Search the Community

Hello! I am a huge fan of Justin Hurwitz and can't wait for his next score. Anyone else?

John Williams has a lot of influences, almost too many to take in at once. This thread then is really about appreciating some of the composers who came before him. The question I have for you is not "who were Williams' influences?" but "who of any of Williams's influences seems to lend to what you most love about him?" Who's that composer who, in a way, inspired you through Williams' music? If you're not sure how to answer, name as many as you'd like, but try to narrow it down to what styles from which composers might it be you love so much

A lot has been said and written about long lasting collaborations between directors and composers. Not less interesting are directors with lots of different choices. I came across a director who hired the following gentlemen for his scores: Klaus Badelt, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Maurice Jarre, Ennio Morricone, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri Any guesses? Sorry if it's a lame one, but I thought it's fascinating.

I really enjoyed SCORE A Film Music Documentary. As you would expect, this is basically a documentary about two things, the history of film scores and the experiences of noteworthy composers who score film music. The two topics are balanced nicely. So you get quite a bit of commentary from a composer about their influences along with their process. As most already know, John Williams, who occupies a significant portion of the documentary does not provide any new input which would have been great but is not surprising given his age, schedule, personality, and stature. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the various composers creative processes. For example Heitor Pereira coming up with a grove first then once he has that locked, adding a melody on top. Contrastingly, Marco Beltrami looks for the exotic textures first. Sometimes in unexpected places such as an abandoned instrument. Jon Burlingame added much insight to the history and contribution of film music and I liked having directors weigh in. They might have only used James Cameron as a director, it would have been nice to add a few more and maybe even some archival footage of Hitchcock or something talking about music in his films. The film is made by film music fans so is pretty much a love letter to film music. There is no mention of controversy or anything negative which is fine but some might find this as off putting and an example of a love letter to one's self. They also skimp over some topics and give way too much time to others (no doubt a result of which composer and studio was willing to partake). For example, Christopher Young, a very solid composer only talks about other composers rather than his music or process. Meanwhile Heitor Pereira is given way too much time and recording sessions that don't amount to much interesting details. This might just be my opinion because I know some of these people quite well where perhaps someone outside the industry who this documentary is targeted at might find this all new. Some disappointments, I would have liked to have seen interviews with Elliot Goldenthal (the credits list him but I don't recall hearing it so perhaps I was getting a beer during his brief appearance?), Alan Silvestri, and archival discussion footage from Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. Perhaps the film makers didn't get the rights to this footage but I assume an effort was made. It would have been fantastic to get something new from John Williams but that is nearly an impossible herculean task. Why no Giacchino? If they spent so much time with Debney, I consider Giacchino in the same league. I also think they should have spent some time on up and coming/future trending composers. Why not bring in Wintory for a few quotes which would have most likely been adulation towards Goldsmith or Herrmann but added to the documentary's relevance? I was hoping they would do something like that. I would have liked to have seen some discussion of the film scoring controversies as well (ghosting/plagiarism). They certainly didn't need to dwell on it, but a very brief mention would have been nice. So make this more accurate and historical rather than a love letter to the industry. The film makers also missed an opportunity to demonstrate spotting fails. How good music might not work for a scene is a failure. Or how the same scene scored with two different ways could still work but will change the feel of the scene. How about a mention of great scores of terrible films? Or score rejects like Alex North's 2001 effort? The word temp score didn't come up once. The film makers paint a very rosy picture of the film scoring process. There were some great scores rejected. They do mention in passing that Jerry Goldsmith had 10 days to score Chinatown because the other score was rejected though. I found the epilogue of a personal memory from James Cameron regarding James Horner touching but insufficient. They really should have had more time on Horner. Overall, a very good documentary with a few shortcomings but highly recommended to fans of films or film music. I know the filmmakers made a book of their research that might be worth exploring if it includes some of the items I wished were included in the film.

Thought we should start a general thread on any theory/composition sources we find on film music so they can all be found in one place. Here's one that was just posted yesterday on two-chord progressions and their associations, especially in Hollywood blockbusters. If you're musically literate, you'll want to skip ahead to 5:39, or if you haven't seen the "MnM" kind of notation before, start at 2:28:

Hello JWFAN, This event is now SOLD OUT! I believe this is my first post though I've been a lurking for 11 years. I mostly post on the FSM board under drivingmissdaisy. I wanted to announce my 5th Annual FFM event. You may have heard about our previous events in which we had the likes of John Debney, Richard M. Sherman, Graeme Revell, William Ross, John Ottman, Stu Phillips, Tyler Bates, Brian Tyler, Christopher Young and about 30 other wonderful composers. If you are interested in coming email me and I can give you more info on how to request seats which I'll start doing in a couple of weeks. My email is peter@fansoffilmmusic.com. Ask me any questions you may have. This year is composers: Murray Gold Benjamin Wallfish Nathan Furst Chris Bacon Abel Korzeniowski Charles Bernstein Buck Sanders Heitor Pereira Geoff Zanelli Alf Clausen Brian Reitzel Hummie Mann Richard Band Mark Isham Blake Neely Photo Credit For Murray Gold's banner is Phil Watkins.

... without looking at the credits? Can you tell by ears alone?

This is a new song I created, for a "planned" movie. It plays as Alex Harper (a character based on Tintin) walks out of class clutching one-half of the treasure map that leads to a school treasure. However, Alex and his friends, Cassandra and Archie (archibald Haddock, anyone?) run into Allan, the school bully. They start arguing, and during that, Alex drops the paper, which is promptly picked up by an elementary student who runs off with it. Shortly, Alex and Allan find that it's missing and chase after the kid into the school fare. After Alex catches the kid in slow motion (Pursuit of the Falcon), the ruckus they have caused has caught the attention of Mr. Kaufman, the strictest teacher on campus, who confiscates the paper. This song is heavily influenced by Williams, and it was my first use of syncopation. It does sound very random at times, but that's because I was trying to emulate Williams' modern action cues. There are a few recurring motifs: Allan's Theme (Sounds a bit like the secondary motif in Flight of the Bumblebee) The Treasure Theme (Sounds like Zimmer's "Mermaids" combined with the Unicorn motif) Trio Fanfare, to represent Alex, Cassandra, and Archie (sounds a bit like the trio fanfare in "Pursuit of the Falcon") The Pursuit Motif (a syncopated group of notes that appears throughout the score) The songs that I received the most influence from are "Flight from Peru" (the beginning pizzicato) "The Basket Game" "The Snake Pit" "Flight to Bagghar" Enjoy!