Shining Examples
Garth Neustadter
As part of an ongoing restoration of silent films, Turner Classic Movies commissioned Neustadter to write a musical score for the 1923 film “The White Sister.” Instead of turning to the usual cadre of composers in Hollywood, where union regulations have made it increasingly expensive to produce film scores, TCM tapped Neustadter, one of the network’s winners of the 2007 Young Film Composers Competition.
“This is the first score Turner Classic Movies has recorded outside of Hollywood,” he said. “I never anticipated it would work out the way it did. It turned into a great opportunity.”
The restoration team originally wanted only a piano score but told Neustadter he could add additional instrumentation if he wanted to. He quickly took them up on their offer, soliciting nearly 20 Lawrence conservatory faculty and students to perform. “I wanted to do as much with it as I could. I felt the film really needed a full orchestral score,” he said.
From September through December 2008, Neustadter devoted 10 hours a day to the score to meet his deadline, taking a reduced class load. “I knew I would need all the time available to finish this,” said the 22 year-old native of Manitowoc, Wis. He estimates he screened the movie 300 times in the process of writing the score — so many times Neustadter told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the film’s actors began telling him what to do.
“Characters were explaining what kind of music they needed on screen or revealing what type of emotion they needed,” Neustadter said in an interview with the newspaper.
A voice and violin-performance double major, Neustadter intends to pursue a career in performance. However, after writing the score he admits he may need to consider his options in Hollywood.
Watch a short video of Neustadter recording his film score.
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