Crazy Glue (2011, dir. Elizabeth Orne, 6 min.) is a Student Academy Award-nominated narrative short adapted from the short story by Israeli author Elgar Keret. The magical realism of the narrative was a delight to score. Featuring Polly Hall on violin, Live Footage Brooklyn’s Topu Lyo on cello, E. Luttinger on bass, and yours truly on an appropriately tuned 1881 Steinway upright grand.

Response from the author:

Dear Elizabeth,
I really liked the film.
The shooting, the cast. The acting and the music were all amazing.
Looking forward to your next adaptation.
Thanks,
Etgar

George & Brad in Bed (2010, dir. Jessica Sanders, 5 min.) is a documentary short profiling the relationship between actor George Takei (Star Trek’s Captain Sulu) and his husband and lifelong partner Brad Altman. The two recently married after being together for 21 years, interviewed in bed, the film is also an homage to John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “bed-in.”.  Featuring E. Luttinger on bass.

Backyard Blogger (2010, dir. Mary Anderson Casavant, 7 min.) is a quirktastic short doc I co-scored with the incomparable Polly Hall. It portrays the misfit fashion adventures of a teenage blogger in Tennessee who discovers himself (and international recognition) through the process of creating an online photojournal of his wardrobe philosophy.

Blue Ridge (2010, dir. Vince Sweeney, 90 min.) is the second feature film scored by Andrew Barkan. Set in rural Virginia, this dramatic love tragedy features a dynamic score that draws the eclectic range of beautiful landscapes, subtle psychology, and quirky encounters together.

Greenlisted (2010, dir. Madelynn Amalfitano, 23 min.) is a documentary about the FBI’s sting operation to frame young environmental activists as domestic eco-terrorists in the wake of 9/11. The score was recorded at Avatar in New York courtesy of ASCAP and FMSMF.

A Border Story (2009, dir. Tobias Louie, 18 min.) is a harrowing tale of one man’s survival and sacrifice on his journey from Altar, Mexico through the merciless Arizona desert. The palpably intense storyline and vibrant landscape shots called for nearly wall-to-wall scoring, and the visceral scraping and scratching of acoustic guitars, wooden percussion and native flutes combined with compulsive piano and strings provided a near constant momentum pushing Eliasco along his trek to its unlikely conclusion.  An official selection of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Race McCloud (2009, dir. Tom Hoefner, 145 min.) is the amazing tale of the most untalented member of an extraordinary secret agent family. First incarnated as a two-act play running in Fringe NYC, this fantastical script called for super-hero and science-fiction pop culture references galore in the score, as well as the amalgamation (triangulation?) of every slapstick secret agent soundtrack I could think to invoke. Fun for the whole dysfunctional family.

Quietly (2009, dir. Cole Wiley, 16 min.) is a potent short film by emerging New York-based director Cole Wiley following one quiet boy’s subtle yet irrevocable shift into inner-city adulthood. The emphasis on delicate textures allowed for close mic mic work and a number of interwoven orchestral colors surrounding one soft, yet immutable theme.

Contracted by Antfood Music and Sound Design to create an underscore for Sprint’s ad campaign featuring Dan Hesse.

Conlang (2009, dir. Marta Masferrer, 16 min.) is a short film about creating languages. Sweet and quirky, this project allowed for three thematically coherent cues that varied wildly in style: a chorale in a newly invented language, a plinky theme to the protagonists melancholy life, and an off-kilter action/adventure underscore for the quirkiest battle scene ever.

Noor (2008, dir. Razan Ghalayini, 22 min) tells an intimate coming of age story of a Palestinian-American girl visiting her extended family for the first time. The scoring required a delicate balance between modern and ancient ambiance, subtly depicting the powerful, emotional undertones of the family’s history without overly exoticizing the audience’s sense of place.

The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese (2009, dir. Kat Vondy, 16 min) is a romanti-comedy about a girl named after a pasta and all the fantastic and devastating things that happen on her 25th birthday. We created a simultaneously touching, playful, and kickass underscore combining string quartets with bright indie rock to echo the magic and whimsey of Gnocchi’s world.

Co-composed with Lauren Cregor, Dead Weight (2009, dir. Yemane Demissie, 112 min.) is a feature-length Ethiopian-American film noir set in Los Angeles. Among the myriad challenges posed by scoring such a quantity of music on a budget was the need to generate an eclectic range of genres performed and recorded by the same small instrumental ensemble.

Wading (2008, dir. Fred Guerrier, 12 min.) is a black-and-white art house short portraying the power of touch through the daily life of Martha, a waitress who takes care of her mother and her goldfish. ‘Subtle’ and ‘ambient’ were the watchwords for this score in which the director wanted alluringly elusive music to carefully catch and mirror the essence of each scene from the very periphery of consciousness.

Rosy (2008, dir. Christina Voros, 15 min.) is the story of two break-ups intersecting. The scoring process centered on finding delicate ways to reinforce the emotional journey of the two protagonists, from light-headedness to angst to melancholy to hope.

Chicken (2008, dir. Robert Alan Rackham, 19 min.) is a darkly comedic tale of a hospice visit that goes terribly awry. Scored with nearly wall-to-wall music, this film quickly acquired the zany off-color feel the director was looking for when colored with quirky orchestral music featuring live violin and harpsichord.

The Property of Hub Cain (2007, dir. Elizabeth Orne, 16 min.) is a pre-Civil War period drama about one young pregnant slave’s attempt to flee Northward and the moral dilemmas faced by those she meets along the way. A foreboding combination of blues and Appalachian undertones along with muted layers of train sounds and gospel hymns enhance the film’s sense of place and dramatic tension.

Honoring the greatest men and women of science, engineering, and technology since 1824, the Franklin Institute Awards are among the oldest and most prestigious comprehensive science awards in the world. The eight mini-biopics of these renowned scientists required 40 minutes of wall-to-wall underscoring combining orchestral and electronic flavors.