Tag Archives: Casa Loma

Sony Centre in Toronto presents Movies with Live Scores

Gladiator with a symphony performing the score in the foreground, a fantastic way to hear the music and see the movie.

Gladiator with a symphony performing the score in the foreground, a fantastic way to hear the music & see the movie.

There was a time when silent movies were accompanied by a live musician playing an organ, or a piano.  Somewhere over the years theaters shifted to the sound being delivered along with the film, and audiences grew accustomed to an entirely pre-packaged experience being shipped off and delivered to them.  Admittedly it gives the director, and the musicians, more control over the final product.  They are no longer wondering if the musician in each town and theater is timing the crescendos to the exact moment the director wanted it to hit, if the haunting moments of a characters theme are synced to the exact movements of an actor — now all of that is determined in the editing phase and the sync of music and action is set, and every audience now sees the same film, experiences it in the same way.

But at the same time we lost that sense of live music.  The feel of the orchestra performing, the power of all those instruments coming together to add another layer of depth and breath to the film we are watching.  The scores of soundtracks are labored over in the production phase, so often composed just for this film, and the film edited so that the images play in harmony with that music.  Many of us may think of certain songs as being a part of holiday celebrations and fireworks shows, or being the perfect song to get our juices flowing as we get ready to start our day, or the ultimate finale to a tough work out.  However, first and foremost, in many cases, they were envisioned in a far different way.

Often when the score is being recorded the musicians will even have the film playing, so they can see the dramatic moments their music will be figuratively dancing with.

One of the booths at Fan Expo Canada was for a Symphony, with a great presentation about how at the Sony Centre in Toronto there are upcoming opportunities to step back in time, and see movies as they were once experienced.  Instead of silent films accompanied by just an organ (see one of those organs at Casa Loma) the audience will have the chance to watch a modern cinematic wonder accompanied by a full symphony — think Gladiator (Hans Zimmer’s and Lisa Gerrard’s sweeping score) or the Star Trek (Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony performs the Score by Michael Giacchino) that relaunched the ever-popular science-fiction series on the big screen.

Links of interest:
Sony Centre and an article Sony Centre recommended on Why movie scores sound better live from the Den Of Geek

Hans Zimmer’s score to Gladiator continues to be one of the composer’s most famous and admired accomplishments, selling millions of copies. An original member of The Buggles (Video Killed the Radio Star), multi-award-winning Zimmer conquered the world of pop music before tackling scoring films. His list of credits include writing the scores for Oscar®-winning films, 12 Years A Slave, Thelma and Louise, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Lion King to name only a very few.

Gladiator follows loyal Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), who is betrayed when the emperor’s ambitious son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his emperor.

Sony Centre For The Performing Arts and Attila Glatz Concert Productions present
GLADIATOR LIVE
Friday, December 5, 2014 @ 8pm
Sony Centre For The Performing Arts, 1 Front Street East, Toronto
Ticket prices range from $47-$97
Ticket prices do not include service or delivery fees
Tickets can be can be purchased in person at the Sony Centre box office, over the phone at 1-855-872-SONY (7669) or online at www.sonycentre.ca

Orphan Black – Podcast Coming

We (John Mayo of ComicBookPage, Kay Kellam of PopArtsPlace, the lovely Erica / TV Heartbeat of MikeTheFanBoy and Linda Chan) have recorded an Orphan Black podcast, which will be going up in the not too distant future.  For those who have not yet tuned in to Orphan Black — take some time and check out the first two seasons, which are currently available to be viewed in a variety of ways, including free video-on-demand on Time Warner Cable Boxes.

For those attending Fan Expo Canada in Toronto next week, we have tried to figure out a list of Orphan Black filming locations that fans have identified that are within striking distance of the convention center.   My original purpose was to give John Mayo and myself something fun to do between the time we arrived and the convention began Thursday, but the more I found and began plotting, the more I thought others might be interested.  (And I should mention it was the Lovely Erica who first mentioned to me that we might be able to see some of the Orphan Black filming locations while in Toronto!  Great call Erica!)

At this point I have come up with a 6 mile tour of down town that takes you in a giant loop ending at the convention center.  Several of the locations are in the general vicinity of the convention center and I am trying to whittle this list down to a much shorter selection that could be a walking tour done Thursday morning before the convention begins.

For those who have not watched the series, there are some spoilers below as I give rough descriptions to identify locations.  You may want to stop reading at this point!

 

The following link should take you to the 6 mile route:  https://goo.gl/maps/3Cp3R

The first 6 addresses make up a shorter ( 3.5 mile ) route

Union Station Rail Station — half a mile from the convention center, is where Beth is seen in her attention grabbing appearance in the pilot episode.

35 Mariner Terrace, Toronto, ON M5V 3V9   — Beth’s Condo  (approximately half a mile’s walk from the convention center)

17 Iceboat Terrace, Toronto, ON M5V  — Paul stands on the Puente de Luz footbridge while talking on the cell phone given to him by Sarah, via the skateboarder

28 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5V 2P1  — After the decoy skateboarder girl fools Daniel Rosen and his thugs, Sarah runs to the steel bridge at Front St. W and Bathurst St

1812 Lounge – Thompson Hotel, 550 Wellington St W, Toronto, ON M5V  — Sara goes in with hat and sunglasses

483 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2A9  – Felix’s Loft (Exterior)

59 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 — Helena’s second hideout, Knox College (looks like a church)

83 St Joseph St, Toronto, ON M5S  — House that was supposed to be in Minneapolis

University of Toronto – Saint Michaels College, 81 St Mary St, Toronto, ON M5S 1J4  – Cosima spends a lot of time at the U of T.

130 Elizabeth St, Toronto, ON M5G 1C3  — Leekie meets Cosima at the Toronto Coach Terminal

19 Toronto St, Toronto, ON M5C 2R1  — The restaurant where Cosima and Delphine have dinner, and are joined by Dr. Leekie, is the Rosewater Supper Club

Metro Toronto Convention Centre North, Front Street West, Toronto, ON  — Fan Expo Canada

To create this list of locations I relied on two lists I found online put together by very attentive and resourceful fans at orphanblack.wikia and Torontoist.com  I am indebted to them for sharing their findings with other fans, and any mistakes are entirely my own.  I am in no way attempting to take credit for their efforts or hard work, I merely attempted to arrange for myself and those I will be attending Fan Expo with a Orphan Black sightseeing tour, and realized others might be interested in seeing the maps and having a chance to do the same if they had the time.  I can not thank the fans enough for sharing their discoveries, and helping out tourists like us.

You may want to look at the link to google maps that shows all of the locations, and see if any of them are near the hotel you are staying in, or convenient in some other way, or break up the sight-seeing into more than one jaunt.

Additionally fans of the TV show Flashpoint should be sure to take a moment to go into the Royal York Hotel, and check out both the lobby and mezzanine which were used nicely, and obviously. in the episode Broken Peace, the first episode of Season five.  Aside from the filming that has taken place at the Royal York Hotel, the hotel has a fantastic history, and is well worth taking some time to see while in Toronto.

Another site we are hoping to fit into our time in Toronto is Casa Loma.   Like the Royal York Hotel, Casa Loma has a rich history, and has been used in the filming of many projects, including as Xavier’s Institute for gifted children in the 2000 X-men movie.  (Yes, that would be the Patrick Stewart Xavier.)