February 28, 2003

STONE READER…THE TRAILER
THE SOUND OF LAWNCARE
IT’S WHERE AMERICA SWIMS
VALLEY NATIONAL BANK GETS ANIMATED
POTPOURII


STONE READER…THE TRAILER

MONSTER TRACKS has scored dozens of political spots over the years, many of them in conjunction with filmmaker Mark Moskowitz. Turns out that Mark has been making good use of his “spare time”; in 2002 he completed the film “Stone Reader”, which captured both the Special Grand Jury Honor and Audience Award for best feature at the 2002 Slamdance Film Festival. As a result, Mark was able to land a distribution deal that has placed the film in select theatres in major U.S. markets including New York and Los Angeles. Naturally if you’re going to release a film into theatres, you’re going to need a trailer to promote it. Enter MONSTER TRACKS.

“I’ve had a long relationship with the director”, explains MONSTER TRACKS principal composer Chuck Butler, “so we’ve developed a system of working over the years. Mark can upload digital video files for scoring purposes, and I return audio files via Baker Sound’s ftp site. Mark is very involved in the production of the music, so we typically go through a number of revisions until we get a piece that feels right to both of us.” In the case of the Stone Reader trailer, Chuck had strong feelings about the musical direction right away. “There were a number of edits of the trailer at first”, recalls Butler, “but a piano theme occurred to me that felt right with all of them. Mark and I had a number of conversations about how the theme might be woven through the trailer and how other musical elements could be used to change the mood without distracting from the narrative. I think the final piece is like a musical synopsis of the film. I hope the trailer will make audiences want to see this outstanding film.” According to director Moskowitz, it seems like that’s happening: “at a recent film forum screening I attended almost a quarter of the audience said they came from the trailer.” Mark feels strongly about the importance of music in any production: “I've always said that we work for weeks, or months or in this case years on something and that's the first 50% percent. The music is the next 50%.”

Listen to the score for the Stone Reader trailer now…

Watch the Stone Reader trailer now...

THE SOUND OF LAWNCARE

MONSTER TRACKS has completed work on a TruGreen/Chemlawn TV spot for iBOX Films of Wayne, PA. The spot features two neighbors—one toils endlessly at his lawn while the other relaxes and lets TruGreen/Chemlawn do the work. Composer Chuck Butler created a drum corps “march” for guy #1, and a relaxed, groovin’ soundtrack that recalls the days of Motown for the hero. The track is mostly live players, including bluesy harmonica work by Paul Jost. Chuck recalls the process: “I played a synth harmonica on the demo that wasn’t bad…but I wanted the real thing for the final. The trouble is it’s a lot easier to play certain phrases on a keyboard than on an actual harmonica. Luckily I knew Paul, who is an excellent musician. I emailed him a copy of what I had done—he used his home studio to demonstrate that he could pull it off—but the tracks he sent me were so good they wound up being used for the final. For all I know, he did it in his underwear.” These spots will be airing in select markets nationally.

IT’S WHERE AMERICA SWIMS

This has been a cold and seemingly endless winter in Philadelphia, so it was a pleasure to dive in (sorry) to a new jingle for Anthony & Sylvan Pools. MONSTER TRACKS was tapped by The Marketing Group of Feasterville, PA to create a new musical identity for the pool and spa company, who operate 48 centers in sixteen states. “We had great creative input from the agency in terms of musical direction,” recalls Chuck. “An Anthony & Sylvan pool is an upscale product, so the music needed to reflect a certain level of sophistication. At the same time a pool is a fun, family-oriented investment.” The track features Jeff Kay (using the new Turner electric/acoustic hybrid guitar) as well as local singer Eileen Brady. The radio spots are airing now in select U.S. markets; a TV campaign is anticipated as well.

Listen to an Anthony & Sylvan spot now…

VALLEY NATIONAL BANK GETS ANIMATED

MONSTER TRACKS has now completed a series of four animated spots for Valley National Bank of northern New Jersey. The spots were produced by Gillespie (Princeton, NJ), with animation handled by Dagnabit! (part of Crawford Post Production in Atlanta). Each spot features a unique cartoon-music score, combining live and sampled orchestral sounds. University of the Arts’ Ron Kerber handled clarinet and flute parts, with Matt Cappy (Jill Scott) on trumpet. All strings were sampled, but a realistic sound was made possible by using the Garritan orchestral strings library. “The Garritan strings, running on our GigaStudio system, enable me to create the most realistic string section renderings I’ve been able to accomplish to date,” remarks composer/programmer Chuck Butler. “I now have multiple articulations and dynamics at my disposal, so I’m able to write phrases that are much more idiomatic than what had been previously possible. The quality of the sampling is excellent—you can literally hear the individual players making up the section. It affords me a great deal more freedom in what I can write…I would have had to make different compositional choices were it not for the flexibility of this new system.” These TV spots air in the New York/North Jersey market.

Listen to the score for “Magic Show” now…

Listen to the score for “Better Places" now...

POTPOURII

MONSTER TRACKS had a busy Q4 2002, and the beginning of 2003 showed no signs of slowing down. You may have heard a new jingle for Colonial, including Colonial Nissan, Subaru, and Volkswagen. The spots have been airing on KYW NewsRadio and WIP among others. If you’re in and around the Boston market you may have heard our rockin’ jingle for Decathlon—“The #1 Sports Store in the World” (listen to a Decathlon spot now). If you find yourself at a Philadelphia 76ers game at the First Union Center, you’ll want to listen for our “Chute Shoot” rap. This two-minute Latin/hip-hop extravaganza promotes Comcast’s new OnDemand service (listen to Comcast’s Chute Shoot music now). Finally, we’re pleased to report that the film we scored for NYANA (New York Association of New Americans) was honored with a Gold Award by the Philadelphia Art Directors Club. The film opened an awards dinner last spring in New York.