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According to Chris Malone: SW 93 Anthology: "For the first time Star Wars utilised the actual film mixes, prepared by Eric Tomlinson, sourced from two-track tapes that contained each take recorded for every cue" **SW 97 SE: "At this time the original, unedited three-track 35mm magnetic film recordings of Star Wars were located as well as the 16-track master session tapes." "The 16-track tapes were of limited value as the sections that corresponded to the preferential takes were edited out and presumably stored on another set of reels that are now considered misplaced." ESB 93 Anthology: "The Empire Strikes Back was largely mastered from four-track ¼” tape copies comprising the edited film mix as three channels of music with one track being a pilot tone for film synchronisation. These tapes were purportedly in poor condition – probably suffering from lubricant failure therefore making baking an inappropriate treatment – and were not located until near completion of the project." "To make matters worse, the Empire tapes were incomplete and PolyGram was unwilling to locate the original LP album tapes. This necessitated the use of 35mm magnetic film recordings, edited for assimilation with the picture, together with several cues lifted directly from the original PolyGram CD" ESB 97 SE: "For The Empire Strikes Back, five of the pre-edited 24- track backup rolls were remixed by Brian Risner at the Fox Zanuck Theatre in 1996. Ostensibly, these tapes contained the cues that appeared on the original double LP album." "For all other cues, the digital transfers made by Bill Wolford in 1993 appear to have been utilised." RoTJ 93 Anthology: "The production team made extensive use of two-track tapes containing the edited film mixes despite three-track tapes also being available at the time. A number of cues were also lifted directly from the original PolyGram CD because they could not be located on other available sources." RoTJ 97 SE: "A three-track reduction of the original preedited Abbey Road tapes was used to prepare the set..." **I DO remember reading at FSM that the complete 16 track tape of SW containing the correct takes were located. I'll try to find the post. I believe it was a post about an ebay auction of a set of SW and ESB master tapes... Edit: here it is, from Lukas Kendall himself: "I was at a Star Wars-related convention in L.A. maybe 6-8 years ago where Dan Melson had a booth trying to sell these tapes he got from the John Neal estate—he's been trying to unload them for years. He has every right to own and sell the master tapes, even though he does not own the intellectual property recorded ONTO the tapes. He always asked a fortune and, not surprisingly, people were not interested, seeing as how the tapes are worthless except for the "cool factor." He had a lot of rock stuff too. Of the film music, the tapes are basically dub-downs of little importance except for the Star Wars 2" 16-track masters which contain the edited "selects" Williams and Ken Wannberg chose—I remember when they did the Star Wars Special Edition CDs, they had the 16-track masters, but all of these master takes from the original album had been snipped out! So that's where they went, making those 16-tracks are highly important. Now, the good news: at that Star Wars con was Matthew Wood, a sound editor for Lucasfilm (voice of General Grievous, I think?) and he and I were like, WTF?! I am quite sure he subsequently coordinated to have the 16-tracks digitized at Lucasfilm (in exchange for a tour or something for Melson)...whatever. I think it's all OK, so people should RELAX." (http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=3&threadID=101432&archive=0)

JJ will open the film with Rey holding the lightsaber out to Luke and simply pretend TLJ didn't happen.

He misremembers a lot of details when introducing concert works. For example, saying Nimbus 2000 is a theme for Harry's wand. The titles of his concert works are kind of a stretch sometimes, too. It's just artistic license that he takes. He's not very exacting about such things... Duel of the Fates was a piece written to accompany the lightsaber duel. But in the same piece, he included a translation of a poem about trees. We all know he draws a lot of inspiration from this subject, so I think we can interpret this as Williams giving something of himself to the work, and getting his own personal joy out of writing these works, while still satisfying the needs of the project. To answer the question in the thread title, he creates concert versions of themes to give a sort of idealized presentation of a major theme for album listening, as well as to have something to play in concert that can stand alone with no visuals (or, sometimes, with a vague montage of visuals). I would guess he also sees these pieces, collectively, as sort of a personal "resume" - a series of takeaways from projects he works on, that together can demonstrate some of what he thinks are his strongest ideas, and have a life outside the films they were written for. And I'm sure he's the one to decide what to arrange in concert form, in almost all cases. Maybe someone here knows an exception to this, but I don't know of any.

Funny, I was just making eggs, and as I put down the spatula, I stared out the kitchen window, felt the breeze in my hair, the sun on my face, looked at the birds, listened to their springsong, and thought to myself, "what JWFan really needs right now is a another Star Wars thread." Thank you. No, really, thank YOU.

They'll probably be using the best available 128kbps mp3 transfers.

At this point, any announcement of a new Spielberg film that doesn't contain the words "inspired by the dramatic true story" is a good thing. So the only question now is whether Mark Rylance with be Axis or Allies.

Are there any other recurring ideas from the long-gestating Indy 4 drafts that never made the final cut? I'd expect they'll find their way into the fifth film, considering how many other recycled ideas made it into the fourth film (aliens, giant ants, a waterfall setpiece, even ideas for other franchises like Nuke Town). I reckon Spielberg will mine Darabont's script for ideas that he liked but Lucas vetoed, such as Indy's daughter and a scene where all his former mistresses/girlfriends confront him. Plus that fun scene of Indy getting drunk in his museum while reflecting on his life and reminiscing on old adventures. I really hope they don't shy away from the age factor and actually make it part of the storyline this time, Unforgiven style. The retired adventurer forced back into action one last time. Focus more on Indy the investigator/espionage agent, rather than the action hero (which will probably not work).

I read an early script for it. Indy has given up and moved to a remote island to die. The real hero comes to talk sense into him. Meanwhile, Indy's son Mutt has gone evil and spends half the movie using his army to chase down three cars that never exceed 20mph. It is mind-blowing stuff. Oh, and Indy dies at the end of fatigue.

I can't say I'm a big fan of The Hobbit films, for example, but they all have their moments, a lot of care went into making them, and I don't dislike them as much as it may seem I do. So there are some films that we pile on that really don't deserve it. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not one of those films. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull deserves every bit of scorn heaped upon it. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is about the most obvious kind of cynical cash grab you can get. Not that there's anything wrong with cynical cash grabs, but it's obvious that no one working on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had any passion for it. There's not a single moment of honesty in the whole movie (the scene where Indy laments the death of Marcus comes closest). The photography is distracting and looks nothing like Slocombe's (a superior cinematographer) beautiful, earthy work. The colours are gaudy, and direction lazy and the less said about the script the the better. Mutt and Marion were a mistake, and from the Jungle sequence to the end the movie is more or less unwatchable. The one cool bit from the film is Nuke Town and Indy standing in front of that mushroom cloud..a striking image that reminds us that we're not in the 1930's anymore. I really hope they get back to basics with the next film, and acknowledge the reality of Indy's age. Here's what I said about this a month ago... ...and now this... Steven Spielberg: It May Be Time For A Female ‘Indiana Jones’

“When 900 years old, you reach…Remember everything, you will not.”

You're worrying too much about both how he title the pieces and what he says before playing them in concert. The concerts arrangements are recorded (or in some cases, crafted by editing together pieces of film cues) in order to present a major theme or set of themes (or major idea for a scene) in a concise package that can be listened to without being a slave to the film it was written for. it's something he can play in concert to showcase a part of a score, something other artists can re-record for their own albums, something kids can learn in high school band class, something sheet music can be sold of. As for what he says before a piece, anything goes. He's an 86 year old man without the best memory.

Obviously this was very hard to do, but here goes. The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars Last Crusade Raiders Return of The Jedi Schindler's List The Phantom Menace Hook The Lost World Born on The Fourth of July

Star Wars Episode IX: The Star War Karol

Yes. I believe those tapes should've been properly vaulted in a studio archive. Or maybe this was for the better as the studio might not have preserved them properly. Who knows...

Grand Theft Audio.

Williams, Stéphane Denève and composer Jennifer Higdon in Philadelphia

Geez, not Spielberg succumbing to the superhero craze too? I'm sick and tired of superhero movies and TV shows, no matter how 'cutting edge' or 'original' they are. I had hoped Spielberg went after more interesting projects instead, like that Edgar Mortara adaptation. Disappointed. I also don't believe Williams will score if he's still around. My guess is that, after the next STAR WARS, Williams will focus on concert works and smaller, intimate scores for Spielberg (á la THE POST).

It's almost like every different person has their own different opinions about film scores!

Ah of course, it's always been about the money for Spielberg. Dude needs to get paid.

I never realised how much I needed this in my life

I am still waiting for his long-awaited sequel to The Last Crusade...

It wont happen. Most of these type l of these threads provide empty promises

Pretty much sums up what went wrong with The Hobbit as well. Pretty much sums up what went wrong with The Hobbit as well. Pretty much sums up what went wrong with The Hobbit as well.

I'll be attending those concerts too but I exist only on a molecular level so I'll be pretty hard to spot.

I'll also be attending the thursday and friday concerts. I'm 9cm tall, so please don't step on me.

Include Captain Phasma in that, and I'd buy that for a dollar!

That's a thing. I think the current arrangement is nice.

No, let's stay with the silly: STAR WARS EPISODE IX: THE RETURN OF HAN SOLO (ALTHOUGH FUCK KNOWS HOW THEY'RE GOING TO DO IT)

Sure there is, I did my own version a while back for just this purpose. D1-01 - Prologue (Film Version) / Anvil of Crom (1:02-End) D1-02 - Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom (:00-5:30) D1-03 - The Gift Of Fury (3:25) D1-04 - Column of Sadness / Wheel of Pain (4:09) D1-07 - Atlantean Sword (4:00) D1-09 - Theology / Civilization (:00-1:16) [Slow down by 40%] D1-09 - Theology / Civilization (1:16-End) [Speed up by 10%] D1-14 - The Wifeing (:00-2:13) D1-16 - The Search (2:55-End) D2-01 - The Orgy (2:11-End) D2-03 - Funeral Pyre (5:15) [Speed up 1:00-End by 15%] D2-04 - Battle Preparations / Battle Of The Mounds (Part I) (1:04-End) D2-08 - Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening (:00-1:09) [No Change] D2-08 - Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening (1:09-3:48) [Speed up by 17%] D2-08 - Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening (3:48-4:24) [Speed up by 30%] D2-08 - Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening (4:24-End) [Speed up by 13%] I changed the speed on some of the tracks in attempt to match the original release. If you don't want to speed up or slow down anything, just use the tracks noted with no changes.

Celebrating the maestro's birthday today. Born 111 years ago today.

Of course they wasted Hurt, as they wasted Allen, Winstone, and Broadbent, but if I concentrate on the Mutt/Ox aspect of the story, I find the film at least bearable.

A clever reference to the first Poe/Hux scene in TLJ, I suppose! I hope this line will open Episode IX.

I'm more interested in Indy 5 and Tintin 2!

I'm a chicken hawk, and I'm lookin' for my foist chicken! And you're it!

It just generic Mandalorian armor; maybe Vos is or was one.

The first third of KOTCS is actually solid, and it feels right in line with the tone of the original 3 (barring some wonky dialogue, but that's Koepp's fault -- he ain't no Tom Stoppard). It all falls apart badly once they leave the US. It's practically on life support for about 50 minutes, with scene after scene of lazy, boring exposition, moving from one obvious soundstage to another. It's painfully obvious all the exteriors were shot in the safety of the Universal backlot, further entrenching the idea that the film was just a lazy cash-grab. And yes, the cinematography is atrociously distracting and (bizarrely) gets worse as the film goes on. The overdone colour grading and bloom throughout the jungle sequence looks fucking awful. It's rather strange, because KOTCS doesn't look anything like Kaminski's usual work, which generally has a far grittier, grainier texture that would've suited the Indy series just fine if he toned down his more stylised lighting choices. So I can only assume this was a deliberate attempt to approximate Slocombe's photography? If so, what an unmitigated failure. You can't even tell they went to the trouble of shooting animorphic on old-school lenses because the whole film is scrubbed cleaner than the Star Wars prequels.

Yeah, the film proper is about that length. You didn't sit through the fan credits? And there is no extended edition. There's the actual movie, and there's an abridged version meant for the cinema.

Music isn't just themes. But if you're going to use that as an indicator of greatness, Star Wars has its fair share of great, epic themes, which Shore isn't that good at developing long, interesting themes.

All together now...

Debate Star Wars Debate debating Star Wars Comment on the debate about debating Star Wars. A forum full of people obsessed with finding a 3 second missing cue from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Titanic quotes wondering why anyone obsesses over anything? Priceless. I you JWFan. Don't ever change. Ever.

That's one of the core issues: for a Star Wars fan, the narrative exists to serve the world of the film: its essentially an opportunity to exhibit it for two hours, more than anything else. As such, when something doesn't correlate with such fans' perception of what that world is (e.g. Rey's lineage), its immediately derided. But, for fans of good cinema, the world exists to serve the narrative. So, making Rey related to anyone within the main cast of the previous films would undermine the sense of grandeur of the narrative by keeping it focused around a very small group of people, and not much else. Likewise, the optimism of Luke's character is also there for the filmmaker to twist for the sake of the drama. In fact, I would go as far as to say there shouldn't be any worldbuilding in films, as such. One of the things I most dislike about the prequels (and to be fair, it happens once or twice in Empire Strikes Back, too) is when characters make on-the-nose references to earlier adventures, naming certain places and people, which we don't ever see. The world should be explored through the narrative alone. Again, all of this coming from someone who wasn't particularly taken with the film. But its not a bad film, by any stretch of the imagination.

My brain is always switched on, thanks, no need to remind me of doing that. I just use it for more important things than listing and hating all the plot holes in a movie that is meant to be for entertainment (and aimed at a large audience which includes children). I have always cared much more for the music of the SW franchise, rather than for the movies themselves, except when I was a kid (more than 20 years ago). However, I have never seen the Ewok films nor the holiday special, and I meant that I prefer TLJ to all the prequels, ROTJ (yes), and, plot-wise, TFA. The plot holes in those movies (prequels, ROTJ and TFA) strike me much more than anything I have seen in TLJ. Not that I have ever made a tragedy of these things, and I am not even going to list them here. I just take those movies for what they are. Moreover, TLJ has at least tried to do something new, something that I appreciated. Your post is a perfect example of the exaggerated reactions I was referring to. I suggest you, while you keep your brain switched on, to use it for more important things as well.

The true crime over the years, though, was his hair.

A dozen actually: Elfman, Lurie, Debney, Young, Horner, Zimmer... and the Magnificent Six! Karol

What is the awfulness in these trailers that everyone else is seeing that I'm not seeing?

Spaceballs Main Title by John Morris (complete with pew pew sound effects!)

But if he's such a sucky composer, why does it matter if he's attached to a movie that looks like it'll suck?