Sonic Cinema

Sounds, Visions and Insights by Brian Skutle

Hello one and all. I hope that everything has been going well with all of you. Much has been going on in the past month for me on all fronts, all pointing towards better things in the future than have been the case in recent months. I’m still working on getting myself physically healthy after my bout of pneumonia, but otherwise all systems are good.

But it’s creatively that you want to hear about, and there’s much to discuss. Last month I outlined a plan of attack to get my creative output back on track. No more floundering- time to get to business.

First on the agenda was music- specifically, music for my long-in-production short film “Unwinnable Hand: A Thriller in Two Movements” I began writing music for the film back in February, but things complicated the air along the way and productivity became stagnant, even though the beginnings were promising. Well, a couple of weeks ago I was able to release my first composition in almost two years with my electronica Ambient composition “Edge Runner”, available on Sonic Cinema- as many of my other tracks are- and written for “Unwinnable Hand.” Also composed was “Wasted Hand”, a small, evocative piece of underscore for the film; I haven’t made the individual track available, but may do so in the future. Also completed in the past couple of weeks was the recording of my 2006 composition entitled “Darkness for Voices, String Quartet & Tubular Bells”. This third of my unofficial “Macabre October” trilogy of pieces- along with 2004’s “Otherworldly March” and 2005’s “Gothic Twilight”– is also available for download on Sonic Cinema, as are the other two pieces in the trilogy.

Before I get to the big news of the post, however, I did want to mention a couple of other things. First of all, you may recall that a couple of months back I mentioned how my 2007 CD “Sonic Visions of a New Old West” was available on iTunes and other digital download sites, in addition to CDBaby. Well, after some unforseen delays, my first two CDs- 1999’s “Creative Beginnings” and 2000’s “Dark Experiments”– are now available on such sites as well, including iTunes. So if you haven’t checked them out and are interested in getting them (or even just individual tracks), go on there and download them…and if you like what you hear (or Hell, even if you don’t), please write a review so that other people might be tempted to check them out for themselves. Off of iTunes and such I get 91% of all sales, so the more they get downloaded, the more money I make.

Secondly, my creative activity is moving forward full steam…and not just musically (though I’m not done on that front this year). In April the Atlanta Composers Group held “Unseen Forces 2,” the follow-up show to January’s original “Unseen Forces” concert, at the Three Bears Cafe in Marietta. Well, while the show was not really a success, and the Group has disbanded from meeting in its’ aftermath, several of the core members- myself included- are looking to move things forward independently. One of the things that fell through for the April show was a visual accompaniment for the program, although a friend of mine and a friend of hers did take pictures for it, having the idea of a slideshow of Atlanta and the culture going with the music. A pretty cool idea, and it’s too bad I didn’t coordinate things better, because they got some pretty great shots. Working with them in conjunction with the concert pieces briefly illuminated great potential in the idea still on an artistic level. Before I progress with my next composition, my goal is to work with the pictures taken for “Unseen Forces” and create a showcase program for an “Unseen Forces 3” concert to wipe away the bad memories of “Unseen 2,” which I put together. Be on the lookout for further info on this in the coming months.

But for now, the big news. As you’ve no doubt been reading over the years, I long into work on my first short film as a writer-director entitled “Unwinnable Hand: A Thriller in Two Movements”. which I’ve written blogs about the creation of on Sonic Cinema and made behind-the-scenes features and creations available for on the MySpace page for Cinema Nouveau Productions, my “production company” for my personal film work. Well, after months of slacking, I’m proud to present for your viewing pleasure, “Unwinnable Hand: Movement I- Agitato”, the first part of my opus, which can be seen at the Cinema Nouveau MySpace site, and is also being submitted to other sites such as AtomFilms. I’ve embedded it onto this blog for easy viewing, but feel free to go to the Cinema Nouveau website for more content such as blogs, deleted scenes, and various behind-the-scenes dabblings. And as always, any feedback is welcome and encouraged.

“Unwinnable Hand: Movement I- Agitato”

Well, that’s about it for me for now. There’s a lot more to come. More film craziness, more musical creativity, more ambitious ideas, more artistic endeavors from the heart. I hope you’ll find them as rewarding to experience as I do to think of.

Thanks for listening,

Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
www.myspace.com/brianskutle
www.myspace.com/cinemanouveau

Categories: News, News - Music

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