nofilmschool » music

First Music Video Shot in Space: Astronaut Chris Hadfield Performing David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'

Joe Marine — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:26:35 +0000

If you haven’t seen it yet, well, prepare for something that has never happened in the history of human existence: the first full music video shot in space. Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut and the exiting commander of the International Space Station, just released a tribute music video to David Bowie’s Space Oddity, which was shot completely aboard the ISS. Check it out below: (more…)

Sundance Channel and Nokia Music Document the Underground Music Scene in 'New American Noise'

Mar Belle — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:20:13 +0000

If you’re heavily into music you’ll undoubtably be aware that certain geographical areas tend to become associated with particular music scenes. For myself here in the UK, I could quickly point to Manchester as the birth place of the aptly named ‘Madchester’ scene comprising bands such as The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and The Charlatans, and the beautifully idealistic Factory Records, closely followed by rave culture which sprang up around the legendary Hacienda nightclub. Recently Nokia Music in partnership with the Sundance Channel raided Somesuch & Co’s director roster (Emily Kai Bock – Spit Gold Under An Empire, Tyrone Lebon – Atlanta Dream$ & SFV ACID, Bob Harlow – Lords of Detroit & Abteen Bagheri – Electric Noise & That B.E.A.T) for New American Noise; a six-part series of documentaries exposing the underground music scene in six US cities. (more…)

Ever Wonder What Goes into Film Trailer Scores? Learn All About Epic Trailer Music with Yoav Goren

Joe Marine — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:46:54 +0000

Advertising and the movie business go hand in hand, and a huge piece of that puzzle is the music accompanying film trailers. But have you ever wondered how movie trailers get their epic scores, even though none of that music typically finds itself in the film? That’s where the movie trailer composer comes in. Michael Coleman over at SoundWorks Collection is consistently producing excellent behind the scenes videos related to sound professionals in the film and TV industries, and today we’ve got another fantastic piece with composer Yoav Goren, who writes music specifically for trailers. (more…)

Amazon's AutoRip: Buy a CD, Get the Cloud Version Free (and Maybe Films One Day, Too?)

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:26:20 +0000

Amazon has just announced a new service integrated into its powerful music sales tier called AutoRip, which grants CD buyers an immediately downloadable digital copy of that very album — or any CD purchased on Amazon for the last fifteen years (if it’s in the catalogue). Previously, you might have ripped the CD yourself when it came in the mail. AutoRip does the same thing, except, well… it’s automatic, and instant. Actually, the service sounds so obvious it’s almost a wonder no one thought of it sooner. In response, though, I have to ask: music and CDs are great, for sure — but why stop there? While you’re at it, Amazon, why not do the same for films too? (more…)

Universal and Sony Record Companies Caught Faking Billions of YouTube Views

Dave Kendricken — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:33:52 +0000

A few weeks ago I first saw a web ad that ran something close to, “Know who probably buys clothes? People who watch fashion videos… YouTube Ads work.” It struck me as fairly profound, though obvious at the same time, because it rings pretty true. Of course, how true it rings is contingent on people actually watching videos to see those ads — something that’s simply not happening (at least as much as it appears) when views are artificially generated. We’ve covered view inflation and cheating YouTube before — but now, YouTube has accused two of the largest record companies in the world of ‘click fraud,’ and has ‘confiscated’ an unprecedented two billion views as a result. Talk about your parent catching you “clicking yourself” under their roof, huh? (more…)

The Score of 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' with Dan Romer and Director Benh Zeitlin

Dave Kendricken — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:37:19 +0000

It’s a fairly uncommon thing for a director to score his own films — examples come to mind, to be sure, but it’s always interesting to see what comes out of such an arrangement. The director, of course, has a deep understanding of a film’s emotional texture. This makes the prospects of what a director-composer may bring to a film truly unique. Beasts of the Southern Wild is one such case, in which co-composer Dan Romer and director Benh Zeitlin worked together to create a simple but emotively articulate score. (more…)

Win 130 Royalty Free Songs During December Just by Tweeting

Justin Minich — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:00:00 +0000

If you’ve been enjoying Luke Neumann’s weekly music freebies and the daily free music he released this past July, here’s a chance to add even more free tunes to your collection. This time the sonic goodness is coming from Josh Molen of The Tune Peddler. Each week in December he will be giving away his entire library of 130 pieces of royalty free music to a lucky winner. All it takes to enter is the click of a tweet button. Here are the details on entering, as well as streaming samples of some additional free Christmas music Molen is releasing: (more…)

Audition and Hire Composers for Your Film with scoreAscore

Benjamin Dewhurst — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:00:34 +0000

Finding the perfect soundtrack for your film on stock music sites or using music generation software can be infuriating and sometimes seem next to impossible. I mean c’mon… we’ve all heard Apple Soundtrack’s “orchestral swells” or “classic sitcom” canned tracks more than once, haven’t we? An amazing sound designer teamed with the perfect composer can give your film a true emotional pull. Resourcing for a talented composer could probably be accomplished through general production job posting sites like Mandy.com or networking sites like Stage 32, but I recently discovered another tailored solution. It’s called scoreAscore, a platform designed to help you resource the right composer for your production. Click through for the entertaining and brief intro video (complete with papercraft stop motion!): (more…)

Weekly Freebie Project: 100% Royalty Free Music Available Every Week from Neumann Films

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:00:41 +0000

Luke and the team at Neumann Films are trying to do us a favor. We in the production world aren’t used to getting much for free, and that’s because we don’t — but that doesn’t mean the things we do get for free have to be lacking in quality. If you missed Luke’s tremendous month of free music in July, don’t worry, there’s more professional-grade royalty-free totally costless music where that came from — available for download every single week. (more…)

Paul Trillo Creates a 360° Panorama with a Canon 7D for the Peach Kings Music Video 'Lonely'

Ryan Koo — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:30:15 +0000

When one of my roommates moved to LA to pursue a full-time screenwriting career, I used the following criteria to choose a new roommate: “which among our applicants is the most talented filmmaker?” Instead of shooting stills of my Brooklyn apartment I had shot a walkthrough video on my RED (it was sitting on my desk so it was actually easier than taking a bunch of photos, but… most overkill apartment video ever!) and so there were a lot of people to choose from. Paul Trillo, it turned out, had seen me speak at the Vimeo festival and I had backed his Kickstarter campaign, even though we’d never met, so the choice was easy. Paul moved in and promptly shot this lovely music video on his Canon 7D: (more…)

The Dreamy, Hypnotic, Sound-and-Sight Experience of Purity Ring's Live Music Lightshow

Dave Kendricken — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:50:26 +0000

NoFilmSchool is, of course, a site for filmmakers, particularly (but not limited to) those of the DIY variety — but we also foster independent creativity. As independent creatives, we’re able to draw inspiration from virtually any artistic endeavor, including music. To continue this bit of a break from the barrage of recent news in camera tech, I wanted to share something in that musical vein with you guys. For those of you unfamiliar with the electronic-pop duo Purity Ring, they represent a rather refreshing success story regarding internet popularity and the power of new media — not to mention long-distance collaboration. These are all things which we at the forefront of indie content creation can correlate to both what we do as well as the possible future of how we do it. Also of potential interest to us creatives is Purity Ring’s live show. With the help of lighting installation custom-design group Tangible Interaction, the band has crafted a truly special sensory experience to complement — and more fully embody — their unique style of ethereal and euphoric music. (more…)

Reinventing the Movie Musical: Recording Live Performances with Tom Hooper's 'Les Misérables'

Joe Marine — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 03:39:07 +0000

Academy Award wining director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) is taking an untraditional approach to making a movie musical with his new film, Les Misérables. While musicals will typically go into a sound studio months before to record the singing, Hooper has decided to have his actors actually sing on set, and use that audio the same way one might use recorded dialogue. Click through for a behind-the-scenes look at the film and an explanation of the technique. (more…)

Get In-Depth with 'The Dark Knight Rises' Sound Design Team (Including Hans Zimmer)

Joe Marine — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 16:58:12 +0000

Christopher Nolan’s last few films have all had one thing in common: very detailed sound design. Maybe that goes without saying for a large Hollywood film, but the depth and scope of the sound work is what really helps each of his films come together. We’ve talked about SoundWorks Collection before, when we shared their video for Prometheus, but this time they take a look at the team behind The Dark Knight Rises, including the movie’s composer, Hans Zimmer. (more…)

Get a New Royalty Free Music Track Every Day for the Month of July

Justin Minich — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:00:56 +0000

Looking to add some new music to your filmmaking arsenal? Neumann Films is giving away a free music or sound element track every day for the month of July. All of the tracks being released in the Daily Freebie project are “100% Royalty Free and ready to use in any commercial/non commercial work as long as credit is given as follows (Luke Neumann – “Track Name Here”).” Here are a couple of samples of the music that has been released thus far: (more…)

What You Do When You Discover the Exact Movie You Are Writing is Coming Out in Four Months

Christopher Boone — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:00:49 +0000

I am currently in the middle of rewriting my latest comedy spec script, Countless Melodies (that crossed-out ‘o’ is not a typo, it’s a purposeful omission), a script I haven’t shown to a soul yet because it’s not ready. It’s an idea I’ve had for several years and I finally got around to writing it this year. It’s a college-set comedy that follows an all-male a cappella group, Countless Melodies, as they try to recapture their former glory to become national champions once again, if they can only defeat their archrivals, the three-time defending champion Blue Belles. It’s completely “write-what-you-know” because I was in an all-male a cappella group in college. That’s right. I said it. I was in an all-male a cappella group in college — the Johns Hopkins University AllNighters. And we were good, too (at least, back in the day). So imagine my surprise when I surf over to IMDb today and see this trailer on their home page for Pitch Perfect: (more…)

Five Reasons to Give Away Your Film's Soundtrack for Free

Ryan Gielen — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:32:07 +0000

On Feb 1, 2008 Mark Cuban posted to his blog about a far-fetched, impossible-to-execute marketing concept that he desperately wanted film studios to adopt, in order to leverage the value of free giveaways to combat the crumbling theatrical marketplace. Digital was exploding, distribution was becoming a fractured nightmare, and studios were scrambling to adapt.

The idea was staggeringly simple: give away the film’s soundtrack for free. (more…)

Jamendo and FreeSound: Two Awesome Sources for Creative Commons Music and Sound

Justin Minich — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:37:41 +0000

Sometimes it’s an unfortunate reality in filmmaking that you may not have time to work with a musician to score your project, nor to go out with a field recorder to obtain all the sound effects you need. It’s at times like these that Jamendo and FreeSound are my CC-licensed lifesavers. Each site offers a substantial catalog of audio media some of which you can use freely with attribution, some of which you can only use non-commercially with attribution, and some which the artist has released to the public domain. Jamendo also has options for relatively reasonable paid licensing for various project types, as well as a handy-looking iPhone app: (more…)

Rightclearing Makes Music Licensing for Filmmakers Fast and Easy

E.M. Taboada — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:43:44 +0000

Whether it’s for your short film, feature film, or funny YouTube video, finding and properly licensing music can be a pain. You can either try licensing that classic track, which can be exorbitantly expensive, or if you have a musician willing to license their music, you may have to go through the rigamarole of drawing up legal documents and agreeable terms. Enter rightclearing.com. It’s a new service launched by restorm.com that aims to make it easier for musicians to monetize their music — and easier for content creators to find and license that music. Just how easy? Find out in the following video: (more…)

Vimeo Launches Very Handy Music Store for Finding and Licensing Tunes for Your Videos

Ryan Koo — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:55:08 +0000

This makes so much sense, it’s a wonder the other video sharing services haven’t done this before (unless they have, and I missed it). Vimeo, home to a world of videomakers and creatives, has launched an easy and fast way to find and license music — legally — for your videos. Tracks start at $0.00 (there are a number of “free for personal use” tracks) and typically fall into two categories: $1.99 for personal licensing, and $98.00 for commercial licensing. (more…)

What Indie Filmmakers Can Learn from Kanye West

Ryan Koo — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:31:18 +0000

Today saw the iTunes-exclusive album release of Watch the Throne, a collaboration between rap megastars Kanye West and Jay-Z. What does this have to do with independent filmmaking? Good question. Regardless of what kind of music you listen to, I think there are some lessons to be learned from the career arc of Kanye West, as well as the digital-first distribution strategy the duo employed for today’s album release. Caution: this post is not going to win any awards for organization or brevity. I’m going to ramble on here: (more…)