Local Musician's Band Chosen For Movie Role
Posted in: Falmouth News, Front Page Stories
By Christopher Kazarian
June 24, 2008
Last June, David B. McTiernan, 19, stood up on stage at the Falmouth High School graduation as the president of his senior class and compared life to a movie, stressing that we are all stars in our own narratives.
Less than a year later, that analogy is starting to become reality as David and friends have been cast in a major motion picture set to be released later this year.
David is enrolled at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University. His parents are Paul J. and Judith M. McTiernan of Stephen P. Wentworth Road in North Falmouth.
In May, David performed in a bar in Brooklyn with four other members of The Middle Eight, an indie rock pop band, playing “Love; Pass It On” in front of more than 75 extras.
David and his band were chosen, somewhat by chance, to perform in a scene in the romantic comedy “The Rebound,” directed by Bart Freundlich and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha, who has starred in The National Treasure film series. The movie is expected to be out in theaters next year.
In addition to appearing in the film, The Middle Eight is set to have two songs on the film’s soundtrack—“Love; Pass It On” and “Not I.”
David said there is a possibility that “Love; Pass It On” will be featured in the trailer for the movie and the band might play at the movie premieres in New York City and Los Angeles.
In November, David was introduced to members of The Middle Eight by a college professor and has been in the band since then as its keyboardist, practicing weekly and playing in nearly a dozen shows, mostly at smaller clubs in the city such as Sullivan Hall and Rockwood Music Hall before audiences of 50 to 100 people.
Beside David, the band comprises musicians mostly from the city and all out of college, including Jason Olshan, the lead singer and guitarist. He is one of the driving forces behind The Middle Eight’s brush with fame in “The Rebound.”
Mr. Olshan teaches guitar lessons to Caleb Freundlich, who is the son of Bart Freundlich and his wife, actress Julianne Moore. It is through that relationship that The Middle Eight was chosen to perform in the movie.
The Middle Eight spent an entire day shooting in the Brooklyn club in early May. In the scene, David said, his band is performing and everyone is having a great time except for Mr. Bartha’s character, Aram Finkelstein.
“He is there with his friend, who is trying to introduce him to women,” Mr. McTiernan explained. “He is having a rough time with the dating scene, so that is why he is at the club.”
Filming lasted roughly eight hours, David said, and “it was unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” A track of their two songs was played back on set as The Middle Eight primarily lip-synced the majority of the time, he said, so they would not interfere with the dialogue.
They did have a chance to perform their two songs, David said, for over an hour as the director filmed shots of the band from several different angles, including close-ups and over the shoulder shots.
One of the highlights of the experience for David was the interaction that The Middle Eight had with the roughly 75 extras in the scene. At first, he said, “they were asking whether we were a real band or actors hired to play a movie band.”
After a few hours, he said, the extras had no question that they were an actual band. “They knew all the words to our songs,” he said. “They were singing along to the words and they were really enthusiastic about our music. They had to act like they liked us, but in actuality they did like the songs.”
A week later many of those extras and some of the crew members showed up for The Middle Eight’s performance at the Bowery Poetry Club in Greenwich Village.
Because they were actually performing in the scene, David and his bandmates were paid a day player rate, meaning they are now eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild of America.
While “it is cool to say I am eligible to join the union,” David said, he will probably defer that decision to a later date. He admitted he has one main passion: music.
A longtime musician, he has been playing since the age of 4, performing in Cape establishments as part of the Turner Avenue Quintet, a jazz and funk band that primarily does cover songs. He also was a member of the Falmouth High School Band.
The Turner Avenue Quintet is still in existence and will be playing several shows this summer. They will be the band for the Woods Hole Theater Company’s performance of “The Rocky Horror Music Show” in August. David is the musical director for the play.
Despite his brush with fame, David appears to have his feet firmly planted in the ground. He said he would have a tough time leaving school even if The Middle Eight were to gain national recognition as a result of this movie, although he would consider touring, depending on the timing and circumstances.
“I can’t picture myself leaving NYU,” he said. “The school I am in, the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, is exactly where I want to be.”
Studying music production, he said, the classes are intensive, focusing on performance, production and business management. He hopes to one day own a recording studio or record label, while continuing to perform, whether on the side or as career. “My family and friends have been enthusiastic about this, joking that I am actually famous,” he said. “But I don’t feel like I am trying to get famous. I am in school trying to get an education in what I love doing... I feel very privileged to be where I am.”
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