Composer Threads The Bear McCreary Thread

[Edmilson 7,474]

14 hours ago, thestat said:

McCreary can be awesome, but he needs to avoid the Balfefication of his work. Foundation was a great score but there were sections where you could hear the lack of attention to the music (silly ostinato nonsense etc) that seems very un-Bear like

I imagine that since he (and his team) are always busy with a huge amount of movies, games and especially TV shows, sometimes they have no choice but to resort to short cuts and just copying the temp track (which I bet is filled with Zimmer and Balfe). 

 

Which is a shame because when he has the time to actually focus on producing a single quality score, it shows in his writing. For The Rings of Power he was capable of writing a lot of interesting and actually memorable themes, a rarity among composers these days. 

 

He should leave stuff like Walking Dead spin-offs or Netflix crap to his apprentices so that he can actually focus on few(er) things at the time.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

January

 

 

[Jay 37,378]

Bear received a Grammy nomination for the GOW Ragnarok OST today

[Edmilson 7,474]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

Beat received a Grammy nomination for the GOW Ragnarok OST today

[Faleel 5,365]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

Beat received a Grammy nomination for the GOW Ragnarok OST today

 

 

48 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

 

Beat, Bear, Battlestar Galactica

[pete 907]

On 25/10/2023 at 9:48 PM, Edmilson said:

He should leave stuff like Walking Dead spin-offs

 

Which spin-off is he working on? I lost track of all the spon-offs

[Miz 139]

Bear fans, I've just watched Europa Report. Is there much on the album that doesn't appear in the film? Or is it just low-mix, low-key underscore for much of it?

[Knight of Ren 789]

11 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

January

 

 

Between this, Percy Jackson, and hopefully the second half of Outlander S7, the start of 2024 is going to be great for Bear fans!

[Stark 316]

4 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

Between this, Percy Jackson, and hopefully the second half of Outlander S7, the start of 2024 is going to be great for Bear fans!

And later in the year, LOTR!

[crocodile 8,020]

I wonder whether he's going to employ other co-composers to help him out on the next season of The Rings of Power. It seems like tons of work for one person, from reading his blogs. 

 

Karol

[Chen G. 3,953]

I mean, he's sorta done all the heavy-lifting in Season One: most of the themes he needs are already there, so that must make his task a little easier going forward.

 

2 hours ago, Stark said:

And later in the year, LOTR!

 

There's only one Lord of the Rings. Only one that plays in 2024. And it is scored by Stephen Gallagher! 

[Jay 37,378]

9 hours ago, Miz said:

Bear fans, I've just watched Europa Report. Is there much on the album that doesn't appear in the film? Or is it just low-mix, low-key underscore for much of it?

 

Hmm, I don't recall there being much music in the film that wasn't on the album, though I'm no expert. 

 

I liked that film though! 

[Stark 316]

6 hours ago, crocodile said:

I wonder whether he's going to employ other co-composers to help him out on the next season of The Rings of Power. It seems like tons of work for one person, from reading his blogs. 

 

Karol

I think he’ll still sole-compose LOTR, since Percy Jackson and Foundation have both been credited to Bear and co lately.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

On 25/10/2023 at 1:48 PM, Edmilson said:

He should leave stuff like Walking Dead spin-offs or Netflix crap to his apprentices so that he can actually focus on few(er) things at the time.

 

Agreed on the Netflix tat, but he doesn't do any of the TWD spinoffs, or at least they're entirely done by other composers who may or may not be part of S&S.

 

---

 

Regarding RoP, you'd hope that if any projects came his way that would stand a good chance of conflicting with its schedule, he'd either assign to a S&S composer or turn down. Probably hinges really on whether he wants to repeat the process solo.

[Edmilson 7,474]

19 hours ago, pete said:

Which spin-off is he working on? I lost track of all the spon-offs

 

6 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Agreed on the Netflix tat, but he doesn't do any of the TWD spinoffs, or at least they're entirely done by other composers who may or may not be part of S&S.

 

I wasn't exactly being literal, I meant the lots of low quality TV shows Bear often finds himself involved with. And that includes TWD itself on the later seasons, even though I doubt he was that involved with the show as it progressed. 

 

Still, probably should've chosen another expression... 

[Edmilson 7,474]

Bear is scoring the next Jeff Wadlow movie:

 

Quote

Composer Bear McCreary (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Walking Dead, 10 Cloverfield Lane, God of War) is reuniting with director Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2, Truth or Dare) on the upcoming supernatural horror thriller Imaginary. The film stars DeWanda Wise as a woman who moves back into her childhood home with her family and becomes concerned when her youngest stepdaughter develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear she finds in the basement. Taegan Burns, Matthew Sato, Pyper Braun and Veronica Falcón are also starring in the movie. Wadlow also co-wrote the screenplay with Greg Erb (Senseless) and Jason Oremland (The Playmobil Movie). He is also producing the Blumhouse production with Jason Blum (Get Out, Halloween, Paranormal Activity). McCreary has previously scored Wadlow’s 2020 Blumhouse feature Fantasy Island and also scored Happy Death Day, Happy Death 2U and Freaky for the production company. Imaginary will be released in theaters nationwide on March 8, 2024 by Lionsgate.

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2023/11/14/bear-mccreary-scoring-jeff-wadlows-imaginary/

[Stark 316]

I appreciate that Bear cycles between the biggest shows on TV and small-scale movies with few exceptions.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

Full trailer

 

 

 

Not completely sold yet to be honest. It looks fun. But maybe a bit too kiddie

[Richard Penna 3,696]

On 15/11/2023 at 2:12 AM, Stark said:

I appreciate that Bear cycles between the biggest shows on TV and small-scale movies with few exceptions.

 

Yes, if these are directors he's worked with for years, it's nice for him to still do scores for them even with his 'big time' stuff now taking most of his time. One remembers the people who helped you get where you are.

[Jay 37,378]

27 more minutes of God of War music from Bear & his guys

 

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/god-of-war-ragnarök-valhalla-original-soundtrack-ep/1720829195

[Richard Penna 3,696]

At some point I've got to listen to all this GoW stuff. I've never been that attacted to Bear's material outside of RoP, Outlander and TWD.

 

Also, hasn't Outlander season 7 finished? We've still only got the EP as far as I can see, and not the full season album.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

Also, hasn't Outlander season 7 finished? We've still only got the EP as far as I can see, and not the full season album.

Season is cut in 2. 2nd part comes next year. Maybe then we'll get a full release

[Richard Penna 3,696]

Ah ok thanks. I don't watch it now it's behind a Starz paywall.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

Also...

Masters Of The Universe: Revolution is being released on the 25th of January.

 

Really excited for the music. One of my favorites of McCreary

[Laserschwert 475]

Percy Jackson sounds great. The album is already coming out tomorrow, despite only 2 episodes having aired so far.

 

 

[Edmilson 7,474]

McCreary did only the themes but not the score? What made him so busy to prevent him from writing cues for the episodes? Perhaps he's already writing stuff for Rings of Power S2?

[Stark 316]

He’s definitely working on TROP already, not to mention Outlander might be in scoring as well.

[Knight of Ren 789]

Yeah, most of his projects now are handled this way, like Foundation S2, Masters of the Universe or this, which it isn't really a bad thing in my eyes, as I feel the quality does not descend. In fact, Foundation S2 was even better than S1 for me.

 

As for Percy Jackson, I've watched the first two episodes, and as a huge fan of the books as a kid, I'm really happy with how the adaptation is turning out, which seems to be a lot more faithful to both the overall tone and the story development.

 

The music is nice, and the main theme is actually quite memorable in how its constantly used and developed through both episodes, but I hope it varies a bit from now on before it becomes repetitive. I like the end credits arrangement a lot though. I also caught a beautiful theme for the Half-Blood Camp in the second episode, and I think there's also a woodwind motif for Grover, but I haven't picked anything else on a first listen. Hopefully the rest of the episodes and the album coming tomorrow can clarify more things!

[pete 907]

I just watched first few minutes and immediately liked the first cue. Looking forward to this!

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

 

 

[Edmilson 7,474]

I guess Bear's ding a ling has been seeing some action... 

 

Seriously now, I imagine if the arrival of a new child is one of the reasons why his team has been handling scoring duties on stuff like GOW Valhalla and Percy Jackson. It's not easy to try to focus on scoring scenes when there's two young children at home.

[Mephariel 451]

The opening of the first cue reminds of the Avengers. Or the various logo openings of Marvel themes. I wonder if the director wanted the temp there.

[Miz 139]

I count myself a Bear fan, but didn't know any of this...

 

https://bearmccreary.com/my-decade-with-elmer-bernstein-3/

 

I listened to Kings of the Sun recently in exploration and tribute to this cross-generational composer relationship. Thought it was good, though I don't know if it was Bear's recomposition.

[Yavar Moradi 2,604]

Bear didn’t “recompose” anything for Kings of the Sun. It’s pure Elmer Bernstein awesomeness, though Bear did help make the new recording happen.

 

Yavar

[A. A. Ron 1,744]

11 hours ago, Miz said:

I count myself a Bear fan, but didn't know any of this...

 

https://bearmccreary.com/my-decade-with-elmer-bernstein-3/

 

I listened to Kings of the Sun recently in exploration and tribute to this cross-generational composer relationship. Thought it was good, though I don't know if it was Bear's recomposition.

 

That was a great read, thanks for sharing!

 

That said, Bear says in the post that he didn’t compose anything for Kings of the Sun. He just re-orchestrated it. In other words, Elmer let Bear participate in the process of picking which specific instruments got to play which pieces of music. All the music was still written by Elmer.

[Yavar Moradi 2,604]

This was not even a “re-orchestration” in terms of changing the orchestration. It’s just that the original written score was lost, so they had to do their best to re-create it. With Elmer alive and there working with Bear, I’m sure it ended up very very close to the original orchestration they were trying to match. The biggest change in the new recording compared with the film recording is occasionally slower tempos.

 

Yavar

[Miz 139]

Yeah, wrong choice of words. Re-recording, I guess.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

 

[Knight of Ren 789]

Really looking forward to hear McCreary & co's music! It looks like it's going to be an epic season and I think he did such a great job in the first season, with lots of memorable themes that I hope come back in one way or another!

[GerateWohl 4,383]

I really like the title theme of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

 

The series is great, too. We can only hope, that the upcoming Harry Potter series will be at least half as good.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

The ostinatos remind me heavily of Silvestri's Avengers theme. The melody hasn't stuck in my head at all unfortunately.

[Edmilson 7,474]

Not only the ostinatos make clear that the Avengers theme was used as temp track, but also this theme sounds so disappointingly generic. It could've been the main theme for any number of Marvel movies or TV shows. Such a downgrade after all the work McCreary had in crafting unique themes for TROP. 

[Yavar Moradi 2,604]

McCreary and his wife Raya just had another baby so I don't blame him for taking it easy during 2023 after the banner year he had in 2022. I'll bet he's also been directing whatever free energies he has towards RoP season 2, and frankly that's what I want him to do. I hope he continues scoring that series solo as he did on season 1 and doesn't start farming out to assistants like he's done on other shows.

 

Whoa I just came across this on Wikipedia:

"Composer Bear McCreary received scripts for the season the day after he completed work on the first season's music. He began composing music for the second season by November 2022, including some that was needed during filming, and expressed excitement at being involved in the season from the beginning and being able to pace out his work better than on the first season."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Rings_of_Power_(season_2)

 

Yavar

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

I really like the title theme of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

 

The series is great, too. We can only hope, that the upcoming Harry Potter series will be at least half as good.

Same here. Really catchy.

I also thought the music in Episode 7 today was the best of the show. The theme for Hades was great and I especially loved the emotional scoring in Asphodel scene

[Chen G. 3,953]

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

"Composer Bear McCreary received scripts for the season the day after he completed work on the first season's music. He began composing music for the second season by November 2022, including some that was needed during filming, and expressed excitement at being involved in the season from the beginning and being able to pace out his work better than on the first season."

 

It was obvious, but I'm assuming that means no Plan 9 compositions this time around...

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

Credits for Masters Of The Universe: Revolution is again

Themes by Bear McCreary
Score by Sparks & Shadows

[Yavar Moradi 2,604]

As long as RoP season 2 is mostly him solo, I’ll be happy.

 

Yavar

[Chen G. 3,953]

2 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

As long as RoP season 2 is mostly him solo, I’ll be happy.

 

I get that. But I do think Howard Shore's and Plan 9's contributions to Season One were extremly worthwhile. It'd be lovely to hear Shore's themes peppered into Bear's score, too.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

17 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

As long as RoP season 2 is mostly him solo, I’ll be happy.

 

Yavar

 

If he's spread the workload out more than season 1, there's probably less chance of him needing to call on assistants. But I couldn't tell you what his team wrote on Outlander, so if the result's good, who cares  

 

My hope is that he continues the episode albums.

[Yavar Moradi 2,604]

I think he farms out less (if any?) to his team on Outlander, because he’s really passionate about channeling his heritage and particular love for (various) bagpipes on it. I think before he got RoP, Outlander was his biggest passion project.

 

Yavar