Michael Giacchino Profile

Who is Michael Giacchino?

Taken from his web site…

(In May of 2001, Michael's score for the DreamWorks Interactive game "Medal of Honor Underground" won the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for Best Original Score. Soon afterwards, he wrote two new scores for both "Medal of Honor Frontline" (which was also a winner of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for Best Original Score) and "Medal of Honor Allied Assault", also recorded by the Seattle Symphony.)

He’s probably one of the most skilled “new” composers that wasn’t spawned from Zimmer’s Media Ventures group. His early work on the Medal of Honor score sounded more like old school John Williams than anything else, which isn’t a bad thing at all, because John Williams has stopped sounding like John Williams.

You can actually listen to all of Giacchino’s scores and hear nods to Williams work. Some have knocked him because he sounds too much like Williams. At this moment, he’s scoring for the new Mission: Impossible III.

Here’s some notes on some of his works.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park: This was officially his first score he wrote. It was a videogame based on the movie. He used John Williams’s style to great affect in this one.

Medal of Honor: Probably the videogame score that made people notice his skill at using a fully orchestra. Armed with strong marches and themes that bounce around each track, it was branded one of the best scores of 1999. I have to agree with that.

"Alias": Because of his wonderful work on the MOH videogames, Michael was asked by the creator J.J. Abrams to write scores for each episode of the new show. Michael moved away from his John Williams roots on this show. He shifted into a John Barry/Moby style. It was an interesting mix of James Bond and techno beats.

Medal of Honor: Frontline: This was the last and probably the best score he wrote for Dreamworks’s World War shooter. This time, he went all out and used a full choir as well. I can’t express enough how good this score is.

Call of Duty: This was another videogame score. It has an Interesting and strange main theme.

"Lost": After doing a great job with Alias, Abrams wanted him to produce a different type of score for this show. Despite the fact it hasn’t been released as a CD, THIS IS THE BEST TV SCORE YOU’LL EVER HEAR.

The Incredibles: PIXAR usually went with the Newman Family for their composer needs, but this time they asked Michael to bring back his James Bond style for their Superhero CGI movie.

Go here for more info http://imdb.com/name/nm0315974/

And here’s a good interview with the guy http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=132

And here’s his website, you can downloads some of his scores here as well.

http://www.michaelgiacchino.com/

here’s his samples http://www.michaelgiacchino.com/credits.html