Richard Penna

Dumbledore's Death is a minor thing afterall. That happens in like the final 5 minutes of the book doesn't it? What the heck happened before that?

The moment that happens, I get my gun out

Wall-E - I think this will do well. In its 7 or 8 movies, Pixar has only done one, Cars which maybe didn't quite live up to the others (I enjoyed it but it's weaker than the rest IMO), and a lot of word of mouth I'm hearing is how spectacular the movie looks, and the samples of Newman's score sound like he really had fun with it. Dark Knight - The first one was a big success, and Ledger's death has really heightened the anticipation, with it being billed as his last great performance. People are going to want to see this promising young actor one final time. Half-Blood Prince - I'm not one to judge, but I doubt this is going to do much better than the previous movies. It's a little while since I read the book, but you you know, I can barely remember a damn thing that happened in it, and certainly no major 'event' that a movie could really hinge upon. I just remember it being regarded as a 'setup' for the final book. Hulk was enjoyable and I'll probably go see it again when my brother's over his illness, but I maintain that it was nothing to write home about. Maybe those who actually know the comics can judge how good this adaptation was in response to expectations. I have plans to see The Happening soon, although I will prepare myself for the fact that it could royally suck. I really haven't heard many good things at all about it - ranging from Wahlberg's supposedly 'worst ever' performance to a 'cop out' ending and lack of any real twist. Meant to see that, and it disappeared from our local after about 3 weeks Same with Gone Baby Gone actually. I need to badger my brother to go closer to opening day with these smaller movies, and with us it's not so much when we're free, but when both of us are bored enough...

But then a couple of people around here would vanish into that forum, possibly never to be seen again I don't have any strong feelings either way - it might make the place uncluttered, but how would we ever agree on what new categories to make?

The Mist Slightly mixed feelings - the religious woman was getting really annoying by the end (I guess the idea) and the effects were a little flaky towards the start of the film, although they got better. But the morals in the story were interesting, and the last 5 minutes are breathtaking - I don't know how closely the film follows the book, but the ending was a brave move IMO, and gives an interesting twist to the meaning of a happy ending. One of those plot twists that while not quite the Sixth Sense style, will still affect any future viewings of the film because you know something that will happen to several of the characters by the end. The score worked perfectly as well, as the last sequence has 2 lines of dialogue (although I don't think the last sequence was Isham). Very little score in the movie actually, the CD has 30 mins and there was nothing I heard in the movie that I can't find on the OST.

My brother's a big fan, and I like 2 or 3 songs from the new album. I like a reasonable amount of 'normal' music (around 300 songs on here) but film music gets 90% of my attention when seeking new material. I generally get stuff I hear on the radio or in a movie that I like.

I completely agree - that was a truly stunning episode. Tate's performance was magnificent throughout and it was nice to be reminded of everything that's happened since the 2006 Xmas special. The preview for next week looks interesting... bringing the Torchwood crew back, and all 3 assistants! Can't wait.

Never seen Jedi myself. I've seen eps III and IV in full, and about half of V. That's it.

If you don't mind, that's my goal. Of course I want to support the guys from Varese and FSM; they take big risks all the time releasing some quite obscure scores, whose sales are very unpredictable. But there's a difference between that and a multinational corporation doing anything it can to maintain total control over its customers' listening experiences. I'm far, far more likely to give my money to the former because I believe they genuinely deserve it.

If Dodd does most of the orchestration, what does Arnold do... just bash a melody into the keyboard and let Nick do the rest?

LotR for me all the way. I'm not into the Star Wars movies at all, and therefore while I love the music, I've never really formed an emotional connection. I experienced the same reactions and feelings when the CRs came out that I'm sure many here did when the 2-disc OT sets came out in '97. Slightly biased poll on this forum I have to say though, but I don't think it can be denied that the impact of both scores is similar in one respect - getting a generation of fans enthusiastic about film music.

Saving all your data on cdr or other external medium would be a precaution for now .If things became too intrusive at some point ,buying a cheap laptop as a secondary computer that has no connection to the internet whatsoever to store your music might be a solution. But why on earth would someone have to go to those lengths? The music industry has no business whatsoever looking in my computer and deleting whatever it likes, just like I'm not allowed to waltz into their offices and rummage through their stationery cupboard. Both are on the same principle - there could be something 'stolen' inside. The industry just uses this 'theoretical' argument to support its actions.

I have approx 60-70 DVDs, at least 1/3 of which I haven't watched properly since buying, although about 10 or so were bought purely for a special feature such as an isolated score. I recently got Pleasantville for £3 just for the iso. I have somewhere in the region of 250-300 albums on my computer, and I'm never going to stop collecting for as long as I'm into scores, which I hope is for the rest of my life. What I love about my current collection is that while I obviously have favourites that I listen to all the time, I keep rediscovering 'forgotten' scores that I rarely listen to, and my regular listening batch continuously expands. And in the last year I've discovered/purchased at least 20-30 new scores, probably more, and everything I acquire spends a little while in a folder called 'new' while I evaluate whether it's good enough to keep. I've had Carpenter's The Fog in there for a few weeks now - I'm getting round to having a detailed listen and deciding whether it's for me. Music is really what really drives me in life at the moment, so I take great pride in maintaining and organising my digital collection. I also have certain 'rules' about new material. Such as expanded scores entirely made from DVD-rips, they go straight in the bin. Admittedly I have a small boot of my own, but it was from a BBC series that I love, and many of their series have a good effects-music-dialogue separation so extracting music from a 5.1 mix can be surprisingly easy. If you don't like modern music then... well that's your taste and I guess it just limits the new material you can get into.

I have it. You've reminded me that I told someone here I'd send it to them when I found somewhere with enough storage space, and I never did, so I apologise to whoever it was. Problem is that it's nearly 600MB, which is too big for most places.

It's a real balancing act in the end. I feel good when I pay for an album (I just got The Happening from PlayDigital yersterday), but to be honest, at the current prices of like £8 per album, paying for all the music it's possible to acquire and enjoy through illegitimate means just isn't practical. I think I read someone make the argument that at current prices, people can buy maybe 10 CDs per year (something like that, I don't remember the details), and they download any additional music they enjoy, so they're compensating the industry somewhat. CD prices still seem to be $20 or so in the US, which is about £10 - that's more than I paid for my first soundtrack CD about 6 years ago. Aren't prices generally supposed to fall as manufacturing costs drop and volumes increase? Apparently not here...

Ahh... classic argument. Problem with that is that in the case of a store, if you steal something, it no longer possesses the item and hasn't been compensated for it. With digital distribution, nothing is 'lost', the owner isn't missing something they had to begin with, so it's kind of hard to determine what its real value is. Mark - people being sued for $20,000 per song is the sort of thing I'm talking about (can you believe this? we agree on something!), and yes, it's pretty much organised crime. And this isn't to hardcore uploaders, it's to single mothers, pensioners, the disabled - anyone they think they can scare a settlement out of, basically ruining their life in the process. And no evidence has ever been seen that a single cent reaches the artists - the very people the industry claims to be protecting. (if anyone's interested in this, go to www.p2pnet.net - a news site devoted to the politics of online media) In this light, it shouldn't be too hard to see why I'm rather reluctant to give some of these people my money, and why I believe the industry is in serious trouble unless these total idiots realise they're sitting on a goldmine if only they'd somewhat relax their plans for world domination.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. The industry rarely seems to have any rock solid proof that any transferring of files has actually taken place, and to do so, as you said would involve spying to a really unacceptable level. The president of the RIAA once talked about 'filters' on someone's computer as a means of 'educating' a user as to what's illegal. Who in their right state of mind would voluntarily do that, and I wonder who would set the criteria? There's also the 'one download equals one lost sale' argument that they try. Scary thing is, the industry knows all of this, but keeps spitting out their corporate cr@p to make things sound a lot worse for 'struggling artists' than they are. I have soulseek on my laptop, but only for obtaining boots/unreleased music. There are other unmentionables where 'normal' stuff can be found.

My dad used to really frown upon any times when we (I usually) wanted to copy a rental VHS. My parents still don't like the whole downloading thing. They even see downloading a CD before you buy it as something not to be particularly proud of. It's definitely true that I'm more likely to give my money to a smaller label such as Varese than to a big corporation. There's also the issue of the 'big four' labels suing people all over the place, in many cases for only downloading 20 songs off Limewire. They do this to make examples of them because they know that regular people don't have the financial or legal resources to properly defend themselves - in my opinion this is completely unethical and bordering on evil behaviour, and it's partly due to this that I don't buy more music. To put things in perspective, roughly 1/4 of my collection is paid for in some way, although quite a lot of the 'not paid' is unreleased material/boots. I occasionally buy another digital album if I find myself currently enjoying it. K.Mark - the word 'pirates' is tossed around mainly by the recording industry to describe anyone who deals with so-called illegal copies. There's a world of difference between that and copying CDs en-masse to sell for profit. That's something I'd never ever do.

I routinely download music. I do it because I like hearing new music before choosing whether to buy it, and the 30 second samples on amazon are useless in properly evaluating an album. And the 'unreleased music' debate has come and gone - if they don't want to charge us for it, why should it stop us acquiring it. I also download a lot of movies, but specifically high definition ones. We don't yet have the hardware to play Blu-ray discs so it's not like anyone's losing a sale. I know there are those out there who are very anti-downloading, but look at it this way - the media industry is terrified at the freedom that digital distribution gives to consumers - it takes away the control they used to have, so they try to squash it rather than embrace it as a stunningly efficient distribution method. What I'm doing is a form of quiet protest against their refusal to acknowledge the 21st century.

Wow. I read the headline on BBC news as 'special effect pioneer dies', but the last person I expected it to be was Stan Winston. The man's created some of the most convincing effects ever seen on film. The already often-pitiful SFX in many films are about to get a whole lot worse. RIP, great man.

I didn't think the face animation was that bad. There were a few shots in the bright light where I could just see the smoothness of the animation - can't really explain, but there was something about how it looked that I knew it came from a computer. Bear in mind though, that I saw it in Imax, so many facial shots were the size of a small building. The main problems I have with modern CG, is how it interacts with physical objects - there never seems to be enough friction or 'oomph' to the moment of contact. Like when the Hulk - there just seemed to be nothing to it. Also a lot of the movement doesn't seem heavy enough, and a lot of the shots of him with those sheets of metal looked a bit fake in the bright sunlight. But as others have said, the story was good enough that I didn't feel distracted. Performances weren't bad as well - I could take half a movie with Tim Blake Nelson's character

The Incredible Hulk. Nice, fairly mindless popcorn fare, although my friend (guy from the film soc) didn't really like the cheesy parts.

Is it me, or does what Joe considers a masterpiece change from week to week? 5 stars from me. It contributed to the birth of my love for scores and works phenomenally well in the movie.

I'd say there's a noticeable Morricone absence from this poll. My favourite is Once Upon a Time in the West - that theme is expansive, beautiful and just plain perfect, and the rest of the score defines the genre for me. Stunning.

I 'heard' Armstrong's Hulk in the theatre on Friday - wasn't overly impressed. I found the 2CD release that evening, but again, none of it leapt out at me. The use of strings almost borders on MV style for me at times. I won't give up just yet though