Composer/Filmmaker Alexander Tovar: I came into filmmaking almost by accident. I’m a composer and trained in music and I didn’t have any particular interest in the mechanics of filmmaking. I began music lessons pretty early on with trumpet and piano. I studied music all the way through junior high and high school and became more and became more aware of how music became such a big part in films (watch the video here on Youtube).
Listen to Alexander’s music here on Soundcloud
Listen to Alexander’s music here on Soundcloud
More about Alexander Tovar’s work here for one of his films SHOW BUSINESS…
Los Angeles, CA – Well & Good Productions is proud to announce Alexander Tovar’s second film. SHOW BUSINESS, a screwball comedy starring the writer and director, Amelia Meyers, Robert Maffia, Jillian Johnston, Andrew Hawkes, and Rob Herring, and produced by Bonnie Hargett.
SHOW BUSINESS follows screenwriter Guy Franklin as he moves from NYC to LA with his fiancé. Hollywood producer Darvey Brillstein offers Guy a lucrative deal to adapt a kid’s book. Finding the work on the screenplay tedious, Guy becomes depressed with the project and his life and questions his mediocrity and the price for success.
Alexander Tovar wears many hats in this film (starring, writing, directing, editing, and composing), much like he did in his previous smash hit, “Nothing in Los Angeles,” a romantic comedy-drama that explores relationships in Los Angeles.
SHOW BUSINESS has the biting satire of The Larry Sanders show, the subtle humor and darkness of Barton Fink, and a melodic jazz score in the style of Michel Legrand.
Genre: Screwball/Romantic Comedy
Cast: Alexander Tovar, Amelia Meyers, Robert Maffia, Jillian Johnston, Andrew Hawkes, Rob Herring
DP: Danny Belinkie
Producer: Bonnie Hargett
Executive Producer: Armand Hargett
Year of production: 2015
Running time: 84 minutes
“Thanks to the clever dialogue and general attitude of the picture, Show Business ends up being too enjoyable to put down for how effective it is at completely nailing the style. It also tells a fun and complete story that would feel personal if it was not so rooted in fantasy. For a little film about a little writer trying to make it big, there is enough to admire.”
-Aaron Neuwirth (Newport Beach Film Festival 2016 Review)
“It’s an arch, stylized skewering of Hollywood and anyone who aspires to be a part of it.”
– Jennifer Levin (Santa Fe New Mexican, Santa Fe Film Festival, 2015 Review)
Alexander Tovar was born in 1984 in Los Angeles to a musical family. By age 10, he had written his first opera and soon began formal training in piano, trumpet, and guitar.
He attended Alexander Hamilton High School playing trumpet in the prestigious jazz. band. By his senior year he had written a piece for full orchestra,which caught the attention of Robert Kraft, the current president of Fox Music. Mr. Kraft introduced Alexander to Philip Glass, who asked him to come work for him in New York City.
Fresh out of high school, Alexander moved to New York City to work for Philip Glass and Nico Muhly. Later, he returned to Los Angeles studying philosophy at PCC and then transferring to the University of Southern California getting his B.M. in music composition.. In college, his piece, Eudaemonia, was selected on the New Music for Orchestra concert, conducted by Donald Crockett and broadcasted live on 91.5 KUSC..
After college, Alexander wrote a piece for Gustavo Dudamel that was performed live in front of Disney Hall as part of the inaugural gala event welcoming the Maestro to Los Angeles.
In 2010, Alexander starting working for Van Dyke Parks. They worked on an Elton John and Leon Russell album, entitled, The Union produced by T-Bone Burnett. In 2010, Tovar’s original score to the Crown Prince of Heaven premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Tovar began writing his first play, a musical farce entitled Mr. Genius. He then began writing, directing, editing, acting, and scoring his own films. The first one, Nothing in Los Angeles (2013), a love letter to Los Angeles, was shot on a shoe string budget (produced by Armand Hargett) and went on to premiere at many important festivals including Cinequest. The next year he wrote, directed, acted, and scored his second film, Show Business (2015); a screwball romantic comedy that premiered at many notable festivals including the prestigious Newport Beach Festival (produced by Bonnie Hargett). He won best score for Show Business at the Milano International Film Festival Awards.
In 2016, Tovar acted in The Relationtrip, which premiered at 2017 SXSW Film Festival.
Alexander has continued to put out new albums and new screenplays. His newest, Hollywood Music, was recently released on iTunes and Amazon.
CONNECT WITH SHOW BUSINESS MOVIE:
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Available now on Vimeo here
Lazar works as a ‘decoy’ or ‘bait’ who distracts the police and oversees the transfer of illegal immigrants across the border with the EU. Intelligent and discreet, he lives under the patronage of a local mobster and is able to support his family with the money he makes from trafficking. He falls in love with a young student, a stranger to his world, and contemplates changing his life. One night, his brother Toni is responsible for the drowning of one of the immigrants. Lazar is called to help and is faced with an impossible decision.
Available now on Google Play here
The Cyclotron is a thriller that takes place at the end of the Second World War. Simone, a spy working for the Allies, is entrusted with the mission to find and execute Emil, a scrupulous Berlin scientist who discovered before the Americans the way to build an atomic bomb, and is fleeing with his secret. Simone finds him on a night train speeding towards Switzerland. German soldiers, led by König, a German scientist, who want to arrest Emil and make him talk before he leaves the country, are also chasing him. Things get complicated when memories of love and quantum mechanics get intertwined in the pursuit.
Available June 15, 2017 on Vimeo here
BNB Hell tells the story of a young woman’s hunt for her missing sister ends at a rundown bed and breakfast in the Hollywood Hills run by an ill-tempered woman called Mommy. Disturbing messages left by former guests suggest unsettling secrets lay buried there.
Show Business is an American comedy that follows screenwriter Guy Franklin as he moves from NYC to LA with his fiancé. It should be a great gig but Guy soon realizes that being in Show Business and balancing his life love is easier said than done – a movie by Composer/Filmmaker Alexander Tovar
