Oscars and Kollaboration

The Oscars

Michael Giacchino won the Oscar for best original score this Sunday for his score to UP. I’m really happy for him. UP was my favorite film and my favorite film score for 2009. Part of the reason the score is so musical, is because it is an animated tale of adventure, which gave Giacchino a broad canvas for bold adventurous orchestrations, warm emotional melodies, and fun whimsical textures. It’s the kind of film an orchestral composer like myself dreams of working on. And one of my wildest dreams would be to one day score a Pixar film! And as Michael stated in his inspiring speech about anyone with a dream and the desire to be creative, “If you want to be creative, get out there and do it, it’s not a waste of time.”

Michael is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and I’m always amazed when I run into him that he says hello and remembers my name. I was considering not sharing this (because I look so young), but it’s a picture of when I first met Michael Giacchino. It’s from a scoring session for the 2nd to last episode of season one of Alias back in 2002. I was just a college student with a dream of one day scoring films, and it was such a cool experience to see my first ever live scoring session.

Me, Tim Simonec (Conductor), and Michael Giacchino

Kollaboration

And now, something unrelated to film music, but totally awesome. This weekend, I went to a really amazing show, Kollaboration 10, which is an entertaining showcase of Asian American talent at the Shrine Auditorium (where they used to hold the Oscars, and also right across the street from USC where I went to college). Two of my friends were performing, Alfa and Vudoo Soul, both of whom I met through NaRhee Ahn, who used their songs on the soundtrack of her film, Purity, which I scored.

Alfa, NaRhee Ahn, and Vudoo Soul

I also really enjoyed the rest of the show, which included other talented singer songwriters, some amazing dance crews, comedians, and even an electric violinist. It was inspiring so see such talented Asian Americans. I’m lucky that my looks or ethnicity don’t have too much of an effect on the music I create behind the scenes. But these performers will all have so much more of a struggle to become successful. We have yet to see a truly big, mainstream Asian American star in music or film, but after what I witnessed at Kollaboration, I have high hopes for the near future!

I also loved the makeshift food court before the show, I’m a big fan of eating. One of the latest crazes in Los Angeles are food trucks, and they had about 6 different food trucks show up outside the Shrine. I had some delicious duck tacos and pork sliders.

Food Trucks

Wouldn’t you love to see Eat My Tasty Meat! in your rear-view mirror?

I loved the experience, and ran into some filmmakers that I’ve worked with. Barney Cheng, who directed Steps was there. I also ran into Philip Wang and Wesley Chan from Wong Fu Productions. There was also a great after-party where I got to mingle with a bunch of the artists. I was excited to meet two of my favorite singer-songwriters, Kina Grannis (who won the Doritos Crash the Superbowl  contest a couple years ago) and David Choi (whose music has been featured alongside mine in several Wong Fu Productions shorts), both of whom were attending to support the other performers. And if you haven’t seen Kina’s amazing new music video, check it out here. Apparently she also turned down a record deal to stay true to her music and her fans ( more here). I can’t help having a crush on her, and absolutely love her music.

The Kollaboration Afterparty

With Alfa and Kina