Michael Giacchino - from Games to Films:

Michael Giacchino - photograph Michael Giacchino had an early fascination with film and experimented with animations as a boy. He later studied film production in New York, where he scored a few independent films before moving on to study composition at the Juliard school. Working for Disney, one of his early jobs was for the newly formed Dreamworks putting music to the Playstation game based on Spielberg's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park". This game score was unusual at the time, because Giacchino followed the path taken by John Williams in the film by creating a full orchestral score recorded by "The Northwest Sinfonia". The added atmosphere generated by orchestral music and the symphonic skills of the composer gave a feeling of cinematic depth to console gaming, and the composer was asked to repeat this format for "Medal of Honor". The resultant success led to a number of game sequels and new titles including "Call of Duty" and "Secret Weapons over Normandy".

Michael Giacchino - The Incredibles soundtrack CD cover Between composing for these various video games, Giacchino extended his experience by composing music for television, such as the TV movie "Semper Fi" and the series "Alias" and "Lost". He then landed the career changing task of composing for the Pixar animation The Incredibles. Michael Giacchino deserves credit for a unqiue jazz score which dares to deviate from the accepted Hollywood norm. Although missing out on the oscar nomination, his score for this movie has justly been recognised with a number of awards, and the same team has come together again to create Rataouille.

Michael Giacchino - Mission Impossible 3 soundtrack CD cover Giacchino's big screen blockbuster of 2006 was Mission Impossible 3. Like the soundtracks to the previous films by Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer, this one also has references to the original music from the TV series by Lalo Schifrin but Giacchino uses more than just the main theme so this soundtrack seems to have a greater degree of familiarity that bonds it to the small screen original. This is very much in the Schifrin traditional style and seems to be entirely played by acoustic instruments with some hints at the jazz styles of "The Incredibles". Giacchino then came back in 2011 (with Brad Bird) for the next Mission Impossible installment Ghost Protocol which intergrates Shifrin's even more.

Michael Giacchino has rapidly turned into an A-list composer and has been exceedingly busy this past few years! In quick succession he was the Music Director for the 2009 oscar ceremony, he scored the new Star Trek movie (which is sure to continue as a rebooted franchise), then in 2010 the composer was back at the oscars - this time to receive a well-deserved award for his score to the animated film "Up" (the sheet music for "Up" is available from this link at Sheet Music Plus). Since then Giacchino has scored "Let Me In", "Super 8", "Cars 2", "50/50" as well as the previously mentioned latest Mission Impossible film Ghost Protocol.

Films by Michael Giacchino:

Other music by Michael Giacchino:

Recommendations for Michael Giacchino:

Michael Giacchino's music is well-represented in terms of soundtrack CDs. The following list of recommendations covers his work in film and TV, and also his highly regarded contribution to game music.

There is an informative fan web-site about the composer at www.MichaelGiacchinoMusic.com with a lot of information and links, which also seems to have the composer's support.



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