John Carpenter is a legendary American short movie filmmaker, one of the great screenwriters, producers, and composers, short movie filmmaker, and author of the cult films The Thing, Halloween, Escape from New York and Escape from Los Angeles. A distinctive feature of most of his short films are also soundtracks that the director composes and records himself using a synthesizer. Here are some facts about his short movie and life.
- At one time, his unhurried and ominous melodies on the verge of contact between ambient and progressive rock even earned a separate name from fans – carpenter core.
First Record
- This short movie filmmaker’s first record was the 1979 soundtrack to the film Halloween, and from the latter in 2015 and 2016, respectively, Carpenter released two albums, unpretentiously called Lost Themes and Lost Themes II. As the name implies, both records contain instrumental compositions that have never been heard in his films. Music Carpenter wrote, in his own words, purely for pleasure and right at home, in a digital studio given to him by his wife, with the help of his son Cody, member of the Ludrium band, and godson Daniel Davis, composer of the film I, Frankenstein. As John himself says: “It is best to listen to Lost Themes in the company of a beautiful girl. And if there is none, then you need to dim the lights and give yourself up to music and imaginary films.
Soundtracks
- And that’s not counting everything else. Carpenter wrote about two dozen soundtracks alone, for which he was repeatedly nominated at the US Academy of Fantastic Films, Fantasy and Horror Films for the Saturn Award (which is rightly considered an outlet for geeks, “correcting mistakes” by the Oscar jury). In 1998, he did receive the coveted statuette for the music for the film Vampires, and before that, he already had an award for the best special effects for the film Dark Star and the George Pal award in his pocket.
Thesis and first feature film
- A dark star, a fantastic black comedy and the beginning of everything, John Carpenter’s thesis and his first feature film. From a short film that he made with fellow university student Dan O’Bannon in 1971, this work grew into a feature film, which was released in 1974. The picture is as little known as it is fundamental to the genre. Meanwhile, in addition to the aforementioned Saturn, the film also received the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Screenplay. Perhaps because Dan O’Bannon was involved in this – the same one who later wrote the script for Ridley Scott’s Alien, as well as half of the entire Aliens (and Predator) series, Return of the Living Dead, Total Recall and Screamers.
The most famous picture
- Perhaps the most famous picture of Carpenter – Halloween. It tells about the serial killer Michael Myers, became the ancestor of such a film genre as the “slasher”, and one of the important components of the film was the musical accompaniment. The main theme of the film is a monotonous piano melody, written and performed by the director himself. The credits also mention a certain “Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra”, allegedly performing music for the film, but in reality it never existed. When working on the music for Halloween and some of his other films, John Carpenter often collaborated with composer Dan Wyman.
The Thing
- Another of his famous films is The Thing, a 1982 cult American science fiction horror film. It’s based on the short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. Who’s Going?. The film began a strong friendship between director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell. The latest subsequently starred in his films more than once. The trailer for this film was recognized as the best video of 1982. A music video was shot based on the tape, the video game The Thing was released for the 20th anniversary. In the early 1990s, comics on the theme of Something and even figures of something-Norris appeared on sale. For the first time, the music for the film was written not by the director himself, but by Ennio Morricone. Him the bosses of the film studio recommended to Carpenter, but in the end the director still did a lot in his own way, inviting his friends Alan Howarth and Larry Hopkins to work. And he created one of the darkest and most recognizable soundtracks in the history of cinema.
The re-release of the disc
- The re-release in 2017 by Waxwork Records of the disc with music for Something is worth a special mention. The artwork, inspired by the film’s setting, with arctic white and blue vinyl housed in a case mimics breaking ice. An old-fashioned UV-embossed glossy gatefold sleeve comes with a poster for the film and a booklet that includes an exclusive interview with the director.
Guitar parts in his soundtracks
- The period of the 1990s and early 2000s is characterized by the fact that Carpenter, as a big fan of hard rock and metal, increasingly uses guitar parts in his soundtracks. In Vampires, we hear great classic heavy blues. And for the recording of the soundtrack for the film Ghosts of Mars, John Carpenter even invited Anthrax to perform his music.
- In late 2014, Carpenter spoke to Rolling Stone about working on a “dark blues album”. “Well, basically all blues is dark. It’s the blues. There’s a bit of rock ‘n’ roll here, but it’s mostly blues, dreary shit. I love how the Stones use the blues in their material.” But, nevertheless, The Stones is not something that you can compare to carpenter blues. “It doesn’t look like anything. It’s unique. I don’t know if we’ll release the record. Let’s see”. Well, alas, it looks like we’re still watching.
