Rob Teehan - Toronto tuba player and Juno-nominated composer

Back from Berlin

After a crazy week at the Berlinale Talent Campus, I'm physically completely exhausted, but mentally energized and inspired.  I met many amazing and talented people from all over the world that I hope to stay in touch with.

A highlight for me was workshopping my score to the short film "Hogtown" at Post Republic studio, one of the top audio post production houses in Germany, with the German composer Martin Todsharow, along with  Rutger Reinders with his short film "Sevilla".

On the whole I am very happy to have had this opportunity, and can't wait to write some more music now that I'm back in town.

I'm also getting used to normal English, after hearing much "foreign" grammar and syntax, since probably 90% of the people I met were not native speakers, and would use slightly funny constructions like, "you will go to the hotel now?", "only two years I am working in film", "I don't find my tickets", etc... I found myself naturally slipping into these over the course of the week, just like how I got a bit of a midwestern twang after two years of studying in Indiana.

Southern Souls with The Boxcar Boys

Southern Souls by Mitch Fillion is a series of videos of Toronto-area bands playing in unusual locations.  There's a bunch of them and they're very cool.  I got to particpate in one with my band The Boxcar Boys in a local coffee shop, check it out:

THE BOXCAR BOYS - Mugg's Island / You Are My Sunshine from Southern Souls on Vimeo.

Berlinale

I've been invited to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

It is, according to the website, a weeklong workshop of "300 selected talents (writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, actors, editors, distributors, production designers, composers, sound designers and young film journalists) together with professionals from the international film industry."

It's pretty awesome to be selected.  I'm really looking forward to meeting other up-and-coming filmmakers.  Also a little freaked out because I'm still pretty new to this part of the business!  But I know it's going to give me a lot of energy and inspiration for the next year.

The Sugar Bowl wins!

Just recieved word that The Sugar Bowl, the film I scored in October 2011, just won two awards at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, UK:  Best Documentary and Festival Winner, the overall top prize!

Very proud of my work on this project and my association with directors Rich Williamson and Shasha Nakhai, who I hope to collaborate with again in 2013.

Hogtown

Here's a nifty little short film that I scored along with the Heavyweights Brass Band, and recorded in my apartment.

It's a rather dark and violent 'noir' comedy about Toronto and its seedy underbelly.  The score is therefore pretty ironic, drawing on Taxi Driver and Chinatown as an influence, and also using electronic 'horror' sounds that are based off brass sounds.

Joe

I recently scored a short film, "Joe", directed by my friend Rich Williamson (of Sugar Bowl fame) which has been announced as one of five finalist's in TV Ontario's Short Documentary Contest.  It's down to an online vote now, so Please click here and scroll to the bottom to vote for Joe.  If we win, the film will be broadcast on TVO and Rich's career will get a nice boost, which will probably have positive implications for my own young career as a film composer.

The film is about a man who suffered from anxiety for most of his adult life, crippling his ability to pursue his dream of becoming a rock star.  It's a really interesting look at how people can get caught-up in repetitive patterns and how difficult it can be to overcome inertia.  You can watch the film in its entirety (it's only 5 minutes long) at the link above.