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Composer Chris Hajian's
score to the WB TV period film, Samantha:
An American Girl Holiday, proves him to be
a master time traveler
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Chris
Hajian |
As anyone familiar with the '80s TV show Fame
knows, the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan
was populated by a lot of extremely talented kids.
Although the series was short-lived, the real
school thrives today and continues to be the alma
mater of many of today's leading actors, dancers
and musicians. One such former student, Chris
Hajian, is one of today's leading composers of
music for film and television. Hajian also attended
the Manhattan School of Music where he studied
classical composition and where he developed a
strong compositional style that has made him "go-to" a wide array of projects throughout his
career.
Chris started out in the commercial music field
but quickly moved into writing music for television,
working on shows including Law and Order,
NYPD Blue, Ally McBeal, 20/20, Dateline, Friends,
Dawson's Creek, ER, Third Watch, West Wing, The Sopranos, and Celebrity Poker Showdown,
among others. But he had always known his heart
and his skills would be most realized in marrying
his music to film, and began to steadily expand
his resume with interesting film work. His scores
have appeared in the award-winning HBO documentary,
Naked States, the independent films Ten
Benny, Mr. Vincent, and Other Voices,
Other Rooms as well as the Disney film,
Inspector Gadget 2.
Last year, Hajian's New York City-based company,
Moving Pictures Music, created and moved into
an incredible working environment for his projects.
It is a 4,500 square foot facility with three
composing suites, two soundproof recording studios
and it also has post-production mixing facilities,
two Avid suites and four production offices.
Says Hajian, "My goal was to create a really
creative, professional atmosphere where I could
do my composing and producing but also record
90% of what I do. I found a couple of partners
and we built the space from scratch. It was designed
by world-renowned architect John Stoyrk who designed
the Hit Factory. Now we have this multi-use environment
which is open and airy and comfortable."
One of Hajian's first film projects in the new
space was the score to the 2004 WB holiday film,
Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, which
was produced by Revolution Studios/Warner Brothers,
with actress Julia Roberts as Executive Producer.
The film, based on the American Girl collection
of books and dolls, is a live-action story set
in 1904, starring AnnaSophia Robb as Samantha
and Mia Farrow as Grandmary. The movie aired on
November 23rd and was released a week later on
DVD in time for the holidays.
Hajian accepted the challenge of composing a
score for a period movie using a TV movie's budget.
"TV movie budgets for film are not great. But
you don't often get a chance to score a period
movie. And so this was an exercise for me in "how
can I take that budget and maximize it." I had
fourteen live people on it combined with samples
and I think I achieved great results. You balance
it out. You find a way for the ear to go to the live
instruments and the supportive stuff might
not all be live, but you don't really perceive
it that way.
For research, Hajian went back and studied the
American music of the period, which was mostly
music of English and Irish influence. "The waltz
was a big part of that time," says Hajian. He
sketched some themes for the director and the
producers who all loved the tone he was achieving,
and they basically gave him the green light to
finish the score.
Hajian is proud of the results and hopes he gets
the opportunity to do more period films. "This
kind of score really exposes the craft of film
scoring," says Hajian. "You really have to have
the chops and the ability to create those themes.
You can't be saved by vamping with a couple of
cool loops or a distorted bass line."
By Erik Philbrook |
