Bofur01

I unironically didn't mind Mattris's posts. 
 
I'd always pop into these Star Wars thread and take everything in with a grain of salt, but at the same time would learn a thing or two.  During COVID lockdowns I binged the famous star wars disenchantment is better than everything thread like it was a 8 season HBO show....good times.  That thread had more up and downs than a trampoline. And the cast of characters....just wow.
 
Luckily with Star Wars for me, I like what I like (1,3,4,5,6,8) and that's it. The shows and side movies do nothing for me.
 
Arguing Star Wars at this point is basically hopeless as it's so diluted within pop culture --- not to say you can't have any deep discussions on it, which happen here in a nice thoughtful way.  But it sure feels like it's getting to the point where the same amount of people that hate something, there's an equal amount that like it.  But keep the good 'inside baseball' talk coming. Cause I dig it.  Star Wars is basically in Godzilla territory. Pick what you like and just be done. Or love everything. You do you.
 
But Mattris (from what I remember) never personally attacked people and just had some very fringe opinions...which I can respect.
 
Mattris if you're out there, hope you're doing well.
 
Edit: My bad it was the star wars disenchantment thread!  I don't smoke but I needed a cig half way through that thread.  Its so good and I'm not being sarcastic. That's the shit forums are for, man.

I personally have a soft spot for the Hooper scores (equal with Doyle, just below Desplat). I have made a summary list of themes/motifs/ideas I have been able to identity from the OSTs of ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, and feel a complete expansion of both would reveal even more motific ideas and connections. I hope this list might prove helpful to anyone who wants to do a deeper dive into Hooper's music. Anything with question marks (???) next to it indicates I'm not 100% confident in my observation.
 

POSSESSION THEME (this theme is particularly tricky to identify as it doesn't have one distinct setting, but consists of a gradual rising and falling shapes, often played by low strings)
- POSSESSION: 0:42-end
- HALL OF PROPHECY: 2:52-end (rapid variation in strings)
- THE SIRIUS DECEPTION: 0:00-0:54
- DARKNESS TAKES OVER: 0:00-0:25???
- DUMBLEDORE’S SPEECH: 0:31-1:20
- INTO THE PENSIEVE: 0:46-1:22
- DUMBLEDORE’S FOREBODING: 0:31-END
- JOURNEY TO THE CAVE: 0:38-1:34??? (rapid variation in strings); 1:34-2:08??? (possible melodic variation)
- THE DRINK OF DESPAIR: 0:33-end
- INFERI IN THE FIRESTORM: 1:07-1:35
- THE KILLING OF DUMBLEDORE: 0:41-2:45
 
IN NOCTEM (DUMBLEDORE THEME):
- OPENING: 0:25-1:14 (tragic setting)
- IN NOCTEM
- DUMBLEDORE’S SPEECH
- DUMBLEDORE’S FOREBODING
- JOURNEY TO THE CAVE: 0:50-1:28
- DUMBLEDORE’S FAREWELL (tragic setting)
 
UMBRIDGE THEME:
- PROFESSOR UMBRIDGE: 0:09-1:51
- UMBRIDGE SPOILS A BEAUTIFUL MORNING: 0:26-end
- DARKNESS TAKES OVER: 1:01-1:30
 
DEATH EATER MOTIF:
- OPENING: 1:49-end
- MALFOY’S MISSION: 1:03-1:19
- INTO THE RUSHES: 0:36-1:56
 
FRIENDSHIP MOTIF???:
- GINNY: 0:00-0:30
- HARRY AND HERMIONE: 0:29-end
- INTO THE RUSHES: 1:57-end
 
HERMIONE MOTIF???:
- HARRY AND HERMIONE: 0:00-0:28
- OF LOVE AND WAR: 0:34-end
 
HARRY AND DUMBLEDORE MOTIF???:
- JOURNEY TO THE CAVE: 0:00-0:38
- THE KILLING OF DUMBLEDORE: 0:00-0:27
 
WEASLEY SILLINESS MOTIF:
- FIREWORKS
- THE WEASLEY STOMP (variation/similar Irish-inspired idea)
 
JOHN WILLIAMS - HEDWIG’S THEME:
- ANOTHER STORY: 0:00-0:36; 2:00-2:12
- DEMENTORS IN THE UNDERPASS: 1:21-end??? (possible fragment)
- HALL OF PROPHECY: 0:53-1:16; 1:51-2:22??? (possible fragment)
- THE JOURNEY TO HOGWARTS: 0:03-0:30
- THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC: 2:11-2:35
- OPENING: 0:15-0:26; 1:34-1:45??? (possible fragment)
- GINNY: 0:36-0:57
 
JOHN WILLIAMS - QUIDDITCH MOTIF:
- RON’S VICTORY: 0:40-0:55; 1:18-1:24
- OF LOVE AND WAR: 0:06-0:13; 0:41-0:47

The Umbridge theme first appears in the Umbridge Spoils a Beautiful Morning cue (the first Defence class scene) and later appears in the Professor Umbridge cue when she’s High Inquisitor). The theme also briefly appears on celesta at 1:22 in Darkness Takes Over.

"Professor Umbridge" is not a villain theme in any way, shape or form.
It's a fluff piece of music that wouldn't be recognized as any kind of villain theme if it wasn't somewhat contextualized as that by the film. And not much there, too.
 
Hooper's music lacks storytelling 100%. There is nothing three dimensional in "Professor Umbridge" that would reflect the story of her or her twisted sadistic character. 
 
On top of that, it's also extremely derivative.

Hello all. So I know among HP fans Nicholas Hooper isn’t the most beloved composer but I’ve always strongly disagreed with that assessment. I remember when his name was announced as the composer for OOTP like everyone else I let out a collective “Who?” but to my surprise the man actually wrote some of the best non Williams themes that are quite memorable. But most of all? His two HP scores have this charming quality to them. As a kid growing up in Canada there was this cartoon called “Rupert” about an anthropomorphic bear who gets in all sorts of adventures and the opening title sequence sounds very similar to the Hooper aesthetic (I have no idea how to embed a video on this page so I’ll just link to it below. See if you agree that it sounds similar to the Hooper HP score)
 
Anyways, Hooper added this really “storybook English Countryside” feel. That’s the only way I can describe it. The music was whimsical, but also melodic, lush & at times brooding & dark. Yes he wasn’t the best at writing action cues but the Order of the Phoenix theme? Dumbledores Army? Professor Umbridge? The Weasley Twins? Not to mention the sequence where the students light up their wands when Dumbledore dies? That was some wonderful stuff. Those are some extremely memorable bits of music. 
 
His music fit the Harry Potter world. I found him a much better fit than Patrick Doyle or Desplat. Desplat especially didn’t do much for me. His music didn’t stand out in anyway. It was just..there. Hoopers music had a very playful quality. Doyle’s score had too much bombast to it. Hooper’s was very string and woodwind oriented. 
 
Does anyone know why he seemingly stopped doing films? Potter was his big break on the international scene. I was surprised nothing really came of it. He seemingly quit the Potter films of his own volition which is a shame because 
 
https://youtu.be/mp5KYnvLaqU?si=iHK2SKNuNhdC6sU9

His Assassin’s Creed: Revelations score was incredible in my opinion. It’s my personal favorite work of Balfe’s.

Could we at least get the Series 10 soundtrack before you do a music concert because i'm guessing Murray Gold might do music from Series 10

Where in my post do I "pretend it wasn't about bias"? That wasn't my point at all. You suggested that a skilled composer can't have a higher average rating than a less talented composer. I said that is not what the bias check does. It doesn't implement an upper limit on composer ratings.
 
But I totally agree when you say that a higher or lower average rating compared to the user average indicates bias according to the bias check. But I don't really care about bias on that site to have any opinion on whether that feature is worthwhile or well designed.

OK, everybody hates it. Good. At least, the FOMO is reduced!

If you listen to some of his interviews he had a team at S&S helping with all the non-compositional work and it took a very high mental and physical toll on him. It almost certainly means that the 'McCreary' label on other projects at the moment leans more heavily on his team for composing, which again he made very clear on an Outlander podcast.
 
So basically there's zero evidence of him not solo composing, besides some here wanting to uncover some huge lie or unethical practice merely because they don't like his score.
 
--- 
 
I still find it hard to believe Shore would have agreed or wanted to compose the entire score, given the toll it takes on a much younger, more seasoned TV composer.

Yeah, it got a bit tiring and repetitive after a while. Like for example, Kraemer or Giacchino also quoted either the Plot or the MI theme (or even some new ideas) for the establishing shots, but they added a bit of flavour to represent the location, like the exotic variations on the Plot theme when they arrive on Morocco on Rogue Nation
 
or the vocal theme for the Kremlin in Ghost Protocol, with some nice interplay with the Plot theme 
 

Watched out of sheer curiosity.
 
Sad old Indy is sad, no surprises there. My conceptual objection to the movie stands unchanged. In and of itself, its not a bad motion picture but it is a very peculiar one. I think the moment that underlined just how much I associate Indiana Jones with Spielberg and that retro aesthetic was the map montage: it just looked so different.
 
But the thing that's really different is the sensibility Mangold gives to some of the storytelling. This film doesn't feel like Logan (nor should it!) but it does share one thing with that film: the wanton, unceremonious killing of bystanders. It happens multiple times in the movie, not to any dramatic effect: its just there. Feels very incongrous in an Indiana Jones movie.

What is your point? I’m saying that it wouldn’t surprise me if that bit was temped with KOTCS.

There's a lot to unpack here.
 
One, you do realise she didn't write the script for Dial of Destiny, right?
 
Two, have you even watched Fleabag?
 
Three, what specifically did PWB contribute, that none of the other 6 writers on NTTD did, that "fucked up James Bond"?

I don't know man. Seeing actual fucking Roman soldiers running around for so brief a time and with basically no build up was a little too much for me. You may find this ridiculous, but it legitimately broke my suspension of disbelief and completely severed my emotional connection to the movie until the moment Marion appeared. Also, merely having Indy say some token line about "Seeing history unfold before our eyes" isn't enough. Give more and better build up to seeing our characters in the past so it doesn't feel unnatural and out of place. And if you're going to recreate a historical event for an Indiana Jones movie, don't just tell me why it was cool in an early classroom scene when you could show me during the actual recreation. Show Archimedes lighting Roman ships on fire! Show the hook he devised to lift Roman ships out of the water and drop them. Show the audience why Indiana Jones thinks history is cool.

nothing quite could have prepared me for the low key misogyny bubbling here and there in fandoms around certain things.
 
 
yes because the stuff gets worshipped in an altar that has to pretend it was always EPIC and DARK and SERIOUS and then people get surprised about pulpy dialogue in a tuk tuk and they memoryhole entire movies around the issue
 
see: Ghostbusters, a mediocre cynical comedy that Hollywood and fans now pretend to have been something else entirely
 
 
 
on a different note, i'm right now thinking a lot on how Uncharted incorporated the soap opera elements and retroactive continuity in a non cloying way (for me), as opposed to whatever Kingdom is

On that ... the focus on whether Bond/the 00 section is still 'relevant' from Skyfall to No Time To Die grated a bit. I know it was so Bond could go on to prove he/it still was, but ... eh.  

It'd be nice to see Holdo's theme from TLJ being developed in a concert suite.

After he omitted Falcon Flight, Lando's Arrival, and the Ben Solo redemption variation of Ren's theme from TROS ost, I've given up trying to work out his logic. Thankfully, I didn't hear any unreleased cues in the movie at the level of those. There is definitely good unreleased cues but I don't think they are as much holy grails as those TROS cues are.

"I've impressed on the great sweet maestro & his team the wish for release of a big fat album w/ as many cues as John can bear, but ultimately it is up to him! As he said, its almost 2 hours of glorious JW score — heroic, bombastic, sly, majestic, sinister, romantic & screwball!"
James Mangold
 
https://twitter.com/mang0ld/status/1629302040106237955?t=xllrasYh2jCXZCJEQT7Hfw&s=19
 
 
Looks like Williams went his own way.
But I don't fully understand. I love Williams. And I love his music. And this is another great one.
But he's been doing it for over 60 years. So he must know his fans, so I don't get why you would just release an hour of music after telling everyone you wrote 2 hours of it for the film

Now that we have less than 50 hours to release, I do just want to take a moment to say how much fun it has been to be a part of this community for the last few years. The possibility of new Star Wars movies scored by John Williams back in 2012 is what got me to lurking on this board and watch to see members speculate if he'd come back. The actual hype up to TFA and the actual score is what caused me to create an account. The last decade has allowed me to geek out with people about film score events in a way that I had always wanted but felt like I had missed out on. Part of me still can't believe we got another trilogy of Star Wars scores and an Indy 5 score alongside more Spielberg scores. Whether or not you like the movie, I hope you all find something to like in the new score. This little recess of the Internet has consistently been a fun little space to geek out on these things, and I've very grateful for it. This is truly the end of an era, and I'm happy to be here for it.

This is one of my favourite JWfan pstages, the total frenzy when something leaks/is announced.

Falcon Flight is rad and all but We Go Together was the one I couldn't stop listening to when the FYC first leaked out 

Hearing We Go Together in the theaters for the first time with no prior knowledge of the score was one of my best JW experiences.  A surprisingly sentimental piece for Star Wars 

Same reason why, generally, some people are still wearing masks in public: They might be concerned about losing work (if they catch COVID), especially as session musicians who don’t always have a predictable and stable income. Some are older, have a weaker immune system or have other underlying conditions and want to take an extra precaution for themselves. I don’t see any issue with it, it’s a personal choice for them to make.