Ryan Homan
Danny Elfman
For my research paper I have chosen to outline the life and career of Danny Elfman. From his start as a street performer, to his days of rock stardom with the band Oingo Boingo, and his composing career in Hollywood teaming up with the likes of Tim Burton, Spielberg, and beyond. Danny Elfman was born in 1953 in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California. Elfman is self-taught with no formal training. When Danny was 18 he obtained his first taste for preforming arts. It was with a French theatrical trope called “Le Grand Magic Circus”. A year later he began to preform in musical theater on the streets of California with his brother Richard Elfman. After a few
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years working with his brother he joined a surrealistic musical cabaret. In his six years with the cabaret he began to discover his musical genres. Shortly after his stint in the cabaret Elfman spearheaded the 80’s super group “Oingo Boingo”.
With a sound of new wave, ska, alternative rock, and electronica the band was a fan favorite. The band began as a comedy troupe in Los Angeles. But by 1979 the band morphed into the band we know today. In a ten-year span the band and their genre moved away from the synthesizers and matured into a more guitar driven rock band. The bands most notable and popular album was in 1985 called “Dead man’s party”. Not only was it well received by their fans but also became their biggest commercial hit. Having songs off the album being used in “Fast times at Ridgemont High”, and the title song for the John Holms classic film “weird science”. In 1995 the band played a farewell concert on Halloween in L.A. He was asked in 2007 on a phone in interview if he would consider doing an Oingo Boingo reunion, he immediately rejected the idea. Citing that in the later part of the bands career he began to develop significant and irreversible hearing …show more content…
damage. During his time with his band Elfman composed scores for movies like “Batman, and Edward scissorhands.” Liking his work with the band Oingo Boingo Tim Burton approached Elfman with what started out, as a chance has become one of the best composer/director relationships. Because of this Elfman has become one of the hottest film composers in the history of film. Elfman worked with Burton on other films such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Beteljuice, and Corpse Bride”. As prolific as his career has been he hasn’t had the accolades his counterparts seem to think he should.
He has a Grammy win for his work in the film “Batman.” He has an Emmy for his work on the television show “Desperate Housewives.” He also has an Annie award and 24 BMI film and television awards. Elfman has never won an Academy Award but has been nominated four different times.
Elfman’s musical influences come from the first time he became aware of film music. The score to the 1951 film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” composed by Bernard Herrmann. Elfman’s other films such as “Peewee’s big Adventure” were influenced greatly by Nino Rota. Because of his background in Rock n Roll the scores for the films “Chicago” and “To Die For” prove that he still has an ear for what good rock music could and should sound like.
Along with his illustrious movie career, he is also very well known for his works in television. In 1983 Matt Groening enlisted the help of the Batman composer to create a theme song for his new television show “The Simpsons”. Since then Elfman has written numerous numbers for the television show, and introductions for shows such as Desperate
Housewives.
In recent works he has stepped into the classical genre. Serenada Schizophrana is Eflman’s first orchestral composition exclusively written for the concert hall. Mauceri conducted it for the recording, and at its premiere in Carnegie Hall Stephen Sloane conducted it. His composition was featured in the IMAX film Deep Sea 3D. Johny Depp and Morgan Freeman both of whom he worked with on different projects narrated the film. He recently has been working with Disney for the music in “A Day in the Life of Wilbur Robinson”.
Sources used:
IMDb Mini Biography By: Dana Caro James
"We always though of the Grateful Dead as being the engine that was driving the spaceship that we were traveling on."-Ken Babbs, a former Merry Prankster
Dennis Dugan has not won an Oscar for his directing at this point . In the 2012 he won the Razzel award . In 2000 and 2008 won the worst director award. Some of the movie that he directed like Jack and Jill did win the Razzel award.
The film soundtrack was an important element in creating the juxtaposed world that Taymor desired. Taymor selected Elliot Goldenfall, a veteran composer for the stage and screen whom she had known for twenty years, to head the scoring. Their long association served them well in this endeavor - the final film score was both stunning and effective in combining ancient and modern musical elements. Goldenfall manipulated four main musical styles to score the film (symphonic, jazz, hard rock, and aria), and each style represented particular emotions.
Duchovny * Journey to the Centre of the Earth * North by Northwest - instantly recognisable and very atmospheric * Psycho - famous for the screaming strings in the shower scene, but the tension really mounts during the car journey through the rain * The Three Worlds of Gulliver * Mysterious Island * CapeFear- the original and the remake as used by Elmer Bernstein. * The Birds - Herrmann is a musical consultant on this, the bird noises described as "sound construction" created using an early electronic instrument * Jason and the Argonauts * Marnie * Fahrenheit 451- strings and tuned percussion and a wonderfully surreal fire-engine sequence * It's Alive 1, 2, 3 (posthumously) * Taxi Driver-
Harold Clurman was born in New York to Jewish immigrant parents in 1901. At six years old, he attended a production at the Yiddish Theatre. Though he neither spoke nor understood Yiddish, the experience had a transformative effect on him. He immediately had a passion for the theatre. At age twenty, Clurman was living and studying theatre in France. It was there he saw the Moscow Art Theatre and learned of Stanislavski’s teachings on realism. Clurman came back to New York in 1924, and began work as an actor, but he was disappointed in the kind of theatre produced.
Horowitz, Mark Eden. "The Craft Of Making Art: The Creative Processes Of Eight Musical Theatre Songwriters." Studies In Musical Theatre 7.2 (2013): 261-283.Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Director Nicholas Ray was lucky to have a talented composer create an original score for Rebel Without A Cause. Leonard Rosenman was born in 1924 and studied music in New York and Europe. His work as a film composer and arranger is very traditional, and has been regarded by some music critics as "insignificant." However, Rosenman received Academy Awards and Oscar nominations for his work. Along with film scores, Rosenman wrote theme music and scores for numerous television shows. The score in Rebel Without A Cause is much like another film starring James Dean, East of Eden.
...long career provides a lighthouse of hope to all artists who labor in the dark, uncertain of their efforts but determined to express their voice." (Schneider, 129).
Concerning the genre spectrum, Big Fish and Cold Mountain are miles apart. The first is a magical assortment of reality and fantasy driven by a man running from a loved one; the second is a historical fiction propelled by a man seeking a loved one. In addition to the dramatic and thematic differences, the underscoring of both films is opposing in the methods used to achieve similar ends; namely, serving the five functions. Danny Elfman, the composer for this Tim Burton film, interlaced an intricate and organized underscoring for the film, forming a piece that rivals that of Edward Scissor Hands.
Generally, when someone is said to be the “best” at something, it is an arbitrary title given to someone by another person based purely of of their own narrow viewpoint. This it true when talking about the best actor, however, there may be a way to determine the best actor on a variety of criteria. Though some may think otherwise, Danny DeVito is a phenomenal actor, who may be considered one of the best in the industry, from his range as an actor, to the sheer number of awards he has won or been nominated for, or even his projects outside of film, he seems to have it all compared to all other actors.
The Lion King musical is a well-known musical that has taken the stages of Broadway, West End and the rest of the world by storm (The Lion King, 1997). Regarding the process of the musical, Artistic Director Julie Taymor’s first thoughts for choosing the Lion King as the next big thing on stage, was classed as ‘impossible’ due to the film’s lack of theatrical material (The Lion King, 1997). Therefore, staging this particular work contained a great deal of uncertainty and the need for taking huge risks. Taymor (1997) suggests how ‘the Lion King was the worst idea possible to create a stage show.’ It has become evident that a number of significant barriers had to be overcome to secure the practicality of the production. In view of this controversy, this dissertation will critically analyse the success of the Lion King by exploring two significant aspects that have helped to make the musical a success. Firstly, the essential components that make up this theatrical production will be explored and secondly, the roles of each producer within the Lion King and their combined and individual influences they have had from the production will be evaluated. By analysing these two central themes, this paper will show how and why this musical has developed and achieved its phenomenal success.
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising
In Andrew Elfenbein’s, critique of Pride and Prejudice, I believe his main thesis is: “Without resurrecting the condescension of earlier Austen criticism, I want to analyze why she hardly mentions what for other writers would be central information” (332). The reason I feel that this would be his thesis is because Elfenbein is trying to show how Austen’s lack of descriptive settings are not important to the plot. Rather, the lack of descriptive settings helps the reader stayed focused to what is important, which is how the characters interact and there body language. For example Elfenbein says: “Pride and Prejudice instead develops a counter-aesthetics that locates realism not in the pile-up sensory detail but in an awareness of human
Out of the five movies we watched, I feel this was one of the most musically diverse. Theodore Shapiro used a plethora of both diegetic and non diegetic music in this movie. He was able to use music to both cue to a character or their behavior. He was able to use music as a way to add substance to a scene. Shapiro artistic choices about choosing when to break the rules of the principles of composition, mixing and editing and when to follow them allowed for a more creative listening experience.
Freer, Justin. "The Importance of Music in Film." Los Angeles Brass Ensemble RSS. Los Angeles Brass Ensemble, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.