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The Bear McCreary Thread


Taikomochi

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On top of ghost writing they bake a mean honeycake, or so I have been told.

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Doing 6 shows at the same time.

I'm thinking....ghostwriters

Does he really write all of these? Or does he employ a bunch of ghost composers, like LoDuca did during his Hercules/Xena days?

7 shows simply doesn't seem possible

His team is a pretty well-oiled machine from his assistants/orchestrators to the orchestras/ensembles/soloists. The shows vary in length and in the type/amount of music used They also have various production schedules. Agents of SHIELD (22 epsodes), Black Sails (10 episodes), Outlander (13 episodes), Walking Dead (16 episodes), Damien (10 episodes) are what will be airing between now and next summer. 71 episodes of TV. I wouldn't be surprised if even more projects come along to be honest.

IMDB has the answers you're looking for. If you look under the music department for any of the projects he's worked on you will see that over the years various people have come and gone working for him as scoring manager/assistant engineer/tech scoring assistant and have provided additional music on the different projects.

Another in demand composer Blake Neely is about to score 5 shows this season. 96-106 episodes of TV scoring Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and Blindspot. If you're in demand, have the right team around you and have the will to do it, this kind of undertaking can clearly be done.

Also, it's good to see Outlander Vol.2 hit the Billboard Album charts at 147, following on from Vol. 1 hitting 104 earlier this year. The Agents of SHIELD CD still hasn't been released. I think it will finally arrive next week after a 2 week delay.

As well as Vol. 3 of Da Vinci's Demons, Vol. 2 will finally be coming out as a 2CD set following last years shorter digital release.

https://twitter.com/bearmccreary/status/652571400788578305

CQ5mNqKUcAAttD0.jpg

Very good days for McCreary fans. :)

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Unlike Zimmer, Bear doesn't have ghostwriters. Trust me, I honestly know he doesn't. I've said it before, and I don't want to be one of those douche people who say "oh yar, I totally know the industry. Yar totes ma gotes." But I honestly know his operation and have spoken with him and his management and PR people and people who have worked with him and for him, including musicians, and he doesn't have ghostwriters, he writes everything. He has a very well-oiled machine and runs two full orchestras full-time including many soloists and solo musicians.

There is probably only an hour of music in an entire season of The Walking Dead and even his most musically packed shows only have about 20 mins of music out of 45 mins per episode. Remember that. Scoring TV is nothing like Film.

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So essentially Bear is the TV version of Hans Zimmer?

In terms of popularity, sure! I think leeallen01 has summed up for you the nature of TV scoring. Neely also has his protegé Nathaniel Blume, who has been an orchestrator and an additional music composer for Neely. Don't forget that Neely likewise worked for the late, great Michael Kamen as well as for Zimmer when he was breaking in. It's the nature of the business. People breaking in are given a chance as assistants/orchestrators/managers and are occasionally given the chance to write additional music.

Of course, Bear also worked under Richard Gibbs, composing additional music for the BSG mini-series before being fortunately handed the main series itself afterwards.

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Not in terms of popularity, but in terms of the man not composing all of his own music.

Of course! Why bother composing when you just can take all the credit for it? Composing is for losers!

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So am I the only one who has an issue with this?

Didn't Joseph LoDuca get a lot of criticism for using ghostwriters for Xena and Hercules?

Apparently so! Your few posts in this thread going back years are all either negative or of an accusatory nature. You're basically trying to have the same argument that you had in July. leeallen01 both then and now has tried to help you out, but you're not having it.

From what I can tell, the LoDuca case was that he used an uncredited ghostwriter who didn't get the copyright or royalties of the cues that he composed. Daniel Kolton petitioned for and was awarded the copyright and then he sued Universal. I think Kolton lost the case? What does this have to do with McCreary?

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Unlike Zimmer, Bear doesn't have ghostwriters. Trust me, I honestly know he doesn't. I've said it before, and I don't want to be one of those douche people who say "oh yar, I totally know the industry. Yar totes ma gotes." But I honestly know his operation and have spoken with him and his management and PR people and people who have worked with him and for him, including musicians, and he doesn't have ghostwriters, he writes everything. He has a very well-oiled machine and runs two full orchestras full-time including many soloists and solo musicians.

There is probably only an hour of music in an entire season of The Walking Dead and even his most musically packed shows only have about 20 mins of music out of 45 mins per episode. Remember that. Scoring TV is nothing like Film.

Zimmer doesn't use ghostwriters.

I know Koray already pointed this out but apparently it needs to be repeated every few posts to catch on.

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Apparently so! Your few posts in this thread going back years are all either negative or of an accusatory nature. You're basically trying to have the same argument that you had in July. leeallen01 both then and now has tried to help you out, but you're not having it.

You obviously don't know anything about me. So I would advise you to not try and teach me a lesson.

Normally doing 2 tv shows in one year is already a stretch. Doing 6 seems like a Herculean feat. So i asked a perfectly valid question.

I personally don't see how someone could do that without additional composers or ghost writers. Not if the music is actually supposed to be of a certain quality. Regardless of being very organized and having an excellent team.

Horner (apparently) used ghostwriters some times and Elfman uses additional composers as well, but you don't see people complaining about them -most of the time.

Don't we?

You should see the shitstorm which will erupt if The Force Awakens has an "additional music by" credit.

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Apparently so! Your few posts in this thread going back years are all either negative or of an accusatory nature. You're basically trying to have the same argument that you had in July. leeallen01 both then and now has tried to help you out, but you're not having it.

You obviously don't know anything about me. So I would advise you to not try and teach me a lesson.

Normally doing 2 tv shows in one year is already a stretch. Doing 6 seems like a Herculean feat. So i asked a perfectly valid question.

I personally don't see how someone could do that without additional composers or ghost writers. Not if the music is actually supposed to be of a certain quality. Regardless of being very organized and having an excellent team.

I am not trying to teach you any lessons. Your posts in this thread are dismissive or accusatory. Anyone can do the search.

Bear is listed to score 71 episodes that air between now and next summer. You also have to take into account that these are nearly all continuing projects where the foundations have long been laid.

You are acting as though there is something underhand. I was the one who pointed out to you that the additional composers in his team are credited for the work they do on IMDB. They are all part of his team and work as assistants/engineers/managers and are credited for their work as additional composers under the instruction and supervision of Bear. The exact nature and extent of their contribution is unknown without looking at cue sheets and spying on them in action. Going from the soundtrack releases and leeallen01's testimony I would say it is fairly minimal. Ultimately, the reason he has a team is to ensure that he can focus on actually composing as much as possible.

If you are saying that someone uses uncredited ghostwriters then you are accusing them of taking credit for other people's work. This is a lame accusation to do without any evidence. The additional composers are not some big secret or new information. Maybe some guys are just more hard-working and can produce quality works for the producers and directors they work for.

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I don't reconize this members name, is he new here?

There's a thread about this on FSM where Ford A Thaxton points out that even Shirley Walker had help scoring Space: Above and Beyond.

It's very illuminating. Indeed a TV composer like Bear seems more like a supervisor or a musical team then that he personally composes every single cue, which would be impossible with the work load he takes on.

Now I don't actually have any problem with this. It's Hollywood, thats how things are done.

But Zimmer credits everone on his album releases, good and proper. Does Bear do the same?

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I don't reconize this members name, is he new here?

There's a thread about this on FSM where Ford A Thaxton points out that even Shirley Walker had help scoring Space: Above and Beyond.

It's very illuminating. Indeed a TV composer like Bear seems more like a supervisor or a musical team then that he personally composes every single cue, which would be impossible with the work load he takes on.

Now I don't actually have any problem with this. It's Hollywood, thats how things are done.

But Zimmer credits everone on his album releases, good and proper. Does Bear do the same?

Sorry for stumbling into your own personal fiefdom without permission. Who exactly are you asking this question to? It makes you look a tad pompous.

With regards to Ms. Walker (one of Bear's favorite composers by the way), comparing different individuals from different time periods is impossible. Modern technology also surely plays a role. Some people are just comfortable doing a large volume of work. Bear was able to compose, orchestrate and conduct for the first 3 seasons of Battlestar. As he then took on more projects (Eureka and Terminator) he scaled back and brought in his orchestrators and indeed additional music people.

Again, you don't actually know what volume of the material he is composing. It is all a bit of pointless speculation on your part. Whether it be 50% or 99%, none of us would know without being intimately involved with the production. Accusing people of using ghostwriters based on no evidence is bad form. If you want to talk in general about this topic then great, start a thread. It is indeed somewhat interesting in general terms.

Also as far as I understand it, the 'additional music' people in general could either be acting as composers, co-composers or not actually composers but more of a middle person between between the composer and the orchestrator. Without looking at cue sheets or shadowing the team, no-one has any insight into how they actually work or how they are credited.

Bear works on one standard 22 episode network show. The other 4 or 5 are all cable shows consisting of between 10 and 16 episodes per season. It might help you if you think of them as extended movies. The cable shows also have different lead-in times and calendar dates. For some of these at least, the music is completed before the season even begins airing. Another thing to consider is that when Bear spots a show with the editors and producers, the editors will use Bear's previous music from the show for the temp track once enough has been built up. So the start of the show is the most labour intensive in terms of brand new material, and once there is a bank of material the composer is for large parts reworking and adjusting their own music from the temp tracks created from their previous work. Obviously new characters/storylines etc will get brand new themes and development as they appear.

As I said in my previous post, Bear's albums make it clear that these are his compositions. No other score composer in sight.

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How do they make it clear?

You say there are no other score composers in sight, yet admit you have no idea what exactly those who are credited for additional music actually do?

So are you just making assumptions, like me. Or do you have any actual facts to offer?

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