danielnrg

Dunno where I got that idea, but thanks for telling me.

As a "superfan" of both the film and the music composed for it, I practically jumped for joy at the announcement of an expanded archival collection several years back. I immediately purchased a CD, and it's the only limited production that I was both quick enough to get a copy and proud to have said copy. That said, the mixing for the album overall was a letdown. Since a score album was produced officially for Twister (another point of pride, because you can't stream it and CDs were hard to come by back when I got my original copy), it's very easy for me to compare the original album released in 1996 and this new album with additional unreleased tracks. I'm not much of an audiophile, but since I had the original album, I just compared the tracks that *were* released on that album with their expanded archival collection counterparts. The new album was bass-heavy. In a simple ear-test of the same tracks from both albums, the new album had a more pronounced low-end at the expense of high frequencies and some mid frequencies. In other words, they just muddied the album. Since the previously unreleased (for 20 years) music was so important to me, I simply took the unreleased tracks, put them in Audacity, and slightly reduced the low frequency (around 10% or so). I didn't want to get too involved because I'm not an audio engineer, I just wanted the unreleased tracks to sound somewhat similar to the tracks on the 1996 album, and not bass-boosted. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than if I'd done nothing. Of course, I kept the tracks from the original album because they just sounded objectively better than the new one. I only had to edit newly released material. Interestingly, Mike Matessino did the mixing on this new album. I've heard many people credit Mike for making The Empire Strikes Back not sound as bad for the Special Edition re-releases of the Star Wars soundtracks, so I figured I could trust something with his name attached to it. Apparently not. (Unless the masters for the unreleased material from Twister was so low quality that even in its presentation on the new album, it's far better than it could have been without his magic. But then, for the previously-released music, why not just copy/paste the files used in the original album release, which are pristine?) Also, assuming anyone replies to this post: what kind of drums did Mark Mancina use in this score? They're not timpanis, but I haven't heard them used in any other film score.

If only S3 had come out a little later. Captain Marvel's soundtrack got a full release, despite being the composer's first big-budget score. I mean, Young wasn't a big-budget composer, but he was established in the industry. It's honestly baffling to me that they didn't think the soundtrack for one of the most anticipated films of the decade wouldn't sell well just because it was a different composer. (To be fair, this was before the age of streaming, when revenue streams became easier to obtain because someone listening to a single track would send a small amount of cash directly to the studio, as opposed to relying on people buying entire $15 CDs) But just to be clear: there is no verifiable information that suggests Elfman had any part in composing the major motifs of the third film: Sandman's theme, Venom's theme, and the Black Spidey theme? Good on Christopher Young, I say. Those really are amazing themes, and I'll die on the hill that says they're just as good as Elfman's Green Goblin or Doc Ock. If I'm being entirely honest, my bootleg copy of the SM3 sessions that was equalized to sound not horrible is the only Spider-Man trilogy music I listen to. None of Elfman's music from the first two films really interested me from an independent listening standpoint (although it was amazing in the films themselves). On the other hand, I absolutely love Sandman's theme. I remember hearing from someone that Young used a bunch of different brass instruments playing at the same time to make that theme. The black spidey suit theme is iconic as all get out. And of course Young would've been the perfect candidate for music relating to Venom, because that character fits well with a horror movie-ish tone, and that's Young's medium.

Forgive me if this topic isn't suitable for this forum, but I remember seeing non-Williams posts on here before, and it seems like the best place to go for professional insight into the composition industry. Danny Elfman was replaced by Raimi collaborator Christopher Young for Spider-Man 3, but the Spider-Man wiki states that in late 2006, producer Grant Curtis said Elfman had begun collaborating with Young on the music for Spider-Man 3. However, he is not credited in any official capacity aside from having created the original themes used in that film, and I'm not sure the film's credits even went that far. There's certainly no official credit for Elfman composing new music for the film. I'd like to know more about the nature of this "collaboration", if it even occurred. Was this Elfman giving Young pointers on instrumentation for the themes returning from the previous two films? Was this, as I've heard some say, Elfman writing the Sandman and Venom themes and leaving Young to adapt them and write the nitty-gritty of the score? I consider the Sandman and Venom themes to rival the quality and hummability of Elfman's Green Goblin and Doc Oc themes from the prior two films, so if there's any doubt over whether they were or were not singularly composed by Christopher Young for the film is something I'm interested in finding out. From what I understand, the breakup between Raimi and Elfman was somewhat messy, which explains why detailed information on the subject is scarce.

I've heard that he's somewhat retired from composing now

That would be pretty mundane. I won't say Davis did a bad job with J3, on the contrary I think he was absolutely the right man for the job. He paid reverence to Williams' original themes in a way that felt organic, but also brought a new spin to the series' musical identity. Still, if JW and Davis shared the same agent, there must've been other composers who shared that agent. I'd love to know who else was on the short list for J3 aside from Davis. I don't know if John Powell, James Newton Howard, or Michael Giacchino were active back then, but if JW picked Davis over someone with that style, it would constitute a pretty risky pick by Williams (that paid off in full, IMO).

I suppose those are good comparisons...

As Williams enthusiasts, or general film score enthusiasts will know, Don Davis of The Matrix fame scored the third Jurassic Park movie. The first two films were directed by Steven Spielberg and scored by John Williams, which is to be expected. It's one of the most notorious director/composer partnerships out there, which led to partnerships like Hans Zimmer scoring Christopher Nolan movies, and Alan Silvestri scoring Robert Zemeckis films. However, Jurassic Park III was undertaken by a new director and thus, seemingly, a new composer. According to reports, John Williams was invited back for the third movie in the dinosaur franchise, but was unavailable. He did personally recommend composer Don Davis for the job, and what do you know Don got the job (who in their right mind would go against John Williams' personal recommendation). My main question is, why did John Williams recommend Don Davis? At the time Jurassic III was in scoring stage, Don was only really known for his work on The Matrix (1999). And let's face it, when you think of a composer who can emulate the "John Williams style", Don Davis is the last composer you'd think of. Nowadays, you'd be much more likely to think of composers like Michael Giacchino or James Newton Howard. Now, I don't know what the film composition industry looked like back in 2001, but there had to have been composers who used a similar style as Williams even back then. My big question is: what made Williams lend his considerable weight to an up-and-coming composer like Don Davis to taking the reigns of an established franchise? Did he listen to the soundtrack for The Matrix and just decide that Don was the best person to carry the Jurassic Park musical torch? Was he simply helping out a new composer? Considering the sonic differences between a Don Davis score and a John Williams score, I was very surprised to learn that Williams personally vouched for Davis in this regard. As far as I can tell, they'd never worked together or even met publicly.

I can hear it a little bit now, at least the viola half. The horns are very hard to make out over the strings, and even the violas seem... is it not possible that this is a coincedence? No matter how many times I listen to it, nothing shouts "han solo and the princess" to me. maybe only a whisper, but don't you think if they wanted to put the theme there theyd have put it there in an obvious way? I mean, its a verry emotional scene and why would they go for subtlety in that scenario? having the theme play in a big way at this point seems like it would amplify the emotion a lot more than a subtle, no less than subtle almost barely noticeable, conspiracy theory-grasping at strings type way? everyone and their mother would know han solo's theme is playing when he bites the lightsaber, instead of a few dozen enthusiasts with a finer ear than most?