I have begun composing the music for an animated bumper for the 'VES 50: THE MOST INFLUENTIAL VISUAL EFFECTS FILMS OF ALL TIME.' This animated piece is being created by The Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood (www.gnomonschool.com), and will contain my original instrumental music composed specifically for the animation. The piece will screen at the 2007 VES Festival of Visual Effects, that will take place at the Writer's Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on June 7-10, 2007.
The Visual Effects Society (www.visualeffectssociety.com) is putting on this 4 day event, and among the incredible panels and screenings, the highlight of the weekend is sure to be the VES 50: The Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time. This panel discussion on the VES 50 will be moderated by Academy Award-winning vfx supervisor John Knoll, and the session will feature fellow Oscar winners Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Doug Trumbull and (tentatively) John Dykstra (Star Wars).
Listen for my music to accompany the wonderful animated bumper that will be a part of this and other VES festival sessions. For more info on the recently announced top 50 VFX films of all time, please go to: http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/documents/ves50revelfin.pdf
DC Comics currently has on their release schedule a comic book called The Spirit. The newest issue is number #6, which is released on May 23rd, 2007. For those of you who don't know about this character, The Spirit was originally created by the multi-talented writer and artist named Will Eisner in 1940. The masked crime fighter became a very famous character in the world of comics.
The current incarnation of The Spirit at DC is being both drawn and written by Darwyn Cooke, one of my favorite artist/writer combos. A couple of years back, Mr. Cooke won an Eisner award (the comic book industry's #1 awards ceremony held every year at the San Diego Comic-Con, and named after Will Eisner himself!) for his work on the comic book limited series called 'DC: The New Frontier.' If you are a comic book fan like me, you owe it to yourself to check out The Spirit character in his current form at DC. Cooke is doing a bang-up job on the series, and this comic has become one of my current favorites.
I am hoping that someday, in some form of audio-visual media, I might be able to compose instrumental music directly inspired by The Spirit and his unique world, much like I did for the character of Doc Savage for the documentary entitled 'James Bama: American Realist.' Whether that be in a movie, animated show, video game, or some other form, it would be fantastic to write music inspired by The Spirit!
For further info about the new 'The Spirit' comic book, please visit: http://www.dccomics.com/ (Here's an updated link at DC Comics site for the first Volume of THE SPIRIT by Darwyn Cooke: http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/the-spirit-book-1-0 ). For further info about the creator Will Eisner and the original incarnation of The Spirit, please visit Denis Kitchen's wonderful site: www.deniskitchen.com/docs/bios/bio_will_eisner.html
