‘Hunger Games’ trailer music may be beginning of new trend
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After several months of building buzz, ‘The Hunger Games’ hits theaters today. If you’re a fan who’s been watching the trailers for months while biding your time for the film, you may be wondering about the preview’s powerful music.
The track used in the trailer (the first full-length one released for the movie) is ‘Deep Shadow,’ written by T.T.L. (a.k.a. Through The Lens), a collaboration of new-wave Italian musician Tying Tiffany and her producer, Lorenzo Montana. Inspired by industrial and electronic music, the duo started the T.T.L. collaboration to write more music for movies and television. They also composed a track in the trailer for Ralph Fiennes’ ‘Coriolanus,’ called ‘It’s Here.’
A portion of ‘Deep Shadow’ begins one minute and 16 seconds into the ‘Hunger Games’ trailer, and the full track is available for download on the website of the duo’s label, ZerOKilled Music.
It’s a track that stands out from the typical music composed and licensed for trailers -– music driven by big orchestras and rousing choirs. A mysterious and unearthly East European violin runs through ‘Deep Shadow,’ driven by booming percussion and culminating with the rich purring of uilleann pipes-inspiredsymph.
‘We used a lot of ethnic instruments that we found during our tour,’ Montana said.
New York-based ZerOKilled Music, founded by Italian musician Costanza Francavilla, isn’t at the center of the Hollywood trailer music composition world, like companies such as Two Steps From Hell and Immediate Music. So it’s a challenge, says Francavilla, to get ZerOKilled’s music into film and TV, especially when it has such a different sound from the typical classical-leaning trailer music.
‘My goal is to kind of be a bridge between the underground and the avant-garde scene, especially in Europe, and bigger media,’ Francavilla said.
But the company has been getting some traction in American media as its music, including some composed by Francavilla, has appeared in ‘CSI’ and ‘The L-Word,’ which motivated her to start a licensing division of the label in 2010.
Electronica may become part of a bigger trend in trailer music, as Yoav Goren, president of Santa Monica-based Immediate Music, told the Los Angeles Times in November.
‘Generally, the newer trends are hybrid -– electronic and the cinematic type of elements where you have the orchestra, but you have a lot of these edgy type of instruments as well, [such as] weird, glitchy sounds,’ Goren said.
It’s good news for ZerOKilled and for T.T.L. -– the duo plans to continue their collaboration and will release an EP this month.
‘For a [music] artist, it’s really rewarding to be able to associate our music with images,’ Francavilla said. ‘I feel like the music for trailers is changing, and I’m excited that I’m part of it.’
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– Emily Rome
twitter.com/EmilyNRome
Upper photo: Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth in ‘The Hunger Games.’ Credit: Murray Close / Lionsgate
Lower photo: Lorenzo Montana and Tying Tiffany of T.T.L., the duo that composed the music used in the first ‘Hunger Games’ trailer. Credit: T.T.L.