Let's start with Caprica.
Season 1.5 was released on DVD in the UK this week. You can get it on Amazon.co.uk.
If you're in the UK, you should also check out PlaybackTV on Facebook. They are giving away prizes (Vol. 2 DVD, script signed by the cast, a mug used on the show and a BSG signed poster) and posting exclusive clips from the DVD on their wall.
No word yet if it will be a region-free release, but someone at Spoiler TV points out that all seasons of Battlestar have been released on region-free discs in France, so it's a possibility. (Granted, BSG did get released on Blu-ray in the U.S. so it might be a remote possibility.)
Either way, eyes on Amazon.fr and let's wait and see.
Some excellent news about the season one soundtrack -- Bear McCreary tweeted last week that he was in the studio recording it. Follow him on Twitter for updates as they come.
Also frakking awesome: if you watched NASA's Atlantis launch today, you may have heard Bear's music seeing the shuttle off on its final mission.
Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary, known for his television scores, has composed a fanfare specifically to commemorate the final space shuttle flight. After composing four seasons of music for a television show set in space, creating music inspired by a historic NASA mission was a natural fit. The composition will be played first on Friday morning at the NASA launch TweetUp. -- NASAHere is what Bear wrote on his blog yesterday:
Writing music for “Battlestar Galactica” and “Caprica,” I have set music to some incredible events in outer space. I’ve accompanied spaceships and nebulae, black holes and supernovas. However, these cosmic phenomena shared one thing in common: they were all fiction. But, this week, I am deeply honored that my music will now provide an emotional backdrop for a space event that is very real indeed: the final NASA Shuttle Launch in United States history.
My original composition, “Fanfare for STS-135,” will premiere this Friday morning (July 8th) at the NASA launch TweetUp event, and will also be heard by the crowds throughout the other locations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If you aren’t among the lucky spectators, the fanfare may turn up on NASA TV and the official website as well. A downloadable recording of “Fanfare for STS-135″ is planned for the fall.
Inspired specifically by this launch, the fanfare recording was produced by myself, actor / filmmaker Seth Green and director / writer Michael Dougherty. Seth and Michael’s enthusiasm and support was instrumental in bringing this piece to life.
Mashable has the video and photos from the launch. You can hear a quick preview of the score on Yfrog.
A new interview with Bear showed up at The Gaming Liberty. It's mostly about his work on Battlestar and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Snippet:
Retroplayer - With Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles you were working on an already established mythologies. Because of this were you given less creative input on the kind of sound both shows wanted?
Bear - It’s interesting because on those two series you mentioned I had a pre-existing franchise to deal with and in each series I dealt with it very differently. With BSG there was no specific sound that the producers really wanted and a lot of this was done when we did the mini-series which was scored by Richard Gibbs and I was working on that assisting him. But what happened was they knew they didn’t want the Stu Phillips original score from the 70s, the original Battlestar sound. They didn’t want that, they didn’t want Star Wars, they didn’t want Star Trek. The producers liked some taiko drums and some other ethnic instrumentation which sort of set us down this path. When I took over the series -when it became a series- I continued to explore this idea using instrumentation from all over the world. I brought in Gaelic music, I brought in more Middle Eastern drums, African drums and I brought in some very authentic taiko ensembles. I was doing this but in the back of my mind I kept thinking that it would be nice to acknowledge what Stu Phillips done in the original series because I thought that the music he had done was immortal. I mean, I really think that there’s a new BSG series because Stu Phillips wrote such memorable music for the old one. I think it’s what made the original series stick in the publics subconscious for 30 years.
So, I was looking for places to do it and I had to be really subtle about it at first. In season two there was a place to quote his theme and I did so. I actually worked with Stu, went over to his house, spent a lot of time with him, got to know him and got to borrow his scores and his orchestrations and made sure that when I did acknowledge his music I was doing it accurately and respectfully. Then in season four there were places where I didn’t just use it as a homage or a subtle wink at the audience but use it in the real score. In fact at the closing moments of the final episode where we actually see the Battlestar Galactica where there was this beautiful shot with no dialogue over it I knew this would be one of the most important musical moments I would have in the entire series. The thing that need to be there, the theme that needed to go there was the Stu Phillips theme, not mine. So I put it there and it got a big response and many fans cite that as one of their favourite moments. Even executive producer Ron Moore, who I did not warn I would do this, pulled me aside and said, “that was beautiful. I couldn’t believe that you did that”. It was really a great experience to be able to subtly bring that sound back in.
The second part of the interview will be posted in a few days and it might include an update on the score for Blood & Chrome.
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