New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Lakeshore Records will release the KILLING THEM SAFELY - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack digitally on November 27, 2015. The album features the film's original score by The Blair Brothers (GREEN ROOM, BLUE RUIN) and the song "Tear Me Away" by Northern Arms.
"Director Nick Berardini was such a welcome balance of 'hands on' and 'do it yourself,'" said composer Will Blair. "His instruction was very specific, but not musical. He left that up to us. Being a documentary, he offered facts and reactions to consider when thinking about music - rather than a definitive arc or rhythm of the story. He encouraged us to support underlying motives and intentions of certain people we meet in the film, some of which seem quite misleading and even deceitful at times."
Hundreds of deaths. Zero oversight. In the early 2000s, brothers Tom and Rick Smith revolutionized policing by marketing the Taser to law enforcement agencies. This supposedly safe alternative to handguns was supposed to curb the use of deadly force, so why have over 500 people died from Taser-related injuries since? At a time when questions about police methods are at the forefront of the national dialogue, Killing Them Safely brings together startling archival footage and eye-opening interviews with experts on both sides of the debate to shed much-needed light on an urgent issue.
"Unfortunately in this film we meet a handful of people whose lives were lost while being Tased," said Will. "Each of these stories is equally hard to hear. Perhaps the dash cam footage scene of the death of the young Stanley Harlan still seems to be one of the most significant. It happened to be the defining moment that Nick first began this project, in impetus for the film itself. The irresponsible way in which these weapons were used completely devastated a family in a matter of seconds."
Brothers Brooke and Will Blair are accomplished composers for film, television, web and public installations. The brothers have scored award-winning feature films, documentaries, commercials and secured song placements in Disney films, The Weinstein Company films and in dozens of cable television shows.
As longtime collaborators with director Jeremy Saulnier, the brothers scored the Sundance, Cannes favorite BLUE RUIN (2014), gaining them a Public Choice Nomination for the World
Soundtrack Awards 2014, in Belgium, and an inclusion in ASCAP's Composer Spotlight at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Indiewire awarded the pair Honorable Mentions in both 2014 Composers to Watch, and 15 Best Film Scores of 2014. 2015 finds Brooke and Will scoring Saulnier's follow up thriller, GREEN ROOM, starring Patrick Stewart. Currently, the brothers are scoring LIVE CARGO, from director Logan Sandler, and a growing body of narrative, documentary, and commercial projects.
"We aimed to enhance the very tragic and human components to the story with acoustic, organic and minimal instrumentation - sounds which are clearly of this world; pianos, chiming bells and a good bit of thigh-smacks for percussion elements; they just sound more 'human' than drums," Brooke described.
"But another powerful character of this movie is electricity itself, and the men that have attempted to harness and weaponize it, and some of their motives which were inspired by tales of science fiction," Will explained. "We relied on dozens of very 'buzzy' and 'charged' vintage synthesizers and also more 'futuristic' synth patches as well. Ultimately we tried to strike an interesting balance between traditional, organic elements and modern, electric instruments."
Zipper Brothers Films and Sundance Selects present KILLING THEM SAFELY in theaters soon. Lakeshore Records will release the KILLING THEM SAFELY - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack digitally on November 27, 2015.
