Michael Giacchino

Michael holding his Golden Globe Award. (http://www.musicnacho.com/pics/michael_giacchino_golden_globe_2010.jpg)

Michael Giacchino is not only an uncle to me, but my personal career hero as well. Since I was little, my uncle and I always had a very close relationship. At my baptism, my parents gave my uncle the privilege to be my godfather. As he happily accepted, my uncle knew from that point on that we were always going to be close. As I grew older, I noticed that my uncle had a great interest in the movie-making business — let alone music. Because of his job as being a composer for different movies and T.V. shows, Michael was able to get us into many Hollywood premieres and parties. Despite the multiple parties, I found myself mesmerized by the processes of creating music and movies. After being engrossed in the surroundings of movies and music, I realized that I really wanted to pursue a career just like my uncle’s when I was older. I feel as if my musical and rhythmic genes didn’t come directly from my parents, but through my uncle’s talent as a composer. Because of this, I have a deep passion for music and filming/directing short films, and I wish to follow in my uncle’s footsteps when I am older.

Michael working on his score. (http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact_tv/2009/05/large_162e.jpg )

Being a musical composer for T.V. shows and movies requires mainly a deep passion for music. One needs to know what every instrument can and cannot do, along with the ranges of all of them. A composer must be able to read music and understand which chords and melodies fit, and which are unclear. In order to write music, the basic fundamentals of the music itself are vital to being able to actually create it — let alone create it for every instrument needed to fulfill the entire sound of the orchestra. In addition to composing music, directing, filming, and producing movies are all careers that are connected to it. The average salary of a movie producer or director is $28,000-$102,000 depending on how well the movie does. As the want of a certain person to direct, produce, or composing increases, so does his/her pay. Without even one of these essential parts to creating a movie, there would be no way to get the job done. In other words, think of the process like a puzzle. Without the correct number of pieces, the puzzle isn’t complete. Similarly, without one of the many jobs it takes to create a movie, the movie wouldn’t be completed.

Michael and his sister Maria at the 2010 Oscars. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Giacchino#cite_note-0)

Born on October 10, 1967, Michael always had an interest in film-making and music. He would spend much of his time creating both stop-action and regular movies with his video camera. He based many of his short films on characters and events that occurred on his favorite T.V. shows and movies. Michael’s parents say that they would describe him as “adventurous, creative, artistic, and curious of course.” They also mentioned that “he also loved to collect old things and school was not his favorite place.” Later, Michael attended college at Julliard: School of Visual Arts, where he earned a degree in film production and a minor in history. Later he engaged himself in film extension courses at UCLA. After college, Michael started working for Disney, but left to work for a company that created video games. The company happened to need someone to write music for the video games, so Michael offered and loved it so much that he decided that he wanted to proceed in this profession. Steven Spielberg, a famous director, writer, and producer for movies, quotes, “I listen to a lot of music from aspiring composers, and one day I received a CD of sample tracks from a new composer named Michael Giacchino. I thought his stuff was stunning and the orchestral arrangements were already on a par with some of Hollywood's best working composers.” Michael was offered different jobs to compose music for movies and T.V. shows; some of his first big hits include the movie, The Incredibles, and the T.V. show, Lost. His success became like a chain reaction; he was asked to compose music for many different movies, which included Sky High, Ratatouille, Star Trek, Speed Racer, Land of the Lost, and Up. Up was especially popular, and he ended up winning an Academy Award for “Best Score” for Up in 2010. Michael is currently working on the upcoming movies, Cars 2, Super 8, Mission Impossible 4, Monte Carlo, and John Carter From Mars.

Michael in-action at the Oscars. (http://www.michaelgiacchinomusic.com/biography.htm)

With all of the success in his life, Michael tries to encourage other people to follow their dreams. In addition, he inspires them to tell stories along the way. Michael speaks at many charity events in order to raise money for music programs in public schools in low income areas. With the lower economy lately, some public schools have had to take away the music programs in order to save money. Michael works hard to motivate young kids to stay with music and to engage themselves in the different instruments. His humbleness and love for what he does results in his success of composing music. During his winning speech in the 2010 Academy Awards, Michael says, “If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It’s not a waste of time. Do it.” Along with encouraging people to follow their dreams, his main message is to tell stories along the way. Michael believes that telling stories creates the image of who you really are as a person. In Michael’s eyes, the way a person tells stories and his/her experiences is how his/her personality is developed. Therefore, Michael not only inspires people to follow their dreams, but to also share stories with other people along the way.

If I do end up pursuing a career in composing, filming, directing, or producing movies, I’d have to focus myself on a certain path in order to prepare myself for the process. I currently play the stand-up bass in the school orchestra, and I play piano outside of school. I am looking into taking a film-production class either inside or outside of school in the next few years in order to familiarize myself with the makings of movies. In a few years, I hope to attend a college near to where I live now, such as UCLA. I’d like to major in either music or film-making, and minor in a study that is a past-time interest of mine. As an adult, I plan to put myself in the right places at the right times, for this will improve the probability of maintaining a successful career. I think of Michael Giacchino as not only my uncle, but my role model. He has inspired me to do what I love — to become creative with music and movies. Michael’s lesson to people of all ages all over the world has really aroused me to stand up and make something of myself. By following my dreams like Michael Giacchino has, who knows what I can accomplish.