This Saturday (11/8), the Florida Orchestra dives into the Blue Ocean Film Festival. It will play Grant McLachlan's score for the movie "Ocean Voyagers" while the film is playing at the Mahaffey Theater.
"Ocean Voyagers" tells the tale of a mighty big mama, 40 tons of humpback whale and her baby boy. The story is narrated by Meryl Streep and was created by Feo Pitcairn.
http://youtu.be/qIa6Wkct3Vc
This is not McLachlan's first projected connected to the natural world. And that seems to come naturally to him. His uncle is a bird expert and naturalist, his sister is a nature filmmaker and producer.
Plus, he lives near the beach in South Africa, which affords him ready access to sea creatures such as whales. "I'm within twenty minutes drive of the ocean and within, say an hour or two drive of some of the best whale-watching spots in the world. Even 15-20 years ago, you would have to choose the one month out of the year perhaps. Nowadays, you can go for six, seven, eight months of the year and are almost guaranteed to see whales any particular day. And it really is very, very inspiring, almost a spiritual experience, I find," McLachlan said.
And while McLachlan writes concert music, he likes the work film music demands. "If you're writing for a concert, for example, the attention is all on that music. In film it's very different, there's story, there's sound, there's dialogue, there's a picture.You have to start in there somewhere and still make your mark," McLachlan said.
McLachan said he hopes this melding of orchestra and movie soundtrack will "give new life to orchestras as well."
