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Cerebral Cortex

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  1. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Quintus in I've come to find people who rank things as dull and intellectually stunted.   
    I'd put this in my top 5 worst threads ever. 
  2. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to publicist in Bizarre James Horner podcast interview   
    Horner was, by all accounts, the biggest prick of them all. But as rightly stated, he became much more mellow and wistful in the last 10 years, and i guess if you sit alone in a room while doing your job all the time, you may tend to get funny in the head, anyway.
     
    I think what differentiates guys from the era of Williams and Goldsmith is a wholly different, very disciplined work ethic. They both exactly knew what rich tradition and professionalism they inherited and worked hard to keep it that way. Both could become rather prickly (as i've learned through selected stories by musicians or insiders over the years) but that never had to do with the kind of narcissism disorders of the Trump scale but more with their music (production, playing, fucking around with it). 
  3. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Muad'Dib in John Williams to Score Kobe Bryant short film "Dear Basketball"   
    We know that they really wanted him to score Treasure Planet and the even tracked the hell out of the film with his music, like Far and Away, Superman, Hook and more... Schedule didn't allow for it, but you can still hear a lot of influence in Howard's lovely score. And apparently he was also supposed to score The Black Cauldron, but that didn't go anywhere as well.
     
    I don't know the specifics but I recall Tangled -produced by Keane- was temped with some Williams here and there; and the workprint of The Lion King shows they temp-tracked some of his music in there, particulary the pan flute sections of Far and Away.
     
    Outside of Disney, but still with Disney allumni, Brad Bird was very eager to get Johnny for The Iron Giant, tracked with some of his music but mostly Herrmann. We got a fantastic score with Kamen, but the mind still wonders... And I do know from interviews that Don Bluth's Secret of NIMH was tracked specifically with sections from Close Encounters.
     
    I'm sure there's more info floating around, but that's what I can recall at the moment.
  4. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to mrbellamy in John Williams to Score Kobe Bryant short film "Dear Basketball"   
    The film is 6 minutes long and will premiere April 22
  5. Like
  6. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Dixon Hill in Range of JW emotions within a single score   
    A.I. is far from soulless in its optimistic moments.  I believe it's the most earnest, spiritually optimistic music Williams has ever written.  The whole score encompasses eerie and bleak futurism, sighing grief, tense strangeness, dark strangeness, beautiful strangeness, rage, confusion, a bit of lightheartedness, excitement and adventure, and throughout its entirety is supported by a current of shatteringly honest and bittersweet musical commentary on love, loss, the fundamental human condition, a current which begins to flow in full force by the final scenes.  
     
    It is an immense emotional, psychological, spiritual experience.  I don't know if it has the greatest range of emotions on paper of a JW score, but the range that it does have is, for me, the most powerful and satisfying.
  7. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to mrbellamy in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    Yeah, it's definitely "Anakin's Test" but I couldn't remember for sure if that was just tracking or not. I dunno if there was an unused alternate for that scene as far as we know.
     
     
    Based on what I know of Rian Johnson's work and his tastes and opinions through his commentaries, interviews, Twitter etc, I'm optimistic for Last Jedi landing on the slightly more eccentric side of things for Star Wars, whatever that might mean for the music's potential. I'd love some wild cues for zany eye candy / world-building, but it'd also be cool to see a film that lent itself to some more subtly colorful sonic approaches, especially if there's a greater emphasis on Force mythology than before. I like the set-up of the island locale and the idea of Luke exploring ancient Jedi temples there, that could be fertile territory for Williams. 
     
    Whatever it is, I do feel like this is a shot at a unique collaboration. Johnson may approach The John Williams Experience ® with a different mindset than JJ Abrams, who always talked about the man like a warm, cozy blanket...and for good reason! His own childhood nostalgia aside, Abrams clearly had a good amount of anxiety wrapped up in audiences accepting his episode as a natural extension of the saga. He's the kind of guy who takes the "same but different" mandate to heart in all his retro work and he had a sincere craving to make a "true" Star Wars movie with TFA. I feel like the raw footage of that opening Jakku sequence must have been slightly underwhelming to watch with all those Stormtroopers running around in silence...imagine the trippy relief of those recording sessions when John Williams gets up on the podium and makes it Star Wars. The old man probably looked like a Greek God from where JJ Abrams was standing, after all those months of hand-wringing and second-guessing.
     
    But just seems like that's how Abrams would have probably been filtering a lot of his collaboration with Williams. "Do your thing" he apparently said, which I suppose translates to "No way am I jinxing any of that shit!" Abrams would have had plenty to say about how the music should serve the film emotionally, but sonically I don't get the feeling he would have had too many expectations. He wanted it to sound like Star Wars and he trusted Williams to deliver that.
     
    Interesting thing now, though, is Rian Johnson is under a different sort of pressure...Abrams suffered the distraction of re-establishing the Star Wars facade for a new audience, whereas Johnson's film is now expected to set itself apart from TFA's love-letter approach, while somehow still holding hands with it. Where the music fits into that, who knows? I just like the idea of Williams writing for this guy, a Generation X cinephile with eclectic tastes and pretty sophisticated and contemporary aesthetic interests, alongside a passion for genre filmmaking. The Alfonso Cuaron / POA comparison seems to be brought up a lot with Episode 8 speculation, I hope that hunch sticks. I also think it might be worth something that ten years ago this guy made a movie for $500,000 and has remained slightly on the mainstream fringes since then. That's in contrast to Abrams who was making his own directorial debut with M:I III around the same time after over a decade in the thick of Hollywood, and as far as I know never wanted to be anywhere else. Talented indie directors have been thrown suddenly into $100+ million blockbusters for awhile now with mixed results, but every now and then somebody really exploits the opportunity with an interesting perspective. Fingers crossed that Rian Johnson produces something exciting, especially with a virtually unlimited sandbox and an 85 year old musical genius as part of the deal.
  8. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to mrbellamy in James Newton Howard's Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them   
    I think the "Edward Scissorhand-y" Thunderbird theme actually made the strongest impression in the film due to its prominent statements at the end, followed probably by the Newt action theme which gets those two action setpieces and the distinction of opening the end credits. Left me humming, anyway. 
     
    The "Man and His Beasts" theme is great but strangely gets thrown under the bus in context after the big MACUSA statement. "Kowalski Rag" similarly makes a strong impression in its suite, but doesn't have much of a role in the underscore.
     
    One of my favorite melodies is actually the little love theme for Queenie/Jacob that appears at the end for their last meeting in the bakery. I think it has at least one or maybe two other moments between them to constitute calling it a theme but can't quite remember. I know it's thrown in at the end of the "Kowalski Rag" suite, sort of as a tag to the jazzy second half. 
  9. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to crumbs in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    I actually think The Last Jedi will mop the floor with The Force Awakens, both in score and film.
     
    Not only because I consider Johnson the better filmmaker, and I expect this film to be superior, but because there's seemingly been a lack of endless rewrites this time around. The leisurely and luxurious writing schedule has remained, but there doesn't seem to have been the abundance of recording sessions that TFA had.
     
    It sounds weird but I feel like TFA was an entree to JW just getting back into the swing of writing for Star Wars. Several cues feel very 'by the numbers' while others are exceptional and as energetic as his prequel writing. I partly feel that his procedure mid-way through writing TFA probably affected some of his writing, either through fatigue or general tiredness.
     
    Not to mention rewriting so many cues with alternate versions.
  10. Like
    Cerebral Cortex got a reaction from DarthDementous in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    If he does choose to score Episode IX, it will (most likely) be his big goodbye to a franchise he has been a fundamental part of for over 40 years. He did superbly with the end credits to ROTS when faced with a similar situation, and I am very anxious to hear Williams now give his last last word in what would truly be the end of musical era as well as the bookend to a monumental achievement. Absolutely, I think he can top Jedi Steps. While no easy task, I have found that if anybody can top Williams, it's Williams. 
  11. Like
    Cerebral Cortex got a reaction from Marcus in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    If he does choose to score Episode IX, it will (most likely) be his big goodbye to a franchise he has been a fundamental part of for over 40 years. He did superbly with the end credits to ROTS when faced with a similar situation, and I am very anxious to hear Williams now give his last last word in what would truly be the end of musical era as well as the bookend to a monumental achievement. Absolutely, I think he can top Jedi Steps. While no easy task, I have found that if anybody can top Williams, it's Williams. 
  12. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to leeallen01 in Michael Giacchino's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) - 2022 Expanded Edition now available   
    Have you not seen the track list for his score to 'The Light Between Oceans?'
     
    Music Composed by Alexandre Desplat
     
    1. Letters
    2. Tom
    3. Jyn Erso takes flight
    4. The Dinghy
    5. Isabel
    6. In God’s Hands
    7. Reused Rogue One [No.128]
    8. To Resent
    9. Janus
    10. A Wonderful Father
    11. Suck it Disney
    12. Path of Light
    13. The Return
    14. Hannah Roennfeldt
    15. Still Your Husband
    16. Yeah This Is From Rogue One Too
    17. Sue Me
    18. To Be Loved
    19. The Light Between Oceans
  13. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to KK in What film score theme/melody is going through your head right now?   
    I'm not the biggest fan of the TDKR score, but boy does it have some ballsy moments. The Bane material might be as close to Stravinsky as Zimmer will ever get.
     
     
    The detuned strings at 2:46, especially infectious.
  14. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Dixon Hill in What film score theme/melody is going through your head right now?   
    The start of the best sequence from John's best score, that one is.
     
     
    Indeed - for balls to the wall headbanging action, Hans is unbeatable.  And this one is particularly infectious.  2:30 = kickass.
  15. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to crumbs in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    It would be a really nice touch if he ended the TLJ credits with Leia's Theme in the same vein he ended TFA's credits. Intertwining Rey's, Luke's and the Force theme together with that gentle orchestrators was a brilliant closer.
     
    I just hope he doesn't revert to a cut-and-paste job, even if they're typically well done (Hook, Azkaban, etc.) He probably spend weeks doing the finale suite for TFA but it was well worth it (and he kept tinkering with it even after sessions finished, so he was clearly invested in the piece).
  16. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to KK in What film score theme/melody is going through your head right now?   
    Sorry to hear about the bad day friend. But you couldn't pick a better song for solace. That one always gets me a little emotional.
  17. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to BloodBoal in What film score theme/melody is going through your head right now?   
    To end what has been a really, really bad day, I needed this.
     
     
  18. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Dixon Hill in What film score theme/melody is going through your head right now?   
    It's a great score!
     
    ----
     
    This again!
     
     
     
    And this great Chinatown throwback moment:
     
     
  19. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to mrbellamy in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    I just hope they're original and not cut-and-paste jobs. I'm expecting 8 to have a reprise (and hopefully some sort of reworking) of "Leia's Theme". If he does end up doing 9, whatever it ends up being it'll probably be a tough first listen...
  20. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to crumbs in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    Simple question.
     
    The Jedi Steps and Finale is widely considered one of the best end credits suites Williams has composed, seamlessly weaving themes written across four decades into a dazzling 9 minute track that stands alongside his best work in the Star Wars series.
     
    At 85, and showing no signs of slowing down nor abandoning the Star Wars series, do you believe John will top this suite in The Last Jedi or Episode IX? And if so, why?
  21. Like
    Cerebral Cortex got a reaction from Will in Can John Williams top The Jedi Steps & Finale in the last two sequels?   
    If he does choose to score Episode IX, it will (most likely) be his big goodbye to a franchise he has been a fundamental part of for over 40 years. He did superbly with the end credits to ROTS when faced with a similar situation, and I am very anxious to hear Williams now give his last last word in what would truly be the end of musical era as well as the bookend to a monumental achievement. Absolutely, I think he can top Jedi Steps. While no easy task, I have found that if anybody can top Williams, it's Williams. 
  22. Like
  23. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal in The Force Awakens Disney Records OST   
    You wanted the embossed cover?
  24. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Jay in The Force Awakens Disney Records OST   
    It's not, but you'll never know
  25. Like
    Cerebral Cortex reacted to Naïve Old Fart in Favorite short musical moments in Williams scores?   
    The rising motif, as Agent Hanratty realises that he's looking at Frank Abignale, in the High School year book. His final look at the camera is funny as.
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