Alfonso Tenreiro considers himself a fan of movies, so when he heard about the local film company Two Sherpas, he sent founders Christopher and Laurie Morgan an email.
"I said, 'I'm a composer. Can we meet to see if you like my music? I would be excited to write music for one of your films,' " said Tenreiro.
Christopher Morgan happened to be looking for a composer for a short film, so he met Tenreiro at the Starbucks in South Ogden.
Morgan's film, with music by Tenreiro, is one of several from the Foursite Film Festival to be screened during the Ogden Arts Festival next weekend.
"Adler's Bus Stop" starts at 2:30 p.m. June 11 in the Old Timers Room at Union Station. Admission is free.
The film is a seven-minute story about an older man attempting to visit his dying wife in the hospital.
"He ends up sitting down at a bus stop and, rather innocently, people start coming up and talking to him, questioning what he's doing there," said Morgan, of Mountain Green.
The movie explores the difficulties faced by people who serve as caregivers for loved ones.
"Sometimes they take care of loved ones with a compassion that, in many ways, is not returned," Morgan said. "I wanted to write a simple story that captures the emotion of that."
"Adler's Bus Stop" was filmed in Salt Lake City, with Richard Scharine in the lead role. Scharine is professor emeritus in the University of Utah's theater department. Other major roles were filled by Utahns Lillith Fields and Kylie Saxton.
Finding local actors wasn't a problem. Finding a bus stop bench was.
"We could never get anybody's approval to use one," said Morgan. "The day prior to shooting, I went down to the Salt Lake Community College campus and I was talking to a friend of mine, asking if I could take a bench from campus."
He wound up stealing a bench, planning to return it after filming.
"It was a two-day shoot, but we were only able to shoot with the bench for about five hours," Morgan said. "We got a call from campus police."
The bench had been missed.
"Unfortunately, there was a blind student who uses it as a geographic reference to get around campus," he said. "We felt like total heels."
The movie was finished with actors sitting on chairs.
"Adler's Bus Stop" took the best film award at the RE:Image Film Festival in New Jersey. The production was also a selection of the Park City Film Music Festival, which focuses on excellence in movie music.
The music
Tenreiro's first attempt at the score wasn't what Morgan had in mind.
"I would play things on the piano over the phone and ask, 'Is this what you'd like?' " Tenreiro said. He also e-mailed music samples.
Once he understood what Morgan wanted, his goal was to express the character's emotions.
He wrote passages to fit the movement and urgency of the main character, as well as his love for his wife.
"Especially when he was talking about his wife ... I wanted to make sure the music was deep and heartfelt," said Tenreiro.
Overall, the composer says he tried to make the music's nuances express the "loving pain" of the characters' situation.
"There is pain," he said, "but there's also a beauty, and an inner peace you have when you're taking care of someone you love."
The composer
Tenreiro grew up in Venezuela, with a love of music. At about age 6, as he was serving detention after school, he heard loud music.
"I remember going crazy," Tenreiro said, adding that he and his mother followed the sound to an organ class. "They were playing 'Love Story' -- I'll never forget it. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I need to take organ lessons.' "
The teacher tested him and found he had an aptitude for music, but would have to wait until he could reach the foot pedals. After daily begging, the teacher let him get started.
He attended high school at Indiana's Marmion Academy, which Tenreiro describes as a Catholic military boarding school run by Benedictine monks.
"I would spend all my free time at the organ at the abbey," he said.
He earned a degree in composition at Indiana University, then took a job as organist and music director for a Catholic church in Evansville, Ind. He moved to Utah in 1998, and became the music director for St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Layton, and at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School and St. Joseph Catholic High School in Ogden.
In 1999 he received a commission from the Utah Arts Festival; his work "Mountain Echoes" was premiered by the Utah Symphony. "Concertino for Harp and Strings," which he wrote in college, will be performed this year by the Utah Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra (at 8:15 p.m. June 23 at the Salt Lake City festival).
Tenreiro plans to continue writing music, and he's likely to compose for more movies.
"I was very, extremely pleased with his wonderful work," Morgan said of Tenreiro. "Right now, I'm in the process of trying to write a feature film, and I hope to work with him again."