Scores Performed Live to Film

[MusicPresenter 0]

Hello All,

Perhaps some of you have attended live to projection events before – maybe when John Williams did E.T. in Los Angeles years ago, or Lord of the Rings In Concert or Prates of the Caribbean which is a little more recent in terms of production.

I’m helping to produce some additional live to projection events coming up in the future and I would like to enlist your opinion(s) of what film scores you might like to hear, performed in full, live to picture.

I hope this is the proper place in the forum for such a question.

Looking forward to dialoguing with you all.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Any of the big Williams action/fantasy scores, I guess. The Empire Strikes Back and Hook immediately come to mind.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jaws!

[Jay 37,373]

Jaws, Star Wars, or Jurassic Park would be tough due to there being so many parts of those films that no score plays.

 

The Empire Strikes Back would be incredible, especially if all the many bits of music that were dropped from the final film or replaced with tracked music was restored to the original compositions. You would need a woman's choir for one cue, though.

 

The Lost World would be absolutely amazing, but the film isn't very popular so it might be hard to sell tickets. Would be quite a performance to see all that percussion played live though, not to mention seeing all the dropped cues restored to picture.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jaws!

[Jay 37,373]

Jaws would be pretty great actually, especially if The End Of Quint is played. I suppose the large passages of no score won't matter, as the audience will be engrossed in the film.

 

I think the key is just the combination of GOOD score and popular movie

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Raiders would be nice too. It's not wall-to-wall, so there's some room to breathe, but when the music does kick in it's fantastic. The finale would be quite spectacular with live orchestra and choir I think.

And how the hell did we forget Close Encounters of the Third Kind?!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

So Cloverleaf is out?

[Datameister 2,044]

Images!

[MusicPresenter 0]

Love them all so far! The trick with Star Wars is the mega royalty that needs to be paid to Lucas and Williams – makes it very difficult to green light. The Star Wars: A Musical Journey production that is touring right now took years to get off its feet, in part, due to the former.

Pretty much anything with Lucas is a challenge. Love Jaws as an idea though.

Keep the Williams suggestions coming, obviously – but how about films outside of the Williams catalogue? Anything goes.

[Faleel 5,359]

The Towering Inferno, Last Crusade, or Revenge of the Sith.

for films outside of williams:

The Ten Commandments,Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Chicken Run, Back to the Future, or Lord of the Rings (Bakshi/Rosenman).

[Jay 37,373]

I was trying to think of some non-Williams ones in my initial post and nothing really struck me.

 

Perhaps Giaccino's Star Trek, especially if you could do it around the time the sequel is in theaters. Plenty of instances of tracked music in the final cut you could restore as well

 

Trying to think of a good Danny Elfman one.... I guess Batman or Edward Scissorhands

 

For Goldsmith, Total Recall or Air Force One would be super fun.

[Quintus 5,399]

North By Northwest.

Superman would be a lot of fun - imagine the live ostinato

[tannhauser 101]

Ben Hur would be immense

[Faleel 5,359]

Ben Hur would be immense

Or the Ten Commandments!

[MusicPresenter 0]

Superman: The Movie I think would be fantastic, not sure if enough of the young ones would jump on board due to the current reboot that is out there.

Polar Express or Home Alone for the holidays?

The Nightmare Before Xmas for Halloween?

[Jay 37,373]

The problem with Nightmare Before Christmas would be you'd need to find a whole cast of singers for all the songs

[MusicPresenter 0]

The problem with Nightmare Before Christmas would be you'd need to find a whole cast of singers for all the songs

Naww, you'd just keep the original vocal tracks intact and perform the accompanying live score in sync. Otherwise, you're right - would be a difficult production that way, I must admit.

[indy4 155]

Sorcerer's Stone, Raiders, Prisoner of Azkaban. If you're going with musicals, then the Menken/Disney stuff...especially Hunchback, Beauty and the Beast, or Pocahontas.

[fommes 153]

Leaving out The Empire Strikes Back, two other Williams scores would be at the very top of the list:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

These would be my other top requests:

Danny Elfman's Mission: Impossible

Alexandre Desplat's The Golden Compass

Mark Snow's The X-Files: Fight the Future

David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies

James Horner's The Mask of Zorro

These are all excellent scores, most of them are classics already, with a strong energetic and dynamic character. The films are also entertaining and contain a lot of music - I think the spectacle value would be enormous. Perfect fit for such an occasion I'd say.

However, I suspect the organization is limited to the US? Or are we talking Europe, too?

[MusicPresenter 0]

Leaving out The Empire Strikes Back, two other Williams scores would be at the very top of the list:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

These would be my other top requests:

Danny Elfman's Mission: Impossible

Alexandre Desplat's The Golden Compass

Mark Snow's The X-Files: Fight the Future

David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies

James Horner's The Mask of Zorro

These are all excellent scores, most of them are classics already, with a strong energetic and dynamic character. The films are also entertaining and contain a lot of music - I think the spectacle value would be enormous. Perfect fit for such an occasion I'd say.

However, I suspect the organization is limited to the US? Or are we talking Europe, too?

Worldwide, certainly not limited to the US. Subtitles would be provided in the local language. Could end up being an arena tour actually, although I prefer the concert halls for intimacy and acoustics.

[rpvee 806]

Although I don't think it's the most popular of scores here, Titanic would be rather interesting, since the score progresses from calm in the beginning to gradually becoming one for an action flick as the ship starts to sink. The only issue would be Sissel's vocals for the main theme. However, with anticipation slowly growing for the re-release next year, it'd be an interesting choice!

How do these kinds of performances/screenings work, anyways? You'd need the sheet music for the entire score, and the film with no music.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Titanic is an fantastic score!

[MusicPresenter 0]

Although I don't think it's the most popular of scores here, Titanic would be rather interesting, since the score progresses from calm in the beginning to gradually becoming one for an action flick as the ship starts to sink. The only issue would be Sissel's vocals for the main theme. However, with anticipation slowly growing for the re-release next year, it'd be an interesting choice!

How do these kinds of performances/screenings work, anyways? You'd need the sheet music for the entire score, and the film with no music.

Luckily it's rather easy to just kill the music track during the film and keep dialogue and sound effects as they are all on separate tracks. The trick is finding a film where the studio has actually kept all of the cues so that parts can be generated for each orchestra that performs the score. And of course the timing is an issue. Click tracks are annoying so I generally try and go with punches and streamer markers to let the conductor have at least some leeway with tempi.

[Incanus 5,716]

Here are a few:

Bernard Herrmann:

Vertigo

North by Northwest

Bronislau Kaper:

Mutiny on the Bounty

Miklós Rózsa:

Ben-Hur

El Cid

Julius Caesar

Quo Vadis

Jerry Goldsmith:

First Knight (I think it would be rather painful to sit this movie through but you can bet the music is fantastic)

The Mummy

The Omen

Poltergeist

Star Trek

David Arnold:

Independence Day

Star Gate

Danny Elfman:

Edward Scissorhands

Sleepy Hollow

Batman

Batman Returns

James Horner:

Willow

Krull

Rocketeer

Glory

Star Trek II

Erich Wolfgang Korngold:

Seahawk

Adventures of Robinhood

Captain Blood

The Private Lives of Elisabeth and Essex

Basil Poledouris:

Conan the Barbarian

Starship Troopers

Flesh + Blood

Nino Rota:

Romeo and Juliet

Max Steiner:

King Kong

Franz Waxman:

Sunset Boulevard

Bride of Frankenstein

Patrick Doyle:

Henry V

Bruce Broughton:

Young Sherlock Holmes

Elmer Bernstein:

Ten Commandments

To Kill a Mockingbird

John Barry:

Dances with Wolves

John Williams:

The Empire Strikes Back

Hook

Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Jurassic Park

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban

The Patriot

Superman

and this is just some of the most popular JW titles. Shame that they are so expensive to produce.

[Jay 37,373]

Luckily it's rather easy to just kill the music track during the film and keep dialogue and sound effects as they are all on separate tracks. The trick is finding a film where the studio has actually kept all of the cues so that parts can be generated for each orchestra that performs the score. And of course the timing is an issue. Click tracks are annoying so I generally try and go with punches and streamer markers to let the conductor have at least some leeway with tempi.

If you have any trouble tracking down sheet music for a film you want to do, just let me know

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

Uhm - what Incanus said.

I'll add Much Ado About Nothing for Doyle; there's a lot of score in it (especially considering it's a Shakespeare play), and a lot of it is brilliantly spotted. The overture is perhaps one of the best film sequences I've ever seen that's fully carried by music, summing up the major themes of the entire score and still perfectly matching every cut on the screen. But the underscore is also very dynamic; the wedding scene in particular has music that emotionally follows every single line Shakespeare wrote.

(And if you could get Doyle himself to perform his solo, he could be seen singing on- and off screen simultaneously )

[MusicPresenter 0]

Between the following two concepts, which would be more attractive to you as a concert-goer?

A) The entire score performed live to picture (thus, only 1 movie for the evening)

B) A night of film clips themed along the lines of, for example, all western scores, sci-fi scores, the music of Paramount, etc. – some clips during the evening which are presented first without music (dialogue, sound effects only) then with the music synced by the orchestra (giving the audience an opportunity to experience the power of what music can do for a film) – I believe Williams has done this with the Shark and Cage Fugue from Jaws?

[rpvee 806]

Between the following two concepts, which would be more attractive to you as a concert-goer?

A) The entire score performed live to picture (thus, only 1 movie for the evening)

B) A night of film clips themed along the lines of, for example, all western scores, sci-fi scores, the music of Paramount, etc. – some clips during the evening which are presented first without music (dialogue, sound effects only) then with the music synced by the orchestra (giving the audience an opportunity to experience the power of what music can do for a film) – I believe Williams has done this with the Shark and Cage Fugue from Jaws?

For a concert-goer, the latter would be the more interesting and enjoyable. Williams does it every year for his Hooray for Hollywood series in Boston.

For an average family evening event, a whole film might be more engaging and sense-making for kids.

[Richard Penna 3,695]

Independence Day would be incredible.

I think pretty much anything where the music has enormous impact in the film.

I don't think BTTF would work - the music doesn't start properly until halfway through the film and even then it's hardly wall to wall.

[Faleel 5,359]

Independence Day would be incredible.

I think pretty much anything where the music has enormous impact in the film.

I don't think BTTF would work - the music doesn't start properly until halfway through the film and even then it's hardly wall to wall.

There is the sequels.

[Jay 37,373]

Independence Day would be incredible.

Oooh yea, good one!

[Thor 7,520]

Uhm....these concerts are usually done for silent films. After all, you would be hardpressed to find a copy of a film that has all the sound effects and dialogue, but not the music.

Unless, of course, you could play the concert like an isolated score track with muted sound.

There are plenty of good silent films to recommend, but I need to know stuff like: are you planning on having an orchestra there? Or is it a piano reduction thing? Are you looking to play existing scores (or piano reductions of existing scores) or get original compositions?

[Jay 37,373]

Did you not even read the original post? All your questions are answered there

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thor really only cares for 80's synth pop scores and relaxing music...

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

My favorite ones would be CE3K and Empire. ( and this more like beeing part of the performing orchestra)

And of course my new favorite Temple of Doom but I think it's almost impossible to perform live.

It would require double(or even triple) manning for the brass section...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes one group of brass players filling in while the other group is being supplied oxygen....

[Brónach 1,302]

And the chorus, and the "zinggg" instrument (I don't know the name).

[Faleel 5,359]

Sitar?

[Brónach 1,302]

I think that's it. I like it

[Thor 7,520]

Did you not even read the original post? All your questions are answered there

Uhm, yes of course I read it. What makes you think I didn't read it?

He asked for suggestions for scores that could be performed live to projection? Or am I missing something? Still doesn't say anything about HOW these should be performed, hence the follow-up questions.