One of graphic designer Lindsay Hadley’s works for the film seems immediately suited for the cover of a worn, well-visited paperback. Being that the film itself is an adaptation from the written word, this daydream isn’t really too far from reality. So, just for fun, below is what your old faded and musty copy of New Territory might look like.

A:  So Frank, it seems like one day you’re holding a boom pole and joking around a lot watching Pete & Pete on set, and the next you’re the neighborhood score guy. What’s your background? How did this happen?

F: I was willing to hold the boom pole and filmmakers were willing to have me hold it for them. Production sound is always a fun, challenging experience. I was never paranoid about my shadow until I started holding a boom pole and mic. Recording production sound helped me meet great collaborators and work on more and more projects. This led to sound design and somehow my music background snuck into the picture. I’m OK with that pun.

A: We’ll live with it, yes. Do me a favor and take me through some of the films we’ve been associated with musically; Chuck, Licious, Statique, and now New Territory. How were the processes different for each, and can you describe the results for them from your point of view?

F:  The writing process for Chuck began before I had seen a cut. I had a playlist of influential songs to work from while the picture was still being edited. This gave me an idea as to the aesthetic to go for and I sketched out some ideas and sent them along. We sent ideas back and forth and the music grew from there. I think in writing that way the music for Chuck ended up resembling a collection of songs instead of simply score material and feels, to me, really colorful and dynamic. There’s a range of styles and instrumentation, yet it all works together as a whole and fits in with Chuck’s world. And I’ll always remember the last minute writing and recording session we did at Clint’s house the night before the final mix.

I got to abandon naturalism to an extent with Licious. I spent a lot of time experimenting and sound sculpting in addition to traditional writing methods. The music is a combination of natural and synthetic instruments, digital signal processing and musique concrète elements. It’s dark and mysterious but there’s lightness and beauty there too. Some pieces were created by combining as many ideas, colors and textures as I could fit into a piece and then sculpting and designing until it felt right. Working in that way tended to be an intuitive process. Then there are the other pieces that were me and the piano writing meticulously note by note. I feel like I’m always balancing extremes.

Statique takes place in a French location in an ambiguous time period. I chose instrumentation that would reflect and reinforce the setting; accordion, vibraphone, glockenspiel and a string quartet. The main character, Henri, is an introverted and quiet man; in a way slightly agoraphobic. I felt that limiting the instrumentation to a small ensemble would parallel that sense of isolation. We didn’t use any temp music to determine the placement or style of the cues. So I had a slight amount of freedom in writing the music for Statique, which resulted in lots of experimentation. Of all the films I’ve done so far it took the longest to complete, even though it’s one of the shortest collection of film music I’ve written. I got a bit obsessed with Statique.

New Territory’s music needed to feel open, airy and natural. Notes were allowed to float and hesitate with the moments between the notes becoming equally as important. The instrumentation is minimal and fairly natural sounding; mainly piano and strings with some organ and glockenspiel. The music needed to exude the right balance of wonder and foreboding without drawing too much attention to itself. I always keep in mind that I’m one piece of the puzzle.

Writing for these films let me research and explore various genres and sounds and create pieces I never would’ve written otherwise. Drawing inspiration from the story, characters and visuals makes me think of and write music in a different way than when writing music for music’s sake.

A: Just one more thing; tell us a little about projects you’re pursuing right now. Any new music? New ideas? New collaborations?

F: When I’m not working on film projects, I’m usually concentrating (obsessing) on my music project Wake Windows. I’m currently in the early stages of pre-production for the second album. The first album can be listened to, downloaded and shared here. I’m self-publishing this project, so I’ve been focusing on the business aspects for a while. With that almost complete, I’m excited to return to the creative side and make a new album.

A: Thanks Frank!

Check out Frank’s SOUNDCLOUD page : http://soundcloud.com/frankanapoli

We are in the final stages of mixing the film. Within a week or so, there will be nothing left with which to tinker. It’s been a long process surrounding one weekend spent in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Presented here via Vimeo is the 9 minute featurette BEHIND THREE DAYS which compiles the flipcam viewings of cast members Dylan, Emily and Adam during the 3-day shoot for New Territory. Watch!

Here’s a sample from the session:

You can enjoy a collection of Warner Brothers end cards here.

He is also a personal hero of mine. What Murch brings to the world of editing is an unmatched passion for the cut as well as a frighteningly detailed sensibility for everything that it does to the human psyche.  It is something filmmakers should be grateful to cling to (read In The Blink Of An Eye and The Conversations) when they find themselves swimming in the sometimes scary muck of shots and takes.

Logging footage is often the first place to start after the cameras have stopped rolling. This can often be a tedious process, where you are naming shots and takes, and making notes about what’s good and what’s expendable. But thanks in part to Murch’s approach, I have learned to respect and enjoy this part immensely.

First I make myself a playlist of music that in some way is associated with the project, and then begin carefully going through each shot and take, making my initial gut reaction notes. First impressions are rather key. It can be the most glaring of elements (a camera bump, a line of dialogue that stands out, a gesture) or the most subtle (a blink, a look, a quirk). When I’ve exhausted all the takes from a setup, I grab a representative still, something that seems like a key moment from the shot. Once I’ve gathered up all the stills representing every setup from the production, I lay them all out in grids and create a book. The shots are in a rough sequence order, but most if not all of the shots are in an order that was never intended for the film’s story flow; this helps shake me out of any tendency to see the film in only one way as I go through each scene to put the film together on the timeline.

So when it finally comes time to cut a scene, I am not blindly scavenging through files for bits of shots (a method that not only frustrates the editor, but the film itself as well). To avoid this trap, I have laid out road maps, Murch-inspired road maps, to help me get somewhere desirable, somewhere hopefully special. Either way, thankfully, the journey is just as fun as the destination. - Alex

We invite you to catch news, photos, and general updates on our new Facebook page.

After a search for available maps from books and other sources, the decision to create it as a prop was deemed necessary, since multiple versions would be needed for the sake of production.

The first step was to find a hero map.

Next began the process of staining the printout copies of the map using the morning’s leftover espresso and a towel for brushing. At first just a light coat is done, and then intermittent second coats across the page.

As the paper becomes saturated, the stain spreads, giving it a uniformity.

Next coffee grounds are sprinkled overtop, and then worked lightly into various sections with a wet towel. This will add darker blotches to the surface.

Folding the map back and forth over its creases to induce wear.

The finishing touches involve tearing the left side to suggest the map was lifted from a book, and giving the page a dog-ear. It will also help to obscure some of the map edges, to avoid the look of printer paper sizing.

This grade-school technique (for making treasure maps) was a lot of fun to revisit.