A Discussion with Film Composer and Performer Makia Matsumura [Interview]
I met digital producer and writer Tom Campbell in the summer of 2009 when he shot, edited and produced a footage of M2duo from our concert at El Taller Latino Americano.
When I informed him of my performances as a silent film pianist, he asked me to do a quick interview, which I gladly accepted. We sat down at my favorite cafe, Indie Food & Wine inside the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at the Lincoln Center, right before I ran across the street to the Walter Reade Theatre to play for Alexander Dovzhenko’s EARTH (1930). It was a delightful breather before accompanying this rather “heavy” masterpiece. :)
http://twcampbell.net/2012/09/13/a-discussion-with-film-composer-and-performer-makia-matsumura/
I agree with Ms. Matsumura. Composing over silent films probably offers a lot more freedoms than it does limitations in the film-composing context. Look at the film The Artist. It’s a modern silent film, but has probably the best score to a movie I’ve ever heard (second to the Corpse Bride, which I have a strange appreciation of). The film needs to take on the emotional levity that the dialogue would normally carry. It must be doubly-expressive, in a way.
Tyler
http://www.FilmtoScore.com