga mat.  Another new experience to cross off my list.  Tomas got a shot of the corner, but he missed the attack of the pink yoga mat.  Ah well, at least we have the footage of where the scene of the spiritual crime occurred.

Off to New York in Five Hours!

Tomas and I are going to New York, to the Chashama Film Festival, where “American Dumpling” has been accepted and is playing on Saturday Morning at 10 a.m.  You can find it in the categories “under $10,000″ and “Society”.

We have been turning ourselves inside out to try and figure out the quickest and least expensive way to get there – Plane and cab fare – a little pricey.  Train and cab fare, a little pricey and too many days to leave two cats and a crow alone in the house.

And trust me, a house sitter is out of the question.  When there is an uncaged crow as part of the deal, recession or no recession, no one wants that job.

So, we decided on renting a car, leaving the night before at around 11 p.m. (that is tonight, in five hours.  We have to get a nap in there somewhere, and a shower) – it is raining, and by 11p.m. it is going to be pouring, thunder and lightening predicted.  Totally exciting.

We are driving all night, into Brooklyn, where we are going to tumble into a brownstone belonging to Aminta Goyal,director of  “The Morning Fog”, and her husband Michael, where we will be slapped awake and hooked up to an I.V. of coffee, while we all catch up!  Then, we jump into our presentable clothes, and the four of  us hop the subway from Brooklyn to Mid Town Manhattan, where we watch the film, Tomas and I do the Q&A, we mill around for a bit, pass out a few cards to anyone who is interested, then hop back on the subway to Brooklyn, jump in the car, and drive home.

According to the weather, it is going to be raining the whole time.  We purchased a new nikon camera in order to take some decent pictures of the gorgeous Pennsylvania fall, so we are hoping that the drive back will produce a little bit of sun to capture the Fall leaves turning. If all goes according to plan, we will be back in the house tomorrow by no later than 9 p.m.

This is going to require some serious time travel back when we were in our twenties and could pull off a 24 hour shift with no sleep.

I promise, we will not wind up in a ditch somewhere, and this will not be the last post.  After all, there is a cooking contest going on over at “Dumpling” – we have judging to do!

Everyone is invited to the cooking contest:  Just go to American Dumpling, enjoy the entries, and read about how to enter at the bottom of the page.

Okay, gotta get a nap!

No, It’s Not The MotherShip, Yet….

Tomas has been going through his bank of totally unique recordings of guitar “pulses” to experiment with how they might sound as a foundation for a cue in “Ravana’s Game” that needs a beat, but  is too subtle for percussion.

I hate to admit this, but some of them sound like a chain saw, severing the base of my spine and splitting my skull in two at the same time.  Those go into the “No” pile.

In between takes, you can hear Tomás and engineer Bob Gremore, having quite the “guys in studio all alone late at night” fun.  Until you hear them start to get hungry.

Advice from Tomás:

The First Thing Every Composer Should Know – Feed Your Engineer!

Those are words to live by.  Below is an older picture of us working on another film, waiting for a pizza we had ordered to arrive.  We started playing with the computer camera…..

Goodbye, Great Aunt Millie. You Are Missed.

Tomas’s Great Aunt Millie Novac, died September 29th.  It has taken me this long to write about her because I cannot seem to find the right words. Tomas was very close to her, even though he had not ben living in the same state for over twenty years, until recently.  His birthday is the day after hers, and they are the only two family members to make a living at music, Millie with records and in radio, Tomas composing film.

I had heard so much about Millie before I met her, and when I finally did, she was one of the smartest, funniest, most loving women I have ever encountered.  She was in a lot of pain but did not complain, instead, she laughed easily and was very excited to show us all of her new computer gear. She was a ferocious “hugger”.

At 83 years old, in poor health, and she was whizzing around the computer better than most twenty year olds, certainly with more knowledge and dexterity than I. Millie Novak was pretty amazing.

She was a very talented singer, had her own weekly radio show, and recorded several albums on the Balkan, Decca, and Marjon labels.

Tomas was a pallbearer at her funeral on Friday, October 2nd.  It rained all day, as we all gathered at the Slovenian home afterwards to eat and drink and talk.  It all seemed to happen in that odd slow motion/too fast dreamlike state.

But it is all over now, and we are all left with a melancholy going hand in hand with the beauty of this fall season.

The full obituary in the Sharon Harold gives the many details of her life, and I am going to stop here, as the writer below is much more eloquent than I.

The Imdb made a mistake, and we are in the process of correcting it. Tomas Hart and Tomás Hradcky are the same person.

First off, the Summit is over and we all lived. Tomas and I went downtown on Wednesday and took a few pictures of the pre-preparations, on our way to the health food store.    Below is one of my favorites.  This sign was HUGE!!

this from the front seat of the Volvo, driving by.

We have a lot of them, and I just have not had time to post.  I will sprinkle them throughout posts down the line.

It was really interesting to be downtown, watching all of the preparation, and seeing how deserted the city was.  I love this city.

HOWEVER – on to personal pressing business – I am writing this because Tomas had requested that the International Movie database get his name and aka in the correct order, and somehow there was a mix-up.  You can only find Tomas Hart, and the film he worked on as a music element creator.  You cannot find Tomas Hradcky, the film composer, anywhere on the Imdb.

It is the same Tomas – he changed his name to Tomas Hart when he went to Los Angeles 23 years ago.  The last five years of his stay there, he  went back to the original family name, Tomás Hradcky.   He has scored over a dozen films, and until the Imdb fixes it, Tomás Hradcky and Tomas Hart are not linked as the same person.  But they are, and I am writing this on all three blogs so as to clear up any confusion until it all gets straightened out with the Imdb.

He is in the middle of composing a film right now, and does not have the time to re-contact the Imdb, so for now, this will have to do.

Partners on a Dime is the blog where you can read about past films he has scored, and what he is currently working on.

American Dumpling is where you can read about the documentary he scored that is making the film festival rounds.

Tomas Hradcky is his home page, which is in dire need of an update.

And below is a picture of him from two days ago, driving through the Fort Pitt tunnel.

Driving through the the Fort Pitt tunnel, the day before the G20 summit