101 replies to this topic

[Maestro]

I'm interviewing Hooper this Friday for FSM, and thought I'd open up the floor and see if anyone here had some good questions. I'm definitely going to (politely) dig into his reasoning for abandoning Williams' themes.

Thanks!
Maestro/Tim

[paleo]

I would like to know if he cannot write memorable themes, but since you are not going to ask him that (who would...), I am interested in why he thinks that a very restrained, quiet, and simple approach does do justice to the drama and fantasy of Harry Potter (which in my opinion, as apparently in those of Williams and Doyle, begs for boldness and color). Also, what is Hooper's opinion on continuity? Fans usually would like to hear not only the main theme of the franchise, but also the majority of other firmly established ideas mixed with new material, but sequel composers usually abandon most of the existing material of colleagues, so what does he think?
One concrete question: Could he imagine using the theme for Dobby from Chamber of Secrets (just as an example), or will we have to get used to a new one (as I would guess in his case)?

[scallenger]

Good questions, paleo!

I would like to ask how he is going to tackle "Deathly Hallows", if he is indeed going to score it, for the story is full of action, and if the score is not as well, it simply will NOT work.

Thanks.

[BurgaFlippinMan]

Ask him what he thinks of the reception of his scores. You know, how most people seem to think that it lacks the big screen magic and is too TV-ish. Of course, you'll probably have to word it a little more nicely than that.

[Koray Savas]

Will you be coming back to score Deathly Hallows?

Now we can finally get Josh to stop thinking Williams will come back.

[SF1_freeze]

Great you got him for the Interview. That will be a longer post but i hope you can use my input.
And i want to beg you to be critical in your interview approach, that's the only way to get satisfying answers to
some of our concerns here. Even if you post the critical questions just on this board and not in the FSM issue.
Please at least ask some of those .
(If you dont want to ask critical questions just tell him that you got some printed questions not by you from
a fan and give him a printed sheet with thecritical ones. So he at least knows about the problems a lot of us had with his soundtracks.
Maybe that changes his approach if he does Deathly Hallows)


Here are the questions:

1) Did you know about the dissapointment by a lot of filmmusic fans about the lack of all original themes
except Hedwig's in Order of the Phoenix and if you knew, did that change your approach on the Half Blood Prince?


2) A typical phrase from director, producer, etc... regarding the abandoment of the original themes was that the films got darker and
there had to be a different approach taken.
In my opinion there was a lot dark original material which could have reprised as cameos just for continuities sake. Just
to create a short sense of "Hey there is a known melody, great". It would in no way diminish your own work to have
more short cameos of original themes just to satisfy the fans.
What's your opinion about that statement?


3) Is there a special reason why you only ever played Hedwigs theme at max 20sec and stopped then. Is there no way to
here it in its entirety again if you are the composer?


4) Is it true that you spoke with John Williams for Half Blood Prince and what did you talk about?


5) What is the reasoning as a composer to abandon almost all original material after 4 films in a blockbuster franchise?


6) Why did you and Mr Yates change the established ending of the first four Potter movies for OOTP from the Hedwigs Signature theme and animated Credits to a
Screensaver Picture with no Hedwig's theme Cameo


7) Why do you all think just because the films changed a bit and got darker to throw away so much continuity in music. It's not necessary to change that
much to keep the audience interested.
Look at the Star Wars movies, they had continuity and similar approach for sicx films and were very successful. (But they also had the same composer)


8) We counted and in whole OOTP you played Hedwigs theme about 5 times for a total of 1min time in a 1hour 45min soundtrack !!!!!
That's not enough for a main theme in a blockbucter franchise even if you hadn't written it.
What's your opinion on that and will it occur more often and longer in Half Blood Prince. In the soundtrack it is only played for 25sec total!?!?!
Why that, it is the franchise main theme after all!!!


9) Are you involved in future Harry Potter films? If so is there a chance to collaborate with John Williams on the last one?


10) I loved the "Farewell Aragog" track and i think its one of your best melodies. It would be a great theme for Hagrid. Is it
somehow connected to Hagrid and may it return if you are still involved in the franchise?

11) Was the choir you used in Half Blood Prince for the great "In noctem" for example real or synth?

12) Why did you use the London chamber orchestra instead of the great LSO. Were budgetary restraints in play?

13) Is it important for you what filmmusic fans think about your approach and music? Do you read the reviews of your OOTP soundtrack?
Does that change your approach for future film scores?

14) Did you know about the Williams theme for Fawkes the Phoenix from the second Potter movie? It is a fan favourite. Would you mind to cameo it
in future films just to satisfy the fans? (Did you use it in Half Blood Prince for Fawkes scenes)

15) I listened to some Half Blood Prince tracks and noticed in Ron's victory you were inspired by Quidditch Third Year from PoA.
That's exactly what we fans want to hear. Just some familiar glimpses of John Williams original Potter music. Thank you for that.


16) What original themes did you use except Hedwig's theme and the Quidditch Third Year motif in Half Blood Prince?




So that's all i could think of by now

[Koray Savas]

Uh, a lot of those questions are redundant not to mention too much for 1 interview.

[Josh500]

You can politely ask him why he composed such a pile of shit!

Seriously, you can ask him whether John Williams really wants to do DH, and if so, whether NH is willing to step down.

[Koray Savas]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

[Josh500]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

OK, here's a respectful question:

Mr. Hooper, why are you so talented? Your themes... they are so incredibly memorable and fantastic! How do you do it?

9) Are you involved in future Harry Potter films? If so is there a chance to collaborate with John Williams on the last one?

Now, don't put ideas into his head! I shudder when I even think about it. That would be worse than JW working with WR on CoA.

[Diego]

Williams himself abandoned most of his themes for POA, the truth is that the two Colombus happy children films don't work well with the later movies in the series and the same goes for the scores, the themes from PS won't work in later movies, Williams knew this.

[Koray Savas]

Ask realistic respectful questions. Don't insult the guy and ask him if he will step down for John Williams.

[Josh500]

Williams himself abandoned most of his themes for POA, the truth is that the two Colombus happy children films don't work well with the later movies in the series and the same goes for the scores, the themes from PS won't work in later movies, Williams knew this.

That's true, but only partly.

In PoA, there's no Voldemort, Dobby, Fawkes, etc. These themes could be reused when the characters reappear.

[Diego]

There's plenty of mentions of Voldemort in POA, so a couple of variations of his theme could have been used, but I don't think it would have worked. Dobby's theme is barely in the movie it was composed for, so I doubt even with Williams it would be back.

[Josh500]

There's plenty of mentions of Voldemort in POA, so a couple of variations of his theme could have been used, but I don't think it would have worked. Dobby's theme is barely in the movie it was composed for, so I doubt even with Williams it would be back.

So you think, IF JW did come back for DH, he would just write a new theme for Dobby?

Sounds very unlikely to me (not just the fact that he returns).

[Diego]

There doesn't have to be a theme for Dobby in the first place but I'm just saying that in COS we have the concert piece and I think his theme is heard 2 or 3 times in the film and never is it really noticeable, it never reaches the climax of the concert piece in the movie. Williams has been known for forgetting a theme or two (Han Solo and the Princess, a more important theme I might add).

Also, I haven't read DH, but there's a chance Dobby's theme doesn't fit the character anymore. And also, Williams doesn't write or use as many themes per score as he once did.

It doesn't really matter, you know what I think the chances are for Williams scoring DH.

[Hlao-roo]

I'm interviewing Hooper this Friday for FSM, and thought I'd open up the floor and see if anyone here had some good questions.

Does scoring a loud, sound f/x-laden Hollywood picture require you to intentionally orchestrate such that your music can achieve audibility and impact in the sound mix?

Have your Harry Potter assignments opened up other possibilities for you in Hollywood?

Musically, what has been the most challenging aspect or moment in scoring the two Harry Potter films?

In general, how important is it for a film score to maintain internal thematic continuity?

Sometimes, scores can get a pretty rough response at test screenings. In this case, given John Williams's contributions to the first three installments, audiences may have already had an established sense of what to expect musically from a Harry Potter film. Have you personally encountered any resistance to your style or approach to scoring these films, or have those with preconceived notions more or less been appeased with your incorporation of Hedwig's theme?

[paleo]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Well, obviously nobody would ask questions like "for what reason does your score sound dull, boring and like shit?", but I also do not at all like uncritical interviews as they are so typical these days. I think it's totally legitimate to mention that a lot of fans were underwhelmed by his simplistic, largely athematic and inconsistent (in regard to the overall franchise) approach and to ask how he justifies that. The interviewer should imo be more or less neutral; he/she can thus convey general concerns as well as praise (besides asking for the more technical issues like the choice of the orchestra or the orchestration) without insulting or flattering the composer unnecessarily. Otherwise these interviews are useless.

[Diego]

If the interview was made by this forum:

Mr. Hooper, thank you very much for giving us this interview. Let's begin, do you worship Williams as a God like every other film composer should do??

Speaking of Williams, you do realise his farts sound better than your score, right??

Is there any chance you'll realise you'll always be inferior to Williams and step down for the next movie??

And lastly, since your score sucks so much, any chance it might be replaced at the last second by a tape of Williams humming Hedwig's theme over and over??

[king mark]

ask him if John Williams will be back for Deathly Hallows.

I have nothing else to ask

[paleo]

If the interview was made by this forum:

Mr. Hooper, thank you very much for giving us this interview. Let's begin, do you worship Williams as a God like every other film composer should do??

Speaking of Williams, you do realise his farts sound better than your score, right??

Is there any chance you'll realise you'll always be inferior to Williams and step down for the next movie??

And lastly, since your score sucks so much, any chance it might be replaced at the last second by a tape of Williams humming Hedwig's theme over and over??

Haha, very funny. First, this is a John Williams fan forum, so what do you expect . Second, I know you seem to want us all to say these things so you can roll your eyes, even though many people here are a bit more reasonable and fair. What's so wrong about expecting a composer for a franchise to include established ideas into his own work? That's a difficult task, and we can't expect it to be a 100% satisfying end result. But there are composers who managed to not ruin the overall flow and yet expressing their own style (e.g. Don Davis, Jurassic Park 3), whereas Williams really didn't always convince me with his sequel scores, either (e.g. in case of Lost World). It seems most here would have been content if Hooper had just paid a little bit respect to the other Potter composers (yes, even to Doyle, even though I didn't really enjoy his work so much, either); or at leats to have something to offer himself. Imo he did a much better job last time, for example. If you disagree, go ahead and ask your own questions, that's what the forum thread is for. You can praise the score all day and ask Maestro to send Hooper your congratulations.

[Charlie Brigden]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

[Diego]

Relax, it's just a joke. And as I mentioned in another thread I don't like his score either, was bored to death by it and even when he quotes Williams (the quidditch part) didn't sound right to me, so no praises for him. I also didn't like OotP so I guess I just don't like his style, I think Doyle's score was much better.

That said, and regardless of what I think of his score I doubt the poor guy wants to answer 10 Williams related questions and I'm pretty sure Williams is a tough act to follow and surely Hooper is aware of that, no need to ask him.

Also, and I've said this before, a score is music for a visual medium, I don't think anyone here was seen the film, so we only have half of the picture really. The score might fit the film perfectly (perhaps the film is also boring and awful, who knows).

[paleo]

Relax, it's just a joke. And as I mentioned in another thread I don't like his score either, was bored to death by it and even when he quotes Williams (the quidditch part) didn't sound right to me, so no praises for him. I also didn't like OotP so I guess I just don't like his style, I think Doyle's score was much better.

That said, and regardless of what I think of his score I doubt the poor guy wants to answer 10 Williams related questions and I'm pretty sure Williams is a tough act to follow and surely Hooper is aware of that, no need to ask him.

Sorry, not my best day. Anyway, I still think a totally uncritical interview is pointless. He knew what he was getting into, so he will have to live with a couple of questions that indicate a certain disappointment of the fan base. It's for his own best, isn't it (maybe he learns something out of it )

[Hlao-roo]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I don't know that the "general mood behind that is dissatisfaction," though. The reaction from the average member of JWFAN, or even FSM, isn't necessarily indicative of how the general public has received Hooper's music. The average rating on Amazon.com is 3½ stars -- a solid, respectable rating.

[Diego]

I agree some critical questions are needed, but if we go by what people here want to ask (and I do know it's a Williams fan forum that's why I'm here) it'll be something like: so did you talk to Williams?? Do you think Williams is handsome?? Don't you think William's Fawkes theme is awesome?? Then why didn't you use it!!??. And regarding the fan base, I think most Potter fans are happy with each score that is released, and it's really Potter fans who will make the most CD purchases I think.

[Charlie Brigden]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I don't know that the "general mood behind that is dissatisfaction," though. The reaction from the average member of JWFAN, or even FSM, isn't necessarily indicative of how the general public has received Hooper's music. The average rating on Amazon.com is 3½ stars -- a solid, respectable rating.

This is true, as I don't follow HP I don't know how it is outside, just inside the microcosm that is JWFan. But my point remains.

And I agree, moronic Williams-centric questions are more likely. Such as 'do you have a black turtleneck?'

[paleo]

As I said, I agree that these questions shouldn't all be like what you mentioned, but continuity within the franchise is legitimate, and it is not necessary to go through each and every theme to get an answer concerning the general problem. But Maestro is probably not solely using our questions anyway, so I doubt there is much danger that it ends as you jokingly suggested . There are also plenty of other things to discuss in this case, such as internal continuity, complexity, orchestration etc., after all. And I am aware that there will be people who like Hooper"s score, as seen in the Variety review...

[Koray Savas]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I agree with you. I meant the wording of a lot of these questions, as well as everything being Williams related. And like you said, there is a way to pose disrespectful questions in a respectful way. Josh's utterly stupid question: Would you step down for John Williams? Seriously? Who in their right mind would ask that?

[Charlie Brigden]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I agree with you. I meant the wording of a lot of these questions, as well as everything being Williams related. And like you said, there is a way to pose disrespectful questions in a respectful way. Josh's utterly stupid question: Would you step down for John Williams? Seriously? Who in their right mind would ask that?

I agree, that is the dumbest of the dumb.

[Josh500]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I agree with you. I meant the wording of a lot of these questions, as well as everything being Williams related. And like you said, there is a way to pose disrespectful questions in a respectful way. Josh's utterly stupid question: Would you step down for John Williams? Seriously? Who in their right mind would ask that?

You never heard of sarcasm, huh? You truly are the dumbest of the dumb.

[Hlao-roo]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I agree with you. I meant the wording of a lot of these questions, as well as everything being Williams related. And like you said, there is a way to pose disrespectful questions in a respectful way. Josh's utterly stupid question: Would you step down for John Williams? Seriously? Who in their right mind would ask that?

You never heard of sarcasm, huh? You truly are the dumbest of the dumb.

Not really. Without the verbal and non-verbal cues of face-to-face communication, people can have difficulty detecting irony. When one uses sarcasm in an online message board, one has to expect that some will pick up on it, and others will not. It has more to do with their level of familiarity with the poster's tendencies -- and how well the poster has established a context signaling his sarcasm -- than it has to with their level of intelligence.

[Josh500]

Do you guys realize a lot of these are rather disrespectful? Why did you do this, why didn't you use all these Williams themes, your music is terrible, blah blah blah.

Why is that disrespectful? The composer has put out something that is part of a product that (most) people are paying money to see and hear, and if the general mood behind that is dissatisfaction, why can this not be confronted? If anything, shying away from that is more disrespectful because it means you're afraid to ask actual probing questions as opposed to the usual 'you must have had so much fun scoring this, am I right?' malarkey.

It's this kind of EW fluff that should be excised, and replaced with something with a little more substance. Also, anyone who has interviewed people knows there are many ways to pose "disrespectful" questions in a respectful way.

I agree with you. I meant the wording of a lot of these questions, as well as everything being Williams related. And like you said, there is a way to pose disrespectful questions in a respectful way. Josh's utterly stupid question: Would you step down for John Williams? Seriously? Who in their right mind would ask that?

You never heard of sarcasm, huh? You truly are the dumbest of the dumb.

Not really. Without the verbal and non-verbal cues of face-to-face communication, people can have difficulty detecting irony. When one uses sarcasm in an online message board, one has to expect that some will pick up on it, and others will not. It has more to do with their level of familiarity with the poster's tendencies than it has to with their level of intelligence.

You have to be extremely dumb if you really think an interviewer should ask Nicholas Hooper: "Will you step down for John Williams?" In exactly these words.

Koray is just still pissed off over my HZ fanboy comment is all. Oh well.

[SF1_freeze]

Relax, it's just a joke. And as I mentioned in another thread I don't like his score either, was bored to death by it and even when he quotes Williams (the quidditch part) didn't sound right to me, so no praises for him. I also didn't like OotP so I guess I just don't like his style, I think Doyle's score was much better.

That said, and regardless of what I think of his score I doubt the poor guy wants to answer 10 Williams related questions and I'm pretty sure Williams is a tough act to follow and surely Hooper is aware of that, no need to ask him.

Also, and I've said this before, a score is music for a visual medium, I don't think anyone here was seen the film, so we only have half of the picture really. The score might fit the film perfectly (perhaps the film is also boring and awful, who knows).

Nobody is interested in the standard answers we all know already before given. Like how much fun it was scoring it and what his "themes" look like. A little insight into the scoring process is interesting and new. Most of the interesting things relate to the original themes and his use because its the weakpoint of the score and nbdy really understands Hoopers behaviour.

How can it be disrespectful to mention the weakpoints. I can't stand the usual cheering on everything thats done for a movie, like in dvd extras. Everyone says it was their best working experience and they are so proud and blablabla....

[Josh500]

The questions will always be the same, more or less. After all, there are so many questions you can ask a film composer.

You can just hope the composer will give some interesting answers, is all.

BTW, asking NH about JW is not disrespectful. Why should it be?

[John Crichton]

Tim, I would just ignore this thread and ask your own questions.

[Hlao-roo]

Tim, I would just ignore this thread and ask your own questions.

Hey, I thought I had some decent suggestions.

[Josh500]

ask him if John Williams will be back for Deathly Hallows.

I have nothing else to ask

Basically, yes.


That'd be a funny interview, though:

Interviewer: Thank you for this interview, Mr. Hooper.
Nicholas Hooper: Oh, no problem, no problem.
Interviewer: So, let me ask you, without further ado, "WILL John Williams be back for the Deathly Hallows?" I'm sure all the fans out there want to know.
Nicholas Hooper: You know, as to that, I haven't the slightest idea. I think the director hasn't decided yet. But I hope--
Interviewer: Well, that's too bad. Anyway, thanks for this interview. Good day.

[Wojo]

ask him if John Williams will be back for Deathly Hallows.

I have nothing else to ask

That's like walking into a McDonald's and asking if there's a Burger King nearby.

[Blumenkohl]

Maestro, don't waste your time digging the bottom of the barrel for questions, there's far more worthy places on the web to find questions.