I recently composed music for an amazing short film, STEPS, directed by the talented Barney Cheng. It's part of Film Independent's Project:Involve, a mentorship program I was a part of a couple of years ago.



Ten short films were made with the support of Vanity Fair and Banana Republic, and are available for viewing online, where you can vote for your favorite film and possibly win a $1,000 Banana Republic Giftcard while you’re at it).


http://www.vfagenda.com/bananarepublic/steps.asp

My new album, DREAMS IN THE MORNING, is now available for download. It's a compilation of expressive and melodic pieces from films that I've worked on. This collection of music conjures up the lingering fragments of memories from dreams when I first wake up. You can preview and download the album here:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/georgeshaw4
or
iTunes

You can hear several full tracks here:
http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/georgeshaw/

Also, check out a live performance of one of the tracks, Dancing in the Waves:

Here's another performance from that same concert of some themes from my previous album, LEGENDARY WARRIORS.

Check out Wong Fu Productions hilarious new short about the going
clubbing. It’s a 4 part series, and I wrote some music for parts 3 and
4. I personally hate going to clubs, why does the music have to be so
loud, and I can never hear what anybody is trying to say to me. I once
went to a club in Hollywood for a friend’s birthday, and even though I
was wearing ear plugs, my hearing was damaged and my ears were ringing
the next day. So I really related to this film, and was cracking up
when I first sat down and watched it with Philip Wang, the director.




Part 1:
http://vimeo.com/3031932

Part 2:
http://vimeo.com/3027632

Part 3:
http://vimeo.com/3103916

Part 4:
http://vimeo.com/3197640

I came across this amazing video of John Williams conducting a clever medley of themes from classic Hollywood movies. There wasn't a melody I didn't recognize, this is the stuff that listened to when I was a kid and inspired me to become a film composer.

I just found out that the film I just finished mixing yesterday, is set to play at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Holy crap I wish I could to Hawaii to surf and
watch films. I just don't have any money to make it there.

The film is This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday, directed by Long Phan. It's based on the famous Haruki Murakami short story ON MEETING MY 100% PERFECT GIRL ONE FINE APRIL MORNING. Starring Chris Dinh & Leni Ito. I was inspired by Chopin when I was composing this score, and enjoyed testing my piano chops.

And it looks like the shorts program that it's playing on is pretty awesome. Julia Kwan has a film playing, as well as J.P. Chan, someone who's work I've seen before at a festival a couple years ago.

It's playing on Sunday, Oct. 12 @ 8:45pm (Shorts Program 4)
http://www.hiff.org/


A scene from the film:
http://vimeo.com/1763935

My new album, Legendary Warriors, is released today. It is inspired by my love of martial arts films from Asia, so I set out to compose music that would evoke images of warriors from the past. It contains epic themes scored for orchestra with traditional instruments from China and Japan, including erhu (Chinese fiddle), bamboo flute, guzheng (Chinese string zither), taiko drums, and many more.

I also made a behind the scenes video, which was a lot of fun to do. Watch it on youtube (you can watch it in High Quality too):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L99qrn_tWl8


The album is available in CD and mp3 formats at CD Baby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/georgeshaw3



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Also available on DVD is, Asian Stories, a comedy that I scored earlier this summer. The film stars James Kyson Lee (Heroes) and Kathy Uyen (who is in the upcoming Harrison Ford film, Crossing Over) as a mismatched couple staying two steps ahead of disaster. Check it out on Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, or where ever it is you get DVD's.



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I will be conducting the world premiere of a suite of themes from J-ok'el: Legend of La Llorona. It will be performed by the Golden State Pops Orchestra on October 25th (8pm, Warner Grand Theater) in Los Angeles. The Halloween themed program will also feature music by Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, and other notable film composers.

For tickets and info:
gspo.com

Last Friday ASIAN STORIES, had it's theatrical opening. I was at opening night along with other cast/crew. It was really exciting, this is the first film I've worked on that has had a theatrical release in North America.


The poster and I just outside the theater.

The screening went well, aside from a technical problem that made the picture look really awful, it was dark, fuzzy, and flickering in some places. Had something to do with an HD camera and only having an S-video cable...but the music sounded great in the theater. The music was even louder in some places than I expected to be...I've gotten so used to not hearing music in big Hollywood movies b/c of all the huge sound fx. And the audience was laughing a lot, it's definitely the kind of movie that's best to experience with a group of people.

Afterwards, I got to go up for a Q/A with the people that worked on the movie. Ron the director, absolutely praised me in front of everyone, mentioning how I came in just weeks before the release to write half an hour of original music with the deadline ticking down. He claims I did it in 10 days, but it was more like 2 1/2 weeks to write, record, and mix the score. And I couldn't have done it with out the help of my 2 amazing guitarists: Eugene Huang (http://www.myspace.com/eugenehuang) and Bo Han (http://www.myspace.com/bohanmusic). They recorded all the guitar parts, and sent me the final tracks that I only had to drop into my sequencer and mix with my own drums/synth parts. And fortunately I didn't have to score the entire film, as they had some really great songs from the band Thomas' Apartment (http://www.myspace.com/thomasapartment). I really dig their songs, and have been listening to them ever since!

My friend NaRhee Ahn, who directed a Korean American romantic drama that I scored (PURITY), mentioned later that she's never heard a director ever give so much praise to a composer. On a side note, 2 years ago, PURITY and ASIAN STORIES both premiered at the same time in adjacent theaters at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. That's when I met Katz Ueno, the associate producer on ASIAN STORIES, in the lobby prior to the screenings and handed him a CD of my music, and hence how I became involved with the film.

The funniest behind-the-scenes story of the night, was about how one of the crew members found a book in the director's car, and it was some type of dummies guide to directing. Apparently Ron (the director) and his producer Kris, learned all about filmmaking by going to Barnes and Noble and hanging out there and reading all the books on filmmaking. There were even moments in the shoot where Ron would open up his directing book and point at a picture and tell the cinematographer he wanted the shot to "look like that."

Ron is such a funny guy, and I can't wait to see his next film!


Cast & Crew from L-R: I didn't catch the name of the first guy...Ronald Oda (short guy in front), behind him is Kirt Kishita, Me, Wendy Ho, Kathy Uyen, James Kyson Lee, & Gabriel Lozano.

The afterparty took place at Blue Dahlia, a really cool wine bar with a chill and relaxing outdoor ambience. Kathy Uyen organized it, and I had a great time hanging out with friends and people who came to see the movie. A lot of people came up to me to tell me what a great job I did with the music, and it was so nice to get wonderful compliments from people in person. I do so much of my work alone in my studio, that it's wonderful to meet and connect with a real live audience!

Asian Stories will have a one week theatrical release in Los Angeles. The premiere will happen on:
Friday, July 25, 2008
ImaginAsian Center, Downtown LA
251 South Main St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
iacenterla.com/la

I will be at the premiere along with James Kyson Lee (HEROES), Kathy Uyen, Kirt Kishita, Ron Oda (the director), and other cast and crew members for a Q&A after the screening. The movie will be released on DVD on September 2nd.

Asian Stories is an amazing feature length film that tells a story unlike any other. Jim is a young closefisted Chinese American living in LA who desperately finds himself with a stack of white flower themed disposable cameras, fleur-de-lis invitations, a number of champagne bottles, and a ten-thousand dollar engagement ring bill. The only thing missing is a bride. In financial debt and miserable for having his fiancé leave two weeks prior to Valentine's day, Jim tries to resurface his dignity and wash away his wretchedness by asking his best friend, a Japanese hitman whose passion for cooking fancy entrees extends far beyond his kitchen, to kill him just in time to miss the Hallmark holiday. With less than four days to live, Jim, while wearing his wedding tuxedo the entire time, treks to the mountains to find his fate, meet a pizza delivery boy with lucky charms, the funeral spot of his choice, and a girl.

ASIAN STORIES won the Audience Award at the VC Film Festival/Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and has screened to sold-out audiences at other festivals in San Diego, Hawaii and Chicago.


Showtime info:

July 25-26th
2:45 5:00 7:15 9:45

July 27th - July 30th
2:45 5:00 7:15 9:30

July 31st
5:00 7:15 9:30



Kathy Uyen and I.

Funny story about how I met Kathy Uyen last week:

I competed in a Rock Band charity tournament over the weekend. 100% of the proceeds from the tournament will go to Mercy Corps' COMFORT FOR KIDS, a program helping earthquake survivors in Sichuan, China.

So I'd just finished scoring, ASIAN STORIES, an awesome and funny romantic comedy, and my friend Scott Tang wanted to come over with his band (The 2 KGS, consisting of Scott Tang on Drums, Kathy Uyen on Bass, Grace Su aka Peachies on Guitar, and Karin Anna Cheung on vocals) to practice for the tournament.

When Kathy showed up, I totally didn't recognize her, even though I've seen her face onscreen everyday for a few weeks while working on Asian Stories. It's been 3 years since they shot the film, and her hair is totally different now. So I was mentioning how I just finished composing music for Asian Stories, and Kathy was like "No way, you're kidding."

So I got to play for her the love theme that I wrote for her character, and she really liked it. So then we started playing Rock Band on my Xbox, and since Kathy had never played before, I taught her how to rock the bass like she was born playing one. Her first time playing ("Say It Ain't So" by Weezer), she got 50 something percent, and by the night of the competition, she scored 94%!

You don't have to wait for my next release to hear more of my music. I put up some exclusive tracks you can download for free if you sign up for my mailing list on reverbnation.com/georgeshaw. You'll also get email updates about future releases, upcoming movies, and new tracks you can download for free. You can also grab widgets of my music and share them on your own website or myspace page, they even automatically update when I load new music, so you'll be the first to hear my latest stuff.

Some of the exclusive tracks you can download now are suites from short films that I've done, such as:
*Willie Mays and the Infinite Sadness, an emotional and moving fantasy, that required some really big lush orchestral music (it was temped w/ Horner's Beautiful Mind, and Elfman's Big Fish).
*Creswood Hotel, a suspense film done in a very Hitchcockian style, and the score is an homage to Bernard Herrmann.
*The Story of Maureen and Malcolm, a charming romantic fairy tale made by some very talented film students in the UK.
*The Complex, my very first full-length feature film score for a very low budget horror film that will likely never be seen. But I'm very proud of the music, as the director gave me the freedom to do what I want. The suite consists of the main titles and one of the big supernatural finale pieces that allowed me to do something dark but with hints of the magical orchestrations in Williams' Harry Potter scores.
http://www.reverbnation.com/georgeshaw

Check out the page I made about the Treasure of the Templars score. It has a glossary of the themes I've written so far with sound files.

georgeshawmusic.com/templar.html