‘Words + Music’ TV series with Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, More
A new music series produced by Gunpowder & Sky and Audible, “Words + Music”, will premiere on MGM + this fall, with episodes with Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and Alanis Morissette. The artists will be shown when sharing some of their most personal songs and the stories behind it for a small audience and large, almost covering screens to illustrate those stories.
The series, recently filmed for a small live audience on the Volumestadium of Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City, will premiere on MGM + 30 November. It is a natural spur of the celebrated “Words + Music” podcast that Gunpowder & Sky has done in recent years, in recent years, in which the greatest recording of all divorce of the all time has made shared semi -lungform of their choice.
Backstage on a recent filming of the episode of Costello, said Gunpowder & Sky CEO of Toffler Variety About the vision for the series. It is hardly that Toffler is only going to worry at the moment, because he also returns to his old Stamping site, MTV, to produce the upcoming video Music Awards. But “words + music” clearly has a special place in his heart.
“We were not going to do a TV series when we started the podcast, which we thought was a great way to tell stories and hear new versions of these songs in front of the podcast,” Toffler said. “And then technology really pushed us a bit to do this for TV, because it is a volume phase where they photograph so many huge films, and it allows you to find new ways to visually represent the stories. With Elvis we have his artworks as well as images from his youth or places represented behind him, and we can go back and forth in between the story and the band.
Toffler, the former president of MTV Networks, points out that as partners in this new show he did Alex Coletti – who did “MTV Unplugged” by Costello more than 30 years ago – and Bill Flanagan, a maker of VH1’s “Vertellers” and COTNESS “, with a decades”, with one decades “, with a Raanrads”, with a Raanrads “, with a combination of a Raanrads”, with a Raanrads “, with a combination of a combination of a combination of a combination”, with a Raanrads “, one of the combination of a combination of a combination of a combination of a combination”, with one decadive roads “. series.
Flanagan says: “You know, it is 25 years later, so the technology offers us opportunities to tell stories in a kind of three -dimensional way, and that is the most important difference. I mean. I mean, the size of the storytellers was a bit old when we started, in the sense of there were always folk singers who were stuck at that time.” each other. As Elvis said: “The show is called” words + music “, but we are going to do words and music and photos.”
With the Costello that was about to start, Flanagan Bullish was about the audiovisual history that the singer-songwriter brings to the show. “Elvis did the first ‘CMT Crossroads’, with Lucinda Williams,” noted Flanagan. “And Elvis was the second” VH1 Storytellers “, after Ray Davies did the first” – he came to the first, who was Ray Davies, and checked it and said, “Yes, I can do this.” So he is very reliable and someone you can count on when you try to sell a new project. He has a unique way to use the screens, of which he happened to have a hundred paintings he had done, along with the use of photos and other images. When he comes to the party, he is a complete employee. “
On the strictly technical front, Gunpowder & Sky says that at the stage 15 of Culver Studios, the filming is an LED volume of 79 ′ x 80 ′ has a 26-foot ceiling and a 74-foot painterly deck, a compelling virtual production environment driven by 105 cameras for movement capital and ROTSCAPITAL.
So it is a bit grandiose than the podcast that had the same name, who offered the intimate (and singing) voices of stars from Pete Townshend to Mariah Carey to St. Vincent to sniff Dogg.
Toffler says: ‘The beauty of this series is, just like with the podcast’ Words + Music ‘, there is a separate format, but in the end it was adapted for the vision of every artist. And also their own artwork. With Sheryl, whom we first stuck, I had done a documentary with her, so we already had so many photos of her child. Text of his songs are so lively.
In the last decade, Gunpowder & Sky has spent vomiting to unusual ideas and more traditional. “When I left MTV and started this company about 10 years ago,” says Toffler, “it is no coincidence that I told stories about music and music weaving in almost everything we do, from getting Biggie back to life – because he never died in the virtual world – to a Sabrina CARPENTERTAG Tells from Vr who break in a restaurant that he thought was a bank because he was drunk from ODB that the life of a child is currently working on a Jim Morrison Doc, and a Jessica Simpson Doc, and an over myspace. We always find inventive ways to tell stories about music, or to show music our stories. So I will try everything, and this is absolutely new, this series. “
Will there be further seasons? “I would like to tell more stories, and hopefully MGM will let me do that.” His wish list is long: “I have them in my head. We always talk to musicians and they are looking for new ways to present their music.”
In the meantime, AudIble and Gunpowder & Sky have “Words + Movies” as a podcast series in the tradition of the original “Words + Music”-Audio-Alleen show.
In that series, filmmakers’ Tell Stories and we integrate their film clips or music that they influence or films that are not their own who have influenced them. Ron Howard tells the transition from a child actor to a director and directing Bette Davis for the first time about how he has worked over musices about ‘So -so -so -so -so -so -so -so -so embo’s so embo’s so embo’s so embo’s so embo’s so emas and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sosse so -e -sosse so -e -sosse so -e -sosse so -e -sosse so -empo’s so -e -sosse so -e -sosse so -embo To have Tek from Te Tek. And Natasha Lyonne does hers in character. It is not yet in the cards, but he would like to see that this will also be a TV production. “I don’t know if they allow me to present that visually, but you can imagine that you are placing those films behind them on a stage; it would be wonderful.”
“Words + Music” is part of a deal between Audible and Amazon MGM Studios to develop projects inspired by Audible’s content library, led by Audible’s Head of TV and Film, Jackie Levine. In addition to this series, MGM+ recently also developed ‘The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood’ by the author Michael Connelly, developed from the podcast of the same name.
Of course, of course, because the production has been completed on “Words + Music”, is his return to the helm of the VMAs, this time as an external producer, after a big break after almost 30 years with MTV.
He is currently at least double service, says: “I was not going to be in production non-stop, even during the weekend. I was dragged back in the video Music Awards on 7 September and hopefully there will be some chaos.”
