Friday, May 17, 2013

IT's Dark Here

My wife EĆ­mear and I just finished co-composing the score to a very sensitive film entitled, "It's Dark Here."

Directed and written by Adam Coplan, the film is based on the true story of Jason Tennies, a promising college student, a gifted guitarist, and genuinely great friend, who has a schizophrenic break and loses his ability to play music.

We feel absolutely honored that Jason's parents, Linda and David Tennies, the producers, let us lend our music to the film, and that my guitar in the score could be Jason's voice.

For the score we gathered 24 of Los Angeles's greatest string players, explaining to them that the film is about "one of our own" - a fellow musician.  They played their hearts out for him and deserve a shout out, as does Stephanie O'Keefe for collaborating with the union to be able to make the session happen on our limited budget.

Violins
Belinda Broughton, Concertmaster
Julie Gigante, Principal Second
Andrew Bulbrook
Kirstin Fife
Elizabeth Hedman
Ben Jacobson
Neil Samples
Barry Socher
Olivia Tsui
Ina Veli
Irina Voloshina
Adrianna Zoppo

Violas
Kazi Pitelka, Principal
Dmitri Bovaird
Karen Elaine
Lynn Grants
Lissy Wilson

Cellos
Andrew Shulman, Principal
Tim Loo
Janet Shulman
Kevan Torfeh
Helen Zheng

Basses
Mike Valerio, Principal
Ed Meares

We also had the legendary Mike Lang lend his magical touch on piano to the score and had him improvise on our themes. 

In advance of the film's release, we have been allowed to share the following cue.  In the scene, the madness has taken over the young man, he is wandering the street, and his world turns from light to dark.

The Great Walk, From "It's Dark Here."

Again, an honor to share our music with this touching film.

Craig (and Eimear)