The College of Charleston Orchestra, led by Yuriy Bekker, performed the score for Pencil Point, a South Carolina Film Commission Indie Award-winning short animated film that will debut at the Beaufort Film Festival, held February 15-17, 2013. Bekker is a faculty member in the School of the Arts as well as the concertmaster and acting artistic director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
The score’s composer, Charleston-based Ayala Asherov-Kalus, describes it as evoking two moods of the orchestra. “I wanted to write a ‘tone poem’ which is a piece of music with a narrative. I tried to use all colors of the orchestra,” she says. “In certain sections it’s big and vivacious, a full orchestral sound, while in others it’s more intimate and chamber-like.”
Asherov-Kalus, an Israeli-born composer and singer/songwriter conceived the idea for a film whose story is revealed without dialogue through originally-composed music played by an orchestra and a variety of animation styles. Asherov-Kalus is known throughout Israel for her song “Along the Sea” (Le’ Orech Ha Yam), which is one of Israel’s most recorded songs. She has written scores for The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel and National Geographic, as well as for many exhibits and documentaries, including the “Carolina Stories” series on SCETV. Her songs are recorded by many well-known Israeli artists.
“Pencil Point” tells the story of two artists, a musician and a painter, each working alone, who chance to meet. The film explores how collaboration can inspire and influence their respective arts. “It’s about collaboration between artists in two disciplines and how each benefits the other,” says Asherov-Kalus. “It explores what can result if we connect and try to inspire each other.”
The film will also be screened at the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia and the Charleston International Film Festival, both in April.
For more information about the movie, please visit www.pencilpoint.net.
