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NEW Audio interview with Mike Matessino about The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection


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I'm at a kind of a weird age where it was Star Wars or Jurassic Park for me, but a blend of both;  Jurassic Park kicked it off in the cinemas, but then it was really getting into Star Wars in middle school that got me into his music.  It was basically a discovery of the scores to the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films, and Jurassic Park all at once

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

I'm at a kind of a weird age where it was Star Wars or Jurassic Park for me, but a blend of both;  Jurassic Park kicked it off in the cinemas, but then it was really getting into Star Wars in middle school that got me into his music.  It was basically a discovery of the scores to the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films, and Jurassic Park all at once

Best of all the worlds eh. :) 

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27 minutes ago, Incanus said:

It funny that Matessino mentions how he doesn't have such ultimate reverence to JP as many fans seem to have as he "had seen the light" much earlier and JP was business pretty much usual for Williams, continuing to write the great music Matessino had heard since Star Wars.

 

But to a certain generation it is that Star Wars moment in their lives, mine included, and it is difficult to imagine what my life would be like without Williams' music coming into my consciousness through Jurassic Park when I was 11 and in that darkened movie theater and heard the glorious fanfare and saw the helicopter approaching the island. It really opened gates to so many things beyond movies and film music and my life is all the richer for it. So it is no wonder there is a lot of feeling attached to this score which is what those who grew up on Star Wars must feeling for that score.

 

Yea I found that interesting as well. I kinda just assumed he'd really be into it and when he wasn't, it was a revelation. haha. I'm with you, Jurassic Park was my Star Wars moment. Star Wars is huge for me too of course, but at that point in my life it was only on TV or VHS. JP was a theater moment and a life changing experience. 

 

24 minutes ago, Jay said:

I'm at a kind of a weird age where it was Star Wars or Jurassic Park for me, but a blend of both;  Jurassic Park kicked it off in the cinemas, but then it was really getting into Star Wars in middle school that got me into his music.  It was basically a discovery of the scores to the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films, and Jurassic Park all at once

 

I had SW toys and enjoyed it before JP, but I was so young at that time, that it was tough to fully appreciate it's greatness. I've come to realize that of course, but JP was the one that hit me hardest... Well actually BTTF, but JP was probably the biggest overall experience. 

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25 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Best of all the worlds eh. :) 

 

I think the first 10 film score CDs I ever bought were SW1-3, Indiana Jones 1-3, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Hook, and ET.  Not a bad way to start!

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I started paying attention to music thanks to this film (and Hook and Batman Returns). And I started buying some soundtrack albums. But my JW fandom and film music collecting didn't start proper till 1997.

 

Karol

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11 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I started paying attention to music thanks to this film (and Hook and Batman Returns). And I started buying some soundtrack albums. But my JW fandom and film music collecting didn't start proper till 1997.

 

Karol

I think Hook was the first film where I can remember some of the music (the Presenting the Hook chanting mostly) but Jurassic Park fully caught my attention and awakened the interest. My first CDs came a few years later (as with you in 1997) with the Lost World and Schindler's List. JP CD actually came later as it was nowhere to be found in my hometown despite it being so popular a score. In fact I bought my cousin's copy and before that I had it on tape until I wore the tape out. :lol:  

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8 hours ago, crumbs said:

Wow, what an absolutely riveting interview! Very enlightened, relevant questions as well. I could listen to Mike tell anecdotes and get super technical all day long!

 

I agree!

 

Quote

That discussion about the multi-tracks shedding was disconcerting though, considering these scores are relatively young. The Star Wars masters would want to be carefully archived... 

 

I couldn't believe an analog recording from 1997 was unusable!!!  Absolutely crazy. These studios need to digitally transfer ALL their analog elements NOW!

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

I couldn't believe an analog recording from 1997 was unusable!!!  Absolutely crazy. These studios need to digitally transfer ALL their analog elements NOW!

Indeed! All this stuff needs rescuing!

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If I remember well, Shawn Murphy said last year (during one of the interviews about the SW Sony boxset) that JW scores were all recorded on analogue tapes until at least 2002. Episode III was the first to be fully recorded in digital.

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Catch Me If You Can was likely the last JW score recorded to analog, though I wonder if any before that were recorded on digital only (I am sure a few were recorded simultaneously on analog and digital like The Motion Picture was in 1979)

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8 hours ago, crumbs said:

I think this interview clears up any lingering questions about why MM sets are so superior to recent expansions from other producers, which were riddled with bizarre edits, glaring omissions and "creative" track ordering.

 

Firstly, that after being offered Jurassic Park, he cheekily asked if he could do The Lost World as well because the 20th Anniversary JP set didn't leave him enough unreleased music from the first score.

 

Then the anecdote about Williams' camp requesting the OST edit for Incident At Isla Nublar because the opening of Falling Car was jarring. Most producers would accept that and move on but MM explained why it was antithetical to a complete release and actually changed their minds (albeit with a vastly preferable compromise).

 

And the way he cleverly harnessed Williams' disdain for the unapproved academy promo for A.I. as ammunition to do the set complete with 3CDs (thus making the academy promo valueless overnight).

 

Best of all, the trust between camps seems to be building with each subsequent release, to the point they are approaching him with their highest profile scores.

 

Quality post here.  All these things you mention are really important take-aways from this interview!

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3 hours ago, Bespin said:

Great interview, I almost had tears when I heard Mr. Matessino talking about how JP and Harry Potter may have moved and touched a younger audience, like Star Wars touched us back then...  Time passes... sigh...

 

Well, I was proud to hear that he also consider JW as the greatest film composer of all time.

 

Can we start a religion that will acclaim and venerate Mike Matessino?

 

3 hours ago, Mr. Breathmask said:

It's a testament of Williams' timeless brilliance. Somehow, he manages to crank out a score that generates a whole new generation of film music lovers eery ten, fifteen years. That's amazing. It's as true a signew of the man's craft and talent as any and the reason a place like this is still going after almost twenty years. I doubt any composer coUldale challenge such an achievement.

 

That might be the most fanboyish thing I've ever written, but... uh, well... there it is.

 

 

Hear, hear, gentlemen!  It is very true that depending on your age, there is a high probability that your introduction to the world of film scores was through Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or Harry Potter.... we hear these stories time and time again.  This is one of the (many) things that makes John Williams so special, and I really enjoyed in the interview with Mike specifically mentioned that he considered JW the best composer there is (or whatever the exact wording was).  I think its certainly possible that someone who isn't a huge fan student of JW but a very capable editer/mixer/master-er could produce these sets and have them come out great, but I think there's something "extra" that goes in when that person is also a huge fan of their work and still in awe at getting to work with the raw elements that shaped his greatest scores.  Just listening to him talk about listening to the studio chatter between takes for clues about what JW would be looking for from one take to the next to improve was really fascinating stuff.


We are so blessed to have this union of JW, Amblin, and MM working together on these Spielberg/Williams scores right now.  They are 5 films in and still have 20 and counting to go, and I hope they get to all of them!

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Did you hear the passage when Matessino tells he have to compare EVERY BITS of music, to make sure he reproduces exactly each final tracks, because sometimes they have been made using measures from several different takes?

 

Woooooo....!!! :lovethis:

 

I wish this guy can work on Charles Aznavour's reissues.

 

Actually at Universal, they even don't bother to compare what they remaster with the LPs and Singles... so they release alternates without knowing it... Bunch of idiots.

 

With Matessino, it brings fresh air to see that there are still passionate people in the musical industry.

 

 

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Really life would be much easier if they recorded every track just once :P

 

Indeed sometimes when you think of "takes" you think ok they used this or that one. But to think that some seconds are from this one then these other seconds from another... It must be a pain to reproduce. And makes the problem for us of being able to noctice them sometimes.

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22 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

(...) And makes the problem for us of being able to notice them sometimes.

 

That's the hardest part of my job, when I want to identify alternates takes in the Charles Aznavour and Roy Orbison catalogues. No software can do that for me, you have to listen and compare each segment...

 

I know perhaps better than anybody the risks of introducing alt takes by mistake, when remastering tracks from multi-tracks tapes...

 

So you are remastering from the multi-tracks? Really... What a nightmare to come, I always think internally!

 

Fortunately, when it's a Matessino release.. I think we can trust the material at 100%! ;)

 

That's not always the case with other releases... this remembers me of a certain Star Wars boxset....

 

 

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7 hours ago, Bilbo Skywalker said:

Based on this interview I think we can assume Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and ET are close. 

 

Harry Potter and ET maybe. I'm betting Concord holds the rights to Indy for a couple more years.

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  • 3 weeks later...
23 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Listening to this now. Silly how the interviewer starts with a stupid "What would you do if you were trapped in a kitchen with a raptor" question.

 

Fortunately, that's the only really weird / awkward part of the entire interview

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On 1/3/2017 at 0:22 PM, Stefancos said:

Listening to this now. Silly how the interviewer starts with a stupid "What would you do if you were trapped in a kitchen with a raptor" question.

 

Mike should have answered:

 

"I would have blasted the expanded and remastered Rescuing Sarah and yelled 'Frick yeah!'" ;)

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48 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Doesn't look that scary anymore! More like a six-foot turkey!

 

You've never pissed off a wild turkey, have you?

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Interesting comments about Live to Projection projects providing the impetus for C&C score releases. Makes Potter seem quite a likely bet.

 

Has any SW movie ever had a Live to Projection screening?

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  • 8 months later...

Just wanted to bump this thread because I was listening to this interview again, and it really is fascinating listen even when you've already heard it!  It's on youtube too, I found out:

 

 

 

The interview begins at 7:52, or you can start at 9:41 to avoid the silly icebreaker question

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8 hours ago, Jay said:

 

The interview begins at 7:52, or you can start at 9:41 to avoid the silly icebreaker question

 

That silly question made me laugh. You can almost sense Matessino thinking to himself, What in bloody hell? 😂 

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