Chris Hajian Publicity Wrap Report Prepared By:

Transcription

1 Chris Hajian Publicity Wrap Report Prepared By:

2 Chris Hajian Revised Bio New York-based composer Chris Hajian has the rare distinction of having two feature films premiere nationwide this spring. The documentaries Stick Figure Productions Unraveled and IFC Selects First Position are two compelling movies that have premiered in prestigious film festivals worldwide, and captivated critics and audiences alike with Hajians scores. Hajian began scoring music for indie films in the 1990s when he composed the score to Ten Benny, starring Adrian Brody, which was selected for the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Hajian also composed the provocative score for Alchemy Pictures Mr. Vincent that premiered at Sundance the following year. Recently, Hajian finished the score to The Greatest Movie Ever Made, an edgy-comedic indie, produced by David Letterman for his production company, Worldwide Pants. Hajian is also known for his dramatic scores for Lionsgate s The Take and Magnolia Films Yonkers Joe. Other documentary, film and television credits include: HBO s Naked States and Naked World; Michaelson Films Ex-Terminators; Argyle Productions Nursery University; Comedy Central s The Upright Citizen Brigade; ABC s The Knights of Prosperity; Bravo s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List; Disney s Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2; My Date With The President s Daughter; among many others. Born and raised in New York, Hajian has a strong musical background beginning with trumpet studies under his father Edward Hajian. His formal training started at New York s Famed High School of the Performing Arts, and continued at the Manhattan School of Music where he graduated with a degree in classical composition. Hajian works out of his production studio located in the Film Center Building on Manhattan s West Side.

3 Flyer created for Chris New York Screening of Unraveled.

4 Custom flyer created for First Position.

5 Flyer created for Chris Los Angeles Screening of First Position.

6 Custom created Facebook Page Cover Art

7 Custom created Facebook Page Cover Art

8 secured ASCAP s social media support for the Los Angeles, May 5th First Position post screening Q&A (which featured Chris). ASCAP shared the above tweet with their followers; and shared the flyer on their Facebook wall, exposing it to their 18,000 Facebook followers.

9 More social media mentions of Chris Q&A:

10 secured Unraveled s participation in the REEL Talk screening series

11 Custom invite created for REEL TALK

12 Continued shot and edited a video of the REEL Talk Q&A highlighting Chris participation

13

14 Continued

15 Continued Interview Transcription Mark Gordon: And a very good evening. You re listing to KXLU Los Angeles. My name is Mark Gordon and the program is Center Stage. Every Tuesday night starting at 7pm. We love to talk about film. We ve got two excellent films in store for you this evening. First we re going to talk about a new documentary, it s called First Position, and we were listening to some of the music for the film. We heard The Competition, it s the opening, and then Preparation, part of Preparation. And in studio we are joined by Chris Hajian. And also on the line in a few minutes we ll be talking with Bess Kargman, and she is the director. Chris actually is the composer of this lovely music, and also a couple weeks ago we talked about a film called Unraveled, and he is also responsible for the music of that as well. Good evening and welcome. Chris: Happy to be here and thank you for having me. Mark: So this is like your third film isn t it? Chris: Yes I ve done a bit, but these two documentaries, I m incredibly proud of. To have them both kind of premiere back-to-back is really special for a composer. Mark: When you talk about being proud, why are you proud of this one? I mean, it s obvious why you re proud, but what does that mean to you, to be proud of your work? Chris: You know there are some projects that are just really special because of the way they are made, and documentaries really symbolize something wonderful for a composer because it s a very pure form of collaborating with a director. It s very authentic; it s not corrupted by studios, or people getting involved in the creative process. It s a really pure, wonderful relationship you forge with the director of the film. And with that, I think, comes a lot of great opportunities for a composer.

16 Continued Mark: Well I was looking at your background and you studied at the Fame High school for Performing Arts which was made famous by the movie Fame and then the series. Chris: That s right, and I was there! I was a sophomore when they made Fame. And I can t say that I jumped on top of cabs and danced, but Mark: Now, is your instrument of choice, piano? Chris: I m a piano player, but my main, first instrument of choice was trumpet. And I was actually a trumpet player for 20 years as a performance major, and then always was interested in writing, and when I got into Manhattan School of Music I morphed into doing more composition, and then got my degree in classical composition Mark: Who were some people that inspired you and what did you bring from those people to your music? Chris: As composers, or film composers specifically? Mark: Yeah. Chris: You know, I always had this fascination with how music and visual and film work together. But my roots, really my background, is largely responsible because my dad was a professional trumpet player and he introduced me at an early age to jazz, b-bop, big bands, Louie Armstrong, Felonious Monk, and the entire classical literature. So I really grew up listening to jazz, Stravinsky, Bartok, Bach, Beethoven, a full range of classical music, so that was really what I related to mostly as a kid. And I got involved in pop music kind of later. My friends in school were listening to Led Zeppelin, I was like, okay yeah I ve heard it, but Mark: I m busting out the Bartok, man. I want to listen to Stairway to Heaven through that Bartok vibe, babe Chris: Exactly. And I would say, yeah that s cool, I m going to go check out The Rite of Spring. But yeah, of course I have a love for all types of music. Anything that s good, I love.

17 Continued Mark: So what constitutes being good to you? Because it s really all relative isn t it? Chris: Yeah you re right. Anyone can make their own judgments for that, but I just think that things that stand the test of time and things that, after multiple listening, you keep discovering things in the music. You know like a songwriter, if you write a song and it can be covered by many different artists and all different genres that to me is an inherently amazing song. And I think film writing is the same. You can listen to an old score now and it s still cool and modern, you can listen to Jerry Goldsmith s score to Chinatown, and know all those things are very relevant now. Ennio Morricone is as beautiful as it was when he wrote it in the 60s and 70s or 80s depending on the score. Mark: Now tell me about the work on First Position, and what kinds of themes were you trying to create and do you think in terms of, because the film focuses on 4, 5, 6 dancers. Did you try and come up with a theme that would represent each one of these dancers musically? Chris: Yes. Not necessarily themes in the general sense of like big melodies, but certainly textures and in some case melodies. All the dancers have this love for ballet. These children, and when I say children they range in age from like 8 to 16, and their families are all pursuing this competition, so what holds them together is this dedication that these families have, and the love for what they do, and the stories and where they come from, they re radically different. There was a girl that was adopted from Sierra Leone, Michaela, one of the most horrific stories you can image, and there s this boy, Joan, who is from Columbia and he s been living in New York City away from his parents for a year or two and misses them terribly. So you really understand the lives and the dedication of what they go through, so musically with that I did, of course everyone was addressed in a certain way. Every one of the characters has their own personality and quirkiness, but that was addressed. But not necessarily in a documentary, you know you re not always dealing with big, big themes, because sometimes that can really hurt the narrative. Differently with feature films, when you can kind of write a little bit bigger sometimes, so I was trying to find very, very nuanced, sensitive ways to enhance the characters and the story. Mark: You know you talk about a big story that, like the previous film, Unraveled, that s a huge story. Chris: It s amazing. The contrast with Unraveled, within the film, is it s a small story in the sense of it s a man under house arrest in his apartment. That s where the entire film takes place. With the exception of some of these kind of looking back, animated sequences that go back into the life of how he built his legal empire. But the bigness and the scope is the fact that this guy stole 780 million dollars and did it in the more brazen way, you know, posing as other people, going into the conference rooms of hedge funds, posing as themselves and selling it, so that film, to me musically as a composer, really represents intermit psychological aspects, and then the huge crime and fraud and what that represents and that s sort of what the two most obvious parts of what the score represents, are to connect those two elements.

18 Continued Mark: What s the collaborative process like for you working with different directors? What did Bess what was that project like in First Position working with her? Chris: Well Bess has amazing musical instincts, and she knows her story. Especially in documentaries, documentary filmmakers really know their story, I mean the good ones, and it was great. It was the first film I worked with Bess so the biggest thing in any creative collaboration, especially with a composer and director is that kind of trust. Think about it. You work on this film for however many years and now you re bringing somebody new in that you don t know, and you re saying Handle my film with grace and I trust you with it. And it didn t take us long; it didn t take her long to trust me to be able to open up because in any collaboration if you really trust somebody, really great things can happen. Mark: Well, I mean, also too she s coming to this project, it s her first film. Now, like Unraveled when you worked with Marc, he s had extensive experience in film, even though it was his first film, he s been involved in films. Chris: Marc Simon made a few previous documentaries. This is the second film I did with Marc. We did a film before called Nursery University, about following these Manhattan parents trying to get their kids into pre-school. It was a really good film. [Mark laughs] Yeah, I mean you talk about slice of life craziness. So I was very proud of that. Mark: It seems like in some ways working on this new film you re still dealing with this subject of young people. Chris: Yes. And that energy. You know the big thing on First Position was a couple things. I didn t want to write an old-fashioned classical score because the kids are dancing to ballet for the most part. There s so much of that in the film because that s what they re dancing to. I mean I m not going to compete with Tschaikovsky. But yet these kids are young and they re cool and they re hip and you re seeing them in all of this. You know Aran, the blonde kid who is amazing in the film, you re seeing him skateboard and do all this stuff that kids do, and he plays with a bb gun or whatever it is, and I wanted everyone to understand that these are really contemporary kids, and they have this love for ballet. So I didn t want the score to at all feel stodgy or old-fashioned so I tried to incorporate modern elements, but the big challenge there was that I didn t want the score to feel not part of musical fabric of what was there already, because of the classical music, so I worked with it carefully. Mark: What track should we listen to? I played the opening one. I played the first two tracks. Chris: Great. Let s play this will be a good one play 13. This is a very, very powerful scene. Michaela through the film battles a pretty serious injury.

19 Continued Mark: And she s the girl from Sierra Leone. What s interesting is that she s got vitiligo and she s concerned about that. I mean really she s fought against all odds. And her parents are like salt of the earth. They go, We cannot see it. We cannot see it when you re up on stage. And really, seriously when she s up there performing all you see is this artist. Chris: Exactly right. Mark: She transcends all that. So her challenge is that she injures her leg for this competition, and this girl is strong. I mean, she is the equivalent of Venus Williams. Chris: Exactly. That s a great parallel. Mark: And in ballet, I mean, she is really, really strong. So this is called Testing Her Injury. So what can we listen for in this clip? Chris: You know what I create as the film escalates, and this is toward the end of the film, is they re all gearing up for this competition and every one of them has something to overcome and to prove, so this is just a real, what I would like to call, a kind of sensitive intensity in this cue, and people were very moved by this, they really get drawn into it and at one point she just lifts one leg up and she balances herself on just one leg and she s holding it for about 20 seconds. Mark: And this is the original soundtrack recording to First Position. Mark: And that was a little music from the original soundtrack recording of First Position and joining us on the line coincidentally we have the director, Bess Kargman. Good evening and welcome. Bess: Thank you so much. Chris: Hi Bess. Bess: Hi Chris! Mark: So we ve got Chris, we ve got the full creative team here. We are firing on all cylinders. Now Bess, this is your first film and the thing that I love is that you went back to something that you know very, very well because you studied ballet, and I love that in the press notes, it says that you have the bruises to show for it. So those bruises just don t go away, do they?

20 Continued Bess: Well I have very strong memories of tying my legs to the posts of my bed to try and stretch while I was sleeping. I kid you not. Mark: Well it s kind of like the kid in your film, in the very beginning he shows the bb gun and then he shows this is to stretch so you can point your feet. You did something like that as well? Bess: That device, physically I didn t have, but we made do with other medieval devices. [Mark and Chris laugh] Mark: Yeah, ballet is a very brutal sport. Your feet get all tweaked and all that stuff. Now tell me about the process. What led you to making your first film? Bess: Well, I thought maybe to compensate for my lack of years in the industry, at least if I chose a topic that was near and dear to me, and I d lived for a number of years, it might compensate for that. And I knew that this film hadn t existed before and it was always a film I wished had been made and I was sort of tired of waiting for someone else to make it. I don t mean a competition film, because actually I never competed growing up, and that didn t appeal to me. I mean a film that takes you so far beyond just the stage and the studio, and you really see what it takes to make it as a dancer. Mark: I think that it s beautifully shot. I mean, I really loved your film. And also there s another film, Wim Wender s Pina. They re like these two really beautiful dance films, obviously Pina s about these older professional dancers, but I think what is so impressive about your film, it s not about the competition, but it s about the heart of these kids, and what they do, what they go through, and the challenges. Just the spirit, you know, the kid from Columbia that leaves his home and comes to America and just the struggle. Or like the Israeli girl that dances well beyond her age. Then you have the family where the girl is really into it but her brother isn t, but it s as if the dream for the mother is to have them both be ballet stars. Tell me about that experience for you growing up. I mean, did you get a lot pressure to a ballerina star? Bess: Well, one thing that I knew growing up is that the stereotypes that exist about the dance world, they re not so true. I thought it would be interesting to prove them wrong one by one. So, you ll meet a stage mother in this film, but you ll quickly learn that not all stage parents are psycho. And you ll meet the skinniest of skinny girls, and then see well if I spent six hours a day in the studio, I could eat like a linebacker too and still look like a rail. And there are jocks, these boys they re straight, they love sports, and yet they re extremely dedicated to ballet. There are so many stereotypes that exist. Not all ballet dancers are white. Not all ballet dancers are rich.

21 Continued Mark: What is kind of interesting is, I used to kind of work with a lot of dancers and there were some issues of anorexia. I mean, I knew this one girl who struggled with it because she had to keep her weight down. So there are those things, but you talk about, these are just kind of normal kids that have chosen to be dancers. And I like the families that you focus on. The one father who just supports his son, he doesn t really understand ballet. You know that must be really tough for a kid that age to then go to school, because I m sure there s the issue of being teased and ridiculed by his friends, you know? Bess: Some boys, they re strong enough in their sense of self to overcome the bullying. Some boys, they decide to home-school if the bullying gets really bad and they are so driven to make it as dancers, and unfortunately some give up. But when you re really, really talented I feel like you figure out a way to continue because there is no other option. With these kids, what s so incredible about them, is that there s literally nothing else they want to do. You are so unbelievably inspired because they re mini adults. They re just the most focused, incredibly inspiring individuals and yet some of them are ten years old. Mark: What was the process like working with Chris, the composer of the music, and what I find what you said about that passion, that s all they want to do, because here you are, and some would say against all odds, you put your film together. And then also with Chris, I mean both of you are kind of at this really the early stages of your career but I m sure you ve been really working at this for such a long time and you ve created an artful documentary. So tell me a little bit about that passion and what the creative process means to you. Bess: Well I did not make things easy on Chris. [Mark and Chris laugh] Mark: You re like the professor at first semester. Bess: I gave him the most crushing deadlines. We had just gotten into the Toronto International Film Festival, which was a dream come true, to be selected for that festival and honestly I didn t expect that, so I basically said to Chris, Let s go in the studio and pull some all-nighters and you know what, he did that. It was that terrible hurricane, which everyone was talking about and Chris and I spent the entire time in his studio. He has the most incredible work ethic. But even more importantly than that, what you have to be careful about when you re composing is to not manipulate the audience, because audiences are much smarter than we give them credit for and they become very resentful of what they re watching if they feel like they ve been manipulated. And I feel like Chris has this perfect balance between enhancing the scene, getting emotion out of the very tender moments and the drama, but at the same time it s never heavy-handed, which, I think, is every director s worst nightmare is if the composer comes back with something and it s like Schindler s List, you know, it s inappropriate. [Chris laughs]

22 Continued Mark: He stubbed his toe. Bess: This is a kid s ballet film and Chris always managed to have that perfect balance. Mark: Well Chris, what question, what would you like to ask Bess? Chris: Oh boy. Mark: Something that you thought about, but that you never asked her about? The process of working with her. And Bess, I m going to throw that back at you too, what would you like to ask Chris. So Chris, go ahead and ask her. Chris: You know I would like to ask Bess, first of all thank you for, you know I have about 20 years on Bess, so thank you for making it like we re the same age. I appreciate that. [laughs] Mark: That sounds like she s 13. You read very young on the air. Chris: Bess is, I cannot say enough about her as a collaborator and she s going to be one of my dear friends for the rest of my life. And I hope to work with her 100 more times. But I would like to ask Bess, Bess I know we re proud of the whole score, of course. What scene when you watch the movie over and over again, musically you say my God that one I just love? What scene sticks out to you as your favorite, musically? Bess: What part of the film? Chris: Yeah. Bess: Oh wow. I mean that s like asking me to choose who my favorite kid is. Mark: Sophie s Choice. Bess: Certain moments that I find very emotional and then there are certain moments the audience Okay there are some tracks in the film that I get ed on a constant basis from fans asking me who did that, where can they buy that, they re in love with whatever music that was, so of course those pieces in the film, especially the intro to the entire movie is just an amazing song. I love those, because those get the audience amped up. Chris and I struggled with this one piece in the film. Michaela s dancing to a particular song and we decided to strip that song out and do something that was a lot more powerful, and everyone who comments on her dancing says that they got so emotional, and then so happy with the way that song was a perfect blend with her dancing. You know exactly what I m talking about, Michaela at the finals.

23 Continued Chris: I do. And the one we were just talking about before about collaboration, the one that still strikes me, I remember because how we worked in the studio is, Bess has in the film, these interstitials, these kinds of montage segments of the rigors of dancing in different ones, but that one scene, where you re seeing all the injuries and all the stuff they have to deal with. Musically, I had constructed how it was and Bess came in and she really loved it, but she had some really specific notes on moving some of the phrases on different places and it just got better and better. And it was so beautiful to see that relationship work that well. Mark: So Bess, what would you ask Chris after the process. [Chris laughs] Bess: I want to ask Chris how he so Chris has scored a ton of films, and I want to ask him how does he deal with the challenge of a director being very connected and having trouble detaching from the temp music. [Mark and Chris laugh] Mark: I talk to composers and they call it temp death. Did that happen here? Chris: Well, yeah I mean, it s a necessity of temp because we re defining the cut. I ll give the short answer. It s not always bad, but where it can become problematic, is what I would say to a director is, we have to create something unique for your film. This is not about me giving you a rip off of another score of another film. And what I ve said to directors is tell me specifically about the temp. What one thing is it doing that you love and once you can get through that I can still do that in my own way. Kind of slowly. It s not like ripping a bandaid off quickly from a wound. I go slowly. So then we talk about trust, and then once you start trusting each other more, you realize something beautifully original is happening. Mark: You mentioned that you re older than her, and was there any point where you re thinking, just trust me. Just let it go. You hired me because of my ability.

24 Continued Chris: I mean ultimately I do feel like, not from the age perspective, my whole thing is that every director, I honor and trust them so much. They know what that film is, and I need that guidance. Every composer needs that guidance because we don t want to stray either. But I m trying to make them as comfortable with me, and I m trying to let them enjoy this process because a composer is brought it at the end of this long process and I really look at it as the last big creative input that a director can have, and with that it carries a lot of weight. All the things that you might have gotten up to this point, something maybe a certain shot you didn t get or a certain thing you didn t want and you want the music now to help you there. That s a big amount of pressure to put on a composer and a big amount of pressure to put on that collaboration so I always understand that and I always try to look at it as a partnership. I know what those stakes are like and I can only imagine if I was a director and I handed somebody something and said please give me exactly what I want that will help this film and that s what they re doing. Mark: Well listen, congratulations on First Position and Chris, beautiful score. Chris: Thank you. Mark: And what an excellent job. It s very, very heart-filled and it s beautifully shot. Once again the name is First Position and it s a really, really beautiful journey. Thank you for the inside look into what it means to go through the process of being a dancer and competing in this international competition and we ve been talking with Chris Hajian and Bess Kargman. And best of luck with First Position. Thanks Bess. Bess: Thank you. Chris: Thanks Mark. Mark: And we re going to close out with another track. This is track 19, Epilogue. Is that a good one? Chris: Yeah!

25

26

27 Continued

28 Continued

29 Continued

30 Continued

31

32 Continued

33 Continued

34 Continued

35

36

37 Continued

38 Continued

39 Continued

40

41 Continued

42

43 Continued

44

45 Continued

46

47

48 During the segment Chris music can be heard at 00:28, 01:30, 02:25, 03:00, and 03:30.

49 During the interview Chris music can be heard at 1:08, 3:25, and 4:18.

50

51

52

53 Prepared by May 31, 2012