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Disco Stu's Isolated Score Videos - John Williams Edition


Disco Stu

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Be warned that if it's a sequence that got edited all to hell in the final film, I probably just won't bother.  I've done a bit of that level of detailed editing and it's a nightmare.  I tried working on Minority Report and just gave up after a while.  I did get a couple of early sequences from that looking pretty good, I'll probably post at least the opening at some point.

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9 minutes ago, Jay said:

Man Against Beast from Jaws is a good one

 

Oh of course I started work on Jaws already :D 

 

I got distracted by other things, but I'll be getting back to it soon.

 

It was depressing how difficult some of these are to work on.  I worked on Hook some and got up to the Arrival of Tink, which really put me off it had so much editing done to it after the fact.  These directors got digital editing and just couldn't leave their effing movies alone!

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2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Trucking from CE3K would be good too

 

That one I've already done, I can upload the video later tonight.

 

It's been a couple of months since I worked on CE3K, but I remember being really unsure about a LOT of it because of how much was replaced or dialed out and if the sequences had changed after recording.  But I'll just post what I have for that scene.

 

I'll admit that the whole final act of CE3K proved to be a bit too much for me.

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I'm also doing all this in iMovie right now, so if the audio editing would involve anything more complicated than just cutting something out (like speeding up or slowing down the music) then I just don't bother.  This is all in my spare time for fun, I'm not looking to become a professional video/audio editor.

 

Sometimes it's just plain hard for my inexperienced ears to get what the music editors had done to cover up their tracks.

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Disco Stu, if you do Jaws, would you restore stuff that WASN'T recorded during the film sessions, but WAS recorded for the OST LP/McNeely?

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Just now, Fal said:

Disco Stu, if you do Jaws, would you restore stuff that WASN'T recorded during the film sessions, but WAS recorded for the OST LP/McNeely?

 

No I'm only using disc 1 of the 2015 Intrada release.  Music that was originally recorded synchronized to the movie.

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Yeah, if your main interest is restoring unused/alternate music or even unrecorded music (like what y'all do for Attack of the Clones), then my videos might not be of much interest.  I do it purely as a way for me personally to further appreciate the work of the composers and then I'll share some of that here for fun.

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13 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

  I do it purely as a way for me personally to further appreciate the work of the composers and then I'll share some of that here for fun.

Of course, for example when I restored "The Nightclub Brawl" from Temple of Doom, I noticed that Williams actually scored the diamond/antidote with it's own little motif.

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6 minutes ago, Fal said:

Of course, when I restored "The Nightclub Brawl" from Temple of Doom, I noticed that Williams actually scored the diamond/antidote with a little motif.

 

Nice!  I'm really just trying to keep expectations set low, haha.  I'm not doing anything here for posterity or whatever. :D

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41 minutes ago, Jay said:

Williams is great at sort-of mickey-mousing something on screen while simultaneously making the cue on its own sound not remotely mickey-mousy.

 

Some time ago I was planning on making an entire thread collecting cues like that. One big example I had in mind for starting it was the flourishes in E.T.'s Escape/Chase when they jump with the bikes going downhill.

I listened to this cue for such a long period while not watching the movie because I've watched it enough, that on a recent rewatch I was completely surprised that those actually mimic something on screen.

 

Oh yeah, welcome back, Stu, by the way, way to return with a bang!

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Hey Stu, got a chance to watch all 4 of your videos posted so far.  They are great!

 

TOYS from ET was really cool; Not just seeing that friendship theme slowly introduced as ET slowly approaches Elliot, but also I realized watching the scene without dialogue made me appreciate the set design (as well as the music).  Loved the little goldfish swimming around in the bowl (and how whatever's in there looks like a TIE Fighter), 

 

BARRY'S KIDNAPPING FROM CE3K was FREAKING SWEET.  Everytime that spooky choir came in it was timed to such a cool shot.  Bloody hell this whole sequence is a mini-masterpiece of film and score.  Awesome stuff.  BTW, I dunno if you saw while you were away, but Mike Matessino revealed that Jillian is actually calling Roy on the phone and they shot Ronny answering but then changed it all in post-production.

 

Trucking / Into the Tunnel / Crescendo Summit / Chasing UFOs from CE3K was awesome too, LOVE the weird choir here as well.  Spielberg was right to not use Trucking in the end but how Williams scored it is pretty damn awesome to see.  Great stuff.

 

Roy and Gillian on the Road / The Mountain from CE3K - More good stuff, its like watching a silent movie, you don't need any sound effects or dialogue to understand every single thing happening.  Cool stuff.

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Exporting and uploading some Jaws videos tonight.   Will post them later tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

TOYS from ET was really cool; Not just seeing that friendship theme slowly introduced as ET slowly approaches Elliot, but also I realized watching the scene without dialogue made me appreciate the set design (as well as the music).  Loved the little goldfish swimming around in the bowl (and how whatever's in there looks like a TIE Fighter), 

 

Spielberg finds such inventive ways to stage scenes in such a purposefully banal setting.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

BARRY'S KIDNAPPING FROM CE3K was FREAKING SWEET.  Everytime that spooky choir came in it was timed to such a cool shot.  Bloody hell this whole sequence is a mini-masterpiece of film and score.  Awesome stuff.

 

That's the video I worked on that I was most blown away by with just music.  It's like the most amazing silent short film ever made in this form.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

BTW, I dunno if you saw while you were away, but Mike Matessino revealed that Jillian is actually calling Roy on the phone and they shot Ronny answering but then changed it all in post-production.

 

I had not seen the thread posts, but of course I listened to that interview when it dropped.  What do you take me for?!

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Trucking / Into the Tunnel / Crescendo Summit / Chasing UFOs from CE3K was awesome too, LOVE the weird choir here as well.  Spielberg was right to not use Trucking in the end but how Williams scored it is pretty damn awesome to see.  Great stuff.

 

Roy and Gillian on the Road / The Mountain from CE3K - More good stuff, its like watching a silent movie, you don't need any sound effects or dialogue to understand every single thing happening.  Cool stuff.

 

I've of course always loved the final act of CE3K enormously, but working on these videos really made me appreciate even more the score for the rest of the movie.  Williams at his most imaginative!

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

BARRY'S KIDNAPPING FROM CE3K was FREAKING SWEET.  Everytime that spooky choir came in it was timed to such a cool shot.

The descending/ascending choir when she closes the hatch of the fireplace has always been my favourite part of the whole score.

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Montage, Ben Gardner's Boat, Father and Son, Out to Sea (the exact border of the two halves) - probably in this order. I'd love to watch any of them if it's not too much of a hassle, haven't looked into Jaws' microedits state yet.

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I think Father and Son would be a really interesting cue to watch synced up

 

When I saw the Jaws: Live to Projection concert, it was an incredibly effective and memorable moment

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I'll post it soon!

 

As a little bonus here's

 

The Alimentary Canal (Restored)

 

Not too much of note here.  The highlight is definitely when Williams has the shark theme start precisely when Hooper is indicating how big the actual killer shark's mouth would be.  I do also love the old-school gothic horror feel of that piano.

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1 hour ago, Holko said:

haven't looked into Jaws' microedits state yet.

 

Unfortunately the vast majority of microedits are in the 2nd half of Jaws, which is why (outside of "Man Against Beast") I'm posting cues strictly from the first half for now.  It's very time-consuming to work on the others!

 

Which is not to say that "Man Against Beast" doesn't have edits.  it definitely does.  I've found out in recent months how annoying it can be to reverse-engineer microedits since the sound editors obviously often use sound effects to cover them up.

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19 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I've of course always loved the final act of CE3K enormously, but working on these videos really made me appreciate even more the score for the rest of the movie.  Williams at his most imaginative!

 

I'm in the same boat in a way - ever since I first got into scores and Williams, I always loved the entire finale of the CE3K score, I mean its gobstoppingly good.  But I never REALLY got into the rest of the score much - I didn't think it was bad, just a "not my cup of tea" kind of thing I guess (and to be honest, I probably didn't try very hard to get into it either as I had so much other music I was instantly connecting to all the time).  But as soon as I heard the LLL CD everything changed and now I recognize how much of a masterpiece the entire score is. I'd rate it as one of Willams' best and certainly most important works.  Every time I listen now I discover more amazing aspects.

 

 

19 hours ago, Tallguy said:

I realized when I got the LLL discs how much better I know the music than the movie.

 

Haha, I'm also in that smae boat in a way, too!  I probably saw the film for the first time in college or so (maybe I watched it with my dad when I was younger but I really don't remember).  I always kind of liked the film, but didn't love it.. it wasn't a film I returned to that often or thought about much - again, other than the ending (when you see the film just one time the entire ending sticks in your head forever, especially the amazing shows of the mothership arriving).  Seeing the film in theaters last year for the 40 re-release completely blew my mind how many interesting facets the entire film has, and then sitting down with the blu ray and checking out all the cuts really made me appreciate more the entire film making process (especially seeing all the great scenes that were only in the theatrical cut).

 

5 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I had to google what this is.  I've only ever seen the theatrical cut!

 

The theatrical cut of CE3K is the BEST cut, no question.  Though, there are some nice scenes added to the SE cut for sure, but the major problem is that they took out GREAT stuff from the TC in that cut, which is really frustrating.

 

I wish the TC was the cut they were using for the live concerts, it's kind of a shame they are using the '98 cut because the Roy breakdown scene will really drag things down in that setting I think.  The TC is better for wide audiences out to have a good time (and there would be no tracked music in the cotpaxi sequence to have to recreate)

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10 minutes ago, Jay said:

there is some nice scenes added to the SE cut for sure, but the major problem is that they took out GREAT stuff from the TC

 

Indeed.

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Showing Roy at the power plant before going out in his truck is so important!  As is the Carl Weathers scene.  I like Roy helping his kid with the math problem though.

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There's an impeccable cut somewhere between the two, but the Theatrical's probably much closer to it.

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I wish the blu ray had a secret menu option that just played a mega cut containing all the scenes that were in any cut.  There'd be a couple spots where the same scene was edited in different ways so they'd have to choose one way, but other than that it'd work pretty well.

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