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My secret crush on this girl started when I was invited to New York for the announcement of a new film school in the Middle East, in Jordan, to create ...
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It’s been four weeks, and I still can’t think of words. My Oboe, my shadow, my baby boy, my best friend, you’ve been through the highest highs and lowest lows ...
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Most dogs respond to the words “sit”. Cello preferred “Why don’t you have a seat… please?” That was my boy, the majestic, the aristocratic, Cello the magnificent. I found him ...
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Yesterday, Aug 5, 2013, my little giant fur ball, Oboe Matalqa, turned 11. I got Oboe on Sept 23, 2002 when he was only seven weeks old, and felt ...
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I want everyone in the world to see what South Korea is getting away with. It is an embarrassment and a stain on the people of Korea that their government ...
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This past Monday, April 15th, would’ve been Michael Kamen’s 65th birthday if he’d still been with us. Well, he’s still with me. Last night I went for a long ...
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Now shooting towards the top of my favorite films is Bolt. What a masterpiece of art. The film, the score, the heart, the comedy, the action, and the journey across ...
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Right next to Life of Pi, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is the other Best score of 2012. One of my very favorite composers of the last five years has ...
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This weekend marked the great John Williams’ 81st birthday. So it’s fitting to dive into my favorite of his scores. But where do I start? There are too many. Well, ...
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One of my favorite books and movies is also one of my favorite scores of the past ten years. This film was directed by Kevin Reynolds (who also made Robin ...
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The Matrix closed the millenium with one hell of an action ride in this excellent score that took a few listens to digest before I was hooked. In the first ...
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You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan to love this amazing non-film-score album, composed by Joel McNeely using bits of John Williams’ Star Wars themes, but then building ...
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Over the years Batman has provided composers with amazing opportunities for great scores. I love the Danny Elfman 1989 reinvention, the Goldenthal madness, the Nelson Riddle classic and the Hans ...
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Continuing where I left off last week… This 1990 Paul Verhoven/Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi presents Jerry Goldsmith’s busiest and most action-packed score. It may not be for everyone, but if you ...
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Kevin Costner takes the trophy for actor with best film scores of the 90′s, and Waterworld is one of the most exciting action-packed soundtrack albums, no matter what you think ...
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This week I’m focusing on my favorite action scores. They’re all going to be delicious feasts of exciting music. If you don’t already own them, I can’t praise them enough. ...
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My favorite score of this year isMychael Danna’s Life of Pi. The book is also one of my favorite recent novels. I loved Ang Lee’s film for its harmony between ...
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Sergio Leone’s would’ve turned 83 today. Here are two masterpieces, both the films and their scores, with his greatest collaborator, Ennio Morricone. Once Upon a Time in the West‘s music ...
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My favorite film of the year (if not years for that matter). What a fun soundtrack album! Much like Inglorious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, and all the Tarantino films, his use ...
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What better way to start the year than with some Charlie Chaplin magic. This album is loaded with beautiful melodies and suites (2 CD’s) written by Chaplin for his features ...
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My friend Danny Klein was right, this might be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. The Intermezzo from Mascagni’s 1890 Italian Opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Martin Scorsese ...
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On the airplane, while hovering over the clouds and the planet, I found myself listening to this beautiful score by the great Ennio Morricone. Imagine listening to this track while ...
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I’ve been in Jordan for the last four days (eating amazing Arabic food for Christmas) and one of my very favorite things to do when I’m here is to wake ...
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When I listen to this album, I feel like all will be okay with the world. It’s one of those scores that never leaves my iPhone. I stumbled onto the ...
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I saw The Hobbit (in 2D) last night and I was blown away like a 12 year old boy again. I found myself marveling at every moment, every character ...
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I first became aware of this haunting masterwork when I heard it in a WW1 documentary. I had to find out what it was. Considering that tomorrow is the end ...
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This 1994 album might be one of the lesser known Hans Zimmer scores, but I’ve listened to it a million times and is one of the reasons I fell in ...
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It’s a cold quiet day, and nothing serves that better than one of my very favorite scores, and probably Bernard Herrmann’s best score: Vertigo. I spent two months in Germany ...
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What Dreams May Come is about a father who loses his wife and children, and goes on a journey through the layers of heaven and hell to be reunited with ...
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It’s December 16th, and you know what time of year that is: Beethoven Day. Today is Luigi’s 242nd birthday, and he is just as alive today as he was back ...
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This is where it all began, my awareness and falling in love with film music as something to listen to separate from the film. I was 14 years old when ...
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Note: this is the original 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger/John Milius film, not the new one from a couple of years ago. This is not news to any film score enthusiast, but ...
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Inspired by the rain over LA last night, today’s recommendation is David Hirschfelder’s 1996 score to the beautiful Scott Hicks film, Shine, starring Geoffrey Rush as David Helfgot, the ...
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This is one of the most lyrical and stunning scores of the 90′s. Bruce Broughton writes long developed melodies, and this is his best score in my opinion. The macho ...
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Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a film music fanatic. This is the music that I grew up devouring, and to this day, it’s the music that gives me ...
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This question always fascinates me. I don’t know that anyone really has the answer, only that they may believe they have the answer. Is there a reason why things happen ...
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Posted: June 7th, 2012, 5:49am UTC by amatalqa
Well it’s time I get back to updating my blog again, as I am happy to announce that we’ve completed production on my third feature film, Strangely In Love, starring ...
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John Williams turns 80 today. Just about everyone knows that he is the man who wrote some of the greatest film scores of all time: ET, Star Wars, Superman, Indiana ...
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Today was Charles Dickens’ 200th Birthday. In these tough economic times, his stories of overcoming hardships are probably more relevant than ever. Last August, my wife and I had the ...
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Often when I watch a great film or read a book that blows me away, I find myself thinking Jeez, how did this actually get pulled off?! Then I remember ...
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Over the last couple of years I’ve been eagerly discovering the novels of the great writers of the 1800′s (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hugo, Twain, Chekhov, Dickens, Balzac). I don’t know how ...
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One day back in 2002, when I was still living in Ohio and working in the telecom world, I was walking at an outdoor mall when I found a guitarist ...
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For the month of February, I’m committing to blog once a day every day about something that caught my interest or sparked some inspiration, whether related to film or not. ...
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I uploaded on YouTube a bunch of scenes from my 2007 AFI Thesis film, Morning Latte, a black comedy about a barista who tries to defy his boss, who’s actually ...
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Just a quick blog since this seems to be the theme of everything I’ve learned in the last twelve years of my life (first in telecom sales, then in film). ...
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Good morning from London! A quick blog to share something lovely I heard yesterday at my brother’s graduation from military school. Maybe you’ve heard it before, but I hadn’t, and ...
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Every time I listen to a great piece of music or read something that I feel is eye-opening from long ago I tell myself “I have to blog about this” ...
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You know that feeling when you have so much work piling up and you’re running out of time? PRESSURE! Whether it’s in the filmmaking process or in day to day ...
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Last night was AMAZING! We had our first private preview screening of the finished film, The United, on the Disney lot for a crowd of about 100 people, but it ...
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Posted: July 7th, 2011, 2:10am UTC by amatalqa
This is an amazing discussion between Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, and JJ Abrams. Clear your schedule and enjoy an hour and a half listening to this great humble man talking ...
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Posted: July 3rd, 2011, 12:46am UTC by amatalqa
One of the biggest turn-offs in movies is the use of cliched dialogue where people say everything on their mind. With all the movies that get made every year, how ...
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Writer/director Paul Shraeder once said “You will always be learning how to make the film you’re making for the first time… while you’re making it.” Those words gave me comfort ...
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10 – LOOK FOR THE TRUTH: The director is the ambassador for the audience. When you’re shooting a scene, watch it with the eyes of the audience and look for ...
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Let’s talk about the camera. Where you put the camera and how you move it in the scene is just as important as the performances you get from your actors. ...
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In the first two blogs of this series on directing, I wrote about approaching the film with a view of the big picture and then on a more micro level ...
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Let’s dive right into production. Day one. You’re excited. You’ve done all the preparation and homework in pre-production. You have your schedule and you have your shot list and you ...
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Whether you’re directing your own screenplay or someone else’s writing, you have to know the script inside out, especially if it’s a feature film, so you can be prepared to ...
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Okay, here we go. I’m wrapping up my second feature film and diving right into a new writing assignment on a big Hollywood jungle adventure set in Africa while I ...
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Posted: June 2nd, 2011, 12:26pm UTC by amatalqa
I read this interview with Darren Aronofsky from a couple of years ago, and I was very inspired by this paragraph in his response to a question about how he ...
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Posted: May 21st, 2011, 2:37am UTC by amatalqa
Someone recently asked me to describe my average. One of the appealing things about this filmmaking profession is that it’s never the same routine. There’s something nice about doing something ...
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Posted: May 9th, 2011, 3:43pm UTC by amatalqa
Well, it’s been some time since I last blogged. I was away in movie-making-land directing my second feature film. I am thrilled to be back and winding down a bit, ...
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Get ready to enjoy a ride through some of my favorite film scores… With well over 3000 film scores in my collection, I’ve been breathing and inhaling the music of ...
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I’m sitting on my balcony on this quiet Sunday night, drinking a cup of tea, listening to some old crackling Russian and German music, thinking about how I’m alive and ...
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Posted: May 7th, 2010, 4:37am UTC by amatalqa
Click on images to enlarge....
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Posted: May 1st, 2010, 1:19am UTC by amatalqa
I’ve recently become obsessed with my new favorite composer of all time, Beethoven. I’ve consciously listened to Beethoven’s symphonies and piano works since 1994 when the film Immortal Beloved came ...
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Drawing is very therapeutic. It teaches you patience and attention to detail. It also helps you let go of the conscious mind and focus at the same time. And when ...
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Thanks to my lovely wife’s encouragement, I’ve been going back to drawing and doodling (my childhood passion in life). I used to draw all the time when I was a ...
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I just finished reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment for the first time. Wow, what an experience and what a page-turner. It’s funny that only in my 30′s am I discovering ...
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Okay, so yesterday I made my firm conclusion that in order to come up with creative material when writing fiction, you have to wash dishes and take solitary walks… etc. ...
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I’ve been writing for myself for 21 years now and writing movies for almost seven, and after much pondering and self-exploration, I’ve come to a comfortable conclusion that I’ve been ...
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Lately, in this period of ingesting and diving deeper into different fields of interest while figuring out what my next movie will be, I spent some time looking at art, ...
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We’re excited to announce that the Captain Abu Raed DVD is finally out across the US this week featuring the below Bonus Specials. You can order it on Amazon, Netflix, ...
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One of my favorite composers since I was a kid in high school, Hans Zimmer has continued to innovate and reinvent his versatile style for more than 20 years. Here’s ...
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Someone once asked me which do I prefer, writing or directing? I answered “When I’m writing, I love directing, and when I’m directing, I love writing.” The creative process can ...
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Starting 2010, I promise to start blogging more regularly, and about things not related to my first feature film, Captain Abu Raed. With the previous blog (which I started in ...
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Well, I have to say, Doha Tribeca has been one incredibly impressive and inspiring film festival. The soul is focused on nurturing local filmmakers from Doha, but the context is ...
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There’s something very exciting happening in the Arab world right now. A powerful force of artistic voices is coming to life like the sound of an orchestra tuning up, getting ...
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In the lead up to the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, I’ve been asked to write a blog focusing on the position of my film in this new rise of cinema ...
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Check out the parallel between this poster from the new George Clooney Film, Up In the Air, with Mr. Clooney looking out the winodow of a US Airport, and the ...
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Listed as the #1 Top Score of 2008 by Film Music Magazine, Austin Wintory’s complete beautiful orchestral score for Captain is now available on CD from Buy Soundtracks Records in ...
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This Friday. Opening in New York. I’ll be there for Q&A. www.CaptainFilm.com...
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Here we go…As a result of the opening weekend, Captain Abu Raed expands to four theaters in San Francisco this Friday the 31st at the following venues: San Francisco:Balboa TheaterOpera ...
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I just got back from San Francisco and Berkeley where we had an excited audience of surprisingly very few Arabs. I was pleased to see a mostly American audience coming ...
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