Louisiana musicians tapped to work with composer George Clinton on score for new film

Louisiana musicians help in film’s score

NEW ORLEANS — About a dozen Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra musicians are going from the stage to the silver screen.

While the 50-plus member LPO is on summer hiatus, some of its musicians landed a gig of a different kind — collaborating with Hollywood composer George S. Clinton as he creates an original score to accompany the film “Extract,” a comedy set for release in September.

As Clinton led the small orchestra this week in a New Orleans recording studio, the movie starring Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis played without sound on a large flat screen TV so editors could watch the scenes unfold as the orchestra played.

“This is so much fun,” said Dave Anderson, the LPO’s principal bassist, who was among the musicians asked to work on the project. “For us, it’s a change of pace. It’s definitely something different.”

Anderson, who joined the LPO in 1996, said working on the movie provided a job at what is typically a slow time for LPO musicians. The orchestra breaks during the summer months, and it is not set to begin its 36-week concert season until September, Anderson said.

For Clinton, the opportunity to work in New Orleans with Louisiana musicians was ideal.

“I knew right up front that this would be the perfect movie to score down here,” Clinton said. “I wanted a quirky rhythm section, so I needed people who had a really good sense of rhythm.”

For part of the score, Clinton had the percussion section make music with glass extract bottles since the movie is about someone who owns a flower extract factory, Clinton said. He also incorporated ethnic and world instruments such as the bouzouki, a stringed instrument similar to a mandolin.

“It worked out really well,” Clinton said.

The decision to score “Extract” in Louisiana was driven largely by the state’s entertainment tax breaks, said Jessica Clinton, the composer’s assistant and daughter.

Louisiana offers a 25 percent sound recording tax credit.

“It’s a lot less expensive to record here, and the union laws for musicians are less strict here than in Los Angeles,” she said.

The musicians worked Monday and Tuesday at the Music Shed, a recording studio in New Orleans where artists Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and others have recorded.

Other films that have used Louisiana’s sound recording incentives include the 2006 Tyler Perry-written and directed romantic comedy “Madea’s Family Reunion”, the 2008 romantic drama “Rachel Getting Married” starring Anne Hathaway and the not-yet-released comedy “The Open Road,” starring Justin Timberlake.

“Extract” is the second movie Clinton has scored this month. Recently, he recorded more than 70 minutes of score in Los Angeles for 20th Century Fox’s comical-fantasy “Tooth Fairy” starring Dwayne Johnson, Julie Andrews, Billy Crystal and Ashley Judd. That film is slated for release Nov. 13.

Clinton received an Emmy nomination for Best Original Score to HBO Films’ “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Other films to his credit include “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo,” ”The Love Guru,” ”Mortal Kombat” and the suspense thrillers “The Astronaut’s Wife” and “Wild Things.”

“Extract” was written and directed by Mike Judge (”Office Space” and “King of the Hill”) and is due in theaters Sept. 4.