by Sam Banack
Movies without music would actually be completely lame. Actually, in going through my CD collection (which, by the way, sounds more and more like “my collection of eight tracks” every time I say it) I have to say the majority of them are soundtracks/scores. There is something about the variety that comes with buying a film soundtrack. Also, you have a thematic center point to guide the music, rather than a common band.

These are things everyone knows, but not something you often pay much attention to, and rarely take a couple hours out of your life to mull over.

And that last thing is exactly what I did last night, I attended the “Music and Film” panel at Jackman Hall at the AGO. Running as a highlight of this years Canada’s Top Ten Programme, I mentioned this panel in my review last week of the programme.

I hope at least a couple of you made it out. It was pretty awesome.

To start things off Kris Demeanor (krisdemeanor.com) accompanied his short film live. Let me explain. His short film is one of Canada’s Top Ten Shorts. But is more of a narrative music video, based on one of Femeanor’s folksy acoustic guitar tales. It’s an amazingly done motion capture animation piece that tells of life in Calgary South. Very cool. And super fun to have Kris Demeanor there, looking up at the screen and syncing his performance to his own animation. There was a real connection between art forms; definitely a good way to start the night.

Demeanor was then joined on stage by moderator/filmmaker Jacob Tierney and the panel, which included Cam Christianson, who animated Kris’ song, as well as Bruce McDonald, Director and soundtrack king of Canada, along with his Music Supervisor, Stacy Horricks of Capor Music Licensing and Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) and Charles Spearin (BSS and Do, Make, Say Think) who created the score for McDonald’s latest, and Top Ten nominee, THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS.

It was an amazing couple of hours. I never knew half these problems existed. The audience, me one of a rapt many, learned all about swapping temporary tracks (music editors cut a film to) for music that the producer says a director can actually afford the licensing of. We learned about how subtly music can change the mood of a scene. We discussed best and worst uses of music in film. And we learned all about Stacy’s trip down the accidental career path, How to Get From Software Coding to Creating Soundtracks For Cash in Five Easy Steps (don’t tell her I told you, as she was quite embarrassed about it, but steps 2, 3 and 4, included stalking her now boss and sending him cd’s she liked, she promises it was not as sketchy as it first sounds)

The night finished, after a long Q&A session, with an encore presentation by Kris Demeanor, of another great song, The Perfect Buzz, about two guys spending two days trying to find the perfect combination of coffee, booze and THC. He’s trying to talk Cam Christianson into making into a motion-capture feature. Picture WAKING LIFE meets SUBURBIA. It’s Richard Linklater’s wet dream.

You jealous? Well, you shouldn’t be missing anymore of these kick ass panels. Two out of three remain. So get going! Go get your tickets cinemathequeontario.ca/ or topten.ca.

And don’t let me catch you missing another one….