After the fantastic WINGS performance by the GFFO last August, it's only fitting that they move into higher elevations beyond earth's realm. If Space truly is the final frontier, let's look at how early films approached this wonder of the imagination and how music became an important vehicle (or should I say "spaceship") to make dreams a reality. 

Looking at the roots of space adventures, the GFFO will go to work reviving two classics to present to you in January. 

This exciting project includes two legendary films --
 

     Georges Méliès' A TRIP TO THE MOON 
1912 is the year that French filmmaker Georges Méliès created his most iconic short movie depicting man's first visit to our moon. Remember, this is 1912 and what they knew about space travel was limited. The charm of the notion that a rocket ship could be loaded into a cannon, pointed, and shot into the sky sparked the world's imagination. 

Who would be waiting to greet us on the moon? Would the moon people be friendly? The GFFO will attempt to answer these questions with a brand new LIVE musical score!

The movie was originally presented in color back in 1912. How was this possible? Georges Méliès hand-painted the colors into each movie frame. The movie will be presented in its original hand-painted colors.

     Edward Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE 

In 1957, with the same naive energy as Georges Méliès but none of the resources to make a serious cinematic effort, filmmaker Ed Wood set out to create a space sci-fi masterpiece filled with drama and edge-of-your-seat action. However, without the funding or the talent, his production faced impossible odds. The result was a hilarious comedy still enjoyed over half a century later. 

Why did the space aliens, in flying saucers, come to earth to administer plan 9?

Why did such an advanced race fail with plans 1 through 8?

We may never know the answer, but we'll have lots of fun exploring this anti-classic.

The film will be presented in its rarely seen wide-screen format with a new LIVE score and a few surprises of our own!

Details:
Plan 9 from Outer Space - A Trip to the Moon

Sun, Jan 29, 2023 @ 2:00PM 

Journey Downtown Theater, 308 Main Street, Vacaville, CA.

Available in-person and live-streaming!

Advance tickets are available now.
https://thegffo.com/event-calendar

An afternoon of great entertainment, food, and drinks is in store
The Grand Feature Film Orchestra
WINGS
live orchestra with the movie
August 21st, at 1:00 pm

TICKETS 
$30 - general admission
$20 - military veterans using coupon code: propsandwings

Elementary, middle, and high school students get in FREE. 

Tickets are available now right here:
https://thegffo.com

One of the many planes used in the filming of WINGS in 1927

The Grand Feature Film Orchestra presents WINGS - LIVE. William Wellman's epic action film is set during World War I. Academy Awards winner for "Best Picture" and "Best Engineering Effects."  

It's hard to believe that a movie boasting top-tier movie stars, 300 skilled airplane pilots, 3500 infantry men, and 20 cameras for the war scenes would meet the fate of so many lost films of early cinema. Nobody today may have had the chance to see WINGS if it hadn't been for a film print miraculously discovered 65 years later.  

Shortly after this amazing discovery, Carl Davis was commissioned to compose and record an original orchestra score to restore the film's epic nature, bringing WINGS to its great grandeur.  

The Grand Feature Film Orchestra will perform this beautifully complex score LIVE, using visuals in the movie to adjust and keep the music in sync. This is quite an undertaking, but that's the GFFO's specialty. 

What Film Critics are Saying --

"Wings is unquestionably the dazzle and pyrotechnics of the screen fulfilled in a new sphere, and teems with twentieth-century timeliness."
     -- Edwin Schallert, Los Angeles Times

 

"In my opinion, it’s not possible to create a perfect film, but Wings, in all of its cinematic glory, comes incredibly close." 
     -- Kyle Baine, Film Threat

"This feature gives one an unforgettable idea of the existence of these daring fighters."
     -- Mordaunt Hall, New York Times
 

Tickets available Here.

Student GFFO members outside Different Fur recording studio in San Francisco recording their album, "Overtures."

The GFFO is a magical collaboration of students and professionals. Students members of the GFFO learn more than the musical parts for performance. They must learn improvisation, advanced reading skills, music theory, harmony, arranging, and orchestration. It's a lot of fun and a lot of work.  

GFFO member students are part of an intensive study of music. It's one thing to play what's written. It's another thing to read it in a different key by sight, to add cues by improvisation, and to orchestrate the music to fit the story on the big screen. Complex time changes are used in the film to correct scene transitions and action cues changing the rhythmic feel on a dime. Everything is instantaneous and often unexpected to add to the excitement. That's the beauty of cinema -- to surprise and delight! Music helps make it happen. 

They don't do it alone. GFFO students get the privilege of working with some of the most talented artists in Northern California. That's when the whole orchestra is completed, and we're ready to present the epic performances to our movie fans.  

It's a real honor to work with the talented students of the GFFO! You're in for an excellent and exciting performance in August! 

Details:

Directed by William Welman 
Musical Score by Carl Davis 
Performed LIVE by The Grand Feature Film Orchestra 
Journey Downtown Theater 
308 Main Street - Vacaville 
Sunday, August 21st at 1:00 pm

Tickets are available here.

Having the whole summer's beautiful weather as an inspiration, the Grand Feature Film Orchestra begins its summer with an exciting score! It'll take more than 40 hours of study and rehearsal to prepare and synchronize the music to the action on the screen. In addition, the engineering team will be busy creating sound effects using engines from real World War II plane engines and more. 

The orchestra is preparing the fantastic score created by the Carl Davis of London, England, initially composed for a special British broadcast of William Welman's classic Oscar-winning film. The GFFO will create live synchronization from this award-winning composer's music LIVE with the movie, authentic sound effects, and more surprises!

Calling all interested beginning and experienced artists and engineers!

Are you interested in getting involved with the creation of this project? Applications are available now for beginning through advanced musicians, students, and engineers. We have openings for many instruments, including brass, strings, woodwinds, sound effect engineers, and more.

https://thegffo.com/summer-sessions

PART ONE -- Movie Sound Began with Music

Take your favorite live-action movie or cartoon, and imagine it without a musical score. Imagine Star Wars without the brassy fanfares introducing the characters at just the right time. Music in movies has always been a mainstay of the cinema. It helps to reinforce the mood, supports the story, and sometimes becomes a character of its own (think of the minor second ostinato of Jaws).

The music is usually the last element added to the movie before it's released. The composer must watch the scenes without the music and add the right rhythmic and melodic touch to make the film come alive. Imagine being the composer responsible for a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars as the world waits for the final musical touch before its premiere. That's the power of cinematic music!

Where did this tradition of music in film begin? Some might believe it started with the first talkies, but its roots go back to the beginning of moving pictures in what was referred to as the silent film era. 

In PART TWO, we'll explore the rich history of music and how the GFFO keeps this legacy alive!

Big-time projects require big-time efforts. The Grand Feature Film Orchestra will feature WINGS. A WWI action movie with a live full orchestra score! 

Directed by William Welman
Musical Score by Carl Davis
Performed LIVE by The Grand Feature Film Orchestra
Journey Downtown Theater
308 Main Street - Vacaville
Sunday, August 21st at 1:00 pm

The first movie to win the OSCAR® for Best Picture, this action movie features aerial stunt acrobatics that leaves audiences stunned. Newly digitally restored with original color tints, this epic action movie is made more exciting by the Grand Feature Film Orchestra's performance synchronized LIVE with the action on the screen.

Tickets available now
https://thegffo.com/event-calendar

Concert Program:
The Grand Feature Film Orchestra performing LIVE film scores with the movies

SUPERMAN: ARCTIC GIANTS (Animated Featurette) - musical score by Sammy Timberg (1942)
The GFFO is dedicated to studying, reconstructing, and performing historic cinematic music. Sometimes this includes The Fleischer brothers' classic Superman masterpieces that shaped the golden age of animation. Even Disney owes many of its techniques to the groundbreaking duo of Dave and Max Fleischer. The famous composer, Sammy Timberg, wrote the iconic score to these short Technicolor gems in 1942.

Story:
When a team of scientists uncovers a prehistoric dinosaur, they bring it to the united states to display at the Museum of Natural Science. Unfortunately, a malfunction in the refrigeration unit brings the arctic giant to life with devastating consequences. Can Superman save the day?

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Original Comedy classic by Roger Corman)- musical score by Fred Katz (1960) 
Famously shot in just two days, this classic is a testament to Corman's ingenuity and effortless creativity! It also boasts the first significant role by the upcoming movie star, Jack Nicholson!

Story: 
A hapless young flower shop employee stumbles upon an unusual and mysterious plant that promises to make him famous but at a high price.

The concert will feature the live performance of SUPERMAN: ARCTIC GIANT
along with LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
BOTH are WORLD PREMIERES!
Sunday, May 15, 4:00 pm at Journey Downtown Theater.
Tickets available now

Front entrance of Different Fur Studios -- San Francisco

There's tremendous excitement as the Grand Feature Film Orchestra (GFFO) members prepare for their first album,  OVERTURES. Studio sessions can be stressful because there's pressure to make things perfect. It's good that the orchestra is recording at a legendary studio! Different Fur Studios in San Francisco was founded in 1968 and has recorded legendary artists, such as Herbie Hancock, Con Funk Shun (Project Soul), Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, Primus, Taj Mahal, and DEVO. Soon, The Grand Feature Film Orchestra will be part of that legendary list! :)

An orchestra needs to be well prepared technically and artistically to succeed in a studio. In many ways, it's more complicated than live performance. On stage, the members can interact with the audience and the moment. However, studio work has a different vibe, relying only on each other for artistic interpretation and precision. Several takes are recorded and then mixed for the final product. A single album track can take days to complete.

Creative teamwork is the key. The elder members mentor the younger artists as they negotiate through the twists and turns of some very complex sonic offerings.

Their first single from the album can be heard HERE

A few of our favorite film score composers: 

John Williams -- iconic, almost Wagnerian connection between characters and music. Just pick a character and hum their theme! 

The Newman Family (Alfred, Randy, David, Maria, Thomas, Lionel, Joey, and Emil) -- the largest and most Oscar-winning family of composers. 

Hans Zimmer - an unnerving bridge between acoustic and electronic music (think The Dark Knight action scenes). 

Bernard Herrmann - His scores are amazingly tense and punctuated by edge-of-your-seat ostinati. Alfred Hitchcock owes much of his films' excitement to Herrmann!

Max Steiner - perhaps the father of modern film scores (think KING KONG) 

Carl Stalling - father of cartoon comedy music. The very pinnacle of "mousing" almost every movement to music. (Looney Tunes) 

Carl Davis - devotion to the restoration and scoring of silent films -- bringing them many of the scores they richly deserve. 

Danny Elfman - playful energy that can only come from a former punk rock star. (Think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) 

Evan Losoya - fresh experimentation mixed with nostalgic respect for film music's rich history! (Think of his modern scores to Sunrise and Steamboat Bill Junior.)

Listen to Evan Losoya's orchestrations in the upcoming Little Shop of Horrors/Superman-Arctic Giant GFFP performance on May 15th at Journey Downtown Theater.