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ET by Hans Zimmer


Quintus

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He, he....well, it's a nice 'boyroom' experiment, but hardly more than that. There's so much going on in Williams' music here in terms a) synch points, b) themes with narrative signficance and c) instrumental choices that heighten the specfic moments that a random cut-and-paste job like this doesn't work that well.

But if it had been edited more cleverly to hit synch points and avoid Williams' music seeping through when the dialogue comes in (allowing for some weird dissonance), then maybe it would have been an interesting alternative take.

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Better than the original? :mrgreen:

Better than one of the best marriages of music and film ever? Mmmm . . . not quite.

It's interesting. It's fun how it fits in some places. But watching it as a whole is a downer. Makes it look like the composer (in the suggested alternate universe that this takes place) mistook Spielberg's masterpiece as a noir film. It's all about the sadness, with none of the victorious elements that inspired the real score.

If nothing else, however, this little project only increases my love for the actual work that much more—something I wasn't sure was possible.

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Yes, that is a good point (and it was kind of baked into my previous argument). The scene is all about BITTERSWEETNESS, i.e. the combination of sadness and warmth. The track above only does one of the two.

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But if it had been edited more cleverly to ...... and avoid Williams' music seeping through when the dialogue comes in (allowing for some weird dissonance).

That has very little to do with editing, and more to do with the fact that no-one has the original dialogue without music underneath.

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Either people really hate ET or they're demonstrating their love for it by showing how inferior music can hurt a film.

And the black and white version of Raiders with electronic music was a statement about the Blu-ray transfer with the screwed up colors.

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But if it had been edited more cleverly to ...... and avoid Williams' music seeping through when the dialogue comes in (allowing for some weird dissonance).

That has very little to do with editing, and more to do with the fact that no-one has the original dialogue without music underneath.

True, which is why such a project is almost impossible. At least untill an isolated dialogue/SFX track emerges.

I'm all FOR such projects, though, if they're edited cleverly and not just pasted in with one or two random hit points (incidentally, such random hit points will occur naturally when you put anything against anything).

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I'm all FOR such projects, though, if they're edited cleverly and not just pasted in with one or two random hit points (incidentally, such random hit points will occur naturally when you put anything against anything).

But that's what makes it fun most of the time—the way music from one source matches up uncannily with the visuals from another. For instance, I set the scene where Bilbo wakes up at Bag End, and then chases after the dwarves, with music from about 10 other films (Galaxy Quest, The Last Starfighter, Batman and Robin, and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home, among others). The results were often hilarious, and, like I said, ironically appropriate. (I have become solidly convinced that the music from the Back to the Future trilogy can be made to fit just about any movie.) It was something my kids and I had a good laugh over. But that's when this kind of thing usually works best: when it's a tongue-in-cheek romp. I'm don't think it would be nearly as fun to try to seriously rescore a scene . . . unless it's to a movie with a score that genuinely sucks, and you're recasting it with a Williams or Goldsmith classic, thereby improving it in a way it probably doesn't deserve. Maybe then.

But redoing a masterpiece with a lesser work, as the E.T. video attempts to do? Nah. I don't see much point to that at all.

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I'm all FOR such projects, though, if they're edited cleverly and not just pasted in with one or two random hit points (incidentally, such random hit points will occur naturally when you put anything against anything).

But that's what makes it fun most of the time—the way music from one source matches up uncannily with the visuals from another. For instance, I set the scene where Bilbo wakes up at Bag End, and then chases after the dwarves, with music from about 10 other films (Galaxy Quest, The Last Starfighter, Batman and Robin, and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home, among others). The results were often hilarious, and, like I said, ironically appropriate. (I have become solidly convinced that the music from the Back to the Future trilogy can be made to fit just about any movie.) It was something my kids and I had a good laugh over. But that's when this kind of thing usually works best: when it's a tongue-in-cheek romp. I'm don't think it would be nearly as fun to try to seriously rescore a scene . . .

Maybe not in a 'party trick' kind of way, but if I'm to take it seriously (and God knows I'm extremely serious), I much rather prefer an alternative approach that has been carefully worked on to fit as much as possible.

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