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An interesting article on the evolution of film music


Will

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This was indeed interesting. He gets some things very wrong, including that completely uninformed summary of how RCP does things, but other points are spot on. I'm optimistic about the present and future of film music. We're into new territory here, but there have already been masterpieces. The trash will dissipate as everyone gets their bearings.

Thanks for sharing.

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https://blog.longreads.com/2016/12/08/braaam-inception-hollywood-soundtracks/

 

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The internet and the sound’s creator refer to it as BRAAAM. (If you think you’ve successfully avoided it, here’s a sample). It may sound synthetic, but it’s usually produced with brass instruments and a prepared piano. Although it has its roots in a scoring style composer Hans Zimmer employed for much of the early ’00s, the BRAAAM heard in seemingly every trailer was first recorded for Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception, and has been adapted, copied, and even outright sampled ever since. Is BRAAAM something that happened to us, or is it something we, as moviegoers, desired?

 

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There can be something deeply reassuring in this neat separation between music and sound design: we move from one thing to another in stages, like nodding off into a dream. But this is a separation that soundtracks have tended to break down in the last few decades. Listen to Hans Zimmer’s scores for Christopher Nolan’s Batmanmovies on CD in isolation from the image, and you’ll find yourself thinking, “oh, I thought Batman’s cape made that noise!”

 

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On 12/11/2016 at 10:05 AM, BloodBoal said:

What are your thoughts on this matter, Will?

 

Not knowledgable enough to really offer anything much.

 

Of course, I no doubt want to hear more Williams-styled scores in the future of film music, but "traditional orchestral" is certainly not the only type of music I can enjoy. The Zimmer style is something I haven't explored too much. :)

 

 

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I've really only heard Insterstellar from Zimmer (the whole Illuminated Star Projection edition). 

 

Plus a couple little bits of other scores (although many of those other ones employed teams of ghostwriters). 

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11 minutes ago, KK said:

Go listen to The Thin Red Line. Now.

 

Sorry, TLW is up next :lol:

 

... but I've heard TGP mention that as one of the best scores of all time in his opinion and I really do want to listen to it, at some point. 

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3 hours ago, Will said:

I've really only heard Insterstellar from Zimmer (the whole Illuminated Star Projection edition). 

 

Plus a couple little bits of other scores (although many of those other ones employed teams of ghostwriters). 

 

No....

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Indeed! These days the movie scene is fed into a computer, which uses a complicated proprietary algorithm to calculate and them compose the music for it.

 

If its a big budget film a human arranger then looks over the end result. For smaller budget films the result is kept as is.

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Haven't read the article yet (I will!), but the "BRAAAM" sound was first and foremost produced by Lorne Balfe, not Zimmer. This is fairly common knowledge by now.

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

Haven't read the article yet (I will!), but the "BRAAAM" sound was first and foremost produced by Lorne Balfe, not Zimmer. This is fairly common knowledge by now.

 

Actually it's a quite controversial topic:

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/braaams-beginners-how-a-horn-793220

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10 hours ago, Prerecorded Briefing said:

 

No....

 

So I am wrong on that?

 

I know you know better than I. I'd just been led to believe that many Zimmer scores were really team efforts.

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What does this line mean: " As listeners we seem to desire depth, but we prefer that depth to be on the surface."  Isn't that the text book definition of shallowness...the opposite of depth?

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10 hours ago, Will said:

 

So I am wrong on that?

 

I know you know better than I. I'd just been led to believe that many Zimmer scores were really team efforts.

 

No, many do involve one or two or even more other writers.  But the term ghostwriter itself has a nasty, dirty implication - and rightly so - but that's not what the Zimmer method is about.  There's nothing underhanded going on.  Everyone who writes gets credited, he's certainly made a point of that over the years.  It's a band, not outsourcing.

 

Now, there are in fact one or two fairly prestigious composers who might be sadly susceptible to accusations of genuine ghostwriting.

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20 minutes ago, Prerecorded Briefing said:

Now, there are in fact one or two fairly prestigious composers who might be sadly susceptible to accusations of genuine ghostwriting.

 

I don't think it's 100% confirmed, but sometimes Horner handed stuff to his orchestrators when he didn't care much for the material. Apparently We're Back! it's a case of this, and I'm pretty damn sure Don Davis wrote The Claw from Toy Story 3 -that or he almost co-composed it with Newman.

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4 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

I don't think it's 100% confirmed, but sometimes Horner handed stuff to his orchestrators when he didn't care much for the material. 

 

Pretty much confirmed by listening to the early 90's stuff.

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15 hours ago, Prerecorded Briefing said:

 

No, many do involve one or two or even more other writers.  But the term ghostwriter itself has a nasty, dirty implication - and rightly so - but that's not what the Zimmer method is about.  There's nothing underhanded going on.  Everyone who writes gets credited, he's certainly made a point of that over the years.  It's a band, not outsourcing.

 

Makes sense. Nothing wrong with that!

 

 

15 hours ago, Prerecorded Briefing said:

Now, there are in fact one or two fairly prestigious composers who might be sadly susceptible to accusations of genuine ghostwriting.

 

Who are you referring to with your "real ghostwriting" comment? 

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7 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

Not many people seem to complain as much when Hansy is doing the so called "ghostwriting" for his buddies. 

 

That's just because they stopped complainin' years ago because a day only has 24 hours.

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