Interview with Canadian-Armenian Filmmaker Atom Egoyan

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1. Genie Awards are presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and annually celebrate and recognise the country's cinematic achievements.

2. The McLaughlin Planetarium, which was part of the Royal Ontario Museum, was founded using a grant from philanthropist R. Samuel McLaughlin and opened to the public in 1968. However, it was forced to close in 1995 due to provincial budget cuts. Mychael Danna was composer in residence at the Planetarium, providing electronic music for the ‘stars shows’, from 1987 onwards.

3. For a detailed discussion on the use of pre-existing materials in relation to Danna's compositional practice, see Mera 2007, chapter 4: ‘Evolution of the Score’, 77–116.

4. Groonk (or Kroonk), refers to a crane, a long-necked bird that is revered in Armenian culture. Egoyan refers here to the folksong of the same name which is about an Armenian immigrant who asks the bird about his motherland. It is often attributed to Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935), an Armenian composer, ethnographer and musicologist.

5. ‘Temp’ here refers to the temp(orary) track which is a collection of pre-existent recordings used during postproduction in order to help focus the ideas of the production team and the composer.

6. The song used is ‘Coinleach Ghlas an Fhomhair’ (‘The Green Autumn Stubble’).

7. A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending steam through whistles, originally locomotive whistles. It is sometimes also called a steam organ or steam piano.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miguel Mera

Miguel Mera is widely published in music and moving image studies from music in historical drama to the use of popular songs in contemporary cinema. His publications include European film music (Ashgate, 2006) and Mychael Danna's The Ice Storm: A film score guide (Scarecrow, 2007). He is a Principal Lecturer in Music at Anglia Ruskin University. Miguel also composes for film and television and his work has been screened and broadcast throughout the world