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Showing content with the highest reputation on 14/08/19 in Posts

  1. There is no "dark side", he's just a top professional who requests a certain kind of behaviour and attitude from the people who work for/with him. He doesn't fire musicians just because they accidentally drop a pencil on the floor. What Don and Dan Higgins said in the clips above is that, if you're recording with JW, you as a player don't call to stop the take for any reason. JW might even ignore a performance error, a pencil dropping, or a noisy pageturn because he might like the energy and the feel of that particular take, so he might want to continue and get to the end. He's the "commander in chief" on the recording stage, so it's up to him calling the shots and decide if the take has to be stopped or not. He might prefer to do a full take, even if there are performance errors, check it, address the various issues, and then doing another full one. If you ends up making a zillion of stops during a single take, you lose more time, hence more money. And you also lose the musicality and the feeling of the actual performance from the players.
    4 points
  2. Williams has already loaded the Rogue One master tapes into a cannon and they're aimed at the sun.
    3 points
  3. SOURCE: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER: Rumored PHANTOM character revealed in THIS surprising behind-the-scenes photo
    2 points
  4. Chen will now discuss with you the 3 part structure of the story arc.
    2 points
  5. Bespin

    .

    Not the Throne room again, mercy!
    2 points
  6. I love this, he slips in theme after theme, making it seem so effortless—
    2 points
  7. THIS rendition of the Force Theme! (at 4:43)
    2 points
  8. I agree with that. I just don't think Williams fired a person, Harvey Weinstein or Donald Trump-style, over a single incident like that. Like Don said, he reprimanded said concert master with a strict "I'll have to have the floor". If he was fired, someone else in the project must have done it to accomodate Williams, or he must have transgressed repeatedly. Anything else would be absurd. It would go against everyhing we know about Williams as a person.
    2 points
  9. Again, people here are not focusing on what was the point of Don Williams speaking about that episode: when you record with JW, you just focus on doing your best performance, because that's what you're requested to do. It's not up to you (even if you're concertmaster) to stop the take for any reason--"iron fist in a velvet glove" is probably an apt definition when it comes to JW (or any other great conductor) on the recording stage.
    2 points
  10. Finally, I opened my sealed copy of this magnificent 3CD set. I know Iam late, had the set since ages but never found the right kind of moment to enjoy the score untill I forced myself at 11pm last night. Wow what a journey. Gorgeous and breadthtaking. The sound is so improved here. The notes mention that it was also recorded at UCLA's Royce Hall. I suppose the Barbara Bonney vocals were recorded there as well as 'David's Arrival' cue. The sound is so vibrant in these recordings that it reminded me of the Williams Spielberg III recording (Alas that album never recorded the AI Themes) The plethora of unreleased material is riveting. Fabulous assembly by Matessino. Too bad this set is now sadly OOP. Hope everyone got their copy. BTW, my cover of the booklet seems a bit having a few printing smudges on it. Do you think LLL might have a few extra booklets? I remember reading once they replaced a few to those who had the same problem.
    2 points
  11. Koray Savas

    STRANGER THINGS

    Anyone who dies off screen in anything is never dead!
    2 points
  12. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (OST) by John Williams The prequel OSTs continue to prove interesting in terms of the music they display and the way that it's compiled. The Main Title is cut off near the end by the exuberant Boys Into Battle cue, and while the transition isn't the most graceful, it's probably a lot easier than trying to fade it into the quieting strings (believe me, I've tried to do it!). Of course, while Attack of the Clones offered the most diverse musical palette in the saga, Revenge of the Sith has a number of uncharacteristic fancies that also set it apart. This is evident in the deft beauty of Anakin's Dream, especially the violin solo in the first minute (insert heart eyes emoticon). Battle of the Heroes and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan provide coverage for the sprawling action setpiece of the third act- the climactic lightsaber duel. It's not quite on the level of some other cues in this film, but I feel it's serves its purpose just fine. When listening in "complete form" it can get kind of repetitive though. Anakin's Betrayal is a two-part deal, opening with the lament for Order 66 and closing with a segment from the Orff reminiscent It Can't Be cue. Palpatine's Teachings is another peculiarity, throwing a line forward to the Snoke material from The Force Awakens and providing grounded support for a number of fan theories. I quite liked Grievous' theme when I first heard it, but now perhaps I think it's a little too much. I mean I love to hear the choir just go for it, but in terms of how it suits the character it might be a little overkill. The Immolation Scene continues the sorrowful adagio for strings idiom that seems to be something of a distinct attribute of Revenge of the Sith. The Birth of the Twins and Padme's Destiny always had a mysterious feeling to it, and the funeral procession closes the track quite nicely. Can't say I approve of the Throne Room in the End Credits, which is otherwise just a platform for Princess Leia's theme and more Battle of the Heroes. Attack of the Clones may very well boast the best album presentation of the Star Wars saga, but Revenge of the Sith isn't too far off. There are a few brief moments whose omittance is unfortunate (I'm thinking Arrival on Utapau and Droids, Swimming, Yoda Farewell), and perhaps some editing decisions could have been better, but this OST passes as sufficient in my books.
    2 points
  13. The older I get, the sillier I find these comparisons. I'm perfectly happy enjoying The Lord of the Rings for what it is, and Star Wars for what it is. While they have many similarities (the influence of the story of The Lord of the Rings on Star Wars runs very deep indeed) they also have many distinctions. Star Wars has the space setting, it has familial ties across both sides of the conflict (an element that admittedly gets soapy if played too often, see Sequel Trilogy, The) and it introduces us to a world under one centralized rule: a good one, in the prequel trilogy; an evil one, in the first trilogy. Personally, I like The Lord of the Rings series much more. It has a greater sense of heft to it. There's not a single moment in Star Wars that touched my heart in a way that's anywhere near that of Sam picking Frodo up. Its just more profound that way. Even moments like the opening of the Hidden Door I find immensly moving to this day. Star Wars very rarely aims to move its audience, and its generally aiming at a younger demographic, anyway. I also find the fact that all six movies were made by the same producer/writer/director and the same core creative team, and that each trilogy was essentially produced as one big movie in three parts, to be more conducive to a sense of an overall arc than the Star Wars approach. The way the films change styles (in terms of direction) between entries like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back or between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is quite jarring, and you also get rather egregious continuity issues like Leia being Luke's sister all of a sudden, which is bollocks.
    2 points
  14. That much is true: the films are much lighter, more dynamic, succint, and the plot is allowed to unfold in an almost completely linear manner (little to no use of flashback/flashforward). The Middle Earth films, by comparison, take an already complex narrative, full of a large number of characters, setpieces, story threads and concepts, and compounds that complexity by playing large parts of it out of chronological order. Technically, too, certainly with regards to the entries directed by George Lucas, the filmmaking style of Star Wars is much more plain: not very pushed closeups, not a lot of movement, high-key lighting, no long takes to speak of, no use of slow-motion, etcetra. By comparison, Peter Jackson's camerawork is full of movement, stark closeups, superimposition, slow-motion, POV shots, etcetra. Its much more florid that way. The space setting really serves Star Wars in this regard, too, because each planet is distilled to one archetypal environment: Tatooine is a desert planet; Hoth is an ice planet; Dagobah is a swamp planet, and Curoscant is an urban planet. We never get - nor do we need - a sense of geography of the Galaxy itself, other than there being an "outer rim" over which both the Republic and Empire - we come to learn - can't maintain tight control. By comparison, the viewer of the Middle Earth films needs to get some sense for the geography of Middle Earth, hence the occasional shots of map throughout the films. I would also say some of the characterizations are more complex. The most complex character Star Wars pulled off is Kylo Ren, but he's still the villain of the piece. The Middle Earth films pull off complex characters as deuteragonists and protagonists, such as Thorin and Boromir. The way the story is serialized is more complex, too. With the exception of The Last Jedi, every Star Wars film is set within some time period away from the previous film, and the text crawl is used to reorient the audience. With Middle Earth, each film within each trilogy is technically set immediately after the end of the previous one, with little to no recap. There are certain thematic ideas in Sir Peter's films which are more complex, too. There's a commentary on isolationism throughout all six films, from the Hobbits' "its non of our concern what goes on beyond our borders" to Thranduils "other lands are not my concern" and Treebeard's "This is not our war." Star Wars isn't in the same thematic ballpark. The imagery's and some story beats are more challenging, of course. I forgot how violent the fight with Lurtz really was! and the severed heads catapulted into Minas Tirith, yeesh! The only Star Wars film to play in the same league was Revenge of the Sith. Part of the distinction comes from Star Wars being aimed at a younger demographic. That also effects their popularity, with people being exposed to Star Wars at a younger, more impressionable age.
    1 point
  15. 1 point
  16. Ah, the underwater symphony.
    1 point
  17. Wojo

    STRANGER THINGS

    Or without a silent clock! Looking at you, Tony Almeida.
    1 point
  18. Well of course there's a couple wonky shots in those 11 hours I can think of off the top of my head, but for a nearly scratch-built local VFX studio in 1999-2004, working from not that huge a budget, they still look fantastic. The blurays can go to hell for that green tint on Fellowship EE. For slowmo, I only have a problem with those crappy choppy low framerate ones, most prominent in Fellowship I think. Silly heroic moments and cheesy one-liners... it's one of the last relics of the 90s, before 911 changed it all. There are Hobbitesque problems rearing there heads by the end, but overall I think we can salute PJ for mostly successfully restraining himself from being himself out of respect for the material!
    1 point
  19. Rather cute analysis from Sherlock above, and to be slightly fair they do refer to the OST and film 'differing' near the end, but it doesn't make their actual analysis any less wrong. I've occasionally tried to explain to someone how a score album usually doesn't have all of a film's music. This has been met with blank stares.
    1 point
  20. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (OST) by John Williams When it comes to the prequel scores it's become a shorthand for many to revert to one of numerous "complete" edits when listening. Be that as it may, it's certainly worth the while to revisit the OSTs of these treasure troves to examine coherence and listening experience, with the slight possibility of being familiar enough with individual cues to notice the edits within the tracks. With, say, The Phantom Menace this is a considerable difficulty for me, because the OST simply doesn't flow. It's very choppy, and cues are being attached and cut all over the place in a way that just doesn't work in a very pleasurable manner. With Attack of the Clones the album may in fact be one of the best in the whole saga, which is saying something. This score in "complete" form isn't neccesarily the best way to listen in my opinion, and I'm quite pleased upon revisiting the album that it holds up as a highlight-filled comprehensive taste of what the whole score is. From the Main Title into Ambush on Coruscant, which wisely fades into some Kamino material before long. Across the Stars, the gorgeous love theme for the film, receives a concert suite in the next track, and is reprised in a variety of lovely and sweeping ways, my favourite of which is probably in The Meadow Picnic. If there's one tiny bone I have to pick with this presentation it's that I don't really like the album version of Zam the Assasin and Chase Through Coruscant, although I still feel it's a great piece of music. Yoda and the Younglings often reminds me of Hatching Baby Raptor, more so during the map/lost planet sequence than anywhere else of course. Anakin and Padme employs the woodwinds in a very unique way, really reminding me of just how different Attack of the Clones is as a Star Wars score. Jango's Escape and Bounty Hunter's Pursuit are two action tracks, the latter dying down into some mysterious repeating sections. As I already mentioned, The Meadow Picnic is one of my favourite cues of the score. Return to Tatooine's primary ostinato resembles a few of the other ideas in the score, namely the Kamino motif. I always liked the percussion and muted trumpets in The Tusken Camp and The Homestead, but then again when don't I like percussion and muted trumpets? Love Pledge and the Arena contains another of the aforementioned Across the Stars quotes, before the mood quickly changes as the execution begins, and the official manliest most testosterone-filled music of Williams career kicks in (you spoke, we listened!). Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale has even more special bits to offer before the credits roll. Par exemple, how about that solo female voice when Dooku visits Sidious on Coruscant! From there we hear the Imperial March, put on full power but still presented in a slightly fresher way, and the last sweeping strings of Across the Stars. Attack of the Clones is a real mystery box, and a future expansion will further reveal just how whimsically different it really is. Nonetheless, the OST will always be a great fallback for an adequate and fulfilling 73 minute sampler.
    1 point
  21. Revisited the film today (theatrical cut), and here is the chronological order of the cue titles to the best of my recollection: Break In Revisited Did I Approve TV Debate Election Results I Hate To Lose Mother's Faithful Dog Football To Campaigning Nixon Plays I Want A Divorce You Won't Have Nixon To Kick Around The Jones Ranch Johnson's Speech Flashback To Cuba A Day At The Races Talking With Lincoln Harold's Death Ship Meeting Kitchen Talk Nixon Tries To Explain Battle Hymn-Ending It's A Lie Sounds Like Mother Lewis J. Fielding M.D. (Part 2) China Bells Mitchell Must Go We Failed Him The Bridge Firing Of Associates Father-Daughter Scene The News Mother Appears Nixon To Hospital Back To Life I'm Not A Crook You Have The Army If There Was Another Recording Praying Farewell Speech Also, can anyone identify the vocal track heard during the end credits?
    1 point
  22. 4:33 - 4:46 Homeboy JW dropping some sick beats:
    1 point
  23. 1 point
  24. 5:35 - 6:27 This bit with Yoda's Theme is so cool! Love the "bizarre" string accompaniment from 6:07.
    1 point
  25. THAT! Oh. My. Williams God! 3:08 to the end.
    1 point
  26. These low brass statements of Rose and Rey's themes in "The Battle of Crait." Sort of just struck me how similar they sound here. Big and heavy yet propulsive, uplifting. Cool sound.
    1 point
  27. It almost certainly has been mentioned before, but the build to the Rebel Fanfare statement followed by the seamless segue into Rey's theme at 2:53 in The Battle of Crait is absolutely sublime. It never ceases to impress me how well the themes for this new trilogy are able to work alongside the preexisting thematic material established 40 years back.
    1 point
  28. The end of "Rescuing Sarah" is incredible. I don't know how to describe it, other than it's a total shift in mood and style from the percussive danger up to that point. The music is vaguely triumphant yet also foreboding, uncertain, questing. 6:25 to end
    1 point
  29. Speaking of JP, I always loved the part at 3:29 so much! When the cello make an ascension… just wow.
    1 point
  30. Omg this part (2:57) always gives me goosebumps! Those lower strings (3:02-03)!!!!!!!!!!
    1 point
  31. From 1:06 to 1:19, that oboe solo gets me every time, so ethereal.
    1 point
  32. 3:53 - 4:14 This whole passage has so much momentum it could launch a satellite out of the Solar System! The harmonic shift at 4:13 is particularly forceful.
    1 point
  33. Of course you never got frustrated. You always stick to your principles. Honestly, you cannot deny that there are complete scores that are much better than the OST. The Lost World is okay on the OST, but the complete score is a perfect listening experience - musically much more balanced, with raising tension and gradually developping motifs and no dilettante edits.
    1 point
  34. If I were a composer and had the option, I'd release everything I wrote on release. If some fans (a very microscopic amount I would imagine) want less music, then they have the option to edit their own version of the score. We shouldn't have to miss out on a ton of music just because some ADHD patients with a tiny attention span want less music for some bizarre reason.
    1 point
  35. Battle of Yavin climax. Incredible.
    1 point
  36. Fighting the Destroyer Droids. Amazing cue.
    1 point
  37. Yes, absolutely! They couldn't go back and change Murphy's original mixes but Matessino did a brilliant job remastering the score, cleaning up that omnipresent hiss on the OST while enhancing the finer details. The score will never have that crispness and clarity of several other JW scores from the same era, but that's a result of the recording (and was presumably intentional). The score has never sounded as good as it does here though; I can't imagine there's any improvement left to be made.
    1 point
  38. I love love LOVE this bit between 4:12-17: Sounds like it comes straight from a symphony somewhere!
    1 point
  39. 1:18 of "I Can Fly Anything" It Introduces Poe Dameron's flying theme in a great way.
    1 point
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