A new music series produced by Gunpowder & Sky and Audible, “Words + Music”, will premiere Mgm+ In the fall, with sections Elvis CostelloThe Sheryl CrowThe John Legend and Alanis Morissette. The artists will be seen as sharing some of their most personal songs and the stories behind them in front of a small audience and large, almost wraparound screens that illustrate these stories.
The Series, Recently Filmed in Front of Small Live Audiences on Amazon MGM Studios’ Volume Stage in Culver City, Will Premiere On Mgm+ Nov. 30. It’s a natural outgrowth of the celebrated “Words + Music” podcast that gunpowder & sky has done with Audible over the Last Few Years, in which some of the Greatest Record of All Time Shared Semi-LongForm Narratives of their Choos
Backstage at a new filming of Costello’s section, Gunpowder & Sky CEO Of slippers told Amount About the vision for the series. It is hardly Tuffler’s only concern right now, as he is also returning to his old stomping grounds, MTV, to produce the upcoming video music awards. But “Words + Music” clearly holds a special place in their heart.
“We had no intention to make a TV series when we started the podcast, which we just thought was a wonderful way to tell stories and hear new versions of these songs for the podcast,” Tuffler said. “And then the technology really pushed us to do this for TV, because these volume steps are where they shoot so many huge films, and that means you can find new ways to visually represent the stories. With Elvis we have his artwork as well as pictures from his childhood or places in his life represented behind him, and we can go back and forth”
Toffler, the former president of MTV Networks, points out that he as a partners on this new show has Alex Coletti – who made Costello’s “MTV Unplugged” more than 30 years ago – and Bill Flanagan, a creator of VH1’s “storyteller” and CMT’s “crossroads,” The actual name of a series.
Says Flanagan, “You know, it’s 25 years later, so the technology offers us opportunities to tell stories in a kind of three-dimensional way, and that’s the biggest difference. I mean,” storytellers “format was a little old when we started, in the sense there were always people sitting on pallets and told stories, and it has been as long as the music has been around as at that time. “But the screens definitely distinguish this. As Elvis said:” The show is called “Words + Music”, but we will make words and music and pictures. “
With the Costello tape on the way to starting, Flanagan Hausse was on the audiovisual story that the singer writer himself brings to the show. “Elvis made the first” CMT Crossroads “, with Lucinda Williams,” Flanagan pointed out. “And Elvis was the second” VH1 story “, after Ray Davies did the first” – he came to the first, who was Ray Davies, and checked it out and said, “Yes, I can do this.” So he is very reliable and someone you can trust when trying to sell a new project. He has a unique way to use the screens, which he happened to have a hundred paintings he had done, along with using photographs and other pictures. When he comes to the party, he is a complete collaborator. “
On the strict technical front, Gunpowder & Sky says that the filming at Culver Studios step 15 has a 79 ′ x 80 ′ LED volume with a 26 foot ceiling and a 74-foot scenic queue, an engrossing virtual production environment operated by 105 Move-Capture Cams and ROE BP2 leadership.
So it is a bit more grandiose than the podcast that had the same name, which offered the intimate speaking (and singing) voices of stars from Pete Townshend to Mariah Carey to St. Vincent to Snoop Dogg.
Says Toffler, “The Great Thing About This Series is, just like with the ‘Words + Music’ podcast, there’s a Loose Format, but ultimately it’s customized for an artist’s vision. And also their own artwork. Already had so many photos from her Childhood. But Elvis Decided to give us his original art.
Gunpowder & Sky has spent the last decade enjoying unusual ideas as well as more traditional. “When I left MTV about ten years ago and started this company,” says Toffler, “It’s no coincidence that I stopped telling stories about music and weaving music to almost everything we do, from practically to bring Biggie back to life – because he never died, he lives on in the virtual world – to a Sabrina Carpenter, tells from VR, to tell to to tell to tell. Restaurant he thought was a bank because he was full to save a child’s life. At present, their documentaries Division “On a Jim Morrison Doc now, and a Jessica Simpson Doc, and one about Myspace. We always find inventive ways to tell stories” or have music.
Will there be additional seasons? “I would like to tell you more stories, and hopefully MGM will let me do it.” His wish list is long: “I have them in my head. We talk to musicians all the time and they are looking for new ways to present their music.”
Meanwhile, Audible and Gunpowder & Sky “The Film Makers” have have a kind of “Words + Movies”-as an upcoming podcast series in the tradition of the original “Words + Music” sound show.
In the series “Telling filmmakers stories and we integrate their movie clips or music that affect them or movies that are not their own that influenced them. Ron Howard talks the transition from a child actor to a director and directs Bette Davis for the first time. Cameron talks about” Fast times “and” Jerry McGuire “and all the great films he made, Natasha Lyonne makes her character. It is not yet in the cards, but he would love to see this become a TV production as well. I do not know if they allow me to present it visually, but you can imagine to put the movies behind them on a stage like this; that would be amazing. ‘
“Words + Music” is part of an agreement between Audible and Amazon MGM Studios to develop projects inspired by Audible’s content library, led by Audible’s TV and film, Jackie Levine. In addition to this series, MGM+ also recently acquired the author Michael Connelly’s “The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood”, developed from the audible podcast of the same name.
Overhanging for Tuffler, of course, since the production at “Words + Music” has been discontinued, his return is to be in the helm for the VMAs, this time as an external producer, after a big break after his almost 30 years with MTV.
By doing at least double service at the moment, he says, “I did not plan to be in production directly, even on the weekends. I have been withdrawn to the Video Music Awards on September 7 and hopefully there will be some devastation.”
