All Ping

Image by: Tony and Debbie

Since the first flickering images emerged from a cranky projector in the 1890s, music has always been an integral accompaniment to the moving image. In the early days it was a pianist/organist or a record spinning merrily around a phonograph – but now we have the movie composer.

Usually brought in at the last minute, it’s incredible they’ve had the time to write anything at all. But the past few decades have shown time and time again that the crème de la crème of the film composing fraternity can more than rise to the challenge. Sometimes their music is even more memorable than the movie itself.

Here are ten of my favourite film music maestros.

Bernard Herrmann

Known primarily for his association with Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, North by Northwest), Herrmann’s magnificent film music career began with Citizen Kane and finished with Taxi Driver. A notoriously belligerent and cantankerous man, his volatile personality nevertheless informed classic scores for romance (Ghost and Mrs Muir), sci-fi (Day The Earth Stood Still), fantasy (Jason and the Argonauts), and horror (It’s Alive). Often imitated, but never bettered.

Danny Elfman

Former frontman of rock band OingoBoingo and Tim Burton’s go-to composer, Elfman is the premier tunesmith of choice for summer blockbusters (Batman, DickTracy, Hulk, Spiderman). He’s also an adroit tunesmith of smaller-scale movies (Dolores Claiborne, Good Will Hunting). All that andwrote the theme from TheSimpsons.

John Williams

The most well-known, popular and revered composer of modern times, Williams has scored all but one of Steven Spielberg’s films and has composed classic score after classic score. Jaws, Star Wars, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter. His incredible corpus of work speaks for itself. And even in his early 80s, he’s not slowing down – he’s signed on to score the new Star Wars movie.

Jerry Goldsmith

There’s definitely been a gapingfilm music void since the tragic passing of once pony-tailed maestro Goldsmith in 2004. He brought mastery and craftsmanship to everything he wrote, from Planet of the Apes to Alien, Papillon to Total Recall,Star Trek to Gremlins. Like a true artist, he embraced all genres and styles, and was one of the pioneers of interpolating synthesisers with symphony orchestra.

Alex North

From the same era as Herrmann, North was one of the first film composers to incorporate jazz into the movie music milieu, such as in his pioneering work forA Streetcar Named Desire and The Misfits. He was more than capable of earth-shatteringly epic sounds though, with his unforgettable music for Spartacus, Viva Zapata and Cleopatra. He was also a close friend of the aforementioned Goldsmith, fact fans.

Elliot Goldenthal

One of the new breed of film scorers, Goldenthal’s music is an eclectic and often eccentric confluence of musical nuances. His sound world is distinctly individual, with the old-school Herrmann being the closest approximation in terms of a unique and bold – often uncompromising – style. Interview With A The Vampire, Batman Forever, Public Enemies. Dark, diverse, distinctive, and often devilishly dangerous.

Howard Shore

Shore is now the definitive and unmistakable sound of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films. But he’s also crafted superior work for Canadian horror director David Cronenberg (his awesomely operatic The Fly, Dead Ringers), Silence of the Lambs, as well as the occasional comedy (Big, Mrs Doubtfire).

Nino Rota

The circus sound to Federico Fellini’s deliriously freakish filmic carnivals, his sound encapsulates the free-spirited, off-kilter world of eccentric European movie making. He wrote 150 film scores, ten operas and five ballets as well. Amarcord, La Dolce Vita and The Godfather are among his most famous scores.

John Barry

The sound of 007, Barry provided the James Bond series his inimitable aural landscape, from Dr No to The Living Daylights. His use of lush strings and horns became his signature sound, receiving accolades and awards for his work (and unforgettable themes) on Born Free, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves and Chaplin.

James Horner

Horner’s always been one to divide the critics, with the frequent accusation being he’s the most prolific self-plagiarist on the planet. But that’s nothing new and something of a redundant argument when you consider the self-borrowing of other composers through the decades. I defend him though, because all his scores have a class, integrity, passion and gravitas to them – just listen to Braveheart, Aliens and Apollo 13.

So to fulfil his purpose he made these red hot looking headphones which although aren’t the best of beats and bass but have a very good sound quality, the eyes are covered with those red spoke to give you an internal feel by letting you close your eyes and feel the Music you are listening. Doucet will be showing this model of headphones in Meet my project exhibit in Milan later this month. Check out the gallery of these Emo styled headphones.

The sofas come in different colours along with the addon like seats, couches etc. You can buy this sofa set for $1700. But this sound sofa is currently right now available in England. We hope to see it in more countries soon.

The new Misulu C24 will change the way you loved your ‘iPad’. That’s right! The new Misulu C24 it is a two octave wireless keyboard exclusively made for your iPad. With the thickness of only 10mm its magnetic nature allows it to act as cover for your iPad, instead of using traditional springs. The magic behind this keyboard is that it uses magnets to give more performance and reliability.

Additionally there are two LED regions which have different functions, one of them allows user to shift the octave’s assignment and other one is for playing with analog expression. This keyboard hasn’t hit the mainstream of production yet, but we are looking forward to play with it!

It didn't used to be this way. Even as recently as ten years ago the only way technology really kept us awake in the bedroom was a late-night gaming or film-watching session. The only thing our phones could do to stop us sleeping was the occasional text or phone call at unsocial hours.

But now everything has changed. Smartphones, tablets and smaller laptop devices like Netbooks and Chromebooks have meant that we have never had more distractions. And because everything is connected to the web, it’s even harder to switch off, and power down not only your device but your brain.

This lack of sleep is definitely bad for us. Here are the top ways tech is keeping us awake, and how we can switch off.

Social media

Online networking has transformed our bed-going behavior. Facebooking and tweeting can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and engaged in modern culture, but the problem is that there’s always a conversation happening somewhere that you want to get involved in. There’s always someone sharing something amazing that you want to read.

The strange thing about social media is that when you away from it for an extended period of time, you don’t miss it. But when you know interaction and reward (in the form of Liking and commenting) is just a button-press away, it’s hard to draw a line and call it a night.

Games

PlayStations and Xboxes have been around for ages, of course, but smartphone and tablet games have introduced a whole new paradigm of in-bed game playing. We know that a world of stimulating and compelling games – many of them free – are just a few clicks away on.

Developers have grown increasingly shrewd about the utilisation of game dynamics to hook us and make their games un-put-downable – Zynga even has a mechanics ‘playbook’. The ‘worst’ games are probably the ones without clear levels. Games like Minecraft and Football Manager are designed so you could play them all night. And many people do.

An added dimension in the world of the connected web is playing against someone else. Playing any kind of board, drawing or card game over the internet with someone means you can become a little obsessed by thinking about their next move.

e-books

Reading a paperback can keep you up. Just one more chapter, right? But devices like the Kindle and Kobo can store thousands of books, meaning that as soon as you finish one you can crack straight on with the next one.

There’s the added issue that if you lose interest in one novel, you can delve right into another one. Which is dangerous, as there’s never the thing of closing the finished book and having nothing else to read.

News stories

In the same way that social media never sleeps, the 24-hour news cycle is a constant source of distraction. There’s always a story happening, somewhere. And you can follow it all in bed.

And if something dramatic is breaking, bang goes your early night. It’s never been easier to follow breaking news, and with constant updates and the slow release of facts it can be tricky to put down your devices and catch up with the story the next day.

The worst sites are probably ones like BuzzFeed and reddit that offer a consistent flow of entertaining, shareable and disposable content. There’s always another gif, meme or list-based article to check out.

Music

Streaming services like Spotify and Last.fm have opened a gateway to a world where anyone can credibly pass themselves off as a muso. People used to spend serious amounts of time assembling an old band’s back catalogue; nowadays you can browse their songs in one session without going anywhere.

And this is great, but it means that while you would previously need to accept music rationing in a discovery phase due to the logistic and monetary constraints, now you can binge on multi-album sessions all night for a fraction of the cost.

People have become curators, too. iTunes and Spotify allows you to compile your own playlists, and apps have come out that encourage you to create your own top ten collections for any genre or artist.

The never-ending journey

Perhaps the common theme in all of this is the sense of the never-ending journey that the web offers. Very few things are experienced in isolation, and it’s those constant links to more stuff that makes it so tough to stop. Spotify is probably a good example. Within the app there’s a lifetime of content to be discovered, ways to interact in the form of playlists and following friends and musicians, then you can share everything socially.

Social media, games, news… there’s always a link to take you somewhere interesting. The journey never stops. Unless you’re strong and make it stop.

Notifications

And as if this all wasn't enough, every app you ever download wants to notify you every time anything happens that might be relevant to you!

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So what’s the answer to all this? How can you get more sleep? Well, the first thing to do is to switch off the devices. You could create a time cut-off or home zone where electronic devices aren't allowed. If you find yourself binging on late-night tech because you can’t sleep, take a look at your stress levels and even the type of mattress you sleep on – this really can affect you.

Whether you've got insomnia, are obsessed by a new game or are just uncomfortable, staying up late using tech isn't going to help you in the long run. Tech is awesome, but it’s a powerful thing. And with great power comes great responsibility.

So look after yourself. Get more sleep. Apps like Sleep Cycle can help you track and manage your sleeping patterns, so it’s worth looking into these.