John Charles (composer)

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John Charles (born November 4, 1940 in Wellington ) is a New Zealand composer . He created some musical works for New Zealand cinema in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including compositions for films such as Mach's gut, Pork Pie , Utu - The Last Battle of the Maoris , Quiet Earth - The Last Experiment , The Invisible Death or Spooked .

life and career

John Charles studied art at Victoria University of Wellington . At the same time he played jazz music in the club of the university. During his studies he worked as a journalist for a newspaper and as a program manager for the NZ Broadcasting Service. With a Bachelor of Music degree, he returned to the NZBC, where he worked as a producer and director. With the experience of directing a television play in 1973 and the implementation of two episodes of a comedy series, he moved to Australia in 1974 and composed the music for his first television film, The God Boy .

The director with whom John Charles worked most often in his career was jazz trumpeter and filmmaker Geoff Murphy . Their acquaintance dates back to 1966 and Murphy's first film, the unfinished children's musical The Magic Hammer. The two played together as part of the 1970s tour group Blerta and on the Murphy-directed TV show of the same name. Together they turned to the implementation of several New Zealand cinema projects in the late 1979s and early 1980s. While Murphy directed, John Charles composed the soundtracks for the films Goodbye, Pork Pie , for which Charles wrote a jazz score , for the Maori drama Utu - The Last Battle of the Maoris with a predominantly symphonic score and the dystopian and award-winning Science- Fiction drama Quiet Earth - The last experiment , in which he processed not only symphonic but also avant-garde and experimental sounds. For the film Quiet Earth - The Last Experiment , director Murphy and lead actor Bruno Lawrence have received several awards, including the New Zealand Film and TV Award . In 2004 the mystery drama Spooked with Cliff Curtis in the lead role was finally created , the last joint work by John Charles and Geoff Murphy.

In 1996, John Charles joined the Australian Film and Broadcasting School as Composer in Residence , where he taught composition for more than a decade.

Filmography (selection)

movie theater

  • 1979: Jack Winter's Dream
  • 1980: Goodbye, Pork Pie (Goodbye Pork Pie)
  • 1983: Utu - The last battle of the Maoris (Utu)
  • 1984: Constance
  • 1985: Quiet Earth - The Last Experiment (Quiet Earth)
  • 1987: The Perfectionist
  • 1988: Brigade of Secrets (Zombie Brigade)
  • 1989: A Soldier's Tale
  • 1994: The Invisible Death (The Last Tattoo)
  • 1994: Bread & Roses
  • 2004: Spooked

watch TV

  • 1976: The God Boy (TV movie)
  • 1984: Man of Letters (TV movie)
  • 1984: Out of Time (TV movie)
  • 1991: Alexander Graham Bell: The Sound and the Silence (TV movie)
  • 1994: Fallout (TV miniseries)

Short films or documentaries

  • 1970: Tank Busters (short film)
  • 1995: The Bounty (short documentary film)

literature

  • John Charles. In: Film Score Monthly, Issues 53–64. , Lukas Kendall, 1995, p. 77.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Portrait of John Charles in: Sounz , accessed January 26, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Charles, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand composer
DATE OF BIRTH November 4th 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Wellington , New Zealand