A Good Article

I really am a big fan of Benjamin Botkin's music and ideas on that subject.  He wrote this article a while ago and I found it profound.  It was written on the subject on whether he would write the music to secular movies.
I had struggled with that question as well.  As a Christian would it be right to compose music for a secular film.  Here is the article:

"Here is an excerpt of a letter I recently received from a young composer. As it turns out, I am a young composer as well, but I digress.

Dear Ben,
Would you score a “non-Christian” film? Would you score How to Train Your Dragon? How about Inception? The Dark Knight? Star Wars? Why or why not?
I think you see where I’m going with my questions. I don’t want to compromise on principle, but at the same time I don’t want to go further than God would have me to, and myopically pursue my own standard of holiness.
Just as a Christian mechanic would fix a non-believer’s car, would I as a Christian composer grant the gravity and power that good music gives to a film to a non-Christian filmmaker?

Dear _______,

I understand where you’re coming from, as these are questions I have had to (and still do) ask myself.

Would I fix an unbeliever’s car? Assuming I knew anything about fixing cars, needed the money to support my family, or thought it was a good opportunity to minister to someone, then yeah. Sure I would.
But would I fix an unbeliever’s TANK that’s threatening Christian homes?
No way! But in reality that is what many Hollywood films are built to do. They’re spiritually deadly, often directed toward taking down Christian families, and are generally effective in that goal.
If I was a mechanic I should instead work to build a bigger, better tank to defeat Hollywood’s and defend what is right and true. This is what a “replacement” film industry would mean.

Would you score a “non-Christian” film? Would you score How to Train Your Dragon? How about Inception? The Dark Knight? Star Wars? Why or why not?

It is tempting to just accept the culturally defined labels “Christian” and “Secular” and let them decide for us what our involvement in film is going to be, but we really need to test both definitions against the standard of the Word to see where they stack up. Thus, every project will need to be examined on a case-by-case basis.
I would not score Inception, Dark Knight, or Star Wars because the messages of these films are not ones I could promote or advance through my involvement–at least not in good conscience. Not only do I think that these particular movies are destructive, but they drive me crazy on a personal level because the messages those films promote are ones I have had to deal with or fight against in real life and now have a very biased position against.
If I was offered How To Train Your Dragon, that would be a tougher decision–the same goes for Pixar’s Up. Both of these films have some elements I really like (notably, their music, which would not be there if I was), and both of these films include messages which seem to align more closely to the messages of scripture than those of, unfortunately, many “Christian” films I have seen! This is not meant to be a “kudos” for Pixar or Dreamworks as much as it is to be a rebuke for the Christian film industry.
But there are some obvious problems with these films. For example, in HTTYD I would have to decide if the father-son and Hiccup-Astrid relationships in the film were handled in such a way that I could associate myself with them and be comfortable facing my Creator on judgment day, expecting to hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” I mean, the director would ask me to compose this big romantic swell when the teen lead gawks at the modern, domineering, and feministic love interest. The problems with that image run several layers deep.
But even if a film project is not thoroughly putrid and heinous, that doesn’t mean I have a sworn duty to accept the job. I run into a lot of Christians who don’t seem to believe that they’ve been given the authority to say “no” to a political candidate, job offer, or just the world in general… missing a key principle of Christian ambassadorship: Christianity has never been about doing what was merely “okay” but what was RIGHTEOUS and best.
“Can I justify investing the Lord’s time in this endeavor?” is at least as important a question as “Does this movie have problematic and immoral content?” and possibly more so. Any three-year old can be taught to point out objectionable elements X,Y,and Z, but few truly cultivate the discernment to know how to maximize their time on earth.
I’m an ambassador of Christ, and I can’t afford to spend my life solely doing stuff that any non-Christian can do—even if that “stuff” is not “bad.” Let the dead bury their own dead, and let’s be about the reconciliation of the world to Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:18,19,20), and be the leaders of projects that WE have control over and an industry that WE have control over. Let’s put ourselves in situations where WE can be the ones who choose, and the world has to settle.
My suggestion for you is this: dig into the Word more and more to discover what things please the Lord and what things don’t. This will build in you the right theological and moral framework for making those life-and-death decisions that will affect your life… and death.
What on earth would compel a film composer to turn down a $400,000 composition contract from PIXAR (!) besides religious conviction? Study to show yourself approved (2Ti 2:15), and make sure your religious convictions (everyone has them, atheists included) are sound.
Recently I’ve had to re-think my time-allocation paradigm as I’ve been convicted of these very things, primarily at Vision Forum’s Independent Christian Filmmaker’s Academy. For a long time I had just kind of assumed that I was going to be a music guy for… always, but I can’t be a slave to that assumption if the Lord would have more important things for me to do elsewhere.
As a result, I’ve turned down some composition opportunities recently that, in earlier years, I would have leapt for joy at. I didn’t say “no” because those projects contained grossly unacceptable content, but so I could tackle some non-musical endeavors that I believe are a more important investment of my (the Lord’s) time.
I’m glad you’re asking these sorts of questions now in your life instead of later. The man who plans to stand before kings (the skilled in their work [Pro 22:29], something every Christian must be) should determine where his convictions lie before he’s asked to be Hollywood’s cupbearer, mechanic, or musician."

I encourage you to go to his website/blog.  It has many insightful articles.  Even if you aren't a composer.  If you are in any way involved in making movies I would read some his articles.

The Civil War

Back in October of 2009 I wrote a article about the Civil War.  And how it started.  I thought you all might be interested in seeing it.  Here it is (a little modified, I fixed some grammar and added some additional thoughts):

"The civil war cost 620,000 war deaths, these do not include the many more thousands of civilians that were killed in the war. This was the bloodiest war up until that point in history. Many say that it was fought over slavery while others the taxation of the south, or even to save the "Union".
In this post I will talk about these three reasons and I will talk about the myth that secession is "Treason".
First I will talk about how that slavery was not the main cause of the civil war. If Lincoln wanted to free the slaves why not do it peacefully, as most of the countries in the rest of the world did. England, for example, freed their slaves by paying the owners forty percent of what each slave was worth. If Lincoln had taken the amount of money that the Union spent on the war he could have freed each slave (using England's technique) and given him forty acres and a mule!
"Well what about the emancipation proclamation?" some might ask.
The emancipation proclamation was Lincolns last card as one Englishman put it. The union had lost many a battle by 1863 and Lincoln's administration was gambling that their would be a massive slave insurrection, but it did have its whiplash back. As many Northerners were horrified, mobs took to the streets, 200,000 Federal soldiers deserted, another 120,000 evaded conscription, and another 90,000 men fled to Canada. I believe Lincolns real agenda was to "Save the Union".   To centralize the power to the government and to make them sovereign and he said so in a letter to the New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, he said:

My Paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it: and if it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the union.

This letter is interesting because like a true politician Lincoln said one thing in his inaugural speech then another now that he is in power. In fact he said that he had no power to free slaves in his inaugural speech now he talks as if he could even if he thought about it.
It seems funny

The taxation of the south was probably the main reason for the civil war. Huge tariff's were being levied against the south. Because the south was so trade dependant, the northern businesses profited greatly from it. Many southern representatives railed against it. Calling for them to bring it down as most of the other foreign countries were.
On the eve of the firing on fort Sumter a new tariff was about to be levied.  It would plunder the South without completely destroying it.

The third reason people give for the reason of the civil war is that we needed to save the "Union" so that the U.S. would not break up into smaller countries and therefore we would not be the great nation that we are to day. My answer is this. To the founding fathers secession was a fundamental principle of political philosophy. In fact the Declaration of Independence was a secession document.
Thomas Jefferson the main author of the Declaration of Independence said in his first inaugural address in 1801 said this: "If there be any among us who would wish to to dissolve this union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of safety with which error of opinion mat be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." And when his words where put to the test when a group of New England Federalists states attempted to secede from the union, Jefferson maintained it saying "If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation... to a continuance in Union...I have no hesitation in saying 'let us separate'."
Lincolns declaration that secession would destroy the union of states and lead to "anarchy" was a lie. If they had been allowed to go in peace it would have the effect the founding fathers wanted it to have. The tariff's would go down and it would have stopped the slide to a centralized state and in the end the south would have probably favored a union with the north and 620,000 young men would have not lost their lives. As James Madison said in 1787 that "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical... a medicine necessary for the sound heath of government."
Based on this evidence and much more I think that the south was in the right when they seceded. 
The Declaration of Independence is a document of secession.  To say that our founding fathers were right to break away from Britain from taxation but the south was not right in there secession because of taxes is hypocritical."  




Their it is.  Please feel free to comment on it. :)

12:01

I found this short film a while ago.  I just now thought about posting it.
The music is what I really like about this film.  Listen to the piano solo through the movie.
Also pay attention and see if you can figure out the ending.  It almost has a sort of inception twist at the end.

If you don't quite get it here's the link to the extended version of this film.


http://vimeo.com/11853186

I'm also working on getting some sheet music for it as well.  I will post it as soon as I get it.

Filmodus Operandi

Over the last month I have been working on the music for a short film done by a good friend of mine.  Here is the link to their website they just put up.  Filmodus Operandi
Hopefully I can post some music samples soon for those interested.
Enjoy!

Tron Legacy Movie Review

I saw this a while ago but I wanted to write a review on it.
Overall, I did not like this remake.
I haven't seen the old one.  But this one was a very poor remake.  Its only redeeming characteristics is a few highly entertaining scenes.
The movie had a complicated storyline and it was thin in several points.  Characters were underdeveloped and extremely weird.
Sam (the main character) after his dad gets sucked into his own video game Tron leads a kind of depressed life. Sam's big achievement each year is playing a prank on his dads multimillion dollar company.  So from the start he isn't that likeable.  After he himself gets sucked into Tron he gets put into a disc fight.  Which is cleverly done.  Its entertaining to watch the fight.  He ends up having to fight for his life in the 'Lightcycle' ring.  Sam gets defeated and just before dying he is saved by a female warrior (classic cliche).  Sam is taken to his father who is hiding somewhere out some dark rocky mountains.  After that the story evolves into Sam trying to get his dad back to reality.   This is were it gets weird.  Sam with Quorra (the female warrior) go to Zeus, a guy with long hair who looks more like a girl and supposedly is a enemy of Clu (the villain who is trying to make the world perfect).  He seems to want to help but he actually is a traitor.  What is weird is supposedly he is extremely powerful but he doesn't use his power hardly at all and when he does your saying, 'that's it?'
The movie ends with Sam's dad sacraficing himself to get his son back into the real world and destroying Clu.
What really destroys this movie is the messages and underlying theme's.  One of the biggest contradictions is this: When Sam's dad and Clu (who used to rule Tron together) first came to Tron they built stuff to create a perfect world.  As they were doing this a entire race of perfect 'programs' (which is what they call humanoid forms) and these programs are ENTIRELY PERFECT.  Quorra is the last surviving perfect program yet she hast to be taught and she losses her arm so her fight moves aren't perfect.  The underlying message though is an example of evolution.  That out of nothing comes perfection.  That we are slowly getting their and these, 'perfect programs' are the end result.  So an evolutionary stance was taken early in the movie.
But then we see that Clu tries to achieve perfection and destroys hundreds of programs and is obviously a tyrant.  It almost seemed like in some ways they were comparing to Hitler.  So then their is another stance that seems contradictory to the one I talked about above.
Another big thing was that Sam's dad was all into New Age Meditation.  Several lines through out the movie really annoyed me.  But it was portrayed as a very beneficial thing through out the movie.
The last thing that bugged me was this.  In the movie, when programs are killed they shatter in millions of little pieces.  They call it Derezzing. Now since Quorra is a program we see how her body is made up of millions of little pieces.  So she is only compatible with Tron world which is made up of that stuff.  Then she goes into the real world and she becomes human.  It was a lame way to end the movie.
Overall its story was passable, but with the agenda it pushed forward and its flat ending...  I only give it two stars.
That's my two cents on Tron Legacy. 
EDIT: Thank you Ethan for pointing out to me that this was the wrong trailer.  Here is the correct one.

Oh whoops here's the real one. ;)

 

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

Last week I went to the dollar theater to see Transformers 3. I have only seen the first one.  I saw the first one but didn't see the second.  The third one can be watched without watching any of the first two.  It was kind of like a fresh start to the series.
Overall I really liked it.  Some people may get bored with it because it is a long movie(2hr. 45min.).  And, half of it is a enormous battle through the streets and skyscrapers of Chicago.  Which I thought was incredibly well done.  Michael Bay certainly knows how to do a battle scene well.
One of the things that I disliked a bit in the first one, and that they remedied in this one was the vareity of the weaponry used.  In the first one, everyone used their arm cannon.  (And it got annoying well to me anyway). In this one, Optimus Prime used five or six different weapons.  Also there are a lot more autobots all with different styles of fighting and weapons.  Bumblebee is the only one that still just uses his arm cannon, but he uses it in different ways which makes it fun to watch.
Another thing that was a HUGE improvement from the first one was the storyline.  There are good subplots that go throughout and all were done decently.  Surprisingly, there were a couple major twists that totally altered the plot.  From the trailer it may seem like it has a very flat plot.  Lots of good twists that had me gasping in the theater.

Also I know its not hard to be a better actress then Megan Fox.  Thankfully, new blonde girl did a MUCH better job than Megan Fox.
Something new was the addition of the transformers bleeding red gas.  In my opinion but when it was used sparingly and well done effect.
Another thing that I liked about this movie is the message of fighting for freedom.  I liked how it also had sub themes of never giving up and friendship.
On the negative side, the first half of the movie it had weird moments and some inappropriate comments.
Overall I give it five stars. :)

"In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith, days when our allies turn against us. But the day will never come, that we forsake this planet and its people. For I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to the universe: We are here. We are home."

The closing lines of the movie.

Soundcloud

Soundcloud is a internet based music sharing site.  Its free to use and you can upload and share your tracks.
I just started using them and I am uploading music clips to most of the sheet music.
So check it out. :)

Grafted The Movie

So right now I'm working on two movies:
One is a documentary on adoption.  Its going to be entered into the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.   I 'm part of the crew, I help with whatever needs to be done.  Its not that glorious but working with friends on a movie is so much fun that the work is enjoyable.
They've started a blog about their progress.  Here it is.
Enjoy!
The other movie I will announce as soon as their website is up.  Which shouldn't be too long.
So stay tuned for more info. :)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

I went and watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes a few days ago.
And just to give warning, the post has some spoilers.
Here's the synopsis from IMBd

During experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, a genetically-enhanced chimpanzee uses its greater intelligence to lead other apes to freedom.

Overall it was worth EVERY PENNY OF THE $9.75 I spent to see it.
I liked the main character (the human).  His drive to find the cure for his dad, who has Alzheimer's was touching.  And it really brought it home when his dad dies in the middle of the movie.
I was incredibly impressed with Andy Serkis's (Gollum from Lord of the Rings) performance as Caesar.  Watching it, I was amazed that it was actually a human, he seemed to act like an ape so much.  The mannerisms were perfect!  A funny thing though (for those who have seen Lord of the Rings) Andy Serkis in the movie bits the the index finger off of a character in the movie.  The exact same finger that he bit off of Frodo's in Lord of the Rings.
It felt bad that I was nearly laughing as this guy got his finger bit off.
The story was thrilling!  I loved watching the final battle on the Golden Gate Bridge.  As it was brute force against guns.  Their is just something cool about massive gorilla's jumping and slamming into helicopters.
The thing that I was most impressed with was that the movie did not thrust evolution down your throat.  And how we evolved.
That was not the point of the movie.  It may have been subtly in the sublayer but it was not the main point.
Their is a bit of romance for the main human character and it felt like it was just thrown in.  As it didn't really advance the story.
It was beautifully done movie overall.  I give it five stars. :)
Watch the trailer below.

Rio Movie Review

I just watched the animated movie 'Rio'.
A quick synopsis of the film.

(From IMDb) When Blu, a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota, meets the fiercely independent Jewel, he takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro with this bird of his dreams.

My thoughts on the movie:
Overall I was impressed on its story structure.  It followed closely the classic three-act-structure like I talked about in a previous post.  Complete with a:

A flawed but sympathetic protagonist                                       

 summons moral courage to face and then overcome                 

 increasingly difficult, seemingly insurmountable moral tests to achieve a compelling desire.

The characters were well defined.  And even in this secular film certain Christian themes bled through(honoring the family, a husband who was devoted to his wife)
Their were plenty of funny moments and great jokes.  The story kept up and held the me interrested. The climax was very well built up to and no
Though their were a few things that weren't so great.
Their was some bizzare humor throughout which was kind of weird.  The end fell a bit flat. Because....
Spoiler ALERT.
Well at the end, Blu and Jewel kiss.  Now how that works don't ask.
That was the only thing that was bad about the movie.
Other than that I liked it.  I give it 3 stars.

And the pop song at the end wasn't bad either. :-)