MySpace a place for friends

June, 2009

As an award winning music producer, film director, and Emmy nominated composer, Craig Stuart Garfinkle's career includes work on feature films, documentaries, multimedia, network television, commercials, stage musicals and albums.

Presently, Craig is exhaling after completing his first project as a director entitled, "30 Premeditated Acts," a feature length documentary chronicling Dane Cook's creative journey which brought him to his "ISolated INcident" TV Special and CD.

The TV special debuted on Comedy Central on May 17th, and the documentary was released May 19th along with Dane's "ISolated INcident" CD.  The CD/DVD combo debuted at 4 on the pop charts!

"I am so glad that Dane entrusted me with such a special film." Craig says. "I got to be a fly on the wall while Dane spent night after night at the Laugh Factory working through this new, very personal material - mining his own tragedies for comedic value."

"And although I have composed music for dozens of documentaries, as both director and producer of this tender, dark and funny film, I earned a renewed respect for all the film makers with whom I have collaborated over the years. Directing is one tough gig!"

But the highlight of the project was being asked to write, compose, edit, and produce a short film as Dane's "warm up act," to be shown to his audience before taking the stage on his "ISolated INcident, Global Thermo Comedy Tour." "What a thrill it was for me to be sitting in Madison Square Garden, watching this movie being presented to 20,000 screaming fans."

The film ends with a two minute Sufi Montage, which you can see by clicking here:  Dane Cook Sufi Montage

His other recent Dane Cook projects include, "Rough Around the Edges, Live from Madison Square Gardens," for which he produced both the CD and the live concert DVD, the songs, "Forward," and "I'll Never Be You," on which Craig produced and played guitars, and the double platinum selling comedy CD,  "Retaliation," which Craig edited and mixed.

"When we were working together on "Retaliation," we had no idea what was to follow. It was just a great hang: Dane, his managers Brian and Barry, and myself, locked up in a room, trying to put together a CD that made us laugh. Looking at where we've come since then I can only say I was blessed to be a part of such a great team!"

"Retaliation" also debuted at 4 on the pop charts, which was the first time a comedy album debuted in the top-ten since Steve Martin's, "Wild and Crazy Guy" in 1979.

Craig is probably best known, however, for his musical contribution to film trailers with partner Simone Benyacar. Some of their recent projects in this genre would include, "J.J. Abrams Star Trek," "Sin City," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Spider-man 3," "Call of Duty II," "Halo II" and countless others. 

In the film and TV world, Craig has recently been creating music for NBC's, "The Office" as well as the score for the film "Ghosts Never Sleep," a "dark dramedy" starring Faye Dunaway and Tony Goldwyn. Also look out for "The Kids Who Saved Summer," a family comedy that features, in addition to Craig's score, four of Craig's songs. The film is presently running on The Disney Channel and Showtime Family.

In the world of multimedia, Craig's music is featured in two just released X-Box / PS2 games. Craig composed the original music for "Baldur's Gate, The Dark Alliance II," and his song, "A Nuclear Blast", is the main menu theme for the Game "Fallout, A Brotherhood of Steel."

"Baldur's Gate" marks Craig's thirteenth journey to "Middle Earth" having started composing for the "Dungeons and Dragons" genre for TSR Inc. in the mid '90s. Other scores in this genre include the TV special "Dragonstrike", and the games "Planescape,a Guide to the Outlands," "Ravenloft, a Light in the Belfry," and "Terror Trax," (among others). He also contributed music (with partner Simone Benyacar) to the trailer for feature film "The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.

Craig has composed for hundreds of network television projects ranging from Disneys "The Little Mermaid (songs)" to NBC's "The Jeff Foxworthy Show." Other television projects presently in production include "Russian Roulette" (theme and music), a game show for Sony/Columbia Tri-Star that is airing on The Game Show Network, and the music library and original music for the Tollin/Robbins production, "The Nick Canon Show".

Other notable television projects include: "Lunatic Theater" (theme and music), a pilot for the Fox Network, written and produced by Jerry Seinfeld, Barry Marder, Alan Marder & Jim Coane, and "Images of Arizona," the latest in the series of Emmy winning documentaries he has scored for Arizona Public Television.

Finally, Craig was part of the composing team (headed by Stephen James Taylor) for Disney's "Raw Toonage", and the sole composer for the KAET/PBS production "Visions of Arizona." Both programs received Emmy nominations for outstanding original score.