DPuser Update: Jason Staczek

Film composer Jason Staczek uses DP5 to score director Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain!.

The 95 minute score was composed entirely in DP5. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 with Staczek conducting a live orchestra. The composer used DP5's new click and film scoring events features to build a 95 minute click track and Quicktime movie with visual cues for the 51 pieces of music in the film. During the performance, Staczek slaved a G4 Powerbook to SMPTE timecode coming off the Digibeta projection tape. DP5 ran the Quicktime movie with streamers in sync with picture on the main screen as Staczek conducted the orchestra. DP and the 828 performed flawlessly during the performance and the orchestra hit their cue on the final frame of picture perfectly. An uninterrupted 95 minute performance would definitely not have been possible without DP's visual cues.

Screen Daily says of the film:

"Arguably the first true silent movie produced in eight decades, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain premiered in Toronto with a live orchestra, in-house sound effects artists, a singer and narrator providing a pure cinematic full monty. Filmed on Super-8, the blow up provides a graininess that often resembles a snow storm and the hurky jerky editing style, rapid cutting and extensive use of close-ups all conspire to replicate the notion of a silent film. The original score by Jason Staczek is first rate with or without spoken dialogue and the presence of 11-members from the Toronto Symphony to realise it was inspired. Maddin additionally found a singer able to emulate a castrato and veteran actor Louis Negin narrated with an appropriate soupcon of twinkle. (Isabella Rossellini will narrate when the film is presented at the New York Film Festival in October)."

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DPuser Update: David Lawrence

According to Newsweek Magazine, Disney's made-for-TV movie "High School Musical" has "proved itself a tween phenomenon and marketing juggernaut, racking up record sales on its CD soundtrack and DVD release, and spawning everything from T shirts to sheet music." Industry analysts estimate the fledging Disney franchise already totals $100 million in CD and DVD sales with growth that has no end in sight. Packing almost 80 minutes of music into the 98 minute movie, composer David Lawrence experienced major turning points in his career, both in terms of rocketing success and his decision to go with a 100% native Digital Performer desktop studio workflow for the very first time on a modest Disney production that turned into an overnight success and exceeded everyone's expectations.

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