New York, NY (Top40 Charts / CineMedia Promotions) Moviescore Media (www.moviescoremedia.com) is celebrating the works of composer Chris Ridenhour with three new releases, 2012 Supernova: The Sci-Fi Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour, The Land That Time Forgot: The Fantasy Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus: The Monster Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour. All three releases highlight the composer's work with The Asylum and will be available digitally and on CD on March 8, 2011.
"I think the first time I saw the now famous scene where a giant shark eats a passenger plane midair in Megashark vs Giant Octopus," said Ridenhour, "I knew that film would become part of pop culture and it has!"
Megashark earned a cult following after it aired on SyFy in the US. It earned Ridenhour a fan -- Moviescore Media's founder Mikael Carlsson. Said Carlsson, "As an homage to Decca's classical genre-orientated Bernard Herrmann albums which presented score selections in suite form, the Ridenhour albums feature lengthy suites from each of the films."
Taking this approach to the albums makes sense, given Ridenhour's methodology. "Musically speaking, my process begins with sketching themes, motifs, harmonic and rhythmic patterns that will define the characters. Once I have material that I feel excited about, the score almost writes itself," said Ridenhour. "I'm from the Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams school. Themes are very important for me. Each character has to have an identity and a soul."
After studying composition with noted composer William Averitt at Shenandoah University, Chris Ridenhour moved to Los Angeles in the late 90's to work for film composer/orchestrator Todd Hayen and his wife Janice. During his tenure with the Hayens, Chris worked on the scores of Mark Isham, Lalo Schifrin, Gary Chang, John Debney, Shirley Walker, and many others.
Though Ridenhour began composing for The Asylum in 2007, but things really took off after he worked on Journey to the Center of the Earth in 2008. Since that time he has worked on about twenty of their films, including the widely popular Megashark vs Giant Octopus, Princess of Mars, Mega Piranha, Dragonquest, The Hitchhiker, and Transmorphers chronicled on these three CDs.
"All of [these films] have their special moments for me, but I would say Merlin and the War of the Dragons was the first score I really poured my heart into and really surprised myself with the result. I was the first time I felt like I could contribute something meaningful to a film."
2012 Supernova: The Sci-Fi Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour, The Land That Time Forgot: The Fantasy Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus: The Monster Film Scores of Chris Ridenhour from Moviescore Media will be available digitally and CD on March 8, 2011.
