This year’s roundtable will be moderated by BMI’s Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross, and will feature BMI composers Terence Blanchard (Inside Man; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), George S. Clinton (Austin Powers; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), Don Davis (The Good Life), Adam Gorgoni (Starting Out in the Evening), Peter Golub (Wordplay; Composers Lab Director), Andrew Hollander (Waitress), David Robbins (King of California), Anton Sanko (Delirious), Ed Shearmur (Dedication; Composer Lab Advisor), Alex Wurman (The Nines; Composer Lab Advisor), and Craig Wedren (The Ten). The event will also feature directors John August (The Nines), Steve Berra (The Good Life), Mike Cahill (King of California), Justin Theroux (Dedication) and David Wain (The Ten).

BMI will present its annual Composer/Director Roundtable during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival being held Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Utah. Entitled "Music & Film: The Creative Process," the roundtable will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sundance House at the Kimball Art Center (638 Park Avenue). This event is open to festival badge holders.

Terence Blanchard	George S. Clinton	Ed Shearmur

BMI has been an ongoing supporter of the film music program at the Festival as well as at the Sundance Composers Lab held each summer at the Sundance Institute. Click here for more information on BMI events at Sundance as well as on-site coverage of the Festival.

This year's roundtable will be moderated by BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross, and will feature BMI composers Terence Blanchard (Inside Man; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), George S. Clinton (Austin Powers; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), Don Davis (The Good Life), Adam Gorgoni (Starting Out in the Evening), Peter Golub (Wordplay; Composers Lab Director), Andrew Hollander (Waitress), David Robbins (King of California), Anton Sanko (Delirious), Ed Shearmur (Dedication; Composer Lab Advisor), Alex Wurman (The Nines; Composer Lab Advisor), and Craig Wedren (The Ten). The event will also feature directors John August (The Nines), Steve Berra (The Good Life), Mike Cahill (King of California), Justin Theroux (Dedication) and David Wain (The Ten).

The panel will focus on the role music plays in film, the composer/director relationship, the growing role of documentaries, and the art of scoring for that medium, as well as the creative expansion of the form.

The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in and around Park City, Utah, the Festival is a core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Presenting 120 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in seven distinct categories, and 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades, including Little Miss Sunshine, Quinceañera, Clerks, Hustle and Flow, Maria Full of Grace, Napoleon Dynamite, sex, lies and videotape, Smoke Signals and Super Size Me. Beyond the streets of Park City, the official website of the Sundance Film Festival shares the Festival experience with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, and current news and box office information.

Visit BMI @ Sundance 2007

"I was first brought into School of Rock through Randy Poster, the music supervisor," said Wedren. "The movie needed a song to climax the battle of the bands sequence that the actors would pre-record and lip synch to. I wrote some songs that Richard liked and later, after the movie was finished, they brought me back in to compose the score."

The witty rock songs that Wedren composed merge with some of the classic rock source music used in the film. Wedren's new song, "Heal Me I'm Heartsick," is featured in the film's climactic battle-of-the-bands scene.

One of the founding members and lead vocalist/guitarist of influential avant-punk band Shudder To Think, Wedren began to branch into the world of composing while still in the band. "A lot of my friends were filmmakers and they asked me to get involved in the music and it just became a natural transition from writing songs to composing scores," he said. "But, even on our first Shudder To Think record, 'First Love, Last Rights,' we were writing songs for different singers, different genres, having a string section -- really going down the path that you take when you compose for a film."

Wedren's credits include the critically acclaimed film High Art ; contributing two "glam-rock" songs via Shudder To Think to the Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine ; writing and performing 25 songs for the Jesse Peretz film First Love Last Rites, starring Giovanni Ribisi; music for film Wet Hot American Summer ; and the score for the multi-award-winning Roger Dodger , which placed him on The Hollywood Reporter's "Oscar Watch List" and for which the International Press Academy nominated him for a Golden Satellite Award in the "Best Score." He recently wrote and recorded cues for Laurel Canyon and has his composition "We Are" in director Alan Rudolph' film Secret Lives Of Dentists .

"Sometime my job is to strictly compose the score, other times I get to flex both muscles and write both songs and score," he says. "It creates an interesting palette where I can weave different musical themes, not just to score but also to create source music which acts as a nice subliminal connection to all the music in the movie."

The end of 2003 finds him scoring the next Dylan Kidd film P.S., starring Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden.

Shown at the luncheon are (front row) BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross; Audrey Kitagawa, United Nations Advisor to the Office of Special Representative of Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict; Olara A. Otunnu, United Nations Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; and BMI's Linda Livingston; (second row) Lyle Hysen, Beggars Group; composer Mark Suozzo; composer Jim Farmer; music manager Chris Dell'Olio; composer Craig Wedren; author Danzy Senna (Cacasia); Tracy McKnight, Music Supervisor/Commotion Records; composer Mark DeGliAntoni; Carolyn Smith Bryant; documentarian Randal Scerbo; songwriter Bill Block; documentarian Cathrine Timbini; music manager Matt Schuster; music supervisor Brooke Wentz, President of Rights Workshop; music supervisor Beth Rosenblatt; BMI's Ray Yee; composer Alexander Janko; music supervisor Amy Rosen; documentarian Carlos Sandoval; Tom Eaton, Universal Music Publishing Group; and composer Rick Baitz. photo: Gary Gershoff

]]> 2003-11-03T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233846 Artists, Suozzo, Mark, Wedren, Craig, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Rock, Musicworld, Feature, Type, Licensing Woodstock Film Festival and the Independent Feature Project (IFP) Film Market in New York this month. BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Music, Doreen Ringer Ross, will moderate both panels. The Woodstock panel will be held Sunday, September 21 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. and the IFP Film Market panel will be held on Monday, September 22 from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.

Panelists on the Woodstock Film Festival film music panel will include composer David Torn ("The Order"); music supervisor Tracy McKnight, Commotion Records; director Ron Mann ("Go Further"); composer Mark Suozzo ("American Splendor"); and Ross. The panel will be held at the Colony Caf�, 22 Rock City Road, in Woodstock, NY and admission is $15.

Panelists on the IFP Film Market conference "Music In Film" panel will be composer Craig Wedren ("Laurel Canyon"); Tom Eaton, Universal Music Publishing; Brook Wentz, Rights Workshop; Lyle Hysen, Matador Records; music supervisor Beth Rosenblatt ("Secretary"); music supervisor, Tracy McKnight, Commotion Records; and Ross. The panel will be held at the Puck Building, 293 Lafayette Street in New York City. The panel is from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.

Topics to be covered at both panels will include score vs. source music, creating and licensing music for soundtracks, the director/composer relationship, the role of the music supervisor, and others that will help in exposing the many roles within the world of film music.

BMI sponsors many film music panels at film festivals throughout the U.S. each year. These panels are designed to promote greater understanding within the filmmaking community about the aesthetic and business aspects of music in film, as well as provide an opportunity for composers, songwriters, and filmmakers to learn more about each other's role.]]> 2003-09-14T18:00:00-05:00