Good thing for us, boredom isn’t a problem right now. Between scoring the documentary and portrait photography we’ve been busy these few months.

We’re amid a re-branding effort for a cycle retailer and are about to begin the re-branding process for an industrial HVAC company here in Kansas City.

Along with that work we’re in pre-production for a promotional video for our friends at Winntech. The variety is different than this time last year, and it’s certainly better than the alternative.

The Next American Dream - poster

The film is set to air nationwide in April 2009 . We’re honored to be working on this project with the great folks at Inland Sea Productions and Take 2 in Kansas City. The topic, urban planning and development, sustainability, and human scale architecture is very important to us.

Every scoring project poses new creative challenges. For this one it’s conveying the sense of humanity while thinking about the sound of America’s future development.

The most exciting part of this project is that it’s part of a program of community planning throughout the nation sponsored by several organizations. The film marks the starting point to exploring how we live in our country in the future. To be a part of the dialog that may prime a discussion of how we live in our built environment is humbling and exciting at the same time.

As more information comes available we’ll be sure to keep you updated. For now, you can click the link above to view the trailer for the film.

When you get beyond 30 – hopefully – you get beyond those to bigger dreams; moving people with your music, saving a life with your words, imparting some bit of life’s lessons, or even just bringing a smile.

In the business of art we get wound up tightly in the perils of thinking that youth is a metal stronger than wisdom. Maybe what we truly should remember is that feeling is a scion more precious than ambition.

Nothing illustrates this better than the Young at Heart Chorus. Watch this video and see what I mean. Watch it all the way through; if you still have dry eyes maybe you should re-evaluate your approach to your craft, if not your life.

Friend and songwriter, Matt Wilson (a Minneapolis treasure) once wrote “the sun is coming to cold places.”

I love that phrase. It holds hope in a time of cold and desperation. It reassures. Perfectly suited to a kind man from the cold confines of the northern tier. But they can get you through a cold mid-western winter too.

In trying to bring musical and visual reference to Matt’s words I wrote “tenzing”.

In addition to the joy, hope and giving, there’s a lot of despair around the holidays. It’s the beginning of the winter solstice – an unsettling time for many. It’s also a time of great, and often self-induced, stress about the holidays. This one seems all the more desperate given all our current socio-political tumult. Oh, and let’s not forget the war; no, not the one in Iraq, but the one that’s supposedly being waged against Christmas (do we REALLY need people to invent another war around this time of year?).

The point of tenzing is not just to build a song around a guitar riff, but to bring Matt’s sense of hope to what is starting out to be a very cold and solemn winter; especially considering it’s still fall.

Anyway, without giving it all away. Just enjoy the music and images. It’s a gift, and remember the sun is coming to cold places.

Here are a couple of links to the video:

For High-quality Quicktime Video (36meg) click here.
For a slightly lesser quality, FLASH video (18meg) click here.

To the inevitable questions:

What’s it all about?
Often in this business of creative work, people will overlook quality for expense. And by that I don’t mean they’ll take lower quality for less money. Quite the contrary; people will often settle for lower quality as long as it costs more. I used to say, “yeah, they don’t really do good work, but they have a really expensive coffee maker in the lobby.”

Well, the coffee maker doesn’t shoot in HD, it doesn’t score your film, it doesn’t design your brochure, and while a San Marco in the hands of a competent barista may spit out wonderful crema, it sure isn’t going to spit out great ideas.

We’ve always had this little coffee maker around the studio. You see them a lot in vietnamese restaurants. They make really good coffee and they only cost about five bucks. But they only work if you are patient and if you expect something different than you get with the million-dollar coffee maker.

Who did that amazing drawing?
The drawing was done by the lead actress, juj. Our chief designer and associate configuration coordinator.

Do you really use coffee for paint?
All the time. And barbecue sauce, and berries, and mushrooms, and actual paints too.

Who did the music?
I (John) wrote and performed the score. It was recorded here in the studio.

Why is it in 6/8? (IS it in 6/8?)
The music is composed and played for 6/8 because the coffee drops fall into the glass in 6/8. Some have said the song is in 3/4 or a classic waltz. It’s actually a slow 6/8. It’s not just about the beat and tempo as some might think. The time signature is also about the bar phrasing of the melody. And isn’t the point that there are no rules?

Last week we were fortunate enough to be invited to the premier for our friends at MK12’s new short History of America. When you get a chance, please go and watch the trailer on their site. If the film is in your town go see it.

More than a great piece of work, the film is a clinic in what you can do with simple tools and a great eye.

Congrats guys, good work.

Along with Terrence, we’re working with the talented John Baker of MK12. John’s a hell of an animator and illustrator. Throughout pre-production it’s been a great exchange of ideas and we’ve learned a lot.

We won’t get into the plot, because . . . well . . . that’s what the film is for. Suffice it to say it involves a lot of really exciting production challenges, including mostly exterior shooting, a lot of night shots, and a tight shooting schedule. Making sure the production keeps up with the sun is a lot like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a moving clock – just the way we like it.

Meanwhile we’re working on a new project for AT&T (formerly Cingular). We’ll keep you posted on this one as it progresses, which will probably be in fits and spurts.