Drummer CHRISTIAN OLSEN during recording session for Infected

I’ve just completed composing the soundtrack for the made-for-tv movie, Infected. As you may have guessed from the combination of the title and the network, it’s a sci-fi thriller/horror film, starring Isabelle Rosselini and Judd Nelson. You can read more about the film here.

It was my first time working with Muse Entertainment, and it was a real joy. The director, Adam Weissman, and I had agreed that the music should be very muscular, with an emphasis on percussion. I listened to a lot of music from 24‘s Sean Callery, and from John Powell, especially the Bourne Identity soundtracks. I guess what I learned the most was to leave room in my arrangements for strong dynamic shifts, and to leave melody for other genres!

This project gave me another opportunity to work with the very versatile, kick-ass drummer and friend Christian Olsen, who gladly accepted to make a junk percussion/metal/prepared drum kit. He and I had a blast shopping for tubes and metal objects at the hardware store, banging on copper and steel.You can hear some of Chris’ work in 2 of the excerpts that I’ve recently uploaded on ReverbNation.

Attack At City Hall:

Running Too Late:

You can also hear and see Christian playing live with Ghislain Poirier in this video.

Infected will premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel, Sunday, April 27th, at 9 pm.

I have recently finished composing the score for S & M: Short and Male. Like some of the more successful documentaries in the past few years, this movie is smart, punchy and never dull. Produced by Montreal’s Instinct Films for the CTV network, and directed by Howard Goldberg, Short and Male looks at the bias against short men in today’s society. The music is mostly hip and dynamic, and I had a blast closely collaborating with the director – you can read an interview with him about the film here. Here’s a quote from Instinct Films’ website:

Short and Male follows real characters engaged in the angst-ridden world of dating, and the highly competitive climb up the corporate ladder. How does the shorter man compensate for his disadvantage against his taller rivals? Will he get the girl, the job, and the promotion? How can enlightened women rationalize an irrational preference for height? Even though Napopleon was tall for his generation of European men, is the Napoleonic complex real? And if it real, can you blame short men for being aggressive in a world which so often looks right over them?