Love-eight relationship!
Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:25:00 BST
Lecturer Paul Lunn’s ode to an octopus goes global and is theme to a major new film
Pictured in action Paul the psychic octopus
AFTER an unlikely chain of events, a quirky piece of music written, performed and recorded by a University of Huddersfield lecturer is the theme song for a major new documentary about the world’s most famous octopus...
Paul Lunn (pictured) lectures in music technology at the University, and is also a multi-instrumentalist and singer who has released recordings of self-penned songs with his band Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones.
One of the songs, written about four years ago, was named ‘Octopus, I Love You’.
“I just like octopuses really. I think they’re rather beautiful creatures!” explained Paul.
The recording on which the octopus song appeared became a favourite of a scuba diver in New Zealand. One day he was filming an octopus that grabbed his camera, which kept on recording as the creature swam off. The camera was retrieved and the weird close-ups of the octopus were used for a short film that became a global YouTube sensation, with almost 4.5 million views so far – see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DyBkYKqnM.
Naturally, Paul Lunn’s offbeat octopus anthem was used for the soundtrack of the clip, so that it became well known around the world. For example, it was featured in a game produced by students at DePaul University in Chicago (see http://www.octodadgame.com/octodad/about/)
And the song came to the ears of documentary makers Alexandre O. Philippe and Robert Muratore, who had already scored a hit with their movie named ‘The People vs George Lucas’.
Now they planned a bizarre biopic of the octopus that seemed to possess uncanny powers of prediction during the 2010 World Cup, when it correctly identified the winners of a succession of matches, including the final, by selecting mussels in tiny boxes identified with the national flags of teams.
Paul the Octopus – who dwelt in a German aquarium – died later in 2010. But his fame will live on thanks to the new documentary named ‘The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus’ that has been produced in both TV and cinema versions. It receives premieres in June and July at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Munich FilmFest, where it will have a special July 1 screening hours before the European Cup Final.
The makers of the documentary describe it as a quirky biopic that explores celebrity mania, probes the science of probability and investigates the realm of the supernatural.
It also means more global exposure for Huddersfield lecturer Paul Lunn’s song. He first sees the finished film at the Sheffield screening. Not only is his ‘Octopus, I Love You’ used for the opening credits, but a music video that he made to accompany the number is incorporated into the documentary. Also, the song will figure in a compilation album of music from the movie.
- A trailer for ‘The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus’ can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkZsUF3LJMc.
Print This Page