IU Cinema, Jacobs School collaborate for movie score competition

The major collaboration between the Jacobs School of Music and the IU Cinema continues with the “David Copperfield Project,” a contest for the right to compose a score to the 70-minute silent film “David Copperfield.”

Undergraduate Jacobs student Ari Fisher, a composition major with a minor in orchestral conducting, was selected as the winner of the competition, which also yields $6,000 that will gradually be dispersed to him from the cinema.

The film and the score will premiere on Feb. 7, 2012, which coincides with what would have been Dickens’ 200th birthday. The film is the rare 1922 Nordisk version, obtained courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Fisher has had interest in composition since he started improvising his violin at age 7.
“I believe that music is the key element to the magic behind the screen,” Fisher said in a press release. “When I was 15, I experimented with YouTube clips of famous scenes from movies by muting the film and creating my own soundtrack to accompany the clip.”

Jacobs School Chair of the Department of Composition David Dzubay also said in the release that the school thanks Jon Vickers, director of the IU Cinema, who has encourage the collaboration.

“The composition department is thrilled about the possibilities for the future and grateful to Jon Vickers for his support of the creation and presentation of new work at the Cinema,” he said.