You've heard of it before...now see it for yourself:
Pink Floyd's iconic Dark Side of the Moon in sync
with The Wizard of Oz.
Sonic wizardry meets full prism
Technicolor.
Sometime last year I convinced my boss to let us tryout this synchronization project in our planetarium. The Bishop has a deep history of Floyd and so the mission was green lighted. I had heard of the sync for years. Begin playing
Dark Side upon the MGM lion's 3rd roar. Sit back and watch the film and music lineup.
But there is a problem,
Dark Side only plays 42 minutes while
Oz is 102 minutes. What do you do at minute 43? Some suggest playing
Dark Side over again. Some suggest turning to
Wish You Were Here or
Animals. Neither of those were a perfect fit.
And so began my journey down the yellow brick road, each night listening to my Floyd albums with newly tuned ears, listening for stories, emotions, moments which run parallel to the journey of our four screen friends. In the end, I complied a list of songs which sang to me the missing links. I sat down and scripted the sync out to get an idea of timing and jive. IT -WAS - PERFECT. If you play the songs I suggest, with the timed version I suggest, you simply hit PLAY at the 3rd lion roar and watch as the synchronization takes over your world.
The version you see before you debuted at the Bishop Planetarium January 25, 2014. In addition to the amazing technicolor of the film and the sweet sound system of our dome, I also flew the audience around the universe using our state-of-the-art technology. Past planets and moons, dodging asteroids and beyond our own galaxy, it was literally an out of this world experience.
In all honesty, I can take little credit for this added sync. Pairing one of the greatest scripts and cinematography films of all time to one of the best bands to ever create music, pretty straightforward stuff. I felt like the music itself was leading the compilation, I simply had to organize share it with the world. I dedicated this sync experience to my dad, Michael E. Sprague who put the love of Floyd and the night sky in me. And I rededicate now to also my mom, Angela Sprague, for putting the love of Oz in me and always daring me to dream and fly higher and higher...
And so, dear Floyd fans, I welcome you to the Dark Side of Oz...
** Details**
1) I chose to use Spotify as my music player. I pay for the ad-free version and I love it. All of the tracks I used were the digitally remastered versions. For a straightforward Dark Side sync you can use the album for a more legit experience. However, if you want to use the medley I offer, you will need access to many albums back to back.
2) Hit PLAY upon the MGM lion's 3rd roar
3) For fun, you can slide the dvd volume up from time to time to accentuate your favorite movie lines. This is dramatic and snaps viewers back and forth in and out of their timespace. The audience loved it.
3) I've provided you the song titles, album, length of song (in case multiple versions are available) and the movie sync time. For the live performance I needed it to be perfect. Plus I am an anal sob, with the exception of two songs where I was always so mesmerized by the screen I never got a sync count.
3) Yes, I do recycle Brain Damage and Eclipse for the end of the show.
Can you get a better finale ever?
Enjoy, friends.
Check out
pinkfloyd.com for a trip up the vortex of floyd spacetime fun.
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