Fruit Fly on facebook Fruit Fly on IMDb Fruit Fly on Netflix
Fruit Fly on facebook Fruit Fly on IMDb Fruit Fly on Netflix
“Like the original Colma: The Musical concept album, Elsewhere was written as a gift for Mendoza’s partner, Mark Del Lima, known for his odd mixtapes and offbeat playlists. Mendoza tried to mimic the patterns, themes, and sounds of his mixtapes and playlists and wrote fourteen songs that follow the general arc of a Mark Del Lima mix. The album marks a temporary departure for Mendoza’s music having virtually no lyrics and sounding as if it were recorded in various eras to evoke a sense of nostalgia. Elsewhere was released on December 21, 2009.”
SO, those are the words from Wikipedia. First, I’ll say right off the bat that this album is not like the previous albums, nor is it like Colma, nor Fruit Fly. The album is based on nostalgia. Admittedly, it’s the kind of audio nostalgia that’s very specific to people in their mid to late thirties, but that’s okay. It’s the sound of 16mm educational films from the 70’s, speculation video tapes from the 80’s, video games before the 32-bit revolution and a little movie score, just for fun.
From October of 2008 to October of 2009, Mark has been trying to get me to publish Elsewhere. I told him that I didn’t want to make a habit out of making gifts and then selling them (*cough* Colma *cough*) but he sold me. Now, it’s available on iTunes and Amazon.com.
]]>
I really wish I can say more than “I am developing a non-musical ensemble comedy about California’s Proposition 8.”
Often, people will ask me, “What are you working on next?” to which I respond with “an ensemble comedy about Prop 8.”
“Oh, cool! A musical about Prop 8!”
“No, that’s been done. This is a non-musical.”
It’s always around that point when they lose interest, which is why I make sure to say “non-musical”, now. I know I probably shot myself in the foot by doing two musicals in a row, but I think that Clockwise is going to kick ass, but I’m keeping my mouth shut for a while. In the meantime, here are a bunch of videos to whet your appetite.
“After writing a concept album called “Colma: The Musical” as a birthday present for his childhood friend, he reunited with film school classmate Richard Wong, who had just finished working on the television show, Arrested Development and was looking for a script to direct. When Wong listened to a track from Mendoza’s concept album, he asked Mendoza how long it would take to turn it into a script. After seven days, a first draft was born, Mendoza flew from Philadelphia to San Francisco and the plans were set in motion. After 18 days of shooting and several months of editing, a feature film was made for a budget of roughly $15,000. The film, called “an itty-bitty movie with a great big heart” by The New York Times went on to win three Special Jury Prizes on the film festival circuit and was acquired by Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate Entertainment.”
It was exciting to experience a number of things during the distribution process of Colma: The Musical.
1) Hearing the Moviefone guy say “You have selected Colma: The Musical – RATED R!”
2) Seeing the trailer for Colma playing in 35mm before another film.
3) Getting the DVD and seeing the Lionsgate logo before the film.
If you get a chance to see the DVD, listen to the commentary so you can hear me and Rich talking about the good old days when we were just shooting a simple script I wrote about friends parting ways. There’s a glum tone to the commentary whenever we broach that topic.
Or, if you have any questions, ask me here. 
OPTION 3, A dream-logic thriller by Richard Wong
I wrote an early draft of the script for director Richard Wong and the Center for Asian American Media before he shot this in 2007. The film premiered in 2008 at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and won me and Rich a Techincal Achievement Award at the VC Los Angeles Asian Film Festival.
I also edited and scored the film, paying homage to Ennio Morricone, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Angelo Badalamenti and 16-bit video games and wrote the musical number performed by Preston Conner. The studio version, which plays over the end credits, can be heard here:
ELYSIUM (EMILY, I’M IN YOUR WAKE) – Performed by H.P. Mendoza
The piece is a trio between the functions of music, noise, and semantic meaning, wherein each function can mingle with the others, lose itself in reveries (under fields of motive force that assert themselves with varying degrees of insistence), or, when necessary, take a solo.
Conversation Storm sees three friends from three sides of the political spectrum unwillingly argue their way through a “ticking time bomb” scenario, dissecting, revising, and even brutalizing their own positions in the process — but time has either stopped or entered an ugly loop, and as the friends assign and reassign roles, the scenario begins to dissolve the boundaries between real and hypothetical, past and future, day and night.
In 2007, Mendoza was working for the San Francisco Fringe Festival and was able to see a performance of The Nonsense Company’s Great Hymn of Thanksgiving/Conversation Storm and was determined to meet the troupe. In 2008, Mendoza gave his voice to Great Hymn playwright Rick Burkhardt for his award-winning composition “Calf”, performed by the ensemble Ascolta and decided to ask Burkhardt if he would be interested in making a film version of Great Hymn of Thanksgiving/Conversation Storm, called “a delicious two-course evening” by Time Out New York.
The film is currently in post-production and is due for festival submissions in 2010.
]]>
I’m Yours Lobby Poster
After seeing Precarious Theater’s production of Chemical Imbalance, I jumped at the chance to work with writer/director Matthew Graham Smith who had asked me to write a couple of songs for his new play, Cardenio.
Cardenio, being a brisk play based on a single chapter in Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, asked for more than one song and ended up becoming a musical. It was even renamed I’m Yours! (or Deranged by Love).
The cast consisted of five actors playing multiple roles and genders over the course of two hours. Christian Cagigal, (”Gaz Howard”, Fruit Fly) was showcased doing three roles, one requiring a singing voice.
I’ve included two of the songs from the musical here:
I AM COLD (MY APOLOGIES) – Performed by Erin Carter and Hannah Knapp
LUSCINDA (PT. 2) – Reference vocal by H.P. Mendoza
Movie Poster
I recently finished scoring the latest film from Robert O’Geen and Tim Bland, A Lower Power, a sex comedy shot in San Francisco. The film stars Matthew Lotto, Terri J. Freedman (Night Fliers) and Gigi Guizado (Colma: The Musical).
When writer Tim Bland made his early cameo appearance in my film, Fruit Fly, he asked me if I would be willing to write a song or two for his new film. After post-production on Fruit Fly finished, I ended up not only writing “one or two songs”, but an entire score.
Here is one of the songs I wrote and performed for the film:
HURT (YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE)
I was shocked to find out from our producer, Don Young, that LaLa was getting great reviews and that people were trying to find it online.
L.A. Renigen and I are about to talk about the future of this series and whether or not our stomachs can handle another non-stop eating session.
In the meantime, I’m gathering all of the episodes of season one and will put them up here in January.
under construction.
Until January, here’s a taste of LaLa:
I wrote a new piece called “Autumn” that will be used in Julia Kwan’s new short film, Blossom that will be screened as part of the Olympics in 2010.
Here is a piece of the song:
AUTUMN (pt. 3)