dead_lizard

Hi, I just found this article referred to by one of the posters in this thread. Enjoy.

There was a cool little flute bit over one of the wipe transitions that reminded me of TESB. I do think that JJ's method of showing JW the film in 30minute blocks hampered Williams ability to structure a satisfying arc from beginning to finale, despite what he says in the Smiley interview. Also, I don't recall any memorable solo writing. We had the violin solo in Leia's theme, the horn solo in Luke and Leia, the oboe in Across the stars, the violin/cello solo in Anakin's dream, even the soprano solo in the AOTC finale. The closest I can recall in TFA a nice little clarinet part when Finn mentions something to BB8 that makes him sad. I seem to remember a nice little horn moment somewhere as well.

What happened to the Sanskrit translation of the Kipling poem?

Has anyone mentioned the big misdirect they pulled with the 60minutes overtime segment. "This is how the new star wars movie begins", J.J saying it literally makes the opening of the movie, and then they used a completely different version. Well at least they have an extra opening or two up their sleeves should the unthinkable occur before Eps VIII and IX are scored.

His legs looked alarmingly skinny.

I saw the film last night. Good, but not great. scorewise, it's probably the weakest of all seven. no big musical setpieces, although the montage of Jakku at the beginning had some pretty impressive sweep. For what it's worth, the credits list Dudamel as Special Guest Conductor. Conducted by John Williams and William Ross. Orchestration by John Williams and William Ross. No new fanfare to replace the fox logo. Missed opportunity IMHO. even a couple of seconds of 'war drums' would have done the trick. The new crawl was pretty cool, and there were some cool moments. A lot of WTF moments too unfortunately.

I imagine a huge williams biopic will be the first thing spielberg does when he can no longer work with JW anymore. i could even imagine the poster, with spielberg in small letters and williams in huge print. we know he must have a stockpile of countless hours of the man at work and in conversation. but let's not get impatient for that particular project.

If you watch one of the joint interviews with Spielberg, you can hear Steven imitating him making a phone call about having seen a rough cut of Jaws, and you can see that JW gets a little embarrassed at it "no, no dear baby boy.... you've made a pirate movie" or something to that effect.

from the Harry Potter sessions (2001) "Williams is totally professional and focused. He creates a pleasant working atmosphere but does not let anything get past him; he may address people as “angel” or “baby” or even “angel baby,” but they jump when he asks for something."

oh ffs, two words: Gloria Cheng. i also believe the first piano ping from the second trailer links up with the piano and harp setting at the beginning of this one. if you want a real spoiler fast forward to 1:19 and listen closely for the end credits fanfare they failed to dial out. I'll just leave that there.

I believe Williams has stated in the past that he actually doesn't like Wagner's music. edit: oops, i notice that he complimented Dudamel on his Mahler, so it's a moot point.

Just thinking of all the great and unexpected Williams one-liners over the years. Forgive me if there's already a thread for this. My favourite one at the moment is from the USC Q and A. Q. "Do you think there's too much music in films these days?" A. "When I'm writing them I do."

It's nice to finally have official confirmation that John Williams eats Wheaties.

"he (Williams) comes off stage and he was like 'I....uh....don't think they liked it'. And I was like 'that is not what was going on!" Brilliant.