Matt Schrader is an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing and directing '' Score: A Film Music Documentary'' (2016) and creating the biopic podcast series

Blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

. He's credited with Emmy Award-winning investigative journalism for CBS News and

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. He has been nominated for various awards, including three Emmy Awards. ''Score: A Film Music Documentary'' received an overwhelmingly positive reception and was one of 170 films considered for the 2018

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

. The film won eight awards at film festivals and made $101,382 at the US box office before being released as the #1 documentary on iTunes for four weeks straight. Schrader is executive producer of the weekly ''Score: The Podcast'', which interviews leading composers in Hollywood about their craft.

Early life and education

Schrader was born in Burbank, California, in 1988, the son of accountant Brad Schrader and former news producer Diane Bear. He grew up in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

, and

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

before returning to Southern California to attend the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, where he earned degrees from both the

School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Career

After graduating, Schrader accepted a job as an investigative news producer for CBS News in Sacramento and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

where he won three Emmy Awards for his reports and a

Golden Mike Award The Golden Mike Award is a broadcast journalism award presented by the Radio and Television News Association (RTNA) of Southern California. Awards are given in the categories of television news and radio news. Eligibility is limited to a select gr ...

for editing, before leaving in 2014 to pursue principal photography for '' Score: A Film Music Documentary''. Schrader says he spent $11,000 of his own savings to purchase the original camera equipment for ''Score'', before launching a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that raised over $120,000 for the film’s production. Distributor

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...

acquired Score in January 2017 and released it theatrically June 16, 2017. The film earned $101,382 at the US box office and became the #1 documentary on iTunes for four consecutive weeks. After the release of Score, Schrader created the original podcast drama series

, which premiered to overwhelmingly positive reviews on April 16, 2019. It is currently rated 4.7 out of 5.0 stars on

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 200 ...

Filmography

* ''Score: A Film Music Documentary'' (2016)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schrader, Matt 1988 births Living people American filmmakers USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni