424 replies to this topic

[Matt C]

I thought Giacchino would've been "encouraged" to record the John Carter score in London since some post-production work (and filming) was done in the UK. I would love to hear Giacchino's music performed by European musicians for once.

[Chaac]

Giacchino's music sounds very good in person and would greatly benefit of proper recordings.

[BloodBoal]

As long as we have a ukelele in John Carter score, I don't care which orchestra will record it.

[Matt C]

Giacchino's music sounds very good in person and would greatly benefit of proper recordings.

Dan Wallin has done some terrible mixing in the past (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is just pitiful), but his Giacchino scores sound all right to fairly decent. Giacchino's earlier video game scores recorded in Seattle sound a lot better, due to Wallin's non-involvement.

I would love to hear a Giacchino score recorded and mixed by someone like Geoff Foster, Simon Rhodes or even Bruce Botnick.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Selections from Giacchino's score will premiere Saturday on WQXR:

On Saturday, December 17 at 9-10 pm EST, Michael Giacchino will join me live on my WQXR radio show Movies on the Radio. We're planning to premier some of his "John Carter" score, play highlights from a few of his past projects, and answer listener questions. We've set up a page for the show where you can submit your questions and comments in advance:
http://www.wqxr.org/...es/2011/dec/17/
You can also use that page to respond live during the show.

I know that forum member Neilbucket recently invited questions for Giacchino, so if you missed that opportunity, here's another chance. We're not set up to take phone calls, but we'll respond to as many online questions as we can during the hour. It'd be great to get some well-informed questions of the type likely to come from FSM forum users.
--David Garland

[Demondm810]

Fantastic news. I'm hoping for great things from this one!

[Delorean90]

Wow, this is sounding really good. Harkens back to some of the old-school adventure of some of his best video game music, I think, while also having elements of his evolution as a composer. Nice little orchestrational touches I'm hearing--the little clarinet moment in the action music, and then some of the following music...almost has a hint of a Russian Romantic flair to it. Subtle, but there. And the melodic development of this music is some of the best I've heard from a film score by him, particularly in terms of an action cue. I'm definitely excited for this.

[OneBuckFilms]

I'm really impressed with the John Carter material. Really, really, REALLY nice.

[Chaac]

I'm going to listen to it now. It's cool we can hear something this early.

Edit:

Oookay.

John Carter's Theme. My favourite part is the mysterious opening, makes me think of a western, probably because I was predisposed to it. I like this melody.

Pursuit of Dejah. Reminds me of Gia's videogame music. The big entrances of John Carter's theme make me think on some old film. A pirate film. Old Egypt. You get the idea. I love the part in which the action is interrupted by a sweet statement of the theme on flute and clarinet and then the strings pick up the action again. Towards the end we get a different theme (the one that starts like Tintin's motif. Maybe it's related to the big green guy, or some location). You can easily imagine the title character saving the princess or something like that

Dejah's Theme. Inevitably Lost-like. At first you think "I've already heard this". It gets better, though.

[Incanus]

The whole interview was great. Giacchino has such passion and enthusiasm for film scores it is a joy to hear him speak of his own early experiences with it, his film making and how he got into music more seriously. John Williams got a mention in the form of the question what are the latest soundtracks Giacchino has bought, Tintin and 1941 as most recent examples, and the composer promising to buy War Horse soon.


The three selections of John Carter sounded excellent. All in all I think we are in for a quite old fashioned adventure score. It is nice to hear Giacchino keeping the classic orchestral music tradition alive in such a great fashion in his scores.

[luke905]

I uploaded on YouTube the three pieces heard during the program.
Enjoy!

[Joe Brausam]

So this is.....really good!

[crocodile]

I like it, I really do. Giacchino is on fire!

John Carter is pretty delicate for an action hero. The theme feels like Horner love themes of Krull and, bizzarely, Gorky Park. I like that.

Karol

[Ro Sajooc]

This stuff is superb .

[Demondm810]

This stuff is AMAZING. Looks almost a certainty the music won't disappoint!

[Jason LeBlanc]

Sounds great! Can't wait to hear the whole CD. Hopefully the movie is good too, but I doubt it.

BTW here is a direct link to the entire WQXR show

http://audio.wnyc.org/movies/movies121711.mp3

[Koray Savas]

Not hearing what you guys are.

[Chaac]

Not hearing what you guys are.

Take the first track. It opens with an otherwordly sound, like something that was on Lost, or that was hinted at in Star Trek. Then the melody starts, but it's mysterious, it's like a bit dark. Suddenly it takes an emotional turn. Then the idea is repeated in a bigger, Super 8 esque manner people here seem to like. However you can still intelligently use the beggining of the idea in a big, heroic manner, usually in the brass. This in the middle of Medal of Honor & Star Trek. It's the juxtaposition of colours I guess.

The thing is MG is of the few that cares about going somewhere with his music as he writes new stuff. I find it fun to see all these things adding up, I wonder where it'll go.

[BloodBoal]

Mmmm... I've got a feeling of déjà vu with Dejah's theme...

[Romão]

Honestly, I am unable to find the appeal of Gia's music. It just sounds pedestrian and predictable to my untrained ears

[Stefancos]

Same here. It's lacking that certain element that makes it more then functional film music.

[crocodile]

I think he's learning fast. Not up there yet, of course.

Karol

[tharpdevenport]

I disent from popular opinion*.




* = again.

[Demondm810]

Sounds great! Can't wait to hear the whole CD. Hopefully the movie is good too, but I doubt it.

BTW here is a direct link to the entire WQXR show

http://audio.wnyc.org/movies/movies121711.mp3

I agree, movie looks less than appealing.

[Miles Prower]

Ya know, Stanton talks a big game (one of his tweets was something like "I have one rule for movies: just make me care"), and his two directorial efforts at Pixar were fantastic... I have hope.

But the music... wow, 'Pursuit of Dejah' was brilliant. And my cat (named Deja ) was there to listen to it too.

[Neimoidian]

I think he's learning fast. Not up there yet, of course.

Karol

My problem with MG is that he has already been there,but he seems to have lost "it" a few years ago. Out of his recent film scores only Super 8 seemed to be a step in right direction. (I still haven't heard his new M:I score, nor the snippets from John Carter).

[Blumenkohl]

Not hearing what you guys are.

Honestly, I am unable to find the appeal of Gia's music. It just sounds pedestrian and predictable to my untrained ears

Same here. It's lacking that certain element that makes it more then functional film music.

I disent from popular opinion*.




* = again.

"Deaf Squadron, reporting in. Over."

[Koray Savas]

I think he's learning fast. Not up there yet, of course.

Karol

My problem with MG is that he has already been there,but he seems to have lost "it" a few years ago. Out of his recent film scores only Super 8 seemed to be a step in right direction. (I still haven't heard his new M:I score, nor the snippets from John Carter).

Those John Carter samples do nothing for me, and I have yet to hear Ghost Protocol, but judging by his work earlier this year, he's not up to the same level as he once was. Season 6 of LOST is as good as scoring gets. What the hell was Monte Carlo and Cars 2?

I'd love to be proven wrong, of course. Powell took a little dip in quality and then slapped me in the face with How To Train Your Dragon.

[Chaac]

I'm being slapped right now.

[Maurizio]

I like a lot what I've heard. I cooled down a lot on Giacchino after Cars 2 and Super 8, but these clips are reinstating my trust in him. Sure, it's not forward-looking music or something that does want to reinvent the wheel, but it seems Giacchino is channeling the ear-candy symphonic style of the 1980s in a really nice way: big, bold orchestral sound with recognizable themes, lots of Lydian modes. Maybe it's not in the same league of the greatest work of that era, but I guess it's the closest thing we can get today.

[king mark]

I thought Giacchino fumbled his big entry into film music with Star Trek. And I don't like his Pixar stuff

That said I enjoy Let Me In and Super 8 a lot and got me on the Gia bandwagon .I also like Land of the Lost

This sounds really good too . The main theme is mysterious and beautiful (I hear John Barry influences) , Pursuit of Dejah reminds me of Stargate stuff .The third theme is a mix of Let Me In and Lost and sounds amazing

I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

Koray is starting to hate it because it's more lyrical than the rythmic crap he wrote for Star Trek and Speed Racer

[Chaac]

Koray is starting to hate it because it's more lyrical than the rythmic crap he wrote for Star Trek and Speed Racer

Why is Star Trek crap?

[king mark]

I don't like his Star Trek score. Period. Except 1 cue (Labor of Love)


I think the movie was temped with MVish music and they wanted that sound

[Maurizio]

Pursuit of Dejah reminds me of Stargate stuff

Yes, there's a David Arnold-esque vibe all throughout.

[Chaac]

I think the movie was temped with MVish music and they wanted that sound

It doesn't sound MVish to me. (Understanding for MVsh stuff like Crimsom Tide, etc)

[Jason LeBlanc]

I don't think anything in Star Trek soudns MV-ish and I never understood why people thought so

Ya know, Stanton talks a big game (one of his tweets was something like "I have one rule for movies: just make me care"), and his two directorial efforts at Pixar were fantastic... I have hope.

But the music... wow, 'Pursuit of Dejah' was brilliant. And my cat (named Deja ) was there to listen to it too.

Ah, I had no idea you were Miles (MerM) on FSM!

[publicist]

I don't think anything in Star Trek soudns MV-ish and I never understood why people thought so

The loud parts are rather crude and to-the-point as orchestration goes, although it's fun in small doses. I can imagine someone as Williams-spoiled as KM might find this offensive. He certainly hates Goldsmith's NEMESIS, too, since it 's 'plagued' by the same roughness.

[Koray Savas]

Koray is starting to hate it because it's more lyrical than the rythmic crap he wrote for Star Trek and Speed Racer

That actually seems like an accurate description, but not the reason I hate it. I actually don't hate it, never said I did. I just need to hear more. This board has a tendency to make final decisions on scores based on 2 minutes of music.

[Jason LeBlanc]

2 minutes? Those 3 clips total 13 minutes. That's more than we got from Tintin samples prior to its score CD release

---

In other news, the host of the radio show posted this on FSM

As I hope you heard, Michael was a great guest; very engaged and engaging. We had fun! And he'll soon answer the many good listener questions that we didn't have time to answer on the air by addressing them in the comments section of the show page at wqxr.org. Thank you for any questions that came from you folks here!

@tarasis, sorry, but Movies on the Radio isn't available as a podcast because of music rights issues.

@dogplant, you mentioned the interesting sounding instrument used early in "John Carter's Theme." It's not a cimbalom, as you thought it might be. Off-air Michael said it's a celtic harp, and also pointed out that it's played by the same harpist used so prominently on his "Lost" scores--a harpist he admires hugely. He identified her by name; sorry I can't remember her name right now.

And I thought all of you might like to know that in addition to the nearly 13 minutes of "John Carter" Michael shared on the air, he also left me six minutes more: a tremendously exciting action cue titled "Ape Fight," and a dreamy, lilting piece featuring wordless chorus, titled "Therns."
--David Garland

Those other 2 cues sound pretty cool!

[Koray Savas]

2 minutes? Those 3 clips total 13 minutes.

Hyperbole.