Talent Spotlight: Composer Christoffer Sandberg

 Tonight I want to throw the spotlight on Christoffer Sandberg, a highly talented and ambitious musician and songwriter who lives in Sweden but has composed music for film and TV projects all over the world.  He recently wrote the music for “Sanning eller Död” (Truth or Die), the short film that Swedish director Tom Grejs translated and produced from my screenplay.

Says Christoffer (who speaks fluent English), “I’ve always been fascinated by films and the way great ones seems to interact effortlessly between screenplay, directors vision, acting and the mood of the music, which altogether enhances each other to create something greater.  The first thing that comes naturally when I compose is a certain mood, a mood which then leads to melodic and harmonic textures.”

Christoffer attended the Malmö Academy of Music in Southern Sweden and holds a Master of Music degree.  He also majored in Jazz piano as well as minored in Classical Piano and Music Composition.  After a decade of composing for his own groups, he decided last year to focus solely on composing for film and TV.  Since then, he’s signed with a handful of worldwide music publishers and has composed several albums.  

 “Before seeing ‘Sanning eller Död’ the first time, director Tom Grejs told me to create and interpret it in my own way, which was great since the film really grabbed me, both emotionally and musically.  I tried to create a certain mood and to let the music breath in same pace as the dialogue, but at same time leave enough space to really let the story of the film be told.  The music should serve the drama in film and not overshadow the story.”

Please check out Christoffer’s website at www.christoffersandberg.com . He has a short clip from “Sanning eller Död” and although the dialogue is in Swedish, you’ll be able to hear part of Christoffer’s amazing, emotive score and see the high production value this film holds.  Once the story is sub-titled in English, it will begin what we hope to be a long and successful festival run!

Talent Spotlight: Genevieve Lamb, Make-Up Artist

Today I want to highlight the efforts of the artist who helped make “Zombies Take The School Yard” a success, Genevieve Lamb. Our original MUA, Caryn Coblio, got called in to work a feature shoot on location in San Francisco just days before our own, so she couldn’t make our shoot as well. A true professional, Caryn referred me to her colleague Genevieve Lamb, who was able to step in and take over duties at the last minute. Both girls really worked hard to make sure I was happy with the last-minute flexibility and I’d hire both of them again in a heartbeat. Gen’s work is awesome, as the following photos demonstrate. Go check out her website at http://www.genlamb.com to see her other work.