A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1998 Dreamworks Records. Movie poster art (C) 1998 Dreamworks SKG John Williams' score for Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg's searing World War II drama about eight U.S. soldiers ordered to rescue a paratrooper whose three brothers lost their lives in combat, follows the simple-is-better-than-operatic format that made his music for 1993's Schindler's List powerful and effective. Considering that most of Williams' film scores tend to be very bombastic and energetic (his Star Wars and Indiana Jones music tends to follow the Wagner/Korngold tradition of big orchestras and action-oriented cues), it's refreshing to hear this very prolific (and much-imitated) composer use orchestral restraint where he might have been tempted to utilize strident and Sousa-like marches, as is common in most war movies set during World War II. But starting with the reverent-yet-mournful Hymn to the Fallen (a piece that is not heard till the End Credits, but

Cover Design and Illustration: Jeff Walker. (C) 1983 Phonogram International B.V. The stars have always figured prominently in the arts of mankind, but at no time in history has this subject matter been used in a way that parallels the creation of recent films about adventures in space. These movies, which were made primarily as popular entertainment, have become the fairy tales and myths of modern times, calling forth responses from deep within us. - William Livingstone, in the liner notes for Out of This World.  In the summer of 1983, when director Richard Marquand's Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and the Steven Spielberg-John Landis production of Twilight Zone: The Movie were still in theaters, Dutch record label Philips released Out of This World: John Williams and the Boston Pops in a vinyl LP record and on audiocassette. It was a sequel to an earlier Boston Pops/John Williams album with a similar theme, Pops in Space and featured music from eight sci

Cover  Design: Giulio Turturro; Cover Photo: Edward Steichen. (C) 1999 Sony Masterworks/Sony Classical On July 27, 1999, nearly two years after the successful debut of Cinema Serenade, Sony Masterworks dropped Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age, an album that reunited virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman and conductor John Williams for a 12-track collection of movie themes – or songs used in movies – during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For this sequel, Perlman and Williams are joined by “America’s Orchestra”: the Boston Pops, which Maestro Williams led from 1980 to 1993 and still serves today as the ensemble’s Laureate Conductor.  In contrast to their first album since their collaboration on Schindler’s List, Perlman and Williams chose a program of compositions heard in films released between 1936 ( Smile from Modern Times ) and 1952 (the traditional Irish gig St. Patrick’s Day from The Quiet Man ).  They chose wisely, for as the liner notes by Royal S. Brown point out, “t

On July 29, 1997, Sony Masterworks released Cinema Serenade, the first of two post Schindler's List movie themed albums featuring the collaborative team of violinist Itzhak Perlman and Oscar-winning composer John Williams.  Film scores have been a passion of mine since I first heard Williams' unforgettable score for Star Wars at the age of 14. Since then I have become acutely aware of movie themes and orchestral music's ability to affect one's perceptions and emotions. As a result, my musical collection includes many CDs of music by composers such as James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and, of course, maestro Williams. Cinema Serenade, featuring acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman, John Williams and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is a beautiful 13-track collection of movie themes by various notable composers, including  Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Luis Bonfa, Andre Previn and, of course, Williams. Because the f

Cover art by Drew Struzan. (C) 1996 Varese Sarabande Records and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In 1996, Lucasfilm gathered several authors, artists, and representatives from Hasbro and other licensees to discuss a huge multimedia project that was, in short, everything but the full-fledged filmed version of a Star Wars movie. To kick this ambitious campaign, writer Steve Perry was hired to write an original novel for Bantam Spectra that would be the core of the project called Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. The novel. Photo Credit: www.mycomicshop.com. (C) 1996 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) The novel would be a stand-alone Expanded Universe novel, the first of the Bantam Spectra series to depict event between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jed i. All the other products, ranging from Hasbro's Kenner action figures to Nintendo 64 cartridges, would use Perry's novel as a starting point and expand the story, sticking to the essentials of the centra

(C) 2018 Alex Diaz-Granados and CreateSpace (an Amazon company) It is February 1998. 33-year-old Jim Garraty is a respected history professor and bestselling author who lives in New York City. Popular with both students and readers, Jim seems to have it all. Fame, a nice apartment in Manhattan, and a reputation as one of the best World War II historians in the U.S. But when he gets a cryptic email from his best friend from high school, Jim is forced to relive his past - and a trip to his home town of Miami reopens old wounds he thought had healed long ago. Q.: How - or why - did you choose your characters' names? Did you go through a phone book and choose names at random or did you name Jim, Marty, and Mark after people you know? A.: Jim Garraty - or as Stephen King would put it, my I-guy - was, in every iteration of the story (from a CRW-2001 assignment to finished product), Jim Garraty. I'm not sure why I chose James/Jim/Jimmy as his first name; I just knew that