Video of JW with orchestrator Herbert Spencer

[Ludwig 1,120]

You've probably seen this documentary on the score for ESB before at some point, but a thread on JW's sketches reminded me of this bit from it. It's so rare to see this kind of footage of not just Williams, but any composer working with an orchestrator. I especially like how Williams explains exactly what his daily procedure is for writing for a big orchestra.

The bit with Spencer starts at the beginning and is short, but still pretty informative. (Right after this, we see Williams working with a movieola, a now obsolete item used to synch the music - cool.)

[Datameister 2,041]

Love that documentary. I could watch hours of footage of Williams sitting at the piano and composing, then working with orchestrators to ensure that the music is brought to life correctly.

[Incanus 5,714]

Love that documentary. I could watch hours of footage of Williams sitting at the piano and composing, then working with orchestrators to ensure that the music is brought to life correctly.

Yeah I could too even though I can understand but a fraction of what they are actually saying musically speaking.

[Thor 7,492]

That 80's STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK documentary (also touching on other scores) is about the closest we have to a JW documentary these days.

[MSM 126]

Has been posted already multiple times, but very nice docu indeed. I it available on dvd btw?

[RayBan 1]

Unbelievable - The process and mind of John Williams is simply extraordinary!

[chuck 154]

Does JW still using a movieola?

[Ludwig 1,120]

Does JW still using a movieola?

I don't know for sure, but I really don't think so. He must either synch it up himself with a computer or have an assistant do it for him. Then again, he does still use paper and pencil for composing...

[chuck 154]

Yeah, it's kinda bit shocking to see JW in front of a laptop or a computer. Not that there's anything wrong in it, its just JW is a bit behind the times so to speak.

[Ludwig 1,120]

Not that there's anything wrong in it, its just JW is a bit behind the times so to speak.

If only there were more like him!

[TownerFan 4,983]

Does JW still using a movieola?

I don't know for sure, but I really don't think so. He must either synch it up himself with a computer or have an assistant do it for him. Then again, he does still use paper and pencil for composing...

Actually he updated gears only recently, according to 2011's Wall Street Journal profile.

His process starts with a "spotting" session with Mr. Spielberg, deciding which scenes should feature music or not. Then, unlike contemporary composers who use a computerized timer that clicks off the beats in a scene, Mr. Williams monitors an analog Minerva stopwatch to write to length. At his desk, he works off his memory of the on-screen action, whether it's a character striding across a room or, as in "War Horse," a horse stampeding through thickets of barbed wire. If he needs to analyze the sequence again, he strolls out of his office and across the hall to a room where music editor Ramiro Belgardt cues up the scene. As recently as the last "Indiana Jones" picture in 2008, this process involved Mr. Belgardt punching rewind and fast forward on a bulky videotape player. (He now calls up time-coded footage on a computer linked to a flat screen television.)

[Thor 7,492]

Has been posted already multiple times, but very nice docu indeed. I it available on dvd btw?

No, I don't believe it was ever been released in any format. I got it myself in the late 90's or early 2000's on a DVD-R. Since then, it's been circulating the net on youtube and elsewhere. It's obviously a taped TV broadcast that someone did back then.

I wish someone either a) brushed it up and released it on DVD or b) made a definitive John Williams documentary from scratch! The world needs it.

[Jilal 569]

Does JW still using a movieola?

Nope. He has a flat screen television in his composing room I think. Ramiro Belgardt operates it.

[Ludwig 1,120]

Actually he updated gears only recently, according to 2011's Wall Street Journal profile.

His process starts with a "spotting" session with Mr. Spielberg, deciding which scenes should feature music or not. Then, unlike contemporary composers who use a computerized timer that clicks off the beats in a scene, Mr. Williams monitors an analog Minerva stopwatch to write to length. At his desk, he works off his memory of the on-screen action, whether it's a character striding across a room or, as in "War Horse," a horse stampeding through thickets of barbed wire. If he needs to analyze the sequence again, he strolls out of his office and across the hall to a room where music editor Ramiro Belgardt cues up the scene. As recently as the last "Indiana Jones" picture in 2008, this process involved Mr. Belgardt punching rewind and fast forward on a bulky videotape player. (He now calls up time-coded footage on a computer linked to a flat screen television.)

Wow, that is not what I would have guessed - thanks for sharing. It makes me wonder what he does about mock-ups for previews of the films he scores. Does he have someone do this for him? Apparently it's an essential part of the film scoring process now.

[Datameister 2,041]

He certainly doesn't do any mockups himself, although he's been known to play bits on the piano for the director. I'm not sure if anyone else does mockups for him, although I somewhat doubt it. Williams is truly one of the last of his kind.

[ShowUStheHOOK 8]

I think he's the only composer left that is able to do what he does without making mock ups for the director. Lucky. ........I remember in an interview with Goldsmith, he even complained about how doing the mock ups took up too much time. TIme that he could be using for writing.

[Jilal 569]

Well I'm not 100% sure, but if my source is correct, there were synth mockups made for Tintin, perhaps because of Jackson.

[Uni 306]

I always associate this documentary with a moment when I impressed myself—and first began to realize how intimately I was getting to know these scores. When it first cuts to the scene of him working at the piano, he plays a sequence of four chords (three identical, the fourth a couple of steps higher). I instantly knew the precise moment in the film he was composing for: after Han shoots the ground in the asteroid and the earthquake begins. I was a little amazed I could "Name That Tune" so easily.

That feeling was replaced a few seconds later with a staggering realization . . . I am watching him compose the music for that moment in cinematic history. Somehow the specificity of it just floored me. It was like seeing actual footage of of Lincoln writing the Gettysburg Address, or of Stravinsky's first performance of Rite of Spring, or something similarly historic. It was a singular act of creation that happened once and will never happen again (I mean for those notes in that score specifically). It's not like that's his best piece or anything. But it's that piece. And we got to see the inception of it. Too cool, really.

- Uni

[karelm 2,912]

I always associate this documentary with a moment when I impressed myself—and first began to realize how intimately I was getting to know these scores. When it first cuts to the scene of him working at the piano, he plays a sequence of four chords (three identical, the fourth a couple of steps higher). I instantly knew the precise moment in the film he was composing for: after Han shoots the ground in the asteroid and the earthquake begins. I was a little amazed I could "Name That Tune" so easily.

That feeling was replaced a few seconds later with a staggering realization . . . I am watching him compose the music for that moment in cinematic history. Somehow the specificity of it just floored me. It was like seeing actual footage of of Lincoln writing the Gettysburg Address, or of Stravinsky's first performance of Rite of Spring, or something similarly historic. It was a singular act of creation that happened once and will never happen again (I mean for those notes in that score specifically). It's not like that's his best piece or anything. But it's that piece. And we got to see the inception of it. Too cool, really.

- Uni

Very well put, Uni. I felt the same way. It's the closest we have to being a fly on the wall during the creation of his masterpiece.

[Datameister 2,041]

I always associate this documentary with a moment when I impressed myself—and first began to realize how intimately I was getting to know these scores. When it first cuts to the scene of him working at the piano, he plays a sequence of four chords (three identical, the fourth a couple of steps higher). I instantly knew the precise moment in the film he was composing for: after Han shoots the ground in the asteroid and the earthquake begins. I was a little amazed I could "Name That Tune" so easily.

That feeling was replaced a few seconds later with a staggering realization . . . I am watching him compose the music for that moment in cinematic history. Somehow the specificity of it just floored me. It was like seeing actual footage of of Lincoln writing the Gettysburg Address, or of Stravinsky's first performance of Rite of Spring, or something similarly historic. It was a singular act of creation that happened once and will never happen again (I mean for those notes in that score specifically). It's not like that's his best piece or anything. But it's that piece. And we got to see the inception of it. Too cool, really.

- Uni

I completely agree - it's insanely cool to have even just a few seconds of footage of him composing this cue. There's also the footage of him playing through the trombone chords as the Falcon is taking off.

[Thor 7,492]

What's even more tantalizing is that Spielberg has tons of footage from their earliest collaborations untill today, but none of it has ever been released (except maybe some small glimpses in DVD extras and stuff). Would be awesome to have this released -- edited down, if necessary -- for the public to behold. It's history being written!

[Uni 306]

Is it too much to hope that someday Spielberg will choose to honor his close friend and collaborator by letting the public see some of this stuff? Almost too much to hope for. . . .

- Uni

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Is it too much to hope that someday Spielberg will choose to honor his close friend and collaborator by letting the public see some of this stuff? Almost too much to hope for. . . .

Sadly I think we know what day that will be.

[Uni 306]

April 1st. . . ?

- Uni