PR: Beasts of the Southern Wild (free preview/chat) - Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CINEREACH HOSTS LIVE TWITTER Q&A WITH
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD CO-COMPOSER DAN ROMER

Soundtrack called “a treasure” by Wall Street Journal, the “year’s best score” by Vulture.com, and “major contendor for soundtrack of the year” by Indiewire.com/ThePlaylist

Participants are invited to stream the score online and join the conversation in real time.

(August 8, 2012 – Los Angeles, CA) – Cinereach is currently streaming a free preview of the Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack via http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/ … he-music/. On Wednesday, August 22nd from 8-9PM ET/5-6PM PT, Co-composer Dan Romer will respond to listener questions tagged #AskRomer. Questions can be submitted before or during Romer’s live Q&A.

In Beasts, six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) exists on the brink of orphanhood, in a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural order is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father, Wink (Dwight Henry), and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

Beasts of the Southern Wild, now playing in theaters across the country, earned the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and earned director/co-composer Benh Zeitlin the Caméra D’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The soundtrack, featuring original music by Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin is currently available via iTunes and other outlets, with a CD release planned for later this year.

Together Romer and Zeitlin created what Variety calls a “resonant score” that “lends real dignity to her [Hushpuppy’s] oddysey.”

“The score was built from the idea that the Bathtub [the fictional setting of Beasts] had its own ‘Auld Lang Syne’ or ‘America the Beautiful’ or ‘We Are the Champions,’” said Zeitlin. We needed an anthem to express the ferocious, resilient, triumphant mentality necessary to hold out at the end of the world.”

The composers also wanted the film’s score to reflect the point of view of its imaginative young heroine. Zeitlin continues, "When we made the score, we just thought, What is Hushpuppy thinking about this situation? Let's make music that would reflect what she thinks about what's happening," he said. "If we tried to score it from anybody else's point of view other than Hushpuppy's, it fell flat."

Working towards a shared vision is not new to Zeitlin and Romer, who have a history of collaboration.

“Benh has always composed with Dan,” explains Michael Gottwald, producer of Beasts of the Southern Wild. “When they come together, they create something that is a product of both, not one or the other.”

Zeitlin, who was in a grunge band as a teen, was working on his short film Egg when he first met Romer, who engineered the film score for the short. The next year the two collaborated to co-compose the music for Ray Tintori’s award winning short Death to the Tin Man. They also wrote the score for Zeitlin’s short epic Glory at Sea.

“I think Benh intentionally leaves parts of the film for music to fill in,” described Romer. “And that’s a great way to work – to think that a piece of art isn’t complete until every single creative part is there. If the film made sense without the music, then the music would be superfluous.”

In addition to the original score, the composers searched for a Cajun band that could evoke the particular sound of the Bathtub, full of both verve and tradition. They found that in the Lost Bayou Ramblers, a Grammy®-nominated local group from Pilette, Louisiana. The legendary band combines the heritage music of their native Southern Louisiana with contemporary twists of rockabilly, punk and swing.

“We knew we wanted to have a Cajun band interwoven with the score,” explained Romer. “In the very first scene, we had the idea of using the beautiful song ‘Balfa Waltz,’ then re-harmonize it with orchestral instruments to take it into another realm. We went down to Lafayette to record the Lost Bayou Ramblers doing it and it was incredible. The singer came in and I thought he was the assistant engineer, he looked so young. But then he opened his mouth and he has this big, gruff voice. They were amazing.”

The Beasts of the Southern Wild -- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is currently available digitally through iTunes and other partners and will be released on CD in the Fall of 2012.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
Co-composer Dan Romer is an acclaimed engineer, producer, mixer and composer. His artist credits include Jenny Owen Youngs, April Smith, Ingrid Michaelson, Lelia Broussard, Ian Axel, He Is We, Cara Salimando and Jukebox The Ghost. He has scored the award winning short films Glory at Sea and Death to the Tinman. Beasts of the Southern Wild is his first full-length feature film project.

Writer/Director/Co-composer Benh Zeitlin is a filmmaker, composer, animator, and founding member of Court 13. His award-winning shorts include Egg, Origins of Electricity, I Get Wet, and Glory At Sea. Beasts of the Southern Wild is his feature debut. He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a pack of wild animals.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, in association with Cinereach, a Cinereach and Court 13 Production, in association with Journeyman Pictures, Beasts of the Southern Wild starring Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry. The film is directed by Benh Zeitlin and screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin based on the stage play Juicy and Delicious written by Lucy Alibar. The producers are Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey & Josh Penn. The executive producers are Philipp Engelhorn, Michael Raisler and Paul Mezey with Matthew Parker and Chris Carroll as co-producers. The creative team includes director of photography Ben Richardson, production designer Alex DiGerlando, editors Crockett Doob and Affonso Gonçalves, co-composers Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin and costume designer Stephani Lewis.

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www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com

Tweet questions about the Beasts of the Southern Wild Score to Co-Composer Dan Romer, using the #AskRomer hashtag, before or during the Live Q&A; 8-9PM ET/5-6PM PT on August 22, 2012

For more information contact: cinemediapromo@yahoo.com, or @cinemediapromo on Twitter