Documentaries and Harry Potter in Concert

Hello Walkabout followers!

I know it’s been a while but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Needless to say, I’m no longer traveling so life isn’t quite as exciting. But I should probably be updating this with some other random news, info, or entertainment…

An update on what’s going on in Boulder, CO: I’m currently working at a small video production company where we’re making documentaries for National Geographic Channel and Discovery Channel. I started as an intern, then a production assistant, and now a production coordinator. It’s a hectic business filled with plenty of unique and exciting challenges.

The first series I worked on was called “Cocaine Wars” and was a four part series airing on National Geographic Channel about the DEA fighting drugs (specifically cocaine) in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Part 1 and 2 have already aired (check here. I think the next showing is 1/5 in the evening) and part 3 and 4 will be on soon.

The second series and the project I’m currently working on is a three part series entitled “Pot Cops.” We follow around the Humboldt (CA) County Sheriff’s Office while they do their best to eradicate marijuana grows in their county. The characters are interesting (both cops and growers) and it should be airing in the end of January or beginning of February.

This brings us to the biggest reason for this post. One of the editors for Episode 1 of our Pot Cops series was the editor for something called “Star Wars in Concert.” Basically, Star Wars in Concert was a traveling show with a live philharmonic symphony, enormous HD screen, lasers, Star Wars actors, a traveling Star Wars museum, so on and so fourth. The show stopped at various large stadiums across the country for a couple years and was, from all accounts, a big hit.

The premise was taking the incredibly composed John Williams Star Wars scores and putting video from all six movies to the music. It’s basically flipping the status quo of having the scores go to and enhance the video to having the video go to and enhance the music. With the easily recognizable and beloved John Williams scores the backbone of the show, there may not have been a way for it to fail. The music would be played by the orchestra while the video would be displayed on the massive HD screen.

Seeing that I love soundtracks (specifically anything John Williams) and Star Wars, this kind of show was right up my ally. Unfortunately, the tour ended a couple years ago. So, I decided I’d try to duplicate the project with a different movie series. Without further ado, I present the first video in what hopefully will be many, in Harry Potter in Concert.

[click the youtube button in the lower right corner so you can then turn up your volume, watch full screen, and set to HD]

For those who don’t know, John Williams actually did the soundtracks for the first three HP movies and developed the easily recognizable theme played throughout all eight movies. The score I used for this video was actually composed by Nicholas Hooper but I hope to get to the famous John Williams score next. This video was a fun project to work on and I can’t wait to get started on a few more.

Hopefully you enjoyed the video and honestly I think this type of thing should be done for a few movie scores… Maybe those will be next. Until the next video, I bid you adieu!

-Phil