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Even 35 years after its short-lived run on ABC, the late Steven Bochco's and William M. Finkelstein's "Cop Rock" is a tough sell. "Cop Rock" was about a group of Los Angeles police officers who traversed the city investigating crimes, arresting perps, and facing the every drama of living in the City of Angels. The cops were played by a talented ensemble that included Anne Bobby, Ronny Cox, James McDaniel, Paul McCrane, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Cch Pounder, and several others.

The odd angle was that "Cop Rock" was also a musical, featuring several new songs — some composed by Randy Newman — in every episode. The cop characters, as well as the criminals, would sing about their pained lives of crime/crimefighting, and occasionally dance. It's a weird idea. "Live-action musical cop series" is an elevator pitch that would be turned down everywhere.

David Newman's score for the Firefly follow-up movie Serenity is now available for pre-order on vinyl. Screen Rant interviewed Newman about his work on the movie. Newman reflects on the challenges of creating the score for the film, showcasing his innovative approach to musical storytelling.

The 2005 sci-fi film Serenity had to strike an impossible balance, both catering to the exceptionally dedicated cult following of a one-season TV show while still welcoming moviegoers who had no idea what Firefly was. Creatively, it succeeded, but underwhelming box office numbers quieted talks of a sequel. Nearly 20 years later, and the cast of that moviepeople like Nathan Fillion (The Rookie), Morena Baccarin (Deadpool), Summer Glau (Arrow), and Gina Torres (Suits)are still regularly asked if, when, and how they will reprise their roles.

It's somewhat on brand, then, that composer David Newmans score for the movie is finally making it to vinyl courtesy of Varse Sarabande.

As someone who has played and loved the games themselves, I came into Uncharted with a degree of knowledge I often lack with video game adaptations. Plus, I admit I was initially wary of the apparent miscasting of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in parts they are too young for. But y’know what? For all the mixed reviews and criticism, I thought Uncharted was a pleasant surprise.

It has been a long road for an Uncharted movie, with work starting as far back as 2008, and since then there have been many on board and jumping ship before we arrived where we are now. Safe to say we have been conditioned to not have too high expectations when it comes to films inspired by games, with the benchmarks arguably being Pokemon Detective Pikachu, Rampage, Warcraft: The Beginning and Sonic The Hedgehog as things currently stand. However, Uncharted, while imperfect, is...

Craig Thomas May 16, 2017

Here's why you might want to put Netflix's Brazilian dystopian sci-fi drama 3% on your to-watch list...

The first Netflix original production from Brazil, and only its second produced in Latin America, 3% is a dystopian sci-fi show that should be on everyone’s must-watch list. Based on a rejected TV pilot from 2011, it was created by Pedro Aguilera, who returns, along with one of two original writers, Ivan Nakamura, and a whole new team.

See related DC Comics movies: upcoming UK release dates calendar Batman V Superman: where does it leave the Justice League? Batman V Superman: Michael Shannon fell asleep watching it Zack Snyder interview: Batman V Superman

With dialogue in Portuguese, rather than English, this show has inevitably ended up becoming one of the more under-appreciated jewels in the Netflix Originals catalogue. If reading subtitles is not your thing, then a dubbed version is also available (and weirdly,...

There’s n’ateing to it

How do you end a series after it’s defined a platform for nearly 10 years, where do you take those characters? Uncharted 4 attempts to solve these questions and does so by delivering a narrative that grounds itself on human relationships and knowing when to show restraint. It’s a showcase of graphical prowess, stunning art direction and emotional writing that makes it an unforgettable finale that surpasses every other instalment.

Nathan Drake – the lover of a good adventure and the merciless slaughtering of a country worth of people left Uncharted 3 promising Elena to settle down with her and to hang up the hat of treasure hunting. Obviously by the virtue of this game existing, plans are disturbed when an old face turns up in Nate’s life – his brother Sam, if you thought this game would just be Nate and Elena sitting on the...

The first teaser trailer for the final instalment of the Middle Earth saga, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, debuted at Comic-Con, and now Warner Bros have made it available online.

While the trailer contains some nice shots on a visual level, very much in keeping with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, about 80% of the trailer's awesome is provided by the song. Pippin's mournful song from Return of the King, that plays intercut with the doomed mission that Faramir leads on his father Denethor's orders, accompanies this trailer to great effect, lending it a dignified, elegiac beauty. It's a sad song, but sad is just happy for deep people...

According to Wikipedia (which has spoilers, in case you somehow haven't seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy yet), the song is called Edge of Night, with a melody composed by Billy Boyd himself, with lyrics adapted from Tolkien's...

“The Last Of Us” Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment PS3

Unfortunately, I haven’t convinced everyone around here that playing… er … reviewing video games is an essential part of my job, which is why it took me some time to finally get through Last Of Us. Hopefully after reading this they’ll see that gaming is going to be a big part of FM, moving forward.

Let’s face it, gaming has come a long way since a few dots represented everything from race cars and tanks to E.T. and Pac Man. Video games are the future of storytelling. With budgets and cast lists to rival Hollywood movies, plus the luxury of not having to adhere to weather patterns, Teamsters, the laws of physics—or even reality itself, for that matter—video games are routinely more entertaining and engaging than cinema’s biggest blockbusters.

It’s not uncommon for Hollywood...

In an interview with TotalFilm, Joss Whedon revealed a previously unknown piece of Firefly trivia. In his own words:

"I had planned to do an episode of Firefly with Amy [Acker] and Alexis [Denisof] and James Marsters as part of a travelling Shakespeare troupe. Because it's sort of a staple of the John Ford westerns is that there's always that over-the-top theatre guy, and I thought it would be terrific having them trying to put on a play in the cargo bay. But, I don't know if you know this, but we were cancelled; so I didn't get to do it."

Fred and Wesley and Spike performing Shakespeare on Serenity? Best. Hypothetical. Episode. Ever.

Firefly meets Angel meets Shakespeare? A world of yes.

For Whedonites, this would have been insanely awesome, because not only did Firefly manage to establish itself as one of the best shows ever (if not even the very...

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

PS3

Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog

The Uncharted series has set the bar for cinematic presentation in video gaming. WIth its broad, sweeping storylines and its Hollywood caliber voice acting (Claudia Black from Farscape, can I get a “Hell Yeah!”), music (the score is provided courtesy of Greg Edmonson who did a little show called Firefly), and action set pieces, arguably no other games have come closer to recreating the blockbuster movie experience than these have. The games tell the tales of Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and descendant of Sir Francis Drake. Drake’s travels are full of adventure, danger, colorful characters, and some of the most genuine and humorous dialogue in all of gaming (Drake is basically Nathan Fillion’s Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly put into the role of modern-day Indiana Jones—that’s pretty much about the greatest sentence I’ve ever written...

The right music can make all the difference in a TV show. It can elevate a scene, imbue it with nuance and meaning, or destroy it, either under- or over-playing the emotion and rendering it lifeless or trite. Many have opinions on the best or most memorable TV theme songs, but far fewer have anything to say about original scores. This is a somewhat skewed list, with recent series far better represented than classics, but the shows discussed below are all very strongly tied to their scores. They function as characters in the stories, bringing the audience to a particular time or place and immersing them in that world. See how many of the series you can identify by sound alone, then scroll down, where each selection is explained and accompanied with a video clip.

Honorable Mentions: Animaniacs, Batman: the Animated Series, Scrubs, Victory at Sea

10. Clip #10

9. Clip #9

8. Clip #8

7. Clip...

San Diego isn't the only California town to host it's own kick-ass Con.

This weekend, April 29 - May 1, Anaheim will be hosting their second annual Comic-Con, a weekend jam-packed with famous faces, lively panels and a slew of comic, toy and gaming booths to make for a busy weekend.

Among the festivities, Acc has put together some killer events that no attendee should miss. For fans of movie and game scores, the convention has brought together some of the biggest composers in the business to talk about their work on video games. Included on the panel are Inon Zur (Prince of PersiaEverQuest, Fallout), Kevin Sherwood (Dead Ops), Garry Schyman (Bioshock, Dante's Inferno), Sean Murray (True Crime: Streets of L.A., Call of Duty: Black Ops) and Greg Edmonson (Uncharted and the Firefly TV show). The panel goes down Sunday, May 1 at 12 P.M. and will include discussions with the...

San Diego isn't the only California town to host it's own kick-ass Con.

This weekend, April 29 - May 1, Anaheim will be hosting their second annual Comic-Con, a weekend jam-packed with famous faces, lively panels and a slew of comic, toy and gaming booths to make for a busy weekend.

Among the festivities, Acc has put together some killer events that no attendee should miss. For fans of movie and game scores, the convention has brought together some of the biggest composers in the business to talk about their work on video games. Included on the panel are Inon Zur (Prince of PersiaEverQuest, Fallout), Kevin Sherwood (Dead Ops), Garry Schyman (Bioshock, Dante's Inferno), Sean Murray (True Crime: Streets of L.A., Call of Duty: Black Ops) and Greg Edmonson (Uncharted and the Firefly TV show). The panel goes down Sunday, May 1 at 12 P.M. and will include discussions with the...

From a technical point of view, preparing music files for delivery according to your client's requirements should be a pretty straightforward thing. Although every project is a little bit different, there are some standard procedures, and we'll go over them, with some definitions, a few precautions, and one or two minefields.

Before I get started, it's a good time to remind you that it's always a good idea to ask your clients what their delivery requirements are. If the producer or director can’t tell you directly, they will refer you to a post production mixer or technician who will have all the answers.

In a past article, I've gone over standard digital file issues, such as sample rate and bit depth. Review if needed. Of course you will be delivering finished mixes (or sometimes "stems"), not raw unmixed instrument tracks.

Since most postproduction work is done using ProTools, you...

Firefly is long gone but that’s hardly killed the spirit and magic of Joss Whedon’s universe. We browncoats are a devoted bunch and we’re not willing to sit back and let it simply disappear. There’s been a movie (one which was largely overlooked by anyone outside of the show’s original fanbase) and a number of fan created projects and here comes the most recent of the bunch: “Courage: The Series.”

Taking place in the ‘Verse, “Courage” introduces us to a whole new crew aboard a shiny new ship. Official words:

On "Courage", follow a shiny new ship and a straight shooting crew as they travel through the verse discovering who each other is and what each other is capable of in the face of new friends, enemies, and jobs to come!

We’ve been tracking the status of the project since we first heard about...

I started out by scratching my head a bit, considering the topic of Collaboration. After all, there's often only one engineer in the room, particularly in composer's personal studio. But then, I figured, even in that case I'm certainly not working alone or in a vacuum. It's almost impossible not to work with other people in this business, and who would want to? Here are some ways in which a score mixer collaborates with others.

The Scoring Stage

When called on to work in a commercial studio or scoring stage I almost always work as a member of a team. As an independent free-lancer, I am hired by the composer, and am the designated "team leader"; I'm in charge of the composer's technical needs and interfacing with the staff of the studio.

I couldn't do it without helpers, almost always provided by the stage or studio: setup personnel, an assistant engineer,...

I got my start recording score music for episodic television a couple of decades ago, when the personal studio trend was just getting going in a big way. Among many others, I engineered music for the ABC series thirtysomething with composers Stewart Levin and Snuffy Walden, and then Northern Exposure with composer David Schwartz. Both started out in fairly modest home studio settings with simple gear, and as the shows and composers gained more success, their studios became more sophisticated. They wrote some of the coolest music I've had the pleasure of working on, and I still remember those experiences fondly.

So, I am way familiar with the "standard" model of how most television scoring is done these days, based on multitrack production techniques, using Midi and audio tracks. Each part is carefully crafted and laid in, one at a time, until it sounds complete. Mixing might be done right...