Don Bodin's Music, Life and Art Blog

Composer/Artist Don Bodin's account of real life adventures as he sails the sea of music, movies, games, art, life and living with a passion for creation and a need to pay his rent.

10/20/10

Oprah, Discovery Channel and VH1


Happy to announce that some of my music has been picked up and used in a few TV shows this fall including: Fantastic Festivals of the World, Hunting The Lost Symbol (both on Discovery HD) VH1's Celebrity Fit Club and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

9/17/10

Datugan Dances with Bodin

The Datugan Dance Theater will be dancing to my music on Oct. 9 & 16 at Studio A in Silverlake LA CA.

This is the 3rd time the dance troupe's creative director, Ken Datugan, has selected my work to choreograph to. The will be performing with selections from my albums Like Rabbits as well as my Silentium Est Alurum. It is always a pleasure to see his talented group of modern dancers perform.

For tickets and info visit: http://www.datugandancetheatre.com/

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4/11/10

Dark Crossing

What a year. Things are flying by and looking good. So good I haven't had much time to blog.

Been a great year so far. Scored two independent films and had a chance to travel to Cape Town south Africa for a month.

The latest film I completed was Dark Crossing, an indy film centered around young Mexican man who risks his life to cross over into the US to search for his abducted sister. I have included a sample below from the score.

The film, which is primarily in Spanish, will have a limited theatrical release later this month.


'Dark Crossing Theme'
Theme From Dark Crossing
written and produced by Don Bodin


Unable to hear the track? Download the MP3 here.

1/8/10

2010 - a new year - week 1

I tend to get a jump start on "Resolutions" . I'm a big fan of change and I like to shake things up . . . maybe a little more than is necessary. The new year has just begun but I am happy to say that I started implementing most of my resolutions in November and December.

I also aspire to update my blog more frequently.

Some personal goals are already underway. You know, the usual, stay in shape and get regular physical activity to become a part of my life.
Although I tend to stay physically active (hiking a couple times a week) and run, I decided to give yoga a shot. I joined the yoga studio down the street and have been going to pilates classes a couple times a week - going on week 5. The yoga classes are a little "lite" for me but I am getting into the challenges of pilates.

Business goals weigh in with equal and often more importance. I want to utilize more of my creativity to contribute to new and exciting projects and of course, get projects to score with larger budgets. I have an indie film to score in February, but my ambitions are to be working with more directors and producers who I click with. To find people with projects that welcome experimenting with music arrangements and textures against the picture.

Getting to work with Lance Hayes on Forza Motorspot 3 was a great experience. Ideally at this time next year I want to be leading a games music team. I have a passion for creating unique orchestrations and aspire to add depth to a game's world through musical texture.

Many people I talk to about continuing my career forward say to give it time, that eventually people will hear what you do and want to work with you. Maybe I am asking to much for only scoring professionally for just 4 years.

A good friend said advised I share your music in videos on the internet. "People will spend more time watching and have a richer experience then if you just have music samples." she said.

This bit of advice really resonated in me. I don't even have a scoring reel.
So moving forward I decided that along with my bi-monthly newsletter to all my friends, filmmakers, game developers and directors, that I would include a promo video for each one in 2010. I was motivated enough that I completed the first video (First Snow - Holiday Greeting) for the Holidays in December.

I taught myself how to animate over a weekend and completed the video. It was fun and since it was also a holiday greeting, I was able to not take it so seriously. This allowed me to experiment and learn a little bit about animation and have some first hand insight as to the process of making a film.

As soon as I completed that I realized that there are so many great opportunities for me to make short films and videos to go along with my music. And then after speaking to my brothers (Tbob - the screenwriter and Bernard - the aspiring film maker) I knew that we already had a little short animated project that we could all work on together. Dispite the fact that none of us are illlustrators or animators we had come up with a fun concept last year and will be documenting our attempt to animate a short film.

It's taken many years to realize that most people don't have a relationship like I do with my brothers. I feel really lucky that I have two creative, talented and positive friends to share ideas with. Both Tbob and Bernard were instrumental in the birth of The Radioactive Werewolf album as well as supporting and advising me on several of my other personal projects. I have always thought "They are my brothers and this is how siblings do things" but I guess most people don't have the same kind of experience - brainstorming, supporting, facilitating each others creative endeavors.
I am lucky to have them as well as so many talented creative friends.

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12/17/09

Forza 3 Racking Up Awards


Microsoft releases "Dream" trailer for Forza Motorsport 3 I'm proud that I was able to work with Lance Hayes on music for Forza Motorspot 3 for XBOX. Congratulations to the entire Turn 10 team - so far Forza 3 has received the following awards.


IGN.com: Best Xbox 360 Racing Game of the Year

G4TV: Best Racing Game of 2009

CNNTech: Best Racing Game of 2009

SpikeTV: Best Driving Game of 2009

Details at: http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/blogs/post.aspx?App=turn_10s_forza_motorsport_blog&y=2009&m=12&d=16&PostName=forza-motorsport-3-racing-game-of-the-year

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12/16/09

VS. Mad Max Daily Vault Review


Reviewer Vish Iyer takes my apocalyptic ode to the Mad Max trilogyVS Mad Max for a spin and publishes the review on DailyVault.com.

" . . . frenzied as the concepts themselves. With a sound that can be best described as a mishmash of speed metal and techno, the paltry thirty-three minutes of this record throws in enough punches"

" Even with its inescapably strong nuances of speed metal, Vs Mad Max is a surprisingly accessible record, especially to someone who isn’t particularly into this genre. The tight compositions are simple and have the same allure for pop as ‘80s goth did. The album is more fun and less dark than it appears to be, much like the Mad Max movies themselves."


Full review here: http://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=6301

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12/15/09

First Snow Holiday Video

Finished my first Holiday Animated Video for the theme "First Snow"




Download it and 4 other Holiday tracks at: DonBodin.com/Holiday