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Hello everyone,
A few months back, a post was made on FSM's message boards regarding a Bernard Herrmann documentary that I'm directing, titled "Lives of Bernard Herrmann."
Yesterday, on Herrmann's 104th birthday, we released an IndieGoGo campaign to allow film and film music fans to get involved with the project. Our goal is $35,000 within in the next 29 days.
Any contribution is greatly appreciated and will allow the film team to travel and conduct original interviews with Herrmann's family, colleagues and fans, along with record producers that have given us some of Herrmann's finest scores on CD.
Here is a list of some of those that we plan to interview:
Alec Baldwin (Former co-host, TCM's "The Essentials")
Howard Blake (Composer and friend of Bernard Herrmann)
Jon Burlingame (Writer and film music historian)
Larry Cohen (Director, IT'S ALIVE and GOD TOLD ME TO)
Bruce Crawford (Producer, "Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of His Life and Music")
James Fitzpatrick (Founder/producer, Tadlow Music)
Dorothy Herrmann (Daughter of Bernard Herrmann)
Lukas Kendall (Producer/founder, Film Score Monthly)
Robert Townson (Producer, Varese Sarabande)
We've interviewed Alec Baldwin so far, who spoke about Herrmann's contributions to cinema. An excerpt from that interview can be found in our IndieGoGo video.
Here's the link to the campaign:
http://igg.me/at/bernardherrmann/x/7593791
We'll be updating it regularly and adding new information and perks in the coming weeks.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and contributions. I'd be more than happy to address any questions or comments in this thread, or you could email: info@bernardherrmannmovie.com
Best,
Brandon
IndieGoGo: http://igg.me/at/bernardherrmann/x/7593791
Official Site: www.bernardherrmannmovie.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bernardherrmannmovie
Twitter: www.twitter.com/herrmannmovie
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Awesome, but please don't hit us with updates every single day or hour. Good luck!
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I support the idea, but "flexible funding" concerns me. If the film requires at least $35,000 to produce it, what is the point of collecting less than that?
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I support the idea, but "flexible funding" concerns me. If the film requires at least $35,000 to produce it, what is the point of collecting less than that?
Yes, this "flexible funding" is a bit of a concern. It sure makes me concerned for the similar fundraiser for the completion of "The Other Side of the Wind," which hasn't even made much more than 25% of its goal.
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I'm happy to see this and I hope to be able to contribute. I just wanted to point out that you really must make a point of interviewing the Tribute Film Classics team of John Morgan, Anna Bonn, and conductor William Stromberg, who have recorded more of Herrmann's music than anyone else besides Herrmann himself. In my opinion Bill Stromberg is the best conductor of Herrmann's music (including Herrmann) and that team has championed Herrmann through many years, starting back in the 90s on Marco Polo and continuing through their last Herrmann release, The Battle of Neretva/The Naked and the Dead, on their own label:
http://www.tributefilmclassics.com/catalog/
Yavar
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I support the idea, but "flexible funding" concerns me. If the film requires at least $35,000 to produce it, what is the point of collecting less than that?
Yes, this "flexible funding" is a bit of a concern. It sure makes me concerned for the similar fundraiser for the completion of "The Other Side of the Wind," which hasn't even made much more than 25% of its goal.
Thanks for your replies and voicing your concerns.
While I can't speak for the producers of "The Other Side of the Wind", I can say that every dollar contributed to this campaign will be put toward producing the film, even if we (unfortunately) miss our goal. If that ends up being the case, then the team will seek grants and I'll continue paying out of my own pocket to complete the documentary. Success with the IndieGoGo campaign would allow us to complete our interviews by the end of the year, have time for any additional shoots and have a near-final product by Summer 2016.
I understand your concerns, though. One of the reasons we chose to set up an interview Mr. Baldwin first (and Dorothy Herrmann will be next) was to show that we're very serious about completing this project and to demonstrate how far we'll go to deliver new and engaging interviews on Herrmann and his work.
The IndieGoGo campaign was also set up to get fans involved. Aside from telling Herrmann's story to people who may not know much about him, I truly want to provide fans with new information on the composer and his career.
Hopefully the "flexible funding" aspect hasn't made the documentary seem completely unappealing to you.
I'm happy to see this and I hope to be able to contribute. I just wanted to point out that you really must make a point of interviewing the Tribute Film Classics team of John Morgan, Anna Bonn, and conductor William Stromberg, who have recorded more of Herrmann's music than anyone else besides Herrmann himself. In my opinion Bill Stromberg is the best conductor of Herrmann's music (including Herrmann) and that team has championed Herrmann through many years, starting back in the 90s on Marco Polo and continuing through their last Herrmann release, The Battle of Neretva/The Naked and the Dead, on their own label:
http://www.tributefilmclassics.com/catalog/
Yavar
Thanks for your support, Yavar.  I recall your suggestions from a previous thread made about the documentary and think it'd be great to speak to Morgan, Bonn and/or Stromberg. Marco Polo's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a beautiful re-recording. I'll be reaching out to them and will keep you updated.
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Just another suggestion: for such a worthy project as this, I suspect that John, Bill, and Anna would be willing to license out the Tribute Film Classics recordings (which they own) for use as underscore in the documentary, for probably a very reasonable fee. I also suspect the same goes for James Fitzpatrick who just produced the complete Obsession re-recording on his own dime (the Herrmann on his own Tadlow label and the first complete Herrmann he's ever recorded). It'd really be worth getting in touch with both, because I imagine licensing out the original film recordings from big Hollywood studios would be very likely more expensive and wouldn't be in the same amazing sound quality of the recent Herrmann recordings from both Tribute and Tadlow.
Just a thought!
Yavar
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On an unrelated note, I have another suggestion since this documentary is "Lives of Bernard Herrmann". One of the great composer's lives was also that of a conductor. He was Arturo Toscanini's counterpart (!) at CBS Radio, championing so much otherwise-unsung classical music as conductor. He was one of the foremost proponents of Charles Ives, of course, but what I am personally most grateful to Herrmann for is his lifelong championing of one of my favorite classical composers, Joachim Raff:
http://www.raff.org/records/herrmann.htm
Not only did Herrmann program multiple performances of Raff symphonies in the 40s at CBS, but he also funded the first complete commercial recording of a Raff symphony, all out of his own pocket. Since then, thanks to Herrmann's pioneering recording, Raff's reputation is on the rise again after being savaged by enemies after his death (while alive he was incredibly popular with audiences and for decades considered by many to be one of the three greatest living composers, the others being Brahms and Wagner!) We now have multiple complete Raff symphony cycles, and who knows if that would have happened if not for Herrmann.
Here is a quote from the link above: "His fascination with Raff began early in his career and continued through his life. It was fuelled by his rebelliousness, his deep musicology and his keen appreciation of injustice and support for the underdog. His third wife said "It was as if Raff was an old friend who had been done an injury. When he got upset over it he was upset in the most noble way... [He said] Raff was important". He shared many of Raff's character traits: they both could be irascible and gratuitously argumentative, but they hid warm hearts beneath crusty exteriors and made enduring friendships from unpromising beginnings. Coincidentally, they both died in their 60s from heart attacks suffered whilst they slept."
I think there might be more about Herrmann's connection to Raff in the Steven C. Smith biography A Heart At Fire's Center.
It would be great to mention this in the documentary as this was a major passion of Herrmann's.
Yavar
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It would be great to mention this in the documentary as this was a major passion of Herrmann's.
Yavar
Great suggestions, Yavar. Thanks!
We plan to illustrate how Herrmann preserved and exposed audiences to the music of other great composers, just as our documentary is ultimately being made to do this for Herrmann's legacy. Covering Herrmann's influences is essential in understanding the styles in his body of work.
I have no concerns regarding "flexible funding" (assuming that I correctly understand the term). Kritzerland didn't reach their top goal, but I was happy to contribute to their campaign, because I believe in their product. The same will be true for the LIVES OF BERNARD HERRMANN.
Many thanks, John.
I thought I'd bump this thread, as we're just about 2 weeks into the IndieGoGo campaign.
Some of our perks include:
- Your name in the end credits as a thank you from our team,
- Access to exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from all of our interviews (which will only be available to IndieGoGo supporters),
- Write your own interview question (we'll give you a digital copy of the Q&A, too)
- Choose a score for us to cover in the film
Thanks in advance for checking out our campaign.
All the best,
Brandon
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