The music Indy runs on
John Williams to premiere film score at Pops
Ready for a new round of Indy music? Film composer John Williams will be in town this week to reunite with his old friends the Boston Pops, and he'll be premiering selections from his soundtrack to the new "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which opens in Boston on Thursday.
Williams is laureate conductor of the Pops and a longtime collaborator with Steven Spielberg, director of the "Indiana Jones" series. He will conduct Film Night performances at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. On tap is memorable movie music including Williams's work from the "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" series.
Actress Lynn Redgrave will join in each night to narrate what's being called the "Harry Potter Grande Suite."
The program will include a tribute to David Lean, the visionary director behind "Doctor Zhivago," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Oliver Twist." Film clips will be featured along with music.
The Pops' Film Nights events are typically evenings of good fun. Two years ago, when Williams led a similar event, "a roar of welcome from a sold-out Symphony Hall" greeted him when he took the stage, wrote Globe reviewer Richard Dyer. "Thirty years on, the special effects in the early 'Star Wars' films are beginning to look a little cheesy, but the music is still stirring," Dyer wrote.
Williams, now 76, was conductor of the Pops from 1980 to 1993. According to industry reports, he remains a busy man, with soundtracks for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Jurassic Park IV," and "Superman: Man of Steel" all scheduled for his touch.
Performances will be at Boston Symphony Hall. Ticket information is available from 617-266-1492 and bostonpops.org.
SAVE THE DATE: A one-day session of workshops and panels about the art and business of filmmaking will be held May 30. The event, sponsored by the Filmmakers Collaborative, will be at Bentley College in Waltham. The public is invited to attend.
Session topics include how to turn indie filmmaker skills into paying jobs in the Massachusetts motion-picture industry, how to finance documentaries, and 10 steps for perfecting your pitch. There will be free 15-minute one-on-one consultations with experts (first come first served), a trade show, and a catered lunch.
Industry guests will include Ellen Stanley, vice president of communications for National Geographic Ventures, the Society subsidiary that includes National Geographic Films; Cynthia López, vice president for American Documentary/P.O.V.; and Suzanne Lyons, producer and co-founder of Snowfall Films, a California company that has produced or executive produced eight movies.
Registration information is online at filmmakerscollab.org.
LOCAL WINNERS: Congratulations to director Eric Tollar and the production team of Rosalind Fraser, Corinne Mesa, Brad Allen Wilde, Drew Cooksen, and Jacob Frank, students from Emerson College whose short film "The Street Crusade" won the social justice category at the national Campus MovieFest competition. The short is about what it takes to get out of gang life.
The grand prize award is sponsored by The Elfenworks Foundation and includes a grant of $10,000.
The movie will also be shown on Virgin Airlines flights this summer and is online at campusmoviefest.com.
SCREENINGS OF NOTE: Two feature-length Japanese anime-related films are coming to the area. "Death Note" is a live-action film based on Tsugumi Ohba's manga comic book series. It plays on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at selected theaters in Framingham, Lowell, Randolph, Revere, and Marlborough, and is dubbed in English.
The same distributors are giving "Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody" its US debut on June 21 and 22. The movie is an animated film based on Tite Kubo's manga series "Bleach," a Japanese comic that appears in the US magazine Shonen Jump.
Venue and ticket information is available at fathomevents.com. You can enter your ZIP code to find the closest participating theater.
Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com. 