Michael Giacchino

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Michael Giacchino

Giacchino, with his sister Maria,[1] at the 2010 Academy Awards
Born Michael Giacchino
October 10, 1967 (1967-10-10) (age 44)
Riverside Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation Film, television, and video game score composer
Years active 1995 – present

Michael Giacchino (Italian pronunciation: [dʒakˈkiːno]; born October 10, 1967)[2] is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games.[3] Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Cloverfield, Ratatouille, Up, Super 8, Cars 2 and 50/50. Giacchino has received numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy, multiple Grammys, and an Academy Award.[4]

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Giacchino, an Italian American (with dual citizenship),[5] was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. Giacchino grew up in Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey and graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran, New Jersey. He attended the Evening Division at the Juilliard School; as well as the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he earned a degree in film production and a minor in history, in addition to taking film-music extension courses at UCLA.[6][7]

[edit] Compositions

[edit] Video games

Giacchino had some minor composition work in the 16-bit era for Disney Interactive, such as with the Sega Genesis game Gargoyles[8], the SNES game Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow[8] and the various console versions of The Lion King[8], but his first major composition was for the DreamWorks video game adaptation of the 1997 movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[9] The video game was the first PlayStation- (also on Sega Saturn) console title to be recorded with an original live orchestral score. Giacchino has since continued his relationship with DreamWorks, providing full orchestral scores for many of their popular videogames. He also worked with Pandemic studios to create the theme for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Giacchino's award-winning compositions covers the first three Medal of Honor series, (Underground, Allied Assault and Frontline, along with the original Medal of Honor and Heroes: 2), and also the scores for several other World War II-related video games like Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Finest Hour.[10] Additionally, Giacchino composed themes for The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, and co-wrote the theme of Black with composer Chris Tilton.[11] He also composed the score for Alias, which was based on the television series of the same name. Recently, Giacchino wrote music for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.[12] Electronic Arts has announced that he has returned to the Medal of Honor franchise as he has composed the music for Medal of Honor: Airborne.[13]

[edit] Film and television

Giacchino's work on various video games led to his entrance into television.

In 2001, J. J. Abrams, producer of the television series Alias, discovered Giacchino through his video game work and asked him to provide the new show's soundtrack.[14] The soundtrack featured a mix of full orchestral pieces frequently intermingled with upbeat electronic music, a departure from much of his previous work. Giacchino would go on to provide the score for J.J. Abrams's 2004 television series Lost,[15] creating an acclaimed score which employed a unique process of using spare pieces of a plane fuselage for percussion parts. The score for Lost is also notable for a signature thematic motif: a brass fall-off at the end of certain themes.[16] Just like his counterpart Stu Phillips, he worked with the television show creator Abrams on his shows with his music scores while Abrams supplied the show's main themes on his certain shows such as Alias.

In 2004, Giacchino received his first big feature film commission. Brad Bird, director of Pixar's The Incredibles, asked Giacchino to provide the soundtrack for the film after having heard his work on Alias.[17] The upbeat jazz orchestral sound was a departure in style not only for Giacchino but for Pixar, which had previously relied on Randy and Thomas Newman for all of its films. Director Brad Bird had originally sought out John Barry – perhaps best known for his work on the early James Bond films—but Barry was reportedly unwilling to repeat the styles of his earlier works.[18]

Giacchino was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2005 for The Incredibles: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and Best Instrumental Composition.[19]

Like his other counterparts Joel McNeely, J. A. C. Redford and Frank DeVol, Giacchino mostly associated with Disney from early in his career up to most recently, ranging from video games such as Mickey Mania and Gargoyles to films such as The Incredibles and eventually collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[20]

Giacchino also composed scores for the 2005 films Sky High and The Family Stone, and the television movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Additionally, he wrote the music for Joseph Barbera's final theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoon The Karate Guard, and scored the Abrams-directed 2006 film Mission: Impossible III.[21] Giacchino's next musical achievement was his Paris-inspired score for the Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille, which includes the theme song "Le Festin", performed by French artist Camille. He received his first Academy Award nomination for this score. He also created the score for Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film.

As of 2010, Giacchino's latest score was for the Pixar film Up (and its accompanying animated short Partly Cloudy) for which he collaborated with director Pete Docter. This marked the first time Giacchino worked with a Pixar director other than Brad Bird. This work gained Giacchino his first Academy Award, for Best Score—the first-ever win for Pixar in that category.

Giacchino has continued his collaboration with J. J. Abrams. For the Abrams-produced monster film Cloverfield, Giacchino wrote an homage to Japanese monster scores in an overture entitled "ROAR!", which played over the credits (and which constituted the only original music for the film). He composed for the pilot of the new Abrams series Fringe, after which Giacchino gave scoring duties to his assistant Chad Seiter (who scored the first half of season one), and then Chris Tilton (who scored the latter half of season one and everything after that).

Giacchino has frequently referenced previous work when naming his pieces. For example, the score for The Incredibles contains a piece named "100 Mile Dash", and the album with the score from Ratatouille has a track entitled "100 Rat Dash". Another series of examples: "World's Worst Beach Party" from the first Lost album, "World's Worst Last 4 Minutes To Live" from the Mission: Impossible III soundtrack, "Galaxy's Worst Sushi Bar" from Star Trek (2010 deluxe release), "World's Worst Landscaping" from the second Lost album, "World's Worst Car Wash" from the soundtrack album Lost: The Final Season, and "World's Worst Field Trip" from the soundtrack of Super 8. The soundtrack for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol also has a track titled "World's Worst Parking Valet". Inversely, the score for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction has a track entitled "World's Best Carpool Lane"; the Speed Racer score has tracks entitled "World's Best Autopia" and "World's Worst Road Rage."

[edit] Additional compositions

In addition to his long list of soundtracks, in 2005 Giacchino collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[20] Giacchino was also contracted by Sarah Vowell, who played character Violet in The Incredibles, to compose the score to the audio version of her book Assassination Vacation.

In 2009 he was asked to conduct the Academy Awards orchestra for the 81st Academy Awards. For this project he rearranged many famous movie themes in different styles, including a 1930's Big Band treatment of Lawrence of Arabia and a bossa nova of Moon River.

[edit] Awards, nominations and recognition

[edit] Awards

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Recognition

  • The score for Season 1 of Lost was cited by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross as "some of the most compelling film music of the past year."[23]

[edit] Discography
"Oceanic 815" from Lost (2005)
Sample of brass fall-off from the first season finale of Lost
"Mission: Impossible Theme" from Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Sample of Mission: Impossible theme in Mission: Impossible III (based on the original theme by Lalo Schifrin)
"Suspense Music" from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002)
Sample of suspense music in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

[edit] Films

Title Year Notes
Legal Deceit 1997
My Brother the Pig 1999
The Trouble With Lou 2001
Sin 2003
The Incredibles 2004 Pixar Production
Sky High 2005
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz 2005 Television movie
The Family Stone 2005
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World 2006
Mission: Impossible III 2006 Bad Robot Production
Ratatouille 2007 Pixar Production
Cloverfield 2008 Bad Robot Production
Speed Racer 2008
Star Trek 2009 Bad Robot Production
Up 2009 Pixar Production, Oscar Winner
Land of the Lost 2009
Earth Days 2009
Let Me In 2010
Cars 2[24] 2011 Pixar Production
Super 8[25] 2011 Bad Robot Production
Monte Carlo 2011
50/50 2011
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 2011 Bad Robot Production
John Carter[26] 2012
Untitled Star Trek sequel[27] 2013 Bad Robot Production

[edit] Video games

Title Year Notes
Mickey Mania 1994
Gargoyles 1995
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow 1995
The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Chaos Island 1997 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Small Soldiers 1998 Dreamworks Interactive Production
T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger 1999 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Warpath: Jurassic Park 1999 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Medal of Honor 1999 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Muppet Monster Adventure 2000
Medal of Honor: Underground 2000 Dreamworks Interactive Production
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault 2002 2015, Inc./EA Los Angeles Production
Medal of Honor: Frontline 2002 EA Los Angeles Production
Call of Duty 2003 Infinity Ward Production
Secret Weapons Over Normandy 2003
Call of Duty: Finest Hour 2004
Alias 2004
The Incredibles 2004
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction 2005
Black 2006
Medal of Honor: Vanguard 2007 EA Los Angeles Production
Medal of Honor: Airborne 2007 EA Los Angeles Production
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 2007 EA Canada Production
Lost: Via Domus 2008 Bad Robot Production
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty 2008
Fracture 2008 With Chris Tilton and Chad Seiter

[edit] Television

Title Year Notes
Alias 2001–2006 Bad Robot Production
Lost 2004–2010 Bad Robot Production
Six Degrees 2006–2007 Bad Robot Production
Fringe 2008–2011 Bad Robot Production
Undercovers 2010 Bad Robot Production
Alcatraz 2012 (Pilot only) Bad Robot Production

[edit] Short films and other works

Title Year Notes
No Salida 1998 Short film
String Of The Kite 2003 Short film
Space Mountain at Disneyland 2005 Theme Park attraction
Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland 2005 Theme Park attraction
Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris 2005 Theme Park Attraction
The Karate Guard 2005 Short film
One Man Band 2005 Short film
Jack-Jack Attack 2005 Short film
Lifted 2006 Short film
How to Hook Up Your Home Theater 2007 Short film
Presto 2008 Short film
81st Academy Awards 2009 Awards ceremony, conductor
Partly Cloudy 2009 Short film
Dug's Special Mission 2009 Short film (edited from Up)
Prep & Landing 2009 TV Christmas Special
Day & Night 2010 Short film
Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom 2010 Theme Park attraction
Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa 2010 Short film
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios 2011 Theme park attraction
The Ballad of Nessie 2011 Short film
Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice 2011 TV Christmas Special

[edit] References

  1. ^ ''The Hollywood Reporter THR id'd this incorrectly originally, this is his sister!. Secure.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Jon Burlingame, "Tunes for Toons," Daily Variety, Dec. 8, 2004
  3. ^ IMDB.com – Michael Giacchino
  4. ^ IMDb Awards page
  5. ^ Oscar winners thank Italy – News in English. ANSA.it. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  6. ^ Burlingame, Jon. "Michael Giacchino's Mission: Make the Old Music New", The New York Times, May 7, 2006. Accessed November 27, 2007. "The backyard for Mr. Giacchino, 38, was in Edgewater Park, N.J., where he grew up watching – and listening to – Hanna-Barbera cartoons, "The A-Team" and reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York, but, as music became his main interest, he took classes at Juilliard and, later, film-music extension courses at UCLA"
  7. ^ Mackie.com. Mackie.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  8. ^ a b c [1]
  9. ^ Michael Giacchino.com -Biography
  10. ^ Michael Giacchino.com – Works
  11. ^ Chris Tilton.com – Black[dead link]
  12. ^ Michael Giacchino to Score Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. News.teamxbox.com (June 26, 2007). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  13. ^ Goldwasser, Dan (July 10, 2007). "Michael Giacchino scores Medal of Honor: Airborne". http://www.scoringsessions.com/news/107/. Retrieved May 10, 2009. 
  14. ^ IMDB.com – Alias – Full Credits
  15. ^ Lost Soundtrack. Amazon. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  16. ^ The Log Book – Lost[dead link]
  17. ^ Cinemusic – The Incredibles
  18. ^ Message Boards: The Incredibles!. Moviemusic.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  19. ^ Grammy Nominations 2005 – PDF[dead link]
  20. ^ a b Space Mountain. Allearsnet.com (May 27, 1977). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  21. ^ M:I – Iii. CDUniverse (May 9, 2006). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  22. ^ Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Highlights, Winners, Show Video and Photos. VH1.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
  23. ^ NewYorker.com – SOUND AND VISION[dead link]
  24. ^ Burlingame, Jon (October 12, 2010). "Michael Giacchino: Driven by stories". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025204.html?categoryid=16&cs=1. 
  25. ^ IMDb.com: Super 8 (2011) - Full Cast and Crew
  26. ^ "2010 Oscar, Best Score Nominee – Michael Giacchino (Up) | KUSC Podcasts". Kusc.podbean.com. http://kusc.podbean.com/2010/02/25/2010-oscar-best-score-nominee-michael-giacchino-up/. 
  27. ^ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=84605

[edit] External links

Academy Award for Best Original Score (2001–present)
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