Jump to content

Fancyarcher

Members
  • Posts

    1,311
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from GerateWohl in Four favourite movies from the year you were born?   
    Aladdin
    Unforgiven
    Batman Returns
    Army of Darkness
  2. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from Bespin in Four favourite movies from the year you were born?   
    Aladdin
    Unforgiven
    Batman Returns
    Army of Darkness
  3. Sad
    Fancyarcher reacted to Van_Etten in Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passes away at 71   
    In January he released his last solo album titled "12". Sakamoto also scored a film "Monster" by Hirokazu Koreeda ready for release this year.
  4. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from BB-8 in Volker Bertelmann's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)   
    It is truly my least favorite of the five nominees, so if it to win, was rather irritating.
     
    Listening to this score in and out of context of the film, the best I could get out of it was that Volker went a bit too far on the "farting synth sounds!"
  5. Thanks
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from Naïve Old Fart in 95th Academy Awards (2023 ceremony for 2022 films)   
    Some updates on this, but ratings are up from last year. I assume people were expecting another Slap, though?
     
    https://mobile.twitter.com/TheWrap/status/1635396633620889601
     
  6. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from crumbs in Volker Bertelmann's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)   
    It is truly my least favorite of the five nominees, so if it to win, was rather irritating.
     
    Listening to this score in and out of context of the film, the best I could get out of it was that Volker went a bit too far on the "farting synth sounds!"
  7. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Yavar Moradi in 95th Academy Awards (2023 ceremony for 2022 films)   
    Funny how, if the Academy really was “woke” (in the real or even pejorative sense), one might think they’d have awarded Son Lux for Best Score over the white German dude (who wrote one of the worst scores of the year), or heck maybe awarded one of the three (quite deserving) women of color for Best Supporting Actress, over Jamie Lee Curtis. They could have even still awarded EEAAO, since her costar Stephanie Hsu was also nominated with her! I mean, if Hollywood really is just bestowing awards to get “woke” points and feel good about themselves, how do we explain those decisions?
     
    Kinda messes with the narrative of King Mark and others like him, huh?
     
    Yavar
  8. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to DangerMotif in John Williams Writes New Theme for ESPN College Football Championship - OF GRIT AND GLORY   
    https://variety.com/2023/music/news/john-williams-writes-new-theme-for-espn-college-football-1235480841/
    Legendary composer John Williams has written an original theme for ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Championship, airing at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Monday night prior to the TCU-Georgia game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
    Titled “Of Grit and Glory,” it runs three and a half minutes and will score a specially created series of visuals that convey “the feeling behind the night, fear and anticipation, triumph and failure,” ESPN co-director and producer Martin Khodabakhshian tells Variety.
    Williams’ new theme – previewed for Variety late Thursday – plays like a joyful overture, opening with fanfares and shifting seamlessly from martial urgency to anthemic splendor, all richly orchestrated and instantly memorable.
    Khodabakhshian and his co-director and editor Michael Sciallis of Victory Pictures had dreamed about getting the world’s most famous film composer to write music for their opening sequence. So three months ago, at the urging of lead game producer Bill Bonnell (who had worked with the composer on past Olympic events), they wrote what Khodabakhshian calls “a love letter” to Williams, outlining their thoughts and gently inquiring about the possibility of an original theme.
    “There’s no better person on the planet to write about emotions and the things that come with the biggest night on ESPN’s biggest stage, our Super Bowl, than John Williams,” Khodabakhshian says. Adds Sciallis: “We wrote about the emotions of bringing people together, not just the competition side of it, but how audiences are affected.”
    Two days later, word came back: “He’s started writing something.” The ESPN team jumped into action, conceiving a visual sequence that would feature “college football heroes and legends from all eras” but also add “the beauty of Hollywood and California,” where the game would take place, Khodabakhshian notes.
    Williams conducted a 96-piece orchestra on the Sony scoring stage on Dec. 21. And ESPN was there with seven cameras, shooting the entire three-hour recording session, parts of which will be intertwined throughout the opening segment – “so you feel the energy of those orchestra members, and of John, playing this music for the first time, so the audience gets to feel that as well,” Sciallis says.
    The “giddiness and excitement” associated with a new Williams anthem for their big college football game was palpable throughout the ESPN executive suites, Sciallis says. Yet it remained top secret until today. On Saturday, ESPN will tease the opening and the Williams score during its NFL Wild Card Doubleheader.
    Williams’ new music will be heard throughout the TCU-Georgia matchup. He recorded several takes of the main piece as well as briefer excerpts, “a re-join piece and a vamp,” Sciallis reports; “cutdowns and stingers,” shorter pieces that could be useful during the game itself, were edited in the days following the Dec. 21 session.
    “He captured the spirit of the night,” says Sciallis. Khodabakhshian confesses he broke down in tears after the recording session. “I’m so overwhelmed and grateful because he’s the GOAT!”
    This is believed to be the largest-scale musical commission ever for the sports network. What will happen with the piece after Monday night is not clear. ESPN could theoretically use it in future college football broadcasts; no plans for a commercial release have apparently been discussed.
    In terms of music for athletic competition, the five-time Oscar winner has written four Olympic fanfares, a gridiron march for NBC’s football coverage, and the score for Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning short “Dear Basketball.” He hasn’t written music for television since his “Great Performances” theme for PBS, which won a 2009 Emmy.
    Williams, 90, was unavailable for comment. He is currently on the Oscar shortlist for his music for Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” and has been working for the past several months on the score for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” slated for release June 30.
  9. Thanks
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from bruce marshall in The "(Fill in the Blank) Has Died" Thread   
    She did a lot of voice acting, and was in the Disney movie Snow Dogs, which I saw a lot as a kid. Also I recall her guest stint on Heroes. 

    RIP and respect! 
  10. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to TownerFan in RIP Vince De Rosa, Hollywood's Legendary French Horn   
    Another legendary studio musician left us. The great Vince De Rosa died yesterday at the venerable age of 101. He has been Hollywood's premier French Horn player for over forty years, playing on countless film scores, including many by John Williams. He was Principal Horn on such scores as The Cowboys, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T., just to name a few ("I can honestly say that what I know about writing for the French horn, I learned from Vince De Rosa," said John Williams). He's considered to be the most heard French Horn player of all time as he also played on zillions of television gigs and record dates.
     
    He wasn't just a musician, but a true legend, and a great human being as told by anyone who knew him.
     
    https://www.hornsociety.org/ihs-people/honoraries/26-people/honorary/78-vincent-derosa
  11. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to TownerFan in John Williams Interview with Associated Press (June 23, 2022)   
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/john-williams-90-steps-away-from-film-but-not-music/2022/06/23/26b97ac2-f2f2-11ec-ac16-8fbf7194cd78_story.html
     
    Lots of stuff here.
  12. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Manakin Skywalker in "The Ugly Truth of How Movie Scores Are Made" - Vanity Fair article 2/21/22   
    See, now this is how it's done.
     

  13. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Disco Stu in "The Ugly Truth of How Movie Scores Are Made" - Vanity Fair article 2/21/22   
    The article is clearly not meant as a value judgment on the Zimmer approach to the music itself, which after all is really just a modern "outsourced contractor" version of the golden age studio music departments.  There's nothing really wrong with this if only credits were clear and fair.  Being a film/tv composer of prominence today requires essentially being a small business owner, which is not something all these creative types are cut out for.  A company like RCP, if it were run more fairly and transparently, could do a lot of good providing the infrastructure and bureaucracy necessary for a composer to carry out the job.  But that's a big "if."
  14. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Disco Stu in "The Ugly Truth of How Movie Scores Are Made" - Vanity Fair article 2/21/22   
    These are all issues and discussions we're very familiar with, but it's interesting to see it break through into mainstream coverage
     
    https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/the-ugly-truth-of-how-movie-scores-are-made
     
    If you see any composers/industry people post reactions to the article on social media, please do link to them in this thread!
     
    I'll put the whole article in spoiler tags for anyone who's hit the article limit
     
  15. Like
  16. Haha
    Fancyarcher reacted to GerateWohl in Happy 90th Birthday John Williams! The Official Nonagenarian Thread   
    Happy Birthday, Maestro!
     

  17. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to crumbs in Happy 90th Birthday John Williams! The Official Nonagenarian Thread   
    To the one, the only, the iconic John Williams, 90 years young!

     
    Happy 90th Birthday, Maestro!!!
     

     
    Wait, that's not right...

     
    Let's try that again...

     
    Nope, still wrong.

     
    Getting warmer...

     
    Keep circling...

     
    Try again...

     
    One more try...

     
    Ahh, that's better!


     
    Here's to another 90 years of incredible music!

     
    Now get back to scoring Indy 5, Mangold just changed the edit again.

  18. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Aliandra in New article in The New York Times on John Williams - says he will soon step away from film projects   
    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/arts/music/john-williams-hollywood-film.html
     
    “I don’t particularly want to do films anymore,” Williams said. “Six months of life at my age is a long time.” In his next phase, he plans to focus more intensely on another passion: writing concert works, of which he has already produced several dozen. He has visions of another piece for a longtime collaborator, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and he is planning his first proper piano concerto.
     
    This year, he will complete what he expects to be his final two films: “The Fabelmans,” loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood, and a fifth installment in the “Indiana Jones” series.
     
    “The Fabelmans” has been particularly emotional, he said, given its importance to Spielberg. On a recent day, he recounted, the director wept as Williams played through several scenes on the piano.
     
    Williams said that he expected “The Fabelmans” would be the pair’s final film collaboration, though he added that it was hard to say no to Spielberg, whom he considers a brother. (Spielberg, for his part, said that Williams had promised to continue scoring his films indefinitely. “I feel pretty secure,” he said.)
     

     
    I also found this. Thomas Newman celebrates John Williams on his 90th birthday.
     
    Can anyone post the whole program of Newman celebrating Williams? I can't access it:
     
     
  19. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Aliandra in 11 film composers named their favorite John Williams score   
    https://planetradio.co.uk/scala-radio/entertainment/movies/mark-kermode-a-john-williams-birthday-special/
     
    Rachel Portman: Schindler's List:
     
    "My favourite score of John Williams' is Schindler's List and in particular the main theme. I hugely admire all his film work and in particular his complex rich orchestration to compliment his musical ideas, but for me, there's something even more elevating in his theme for Schindler's List. I think it's the deep humanity and grief he expresses in the violin melody that resonates so fully with the story. It moved me so much when I first heard it. Wishing him a very happy birthday!"
     
    Anne Dudley: The Witches of Eastwick:
     
    "A score full of wit and sparkle. It seems in many ways to prefigure the "Harry Potter" scores with its big colourful orchestration, glittering percussion and celeste. It captures the devilish humour of the film so well. "The Dance of the Witches", as you might expect builds to a frenzy and when the trumpets take the tune towards to end the woodwind, strings and percussion provide a positively manic backdrop. But the track ends quite quietly, almost with a little wink".
     
    Nainita Desai: Memoirs of a Geisha:
     
    "John Williams's music has been a huge inspiration to me, particularly his use of strong melodies and themes which formed a part of my musical awakening to film scores as a kid. The music from Raiders, Close Encounters and ET have been eternal ear worms for me and the reason why I fell in love with walking out of a cinema whistling a good tune. "I have a soft spot for Sayuri's Theme from Memoirs of a Geisha. The score is mesmerising and the Japanese influence is very cleverly interwoven into the score becoming part of the fabric of the film. "Along with various oriental instruments, William's draws upon renowned cellist Yo-Yo-Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman who performed on Schindler's List. The atmosphere is delicate, intimate and perfectly captures the grace and beauty of the film. It was a touchstone for me when I composed the score for Enemy Within, a WW2 drama that also required a Japanese influence."
     
    Mychael Danna: Home Alone:
     
    "Hmm I know it's not quite the right season just now, but if I'm going to be honest: My Very Favourite JW score, is Home Alone. The Maestro takes a rather cheezy B-movie, and gives it a high class, masterfully orchestrated A-movie musical score, which singlehandedly transforms Home Alone into a must see Christmas Classic. That simple melody of the Main Title theme sums up the fun, warmth, nostalgia and play that is Christmas. This movie would be forgotten, not an evergreen classic, without this score, and that's the proof of the power of his music. A great track is Man of the House… a pudding of mayhem, magic and mischief.
     
    Harry Gregson-Williams - Jurassic Park:
     
    "Of course, I love and admire John Williams' scores. The main theme he wrote for Schindler's List is sublime and created the perfect, heart wrenching emotions that that film just had to have. "However, after an unexpected experience I had in Prague a few years ago, maybe my favourite cue is from Jurassic Park. I had the pleasure of conducting a couple of suites of my own scores in the first half of a symphonic concert and JW's Jurassic Park was scheduled to be played during the second half of the program that night. Of course I'd heard this score before, but never quite how I did that evening. From my position backstage I was able to creep unseen in to a vantage position on the stage floor best described as 'within the brass section!' Being in such close proximity to the players as theme soars and takes off was an unforgettably exhilarating moment."
     
    Michael Giacchino - The Witches of Eastwick:
     
    "I have always loved the Witches of Eastwick score - Along with the brilliant melodic aspect of the writing, John's use of both full orchestra and smaller ensemble has always intrigued me. He managed to create both a wonderfully romantic and at the same time atonal and frightening sonic soundscape which gave an incredibly unique sound to this score".
     
    Brian Tyler - Born on the Fourth of July:
     
    "There are too many masterpieces to name from John Williams. But one in particular that really stirred my soul was 'Born on the Fourth of July.' His emotional depth is heard in the music here: the stoic strings, restrained in their tragedy, along with beautiful trumpet melodies. This is a score that should not be missed. I love everything he has done and I am also moved to tears by 'ET' and so many others. As popular as John Williams is as a composer, I have always maintained that he is actually underrated. Brilliant."
     
    Lorne Balfe - JFK:
     
    "You can close your eyes and the score tells the story of the movie perfectly. The mixture of patriotic themes and conspiracy blends perfectly together . The haunting main theme reflects the loss of a country's hero."
     
    Segun Akinola - Memoirs of a Geisha:
     
    "I absolutely love John Williams' score for Memoirs of a Geisha. If I had to choose a favourite from the soundtrack release it has to be Sayuri's theme. The composition, coupled with the performance of Yo-yo Ma, is so emotional and I think it's played a big part in informing the solo cello sound that I like. I often find myself humming the theme, even if I haven't watched the film recently".
     
    Patrick Doyle - Close Encounters of the Third Kind:

    "I am a huge science fiction fan and I will never forget watching 'Close Encounters' in Glasgow's Greens Playhouse in the 1970s. The theatre had a two and half thousand seat capacity and a screen the size of the city itself!vI sat on the balcony for the full vista and audio experience and was captivated. I had no idea I would become a composer one day, but I revelled in the drama and music. When I saw the scientist, played by François Truffaut, make a hand signal to the visitors using John Williams' famous contact theme, I recognised this fine detail, as I was taught the same choral teaching method at my primary school. It would have meant very little to most people in the audience but, as a music boffin, it made the experience even more special and memorable.
     
    Germaine Franco - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial:
     
    "I have been inspired by John Williams' music since I was a child. He is one of the true pillars of film scoring! He has set the standard very high for all other film composers. His contributions to music reach beyond the world of film scoring. In short, he is an entire musical universe unto himself. He is simply the best! My favorite John Williams score is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This score is the epitome of storytelling through music. I still remember seeing that movie when it came out as a young musician. It made a huge impact on me. There are so many amazing cues in that film. It is hard for me to just pick one favorite cue. However, if asked to choose only one, it would be: Escape / Chase / Saying Goodbye Soundtrack Reissue (2002)"
  20. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to TownerFan in New article on JW on Variety: 'The Fabelmans' confirmed, recording next month   
    There you go:
     
    https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/john-williams-turns-90-celebrating-1235172996/
  21. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from GerateWohl in Horner vs. Silvestri poll   
    I actually find Silvestri's work overall fairly underrated, at least in certain circles. There's actually some interesting thematic work in a lot of his scores, beyond the bang and clang loud action scores he often gets known for, however I have a soft spot for a lot of Horner's work too. Dude practically helped define my childhood, and his music is still incredibly resonate today. Bit of a draw, but I guess I'll go with Silvestri 1, and Horner 2, in that order. 
  22. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to crocodile in 🎅 Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas! Sing a song for the glorious season 🎄   
    Happy Christmas to ever single one of you (and also all the members not on here anymorefor various reasons). And happy holiday to your loved ones. 😊
     
    Karol
  23. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to Thor in Steven Spielberg turns 75 today!   
    Couldn't find another thread on this, but feel free to merge if there is one.
     
    Spielberg turns 75 today, a landmark. That deserves its own thread on a John Williams messageboard. As I said over on Facebook, he's always been my no. 1, although I sometimes wish I had a more obscure director top the list. But that would be fooling myself. Here's a picture of my 1995 special assignment, a 57-page long paper during my last year of high school (I graduated in 1996).
     
    Favourite Spielberg film and score?
     
     

  24. Like
    Fancyarcher reacted to TownerFan in John Williams returns for Indiana Jones 5   
    https://www.facebook.com/lucasfilm/photos/a.465029866888384/4105758406148827
  25. Like
    Fancyarcher got a reaction from Bellosh in Do you think King Kong (2005) is a masterpiece?   
    No, but I do like the movie a lot, and think that a lot of the additions that Jackson and co added were really good. I just wish the movie wasn't so indulgent and three hours long. A good forty minutes could have been trimmed at least. JNH's score on the other hand is just excellent.
     
    I have fond memories of seeing the film in the theater with my family in 2005, too, which probably helps to add to my enjoyment of the film. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.