"Babe" (1995) composer Nigel Westlake giving a small insight into the clicktrack, with token reference to John Williams.

[zoltan_902 141]

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Interesting.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

But Babe was 1995...

[Alex 2,833]

I’ve always wondered when someone like JW is scoring a film in his little office, does he have a old fashioned projector next to him that he can keep rewinding and fast forwarding?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

He uses a VHS player.

[Holko 9,499]

11 minutes ago, Alex said:

I’ve always wondered when someone like JW is scoring a film in his little office, does he have a old fashioned projector next to him that he can keep rewinding and fast forwarding?

 

Yeah, I've wondered the same for years, do composers get to keep the spotted cut in some form to compose to?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Keep? After they finished working on the film? I dunno. Probably not.

[Holko 9,499]

Of couse not after they finished, after the spotting session!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Then I don't understand your question.

 

Of course Williams uses a copy of the film. Or parts of the film to compose to 

[publicist 4,643]

12 minutes ago, Holko said:

Yeah, I've wondered the same for years, do composers get to keep the spotted cut in some form to compose to?

 

In the 'old days' they mostly would see that in a screening room at the studio with director/producer in attendance. Depending on how close to the finishing line the production would be, they either would get this cut, or subtly or wildly differing ones at a much later date, or just finished scenes in some cases (effect-heavy stuff).

 

Bernstein, Goldsmith and Horner did go on record that they sometimes would watch a single scene 20 times, the rest not so much, to crack the general approach. When this one scene worked, they would go on writing the rest.

[Holko 9,499]

Documentaries I saw usually glance over that, just talk about the spotting session(s), and then sitting down to write all the music, then skip to the recording.

[publicist 4,643]

I guess scoring a Netflix series or a FatF sequel in 2018 is totally different to scoring, ie, TOD in 1984. Back then, Williams probably worked on a 90% finished picture with tweaks here and there. When i watched/listened to 7 Years in Tibet i thought, well, there must have been some wild miscommunications going on - the approach of the album is totally different from the snippets ending up in the movie. So it...really depends.

[artguy360 1,843]

The ESB documentary that covers JW scoring the film shows him watching a scene several times on an old moviola machine to follow the action and work out the timing as he is in the process of writing the score.

[crumbs 14,301]

Well he still composes in his office, so I assume there's a secured copy of the film located or accessible in there. JW probably has a music assistant who helps him with it, as it's surely all a digital workflow nowadays.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

There is a minion as standby at all times, to operate to video player for John Williams. He has signed many NDA's.

[Nick1Ø66 4,689]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

Bernstein, Goldsmith and Horner did go on record that they sometimes would watch a single scene 20 times, the rest not so much, to crack the general approach. When this one scene worked, they would go on writing the rest.

 

Makes a lot of sense actually.

[zoltan_902 141]

3 hours ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

But Babe was 1995...

 

Yeah. How the f*ck do I edit the thread title?

[Incanus 5,713]

You just edit your original post where you can change the title.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

If you click the edit button you should be able to edit the thread title.

Just now, Incanus said:

You just edit your original post where you can change the title.

 

Dóh! You beat me!