- Michael Giacchino
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Michael Giacchino 
Giacchino, with his sister Maria,[1] at the 2010 Academy AwardsBorn Michael Giacchino
October 10, 1967
Riverside Township, New Jersey, U.S.Occupation Film, television, and video game score composer Years active 1995 – present Michael Giacchino (Italian pronunciation: [dʒakˈkiːno]; born October 10, 1967)[2] is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games.[3] Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Cloverfield, Ratatouille, Up, Super 8 and Cars 2. Giacchino has received numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy, multiple Grammys, and an Academy Award.[4]
Contents
Early life and education
Giacchino, an Italian American (with dual citizenship),[5] was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. Giacchino grew up in Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey and graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran, New Jersey. He attended the Evening Division at the Juilliard School; as well as the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he earned a degree in film production and a minor in history, in addition to taking film-music extension courses at UCLA.[6][7]
Compositions
Video games
Giacchino's first major composition was for the DreamWorks video game adaptation of the 1997 movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[8] The video game was the first PlayStation- (also on Sega Saturn) console title to be recorded with an original live orchestral score. Giacchino has since continued his relationship with DreamWorks, providing full orchestral scores for many of their popular videogames. He also worked with Pandemic studios to create the theme for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Giacchino's award-winning compositions covers the first three Medal of Honor series, (Underground, Allied Assault and Frontline, along with the original Medal of Honor and Heroes: 2), and also the scores for several other World War II-related video games like Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Finest Hour.[9] Additionally, Giacchino composed themes for The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, and co-wrote the theme of Black with composer Chris Tilton.[10] He also composed the score for Alias, which was based on the television series of the same name. Recently, Giacchino wrote music for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.[11] Electronic Arts has announced that he has returned to the Medal of Honor franchise as he has composed the music for Medal of Honor: Airborne.[12]
Film and television
Giacchino's work on various video games led to his entrance into television.
In 2001, J. J. Abrams, producer of the television series Alias, discovered Giacchino through his video game work and asked him to provide the new show's soundtrack.[13] The soundtrack featured a mix of full orchestral pieces frequently intermingled with upbeat electronic music, a departure from much of his previous work. Giacchino would go on to provide the score for J.J. Abrams's 2004 television series Lost,[14] creating an acclaimed score which employed a unique process of using spare pieces of a plane fuselage for percussion parts. The score for Lost is also notable for a signature thematic motif: a brass fall-off at the end of certain themes.[15] Just like his counterpart Stu Phillips, he worked with the television show creator Abrams on his shows with his music scores while Abrams supplied the show's main themes on his certain shows such as Alias.
In 2004, Giacchino received his first big feature film commission. Brad Bird, director of Pixar's The Incredibles, asked Giacchino to provide the soundtrack for the film after having heard his work on Alias.[16] The upbeat jazz orchestral sound was a departure in style not only for Giacchino but for Pixar, which had previously relied on Randy and Thomas Newman for all of its films. Director Brad Bird had originally sought out John Barry – perhaps best known for his work on the early James Bond films—but Barry was reportedly unwilling to repeat the styles of his earlier works.[17]
Giacchino was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2005 for The Incredibles: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and Best Instrumental Composition.[18]
Like his other counterparts Joel McNeely, J. A. C. Redford and Frank DeVol, Giacchino mostly associated with Disney from early in his career up to most recently, ranging from video games such as Mickey Mania and Gargoyles to films such as The Incredibles and eventually collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[19]
Giacchino also composed scores for the 2005 films Sky High and The Family Stone, and the television movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Additionally, he wrote the music for Joseph Barbera's final theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoon The Karate Guard, and scored the Abrams-directed 2006 film Mission: Impossible III.[20] Giacchino's next musical achievement was his Paris-inspired score for the Disney-Pixar film Ratatouille, which includes the theme song "Le Festin", performed by French artist Camille. He received his first Academy Award nomination for this score. He also created the score for Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film.
As of 2010, Giacchino's latest score was for the Pixar film Up (and its accompanying animated short Partly Cloudy) for which he collaborated with director Pete Docter. This marked the first time Giacchino worked with a Pixar director other than Brad Bird. This work gained Giacchino his first Academy Award, for Best Score—the first-ever win for Pixar in that category.
Giacchino has continued his collaboration with J. J. Abrams. For the Abrams-produced monster film Cloverfield, Giacchino wrote an homage to Japanese monster scores in an overture entitled "ROAR!", which played over the credits (and which constituted the only original music for the film). He composed for the pilot of the new Abrams series Fringe, after which Giacchino gave scoring duties to his assistant Chad Seiter (who scored the first half of season one), and then Chris Tilton (who scored the latter half of season one and everything after that).
Giacchino has frequently referenced previous work when naming his pieces. For example, the score for The Incredibles contains a piece named "100 Mile Dash", and the album with the score from Ratatouille has a track entitled "100 Rat Dash". Another series of examples: "World's Worst Beach Party" from the first Lost album, "World's Worst Last 4 Minutes To Live" from the Mission: Impossible III soundtrack, "World's Worst Road Rage" from the Speed Racer score, "Galaxy's Worst Sushi Bar" from Star Trek (2010 deluxe release), "World's Worst Landscaping" from the second Lost album, "World's Worst Car Wash" from the soundtrack album Lost: The Final Season, and "World's Worst Field Trip" from the soundtrack of Super 8. Inversely, the score for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction has a track entitled "World's Best Carpool Lane".
Additional compositions
In addition to his long list of soundtracks, in 2005 Giacchino collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions of Space Mountain at Disneyland, Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris, and Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland.[19] Giacchino was also contracted by Sarah Vowell, who played character Violet in The Incredibles, to compose the score to the audio version of her book Assassination Vacation.
In 2009 he was asked to conduct the Academy Awards orchestra for the 81st Academy Awards. For this project he rearranged many famous movie themes in different styles, including a 1930's Big Band treatment of Lawrence of Arabia and a bossa nova of Moon River.
Awards, nominations and recognition
Awards
- 2001 Interactive Achievement Awards for Original Music Composition – Medal of Honor: Underground
- 2003 Game Developers Choice Awards for Excellence in Audio – Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
- 2003 Interactive Achievement Awards for Original Music Composition – Medal of Honor: Frontline
- 2004 IFMCA Award for Score of the Year – The Incredibles
- 2004 IFMCA Award for Composer of the Year
- 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards for Excellence in Audio – Call of Duty
- 2005 Emmy Award for Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) – Lost
- 2007 Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Short Film – Lifted
- 2007 StreamingSoundtracks.com Award for Composer of the Year
- 2008 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album – Ratatouille
- 2010 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Score[21] – Up
- 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score – Up
- 2010 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album – Up
- 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition – "Married Life (from Up)"
- 2010 BAFTA Award for Best Music – "Up"
- 2010 Academy Award for Best Original Score – Up
Nominations
- 2005 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album – The Incredibles
- 2005 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition – "The Incredits" (from The Incredibles)
- 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Score – Ratatouille
- 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series – Lost
- 2010 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album – Star Trek
- 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement – "Up With End Credits (from Up)"
- 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series – Lost
Recognition
- Score for Season 1 of Lost was cited by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross as "some of the most compelling film music of the past year."[22]
Discography
Films
Title Year Notes Legal Deceit 1997 My Brother the Pig 1999 The Trouble With Lou 2001 Sin 2003 The Incredibles 2004 Pixar Production Sky High 2005 The Muppets' Wizard of Oz 2005 Television movie The Family Stone 2005 Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World 2006 Mission: Impossible III 2006 Bad Robot Production Ratatouille 2007 Pixar Production Cloverfield 2008 Bad Robot Production Speed Racer 2008 Star Trek 2009 Bad Robot Production Up 2009 Oscar Winner Land of the Lost 2009 Earth Days 2009 Let Me In 2010 Cars 2[23] 2011 Pixar Production Super 8[24] 2011 Bad Robot Production Monte Carlo 2011 50/50 2011 Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 2011 Bad Robot Production John Carter[25] 2012 Video games
Television
Title Year Notes Alias 2001–2006 Bad Robot Production Lost 2004–2010 Bad Robot Production Six Degrees 2006–2007 Bad Robot Production Fringe 2008–2011 Bad Robot Production Undercovers 2010 Bad Robot Production Alcatraz 2012 (Pilot only) Bad Robot Production Short films and other works
Title Year Notes No Salida 1998 Short film String Of The Kite 2003 Short film Space Mountain at Disneyland 2005 Theme Park attraction Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland 2005 Theme Park attraction Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris 2005 Theme Park Attraction The Karate Guard 2005 Short film One Man Band 2005 Short film Lifted 2006 Short film How to Hook Up Your Home Theater 2007 Short film Presto 2008 Short film 81st Academy Awards 2009 Awards ceremony, conductor Partly Cloudy 2009 Short film Dug's Special Mission 2009 Short film (edited from Up) Prep & Landing 2009 TV Christmas Special Day & Night 2010 Short film Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom 2010 Theme Park attraction Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa 2010 Short film Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios 2011 Theme park attraction The Ballad of Nessie 2011 Short film References
- ^ ''The Hollywood Reporter THR id'd this incorrectly originally, this is his sister!. Secure.hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Jon Burlingame, "Tunes for Toons," Daily Variety, Dec. 8, 2004
- ^ IMDB.com – Michael Giacchino
- ^ IMDb Awards page
- ^ Oscar winners thank Italy – News in English. ANSA.it. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Burlingame, Jon. "Michael Giacchino's Mission: Make the Old Music New", The New York Times, May 7, 2006. Accessed November 27, 2007. "The backyard for Mr. Giacchino, 38, was in Edgewater Park, N.J., where he grew up watching – and listening to – Hanna-Barbera cartoons, "The A-Team" and reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York, but, as music became his main interest, he took classes at Juilliard and, later, film-music extension courses at UCLA"
- ^ Mackie.com. Mackie.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Michael Giacchino.com -Biography
- ^ Michael Giacchino.com – Works
- ^ Chris Tilton.com – Black[dead link]
- ^ Michael Giacchino to Score Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. News.teamxbox.com (June 26, 2007). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Goldwasser, Dan (July 10, 2007). "Michael Giacchino scores Medal of Honor: Airborne". http://www.scoringsessions.com/news/107/. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
- ^ IMDB.com – Alias – Full Credits
- ^ Lost Soundtrack. Amazon. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ The Log Book – Lost[dead link]
- ^ Cinemusic – The Incredibles
- ^ Message Boards: The Incredibles!. Moviemusic.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Grammy Nominations 2005 – PDF[dead link]
- ^ a b Space Mountain. Allearsnet.com (May 27, 1977). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ M:I – Iii. CDUniverse (May 9, 2006). Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Highlights, Winners, Show Video and Photos. VH1.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2011.
- ^ NewYorker.com – SOUND AND VISION[dead link]
- ^ Burlingame, Jon (October 12, 2010). "Michael Giacchino: Driven by stories". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118025204.html?categoryid=16&cs=1.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650062/fullcredits#music_original
- ^ "2010 Oscar, Best Score Nominee – Michael Giacchino (Up) | KUSC Podcasts". Kusc.podbean.com. http://kusc.podbean.com/2010/02/25/2010-oscar-best-score-nominee-michael-giacchino-up/.
External links
- Music By Michael Giacchino Website
- Michael Giacchino at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Giacchino on Twitter
- Michael Giacchino's score for 'Secret Weapons Over Normandy'
- Composer profile, focusing on his Video Game Soundtracks work (Call Of Duty, etc.)
- Michael Giacchino discography at MusicBrainz
- SoundtrackNet Interview with Michael Giacchino
- SoundtrackNet's Mission: Impossible 3 Scoring Session Exclusive
- Alex Ross column in The New Yorker
- Alan Sepinwall interview with Michael Giacchino on composing for LOST
Academy Award for Best Original Score (2001–present) Howard Shore (2001) · Elliot Goldenthal (2002) · Howard Shore (2003) · Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (2004) · Gustavo Santaolalla (2005) · Gustavo Santaolalla (2006) · Dario Marianelli (2007) · A. R. Rahman (2008) · Michael Giacchino (2009) · Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2010)
Complete list · (1934–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–2020) BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (2000–2019) Tan Dun (2000) · Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries (2001) · Philip Glass (2002) · T-Bone Burnett and Gabriel Yared (2003) · Gustavo Santaolalla (2004) · John Williams (2005) · Gustavo Santaolalla (2006) · Christopher Gunning (2007) · A. R. Rahman (2008) · Michael Giacchino (2009) · Alexandre Desplat (2010)
Complete list · (1968–1979) · (1980–1999) · (2000–2019) Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (1990–2009) The Sheltering Sky - Richard Horowitz, Ryuichi Sakamoto (1990) · Beauty and the Beast - Alan Menken (1991) · Aladdin - Alan Menken (1992) · Heaven & Earth - Kitarō (1993) · The Lion King - Hans Zimmer (1994) · A Walk in the Clouds - Maurice Jarre (1995) · The English Patient - Gabriel Yared (1996) · Titanic - James Horner (1997) · The Truman Show - Burkhard Dallwitz, Philip Glass (1998) · The Legend of 1900 - Ennio Morricone (1999) · Gladiator - Lisa Gerrard, Hans Zimmer (2000) · Moulin Rouge! - Craig Armstrong (2001) · Frida - Elliot Goldenthal (2002) · The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Howard Shore (2003) · The Aviator - Howard Shore (2004) · Memoirs of a Geisha - John Williams (2005) · The Painted Veil - Alexandre Desplat (2006) · Atonement - Dario Marianelli (2007) · Slumdog Millionaire - A. R. Rahman (2008) · Up- Michael Giacchino (2009)
Complete List · (1947–1969) · (1970–1989) · (1990–2009) · (2010–2029) Categories:- 1967 births
- American film score composers
- American people of Italian descent
- American television composers
- Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
- Italian musicians
- Juilliard School alumni
- Living people
- Mission: Impossible music
- Musicians from New Jersey
- People from Burlington County, New Jersey
- School of Visual Arts alumni
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- Video game composers
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