During the Spring Festival, the science fiction movie "The Wandering Earth" was screened in major theaters in China.
The song "Let's Ignite Jupiter" in this movie was created by Liu Tao, a young composer of Xuzhou's "post-85s", and the two places in the film turned from despair to hope are the background music of the song, which sets off the plot very well, mobilizes the emotions of the audience, and is praised by netizens as "the most burning in the whole film".
Pose with The Wandering Earth director Guo Fan
The 32-year-old Liu Tao studied film and television music composition at the University of Southern California School of Music, where he studied under the famous Hollywood film score master John Debney (composer of "Iron Man", which was nominated for an Oscar), Christopher Young (composer of "Spider-Man"), Bruce Bruherton (composer of "The Battle of West Wallado", who has won 1 Oscar nomination and 10 Emmy Awards), and is now a member of the American Songwriters Association.
Since childhood, I have loved composing music
His piano works won the first place in the national competition
Liu Tao is in the process of creation
Liu Tao began learning to play the piano at the age of 4. At first, I became obsessed with the "Master Composer" software and tried to compose my own music. Since high school, he has systematically studied composition theory with Professor Fei Chengheng, a famous composer in Xuzhou. Later, in 2004 and 2006, he won the first prize in the Original Piano Works Competition held by Pop Piano Network.
Because he had won awards in the National Olympiad Physics Competition in high school and loved natural sciences, his college entrance examination score exceeded the score line of more than 50 points in an admission score line that year, so when applying for the university, Liu Tao chose shandong university physics major.
Liu Tao never stopped composing music during his college years, and has been the deputy head of the art troupe of Shandong University and the piano accompaniment of the school choir.
Studied under Professor Wang Liguang
Emerge in the North Shadow
In 2008, Liu Tao had a new goal in mind. "At that time, Professor Wang Liguang, dean of the China Conservatory of Music and a famous composer (composer of "No Thief in the World", winner of the two-time Golden Rooster Award), was recruiting graduate students in film music creation and theory at the Beijing Film Academy, and I wanted to be his student."
Liu Tao was the only one among the candidates who applied for Professor Wang's examination that year to pass the initial examination. "Later, I learned that I almost passed by The North Shadow." Liu Tao said that Professor Wang has high requirements for the basic skills of students, generally only accepting graduates of the composition department of the Conservatory of Music, and seeing a physics student pass the initial examination, he wanted to stop recruiting that year.
However, on the day of the re-examination, Professor Wang was very appreciative of Liu Tao, and he accepted him at that time. During his time at Beijing Film, Liu Tao and his classmates collaborated on more than ten short films, and their film and television composition skills became more and more skilled.
Studied at the University of Southern California
Learn a variety of musical styles
Liu Tao gave a speech at Disney Animation
In order to improve his composing skills, when he was in Beiying, Liu Tao wanted to know what the secret of strong expression in Hollywood film scores was. Because USC (short for University of Southern California) is the world's highest school of cinema, he decided to go to USC to study.
In August 2012, Liu Tao began his studies at USC Film and Television Music Composition, and was the first student admitted from Chinese mainland in the more than 20 years since the establishment of the program. The major is famous, and many legendary film composers throughout history have taught here, such as Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein.
Liu Tao said that many of his teachers are famous composers, many of whom have been nominated for Emmys or Academy Awards.
USC has a wide range of courses, from the analysis, conception, and writing of film music, to orchestration and production, to music editing, mixing, score preparation, and even how to communicate with directors, covering almost all aspects of film music.
"At USC, we intuitively learn the creative process and core technologies of Hollywood film music. And these teachers themselves are also full of enthusiasm for music creation, and their enthusiasm has brought a lot of inspiration to my creation, which has given me a deeper understanding of the diversity of musical styles. Liu Tao said.
During his studies in the United States, Liu Tao had the opportunity to meet many world-class composers and ask them for advice in person. There is also the opportunity to go to Hollywood's famous music recording studio and record their own works into audio, and all the big Hollywood musicians who are experienced in recording are playing.
Specialized in film music creation
Several composer films were nominated for Oscars
Liu Tao gave a speech at Pixar Animation
In 2013, after finishing a course at USC, Liu was offered an internship at Hans Zimmer's studio.
Hans Zimmer is a well-known Hollywood film composer who has scored films such as The Lion King, Inception, and Batman Trilogy, and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Music. Since 2011, Liu Tao has won 4 Best Music Awards and 4 Best Music Nomination Awards at important film festivals in China, the United States and Germany.
In recent years, Liu Tao has composed music for many domestic and foreign films and animation works. Among them, the animation "There is a Sky Outside the Sky", the American film "Drifting Away" and the animation "Lian Lizhi" were nominated for the 87th, 90th and 91st Oscars respectively. "Drifting Away" was also shortlisted for the single category of Best Original Music.
In 2017, Liu Tao composed music for the film "No Questions Asked"; in 2018, he brought his work "Lian Lizhi" to give a speech entitled "Chinese-style Animation Music Creation" at Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, respectively.
Liu Tao's earliest participation in the creation of "The Wandering Earth" was at the end of 2017, when it was still full of green screens, and even half of the film was hand-drawn sketches, and Wu Jing had not yet joined.
"Music can only be written with an imagination of the final picture and a passion for science fiction." Seeing the full version of the special effects appear on the screen today, I really felt more shocking than I thought. Liu Tao said that "Let Us Ignite Jupiter" was created in April 2018, when it was called "New Hope" because Liu Cixin once said: "We must have hope, not because hope really exists, but because we want to be noble people." ”
"Seriously do the best you can with any project in front of you." Liu Tao liked this quote from the great contemporary film composer John Williams, and he did the same.