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You know what, we learned from each other. It made us all better in that it was competitive. At the time it felt manipulative and crude especially for me coming from a classical world but we did secretly try to impress each other too so ultimately it was a growth experience. I truly loved my time at USC bruises and all. I have one very sweet memory...maybe the first week into class, Austin and I had lunch at a place he introduced me to that became a favorite of mine and I've frequently had lunch there for networking purposes. Our whole class was new to town so didn't know anyone in this big scary town called LA but all shared the same dream. After lunch, we sat in my car for maybe an hour or two listening to each others demo CD and giving kind and supportive feedback like "oh cool, interesting harmonic choice there" or something like that. I loved the fact that he was into space as I was and his earliest demo music was space music which was all he had then plus we were totally geeking out to our mutual love of the greats like Horner, Goldsmith, and Williams. We basically couldn't wait to talk music details and show each other our stuff. Note Zimmer at the time wasn't known for Pirates or the super hero genre stuff but Austin absolutely loved Zimmer's quirky music like As Good as It Gets. These were very nice memories to sit in the car and talk deeply about music for hours with a serious fan. Austin was very young. I believe 22 and was finishing his last year of undergrad while doing the grad program (which is why he studied with Morten since he still had an undergrad degree to finish and the grad program required the completion of undergrad to quality). My time with Morten was limited to a masterclass and I frankly have had more time with John Williams than Morten. I saw him frequently (probably weekly) and we had access to him but frankly, our focus was elsewhere. Austin never doubted himself which was the complete opposite of me and my classical peers who constantly doubted ourselves. Frankly, that wasn't an endearing quality when someone so young was so confident of their talent. In music school, it gets tiring meeting people who believe they are the next Stravinsky. But he did grow up over the years since and I now appreciate what originally frustrated me realizing these are just quirks which anyone has. I think what made me appreciate him much more as a person was his response to the AFA fine. He handled that with grace, courage and conviction and I believe grew from the experience which I think happened when he lost his father to heart failure. I lost my dad to heart failure 17 years ago so found his courage through this endearing. In 2016 we were both nominated for the same major award. I had worked on the music team of a modest video game score but he had worked on a major brand's score (sorry I don't remember what it was!). When they announced his name as a nominee, from the applause it was clear he would win and I was genuinely delighted for him. We are no longer competitors, he has eclipsed me and I am thrilled for his success. Frankly, he deserves it and is much more comfortable in the lime light. He really is a very good guy and most people discovered this sooner than I did. I miss our talks in a car listening to each others stuff and talking about our shared love of music for hours.6 points
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The Eiger Sanction. I need your advice!
Dixon Hill and 2 others reacted to Wojo for a topic
It's out of print. That's why it's so expensive. Your 98 euros aren't going to John Williams or the label. Just some random person who bought and stockpiled an unopened album to make a profit off a willing patsy. You. Download the music and wait for a more affordable album to be sold, and buy that one. It seems you are more enamored with the idea of a legal plastic disc sitting on the shelf to be able to say, "look everyone, I own this plastic disc!" Since that is the case, then you don't need the 98 euros in your pocket. Go ahead and realize that person's investment plans and buy your little plastic disc.3 points -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Chewy and 2 others reacted to Brundlefly for a topic
Of course you never got frustrated. You always stick to your principles. Honestly, you cannot deny that there are complete scores that are much better than the OST. The Lost World is okay on the OST, but the complete score is a perfect listening experience - musically much more balanced, with raising tension and gradually developping motifs and no dilettante edits.3 points -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Holko and 2 others reacted to Pieter Boelen for a topic
The music offers a welcome diversion from all the hustle and bustle. The alternative is not listening to music and instead getting to listen to all the random stuff the other people are chatting about. Indeed I couldn't give the music all my attention in those circumstances, which is why I'll pick some tracks I feel like listening to and just enjoy them. Often I'll kind of doze off in the middle. Suits me just fine.3 points -
Surf and turf2 points
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Minority Report vs. War of the Worlds
Not Mr. Big and one other reacted to Brundlefly for a topic
War of the Worlds: What wonderfull times we had 10 years ago. An edgy Mr. Spielberg wanted to disturb the audience with a Hollywood blockbuster that got rid of the "Hollywood" part in it and converted patriotism flicks like Independance Day into a shockingly realistic drama. A drama-blockbuster-documentary. Like in Schindler's List Steven was stylistically very consequent and here he uses a simple plot and a credible family issue to take the audience's breathe away for almost two hours. The focus lies on the depiction of one simple situation: What would a normal, not very lucky family do if overmighty Aliens wanted to kill us relentlessly to use our planet as their new home? No time for great emotional scenes, thousands of people dying casually, strong acting linked to real life situations. The consistency is very unusual for a Spielberg movie. Many people think they're super clever and consider Spielberg a typical Hollywood director, but they don't get his sense of details and character drawing which is superb in 95% of his movies. WotW is the most underrated Spielberg flick of all time, I would say. The score is truly an amazing requiem-like, mostly dissonant, fresh and thematically unstructured experience, which fits the tone of the film perfectly. This is no epic blockbuster music, this is just uneasy, without any exception, which is great. Minority Report: An outstanding sci-fi film, cool design, one of my favourite movies. I actually voted for this, but I do not have the urge to defend it as much as the other one, cause it's generally very popular. It's also part of the stylistically very mature "Dark Phase" of Spielberg (2001-2005()). Hopefully RPO will be similar to MR's atmosphere. I don't want a copy of MR, but RPO should be similarly adult and occasionally brutal, no BFG. I voted for this. The best example of orchestral music, mixed with modern elements is Williams' score to MR. Very creative (female voice as eerie motif of Anne Lively), partly experimental. Hopefully the master gets back to something like that again. I was hoping for another sci-fi score for RPO, but Williams seems to prefer another drama.2 points -
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But I honestly don't hold it against him. The schedule was awful. He wrote the score in 4 weeks and that's just a damn shame. Whenever Gia works on another SW I think he will hit it out of the park.2 points
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Release the album C&C. Composer gives an alternate tracklist in the booklet for people who think less music is better. Everybody's happy! Don't give me crap about wanting to listen to less music on CD either, nobody actually plays CDs anymore.2 points
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In general, when Williams (and everyone else) composes scores in close proximity to one another, there are various overlaps. I would not call in bizarre.2 points
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Both are pretty much on the same level, I'd say, except that WotW is generally more underrated. I'd say MR for score, WotW for movie (I really like the basement scene!). Discuss!1 point
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Do it! Two reasons: 1) if you are even asking, then you have the money to spare. 2) imagine the horror of others when you tell them you blew $100 on it--feed on their anger and you will grow stronger.1 point
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The box cover? Sure, no problem.1 point
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Needs a bookshelf.1 point
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The Eiger Sanction. I need your advice!
Josh500 reacted to Naïve Old Fart for a topic
Many people buy, and pay for, many different things, for many different prices, and for many different reasons. It's what having TES means to Josh that matters, and not how much the CD costs.1 point -
Soundtracks, Compilations, or other recently purchased Music
thx99 reacted to Koray Savas for a topic
Fancy. Studios should have left a small side space to entice voters with assorted sweets.1 point -
The Eiger Sanction. I need your advice!
Josh500 reacted to Naïve Old Fart for a topic
I agree with everything that Woj says, but...isn't this, in part, what a capatilist society, is built upon - supply and demand? Besides, you're not going to find anyone on eBay wanting to trade their TES CD for three kilos of bananas (!). I've just seen two copies if TES, on Amazon, one for £196, and one for £200, so maybe €98 is a bargain?1 point -
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You get Croc's Seal of Approval today, Mr. High five! Warriors of Virtue Karol1 point
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AOTC & CMIYC
Sharkissimo reacted to Henry Sítrónu for a topic
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JW's Worst OST Decisions
DarthDementous reacted to crumbs for a topic
I'm not all that upset with some of Johnny's microedits, such as Monster Books in Azkaban. Eliminating prolonged silence makes perfect sense for a listening experience. It's just when he starts hacking away at entire bars of music mid-cue that I get frustrated. I Can Fly Anything is a great example; a wonderful cue that builds very nicely in complete form, but was microedited by about a minute on the OST. It starts sounding like a terrible film edit after a while (ie. the film version Quidditich, Third Year). I wish he'd just let his action cues breathe as they're written to.1 point -
I'm 90% sure I have done that exact thing at some point in the past year EDIT: @crumbs I didn't single out that specific moment but I did find this from that thread http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25532-favorite-short-musical-moments-in-williams-scores/&do=findComment&comment=13374091 point
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The Eiger Sanction. I need your advice!
Wojo reacted to Marian Schedenig for a topic
I have it, and you should definitely get it for a high price, because then a new release will certainly happen very soon. (Seriously, I wouldn't pay that much for it, since I'm sure it's bound to come out again sooner or later. Still voted "Yes" because the poll forced me to answer both questions)1 point -
GAME OF THRONES
Arpy reacted to Glóin the Dark for a topic
Yeah, and if you examine the instances of travel scenes that have been included over the seasons, and consider the likely reasons for their inclusion, it becomes fairly clear why there have been fewer of them in the later stages. There were never The Lord of the Rings-style journey montages to convey distance and time. I think that, whenever there were scenes of characters in mid-journey, those scenes were doing one or more of the following jobs: introducing characters or establishing / developing relationships between characters outlining necessary elements of backstory or of the cultural / political situation [These types of jobs were also often done in non-travel scenes too, of course, but in many circumstances it was convenient or necessary to do them while people were on the road. Let's call this trexposition.] keeping characters in the picture (when there were extended periods between the key stages of their storylines) providing the occasion for some story-changing event (e.g. practically all scenes at the Crossroads Inn!). It stands to reason that the need for trexposition should diminish over the course of the series, and the third function should also become redundant as the story moves into its final stages. So when people say that the show used to be more careful about conveying time and distance, I'd say that that is flat-out wrong (in view of the counter-examples I mentioned earlier, and many more that I didn't); instead, any such sense of scale was a fortuitous by-product of scenes that were incorporated for these more specific reasons. As you said, the inclusion of these scenes in some storylines in earlier seasons probably helped to imbue the whole story with a greater sense of scale, and this is something which is no longer being done to the same degree. All the same, I think it's incumbent upon the people who care at all about this sort of thing (I'd guess most casual viewers are pretty much oblivious to it; those that I know certainly are) to ask whether there are actual incongruities in the show's timeline before decrying them. One thing that seemed dubious to me was Cersei asking Tycho Nestoris (Iron Bank Man) to hang around for fortnight for his guarantee of payment, which was presumably supposed to come from the looting of Highgarden. Jaime was still in King's Landing when that conversation happened. Is it within the bounds of reasonable credibility that he could get to Highgarden, conduct the siege, gather his winnings, and transport it back to the capital all within two weeks? Even if news of the victory would be enough to satisfy Tycho, a fortnight still feels like a hugely ambitious span of time...1 point -
The Official Pop and Rock Music thread
Koray Savas reacted to Disco Stu for a topic
One of my absolute favorite covers of a Bob Dylan song is "Love Minus Zero" by The Walker Brothers. It's squarely in that mid-60s era when every pop group was covering Dylan, but it's got a really nice arrangement. Neither are my favorites but I love both a lot! Perhaps controversially I much prefer Real Gone. I've always thought Bone Machine was a tad overrated as one of his most celebrated albums by the wider music industry. "Hoist That Rag" is a goddamn barn burner.1 point -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Manakin Skywalker reacted to Arpy for a topic
The thing is though, there's never a guarantee of an archival edition. People are then forced to wait decades hoping for a complete release, by which time enthusiasm and demand have dropped. Only blockbusters and cult classics stand a chance! I'd rather have the chance to have it all to work out what I don't want than to face years waiting for something that might never come. Sometimes it's not about having every second, but one cue that was omitted for a better listening experience.1 point -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Pieter Boelen reacted to crumbs for a topic
The jump from Children in Chains to Short Round Escapes is very jarring, not least because it skips ahead about fifteen minutes of the film in one track. The score really needs to catch its breath here before it heads back into all the action cues, which are non-stop until the finale! Even one of Moloram's Speech, The Evil Potion or Willy in the Fryer would've helped a lot here. The Rope Bridge is important for the same reason; its build up is essential for Broken Bridge to be as effective as it is. Sadly they omitted that too.1 point -
Minority Report vs. War of the Worlds
Not Mr. Big reacted to #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal for a topic
It is all the rage at the moment!1 point -
Fun score, that one. Great energy.1 point
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Just watched the film and was like, 'hmm the film's name sounds familiar...why?' Then I discovered it was because Howard Shore did the score! Some interesting jazz rhythms that remind me of cues like 'In the Trailer' from The Lost World.1 point
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They should bring him back for Discovery Make him a human who gets taken in by the Continuum who offer to make him immortal? I dunno that sounds like bad fan fiction now!1 point
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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)
Koray Savas reacted to James for a topic
Desplat's Moonrise Kingdom. It's a beautiful, affable, curious and enlightened score.1 point -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Pieter Boelen reacted to Naïve Old Fart for a topic
Oh, yes, he is! Otherwise, how are you ever going to get to know your god? I question my god every single day. Blind faith is never an option.1 point -
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Well they covered the other 7 scores and did one episode on Rogue One. Would've been nice if they moved on to other JW scores but guess not. Hopefully they come back for The Last Jedi! It's been 8 months since their last episode.1 point
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No, Austin's first year in LA was after JG died plus JG taught at USC in the early 90's. Beltrami studied with him and said it was unpleasant. JG is more composer than teacher and had little time for building someone up. But Austin was an avid fan who knew the composer's works inside and out so in a way studied it thoroughly the way some of us are well versed with JW without having been taught by him...we've absorbed his vocabulary and hopefully made it our own. Austin was very passionate about JG. I think that is not dissimilar to how JG did that with Herrmann when he was getting his start. We were classmates at USC and I will confess I appreciate his talent and the person he has become much more now than I did then. He had obvious talent but it was a competitive environment. I am delighted by the success and adoration he has received and it is well deserved.1 point
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Such a shame this film is doing so poorly at the box office. Definitely the best big release of this summer. Karol1 point
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JW's Worst OST Decisions
Pieter Boelen reacted to Arpy for a topic
I usually listen to music on-the-go, so I often will just choose whichever cue I fancy or feel like on that particular day, often from wildly different films, shows and genre's. It's like creating a playlist every time out. Other times it really is about trying to get through The Two Towers, or The Force Awakens as far as I can go before I have a change in mood or just want excitement after ten minutes of underscore. I don't think this has any bearing on how I watch the films and shows the music comes from. If I invest time to watch a film all the way through, that's what I'll do. Couldn't you derive a particular mood or an emotional response from a cue that resonates you that has nothing to do with the film's narrative at all?1 point -
JW's Worst OST Decisions
Manakin Skywalker reacted to Pieter Boelen for a topic
Good album to start with too! Even though I don't often listen to full albums, that's one I've done it with several times.1 point -
The most recent one that sticks out to me is the album version of "I Can Fly Anything" from The Force Awakens. The film version as heard on the FYC site has such a solid structure and I think it's a great cue. It's a shame to me that the album version cuts so much out. There are also the frequently mentioned microedits at the end of "Anakin's Dark Deeds" that drive me and so many others nuts. I don't know why he felt the need to pare down those fanfares. I also wish the album of Revenge of the Sith had featured the film version of the end credits and used the extra space for something like "I Am the Senate" or the full version of the cue that underscores Anakin's nightmare at the beginning of the film (I forget how the track is labeled on the album). It also annoys me that the first two prequel albums don't follow the main title with the first underscore of the film, because in both cases it's quite interesting and effective music that's a little buried in the mix.1 point
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They should just get with the times and live-stream the scoring sessions!1 point
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Please keep the dick pics to yourself.
Not Mr. Big reacted to Sharkissimo for a status update
Please keep the dick pics to yourself. Thanks.1 point