FILMUSIK: Planet of Dinosaurs
LIVE 1970′s CREATURE-FEATURE SOUNDTRACK BY THE BLUE CRANES
With teams of musicians, sound effects designers and actors, Filmusik creates the live soundtrack for a classic film at the Hollywood Theatre. Every roar, whistle and arpeggio is created onstage by the performers in this unique concert of the movie arts.
FILMUSIK: Planet of Dinosaurs from Galen Huckins on Vimeo.
An original score written by local Jazz renegades “The Blue Cranes” sets a new mood for the 1978 science-fiction film.The stop-motion dinosaurs are given character by Filmusik’s own Foley artists who use an arsenal of noise props to create the sounds in the film. A troupe of local voice over artists dub the film live from the original script, matching the hapless space-travelers who crash land on a prehistoric planet.
From the pit under the screen, the work of many artists goes into the final canvas of sound for this 70′s creature feature. It’s a special concert that gives a behind the screen look at the art that goes into the sound for movies.
Filmusik is partnered with the Hollywood Theatre in it’s mission to create new outlets and opportunities for music, film and the performers who make them worth listening to. When the Theatre was built in 1926 it was made to facilitate the silent movie orchestras that accompanied every screening. While the performances that Filmusik create are a new step in the trajectory of accompaniment music, they are proud to share the stage with the ghosts of orchestras past and carry the art to a new age (in this case the prehistoric one).
- Filmusik collaborator David Ian, Foley and sound effect artist
Portland Jazz ensemble The Blue Cranes has been hailed as an original voice in their recent tour-by-train across the country. Now that they are back home to the Northwest, they are taking on a new challenge: a live soundtrack for retro cinema that combines their penchant for high-energy improvisation and extended compositions.
Blue Cranes have performed at jazz, rock and punk festivals down the West Coast. They have shared the stage with John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet, Wayne Horvitz’s Sweeter Than The Day, The Scott Amendola Trio, Portland Cello Project, Michael White, The Youngs, Thruster!, Cuong Vu, The Tiptons, MiAmi, Priestbird, and Horse Feathers. Clubs regularly showcase the Blue Cranes on tour, and the band has played in-studio sessions at the region’s top radio stations for creative music, including Seattle’s KEXP and Live Wire! Radio on Portland’s KOPB.
In Planet of Dinosaurs the interstellar shipwrecks are in a constant state of distress. Never far from prehistoric jaws, their adrenaline buzz is rendered into the tones and improvisations of The Blue Cranes. (More information on the ensemble at www.bluecranesmusic.com)
Filmusik’s performance on June 23rd is a special multi-cultural event. Working with a ensemble of Latino actors, the performance is dubbed into Spanish live. Audiences in the US may not be accustomed to hearing different actors play the roles of Hollywood stars, but it’s the norm across the globe when big budget Hollywood cinema is exported abroad. Often, foreign voice actors become as famous in their own country as the American actor they speak for.
Planet of Dinosaurs was released in Latin America as “El Planeta de los Dinosaurios” in 1979. While no print seems to survive from it’s Latin American release, Filmusik is more than happy to imagine it for you with a translation by Kolumba Khedzor and a cast of talented actors.
– Filmusik collaborator Enrique Andrade, Spanish voice of the MAX and the Portland Streetcar and appearing as Capitan Norsyth in Planet of Dinosaurs
Planet of Dinosaurs (Also known as Dinossauros: Planet of dinosaurs) is a 1978 science fiction film. Set in an unspecified future, the film follows the journey of Captain Lee Norsyth and his crew after they crash land on a planet with similar life conditions as Earth, but millions of years behind in time. Encountering a wide variety of dangerous dinosaurs, the crew decides that its best chance for survival lies on finding higher ground and setting up a defensive perimeter on a higher plateau to for refuge to wait for when or if their rescuers arrive. They soon encounter a deadly Tyrannosaurus and must figure out a way to defeat the creature and survive on the planet.
