[Cues that you consider unnecessary in movies]

14 minutes ago, KK said:

So I disagree with you, I think there are many directors who are throwing way too much score against the picture...but the craft around how specifically score shapes a picture has certainly gone down a few pedigrees.

Yeah, I probably should have specified good wall to wall scoring is almost never done anymore, because it doesn't work when the quality of the work itself is uninteresting.

 

Obviously I know the practice still exists, but it's so much more rare for a good example of it to exist nowadays. 

[Cues that you consider unnecessary in movies]

13 minutes ago, KK said:

Wall-to-wall scoring is just one approach...certainly doesn't work for most modern films. But sometimes it's what a massive spectacle needs.

How would we know, if most directors don't even bother trying anymore?

[Cues that you consider unnecessary in movies]

Can't agree on LOTR. Especially after reading Doug Adams' book on the music and knowing how much effort was made to basically create a complete opera in movie form.

 

Tbh there's not enough music in ROTK, I loved the reprisal of the "Dangerous Passes" theme that went unused in the movie, not to mention the entire Gollum opening that was half cut to shit, and Frodo's final seduction at the hands of the ring in Mount Doom. Both examples where they replace it with dull "creepy" sound design.

[Godzilla's Musicverse [from Showa to Monsterverse and beyond]]

2 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

Why does everything Holkenborg records have to sound dramatic? These fucks only know one tone. ONE. Drama. And even more drama Heavy drama. 

How can someone listen to this album entirely and not think about a high ledge? 

 

If there's one thing I've learned about the way general audiences react to music, even orchestral, it's that most people have very low standards. 

[Godzilla Cinematic Universe Thread]

Saw it yesterday. Love all of the monster fights, the way they behaved, their relationship, the subtle and not so subtle movements, the variety in the action, all of that was handled great. Don't entirely get the hate for Godzilla's role in the movie, it made perfect sense to me, even if it was kind of stupid and convoluted, he at least acts and thinks like Godzilla usually does in these movies so I was fine with it. 

 

All of the human stuff sucks as per usual (besides maybe Kong: Skull Island but I haven't seen that yet). Just a bunch of Roland Emmerich-type lazy, hacked together, predictable schlock, but unlike King of the Monsters, they don't actively detract from the monster fights, and the focus is (almost) never taken away unnecessarily. The sci-fi was weird, but KOTM already established the tech was advancing quickly so I got used to it. 

 

The music was generic as hell. Never noticed it except when they played the distorted Godzilla theme, which I'm glad was there because at least Junkie didn't try to make an original, forgettable Godzilla motif to replace the original brass one, but obviously it would have been much better with Bear McCreary's full remasters of the original themes, as well as his superior writing style. 

 

Overall the movie was a solid 6/10. Great fun, not overly obnoxious or irritating, but it would have been way better if there was an overall compelling storyline and musical score. 

[The Orchestral Sample Library Thread]

I just write in every note and modification manually on piano roll since I'm not that great at keyboard playing. Hell, I'll have to write on paper eventually, so might as well have that mentality on lock beforehand. 

[What do you consider to be Superman's "main theme" in Zimmer's Man of Steel (2013) and other scores?]

Just... cut a few, and it'll be perfect!

[What do you consider to be Superman's "main theme" in Zimmer's Man of Steel (2013) and other scores?]

I'd rather analyze The Dark Knight Trilogy scores (and have!) than listen to Man of Steel's score once. At least we have JNH's themes in the first 2 movies. 

[The Force Awakens is probably the last thing in my life I ever looked forward to as much as I did]

I was somewhat looking forward to The Force Awakens. I saw the movie and thought it was good, but not terribly interesting. 

 

No Man's Sky is the last video game / movie I'll ever get excited for. Such a shit release. I don't even enjoy the updates to it, gameplay's just too much of a slog. 

[Rewatching Superman Returns - Hollywood turned it into a masterpiece]

I don't really get the Nolan Batman hate on this forum. Those movies really aren't that depressing aside from certain plot points, there's plenty of banter to lighten the mood every now and then, and not really sure what you mean by antiheroes? Every villain is pretty obviously crazy/evil, and Batman is pretty much comic book dark, but heroic Batman (not including the fucking awful voice in TDK and TDKR). 

 

TDKR hate I get because there's a lot of stupid lines/decisions, weird plot points, and a lame Talia Al Ghul. But I always thought BB and TDK were pretty solid in terms of capturing the Batman tone. Even Arkham Asylum, City and Origins aped quite a lot from the first 2 Nolan Batman movies. 

[Main Title from Star Trek-The Motion Picture. Film Version vs Album Version (Poll)]

8 hours ago, publicist said:

 

Which exactly describes why it's a doubtful opening choice for Roddenberry's gentle vision.

That doesn't have to apply to every aspect though. Star Trek TNG Season 1 was "part of Roddenberry's gentle vision", and guess what? It sucked. Not to mention that the military sound is just that, a sound.

 

In fact it's perfect as a theme for Star Trek / the federation. Fun, mostly light-hearted, strong adventure theme with a hint of military. 

[Main Title from Star Trek-The Motion Picture. Film Version vs Album Version (Poll)]

Film version definitely. Just love the forceful, military sound of the snares, and of course the remastered audio in the La La Land release doesn't hurt. 

[Danny Elfman's DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022)]

Even though I'm not a fan of Giacchino's theme, it's good to see Elfman keeping thematic continuity. 

[Key scores in the evolution of JWs “sound”]

I would actually say Schindler's List was a big development for Williams' sound. If nothing else, because he was convinced he didn't have what it took to compose for that film, and from what I remember, he said it took everything he had to be able to write the proper music for that film.

 

Of course it wasn't as big as his earlier scores for developing his overall style, but you can definitely hear the improvement in emotional pieces afterwards (Anakin's Betrayal and Torn Apart in particular sound like echoes of the Schindler score to me). 

[Justice League movie thread]

4 hours ago, Quintus said:

How come movie geeks go mad for shitty looking green screen CGI fests in Justice League but they get mad at shitty looking green screen fests in The Hobbit? 

Snyder fanboys have lower standards than LOTR fanboys. 

[Junkie XL's JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)]

37 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

Is Junkie XL another one of those so-called "composers" who can't read music but somehow managed to con his way to the very top?

If they're from RCP, and they make the biggest, noisiest, flavor of the week that people call masterpieces, the answer is almost always yes. 

[The Composer's Thread]

For anyone interested I made a track for The Dark Knight Rises using James Newton Howard's missing thematic material. 

 

 

[A new appreciation for the throne room scene]

Agreed on this scene. As a kid, I thought it was cheesy, stupid, and unnecessary. Now I think it's a wonderfully sincere showcase of the actors' brilliant chemistry, and the finale to a score that was damn near perfect. 

[Junkie XL's JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)]

12 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

Complete trash. Who in their right mind listens to shit like this and enjoys it?

 

It's an insult to film music to call this noise music.

Snyder fanboys don't care. All they care about is that it's not lighthearted and that it keeps "thematic continuity", if you want to call Hans' Superman and Batman motifs "themes".

 

The quality of the writing never mattered to them. All they cared about was getting the same schlock they heard in MoS and BvS. 

[Junkie XL's JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)]

[New Project: John Williams Potter Scoring]

I really enjoyed it as well! So much more fun and interesting uses of themes than the original. Not sure how I feel about HP4, because of the aesthetics of the cheaper instruments, but composition-wise it was well done, and I loved the inclusion of the old themes.

 

HP5 however, is basically what I always wanted from that movie's score! With the numerous callbacks to POA's score, (and of course the first 2 movies' motifs) with new, distinct, and well thought-out themes that will carry through the dark half of the series. 

 

Your team did a great job at capturing the Williams sound and magic. 

[The Composer's Thread]

Finished this piece of music for my sci-fi album. 

 

[I can't believe it's not John Williams! (the best imitators)]

I always thought Jeremy Soule's early work was great at scratching the Williams / melodic itch.

 

 

 

I also really love Jacob A. Cadmus' score to Star Wars Theory's Vader fan film. It's such high quality for a film that's essentially nothing but fan service.

 

[Has Hans Zimmer aged well?]

19 minutes ago, mrbellamy said:

 

I do think there's an entire generation that identify the Batman logo with Zimmer's brass bwaaaahms. People would go mental if they did another one and that was at the end of the trailer. 

 

Nolan/Zimmer are basically considered an iconic collab at this point and The Dark Knight is going down as a classic movie, like it or not. The score too, I guess, although I feel like Inception and Interstellar get the most mentions for Zimmer.

 

I may be out of the loop, though, but in general I think their Batmans are considered more definitive as Nolan/Zimmer scores than as Batman scores? Like I don't think anybody's really comparing it to Elfman.

It's funny because I think James Newton Howard's work on Batman Begins and TDK is far superior to most of Zimmer's work on those films. "Bruce Left For Dead" from the complete score of Batman Begins being my favorite example of how the heart of the music was really Howard. 

[Has Hans Zimmer aged well?]

Of all of the hills Zimmer chose to die on, he chose Junkie XL? How poetic, the master of BWAHM, and the master of BAM together, shitting on film scoring.