Popular Post Uni 306 Posted February 13, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted February 13, 2013 As most of you have seen on the other thread regarding this subject, some of us are attempting to take the initiative in building the foundational elements of a new website—a wiki encyclopedia devoted entirely to the subject of film music, called Scorepedia (click to head over there). In a sense, JWFan has the opportunity to become the “sponsor” of the website, the group of people most directly involved in its inception.A lot of people have expressed interest in helping out, but there hasn’t been much action on the site itself yet. There are probably a couple of reasons for this. First, Scorepedia’s very nearly a blank page at this point. It’s always hard to take the first couple of steps, to chart unexplored territory, to know whether what you’re posting is approved, whether it helps the website, whether it’s too much, not enough, whatever. Second, a lot of people probably have the wrong idea about what a wiki is. (I know I did at first.) They may think the only acceptable submission is a complete, polished, and referenced article.But that’s not the case at all. A wiki is a community built on shared information—any information that’s made available by any participant at any time. All it takes is someone posting a few lines about a specific score, or a composer, or an industry term, or a technique. Once that page exists, anyone can add their own knowledge, information, or experience to it. In other words, it’s a processthat grows by many small steps, not by a few great, galumphing gobs of information all at once.So feel free to start small. In the beginning, the more pages we have, the better. New people who come across the site will begin to add more material themselves—if they have some good examples to follow. The key to the website’s success at this stage is for us to take the lead and provide those examples.This may be your first time working with a wiki, or maybe your first time dealing with one centered around a specific topic like this one. No problem. Here are some basic parameters, ideas, and guidelines you can follow:If you’ve never posted on Wikipedia before, do yourself a favor and take 30 minutes of time to read through the editing and formatting tutorial on Wikipedia. It’s really very simple—much easier than HTML—and it won’t take you long to get a grasp of things.You’ll need to sign up at Scorepedia in order to be able to post, and so others can see and follow the contributions and changes you make. (I would recommend that the folks from JWFan use a screen name there similar to the one they have here, so we can easily spot one another—but that’s entirely up to you.) NOTE: Because of early problems with spambots, there is no open registration at this time. If you want to become a contributor, contact the site's administrator, Marcus Stohr, either on this thread or directly at contact@scorepedia.org.Each time you check in at Scorepedia, click on the “Recent Changes” link in the left column. That’ll show you everything that’s been added or changed since you were last on the site. (In the beginning, that list should be fairly short and easy for everyone to follow.) Look over any newly-posted pages. If you have anything to add . . . do so! Make any necessary changes, edit passages for smoother reading, whatever catches your eye. When it comes to wiki, you don’t need permission, you don’t have to wait your turn, and you certainly don’t need to fret over how much or how little you have. Any input you can offer enhances the entire project—especially in the beginning.Please don’t let potential inexperience as a writer, or perhaps questionable command of the English language, discourage you either. Just make your writing as clear as you can. If there are any mistakes or grammatical errors in what you post, others will take care of them for you. That’s the beauty of a wiki: everyone works together to smooth out the wrinkles.We’re going to be directly importing the Wikipedia pages for the most prominent composers (Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Horner, Zimmer, and so on) very soon. This should save us loads of time in the long run. So if you’re interested in starting a page about a specific individual in the industry, check Wikipedia first. If they’ve got a sizable page there, chances are it’ll be popping up at Scorepedia soon. (If you have someone in mind who has a Wikipedia page, but hasn’t made an appearance at Scorepedia yet, then post a request in this thread. We’ll make sure it gets transferred.) Once the composer pages do get moved in, we can edit them in any way we please to fit the milieu of our website; it won’t change the article’s appearance on Wikipedia, only on Scorepedia. So if you feel a composer’s ariticle doesn’t make prominent enough mention of your favorite score, then by golly, get in there and make that mention more prominent!Anecdotal information is often the best and most useful, especially for a place like Scorepedia. Posting that a certain score exists is fine; but if you have access to a story about how that score was composed, or recorded, or edited (or rejected!), that makes an article even better. This is the kind of thing that makes and excellent starting point for new articles. (Take a look under the heading "The Score" on the Alien page for several examples of appropriate anecdotes.)Here’s a line of thinking that might prevent some people from contributing right away: a) Important and/or popular scores should be posted before “minor” ones; b) Major scores deserve full treatment (i.e., complete and polished articles) from the start; c) I don’t have time to do a full article on a major score; d) so I’ll just wait for other folks to lay the foundation before I add my two cents.But this is not an accurate perspective at all. As an example, check out the article on this “minor” score that’s already been put up. It’s a long way from being finished—there are plenty of anecdotal details to fill in, and I’d like to tie it to an article about John Barry’s score to Raise the Titanic, the other film from ITC Entertainment that sunk the production company but led to career expansion for Barry. I just didn’t have time to finish the whole thing during my first sitting. So what? It doesn’t have to be complete to be posted. And it doesn't have to be a game-changer of a score. This is the time to be planting seeds, not erecting whole forests of prefabricated information. Toss up some articles on a few of your favorite scores. Whittle away at them when you have time. They’ll be there when you come back.Filmusic terminology can be even simpler. If you have a definition for something you can sum up in a sentence or two, get it in there. (Look here for an example.) Others will expand on what you start.This is important: whenever you do start a new article, make sure you interlink any word or reference that would make a good page in itself. All you have to do is type the word or phrase in double brackets [[like this]]. That automatically creates a link to a new page on that subject. Don’t worry—you don’t have to fuss about going over and starting that new page yourself if you don’t want to. The term will appear in the text as a red link, which means a page exists but nothing’s been written on it yet. The idea of the red links is to inspire others who might know something about that subject to go start the article themselves. All they have to do is click on the link and start writing. (Take a look at that page on Clicks again. Follow one of those red links. You'll get the idea.)Use the Talk pages! Every article has a “Discuss” tab at the top. Clicking on it opens the article’s Talk page, which is a place for contributors to chat about changes, ideas, or plans for the article. Many of them will also include a To-Do list at the top, where the article’s initial author (and others) can suggest elements to round out the page. (If you’re curious about how Talk pages work, check out a few on Wikipedia.) This is an especially important step at this point; everyone should be communicating about new pages, material, and templates as we go, so we can establish some continuity as the site evolves.Remember that a wiki is designed to feature facts about specific subjects, not opinions. If we want to argue the merits or drawbacks of John's various works, we can come back here to do it. The information at Scorepedia should be just that: information. Be careful that you don't let your own high (or low) regard for any score or composer color the articles you write.That’ll do to start with. We’ll add more suggestions and guidelines as the process evolves. (We’re also working on Manual of Style specific to Scorepedia that’ll help people better understand the formatting and parameters for the site.) You can consider this sticky thread a place for questions and queries, ideas, brainstorming, encouragement . . . anything you need to help you get the ball rolling.Ultimately, though, what Scorepedia needs most right now is freelance contributors, folks willing to take the initiative and forge the first links in the chain. If you’re interested in helping build this project, you don’t have to post a resume and tell us you’re interested. Just go to the site and start posting articles. That’ll let everyone know you’re on board.I sincerely hope this will become a growing endeavor that JWFan can proudly put its stamp on. Eventually we’ll be opening the door to other internet chat groups and message boards . . . but for now, this one’s ours. Let’s see if we can make it something special.- Uni Once, Marcus Stöhr and Marian Schedenig 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Fantastic that this really happens. I will gladly contribute.A big thank you to Uni and all people involved for posting these guidelines and for all the effort! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 This is great. I'd love to make some contributions of my own. Thanks Uni! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro 147 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Initial observation: neither filmmusic nor filmusic are actual words, and I don't think they are used by any practitioners of the craft or anyone in the industry. I'd suggest changing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incanus 5,715 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I hope to contribute as time and energies allow. This is a great initiative! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Initial observation: neither filmmusic nor filmusic are actual words, and I don't think they are used by any practitioners of the craft or anyone in the industry. I'd suggest changing that.This is a personal conceit that actually does have some precedent. Critics who wrote film score reviews in mid-20th century periodicals often telescoped the term like that. I always liked it, and so I casually toss it in here and there.Well . . . here, at least. There—meaning on Scorepedia—it's probably not such a good idea. (Though I have yet to see anyone use it over there.)* * * * * * * * * * *Okay, folks. As promised, about a dozen composer's pages have been imported from Wikipedia. As I mentioned in the post above, we're free to tweak these any way we please. So take a look, and have fun. - Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Do we have the ability to copy the track list template from Wikipedia? As I'm working on my first page I realized it would be extremely useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Which page are you looking at as an example?I'm pretty sure we can transfer just about any template in from WP. We just need to know what we're looking for. (Alternately, we've discussed just posting a link to a database site.)- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Here's their track listing template:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Track_listingI was able to create a template on Scorepedia, but simply copying the code from Wikipedia didn't seem to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 Fantastic that this really happens. I will gladly contribute.And man, did you ever. Absolutely phenomenal job on the Minority Report article! The anecdotal material is superlative. You nailed the formatting and layout on the head. You even took the time to transfer in the headings from the other pages. Very nice work indeed.I do have one question, and it involves something I might want to put up there in the guidelines: you did reword the external articles you cited, right? I mean, you didn't just cut and paste them as-is? Copyright issues make that kind of thing sticky. (I'm assuming you recast it all. I just want to make it clear to everyone what we can and can't do in cases like this.)Again, great work on this.A big thank you to Uni and all people involved for posting these guidelines and for all the effort!Quite frankly, if you want to thank me for the effort I've put in so far, this is unquestionably the best way to do it. . . !And on that note: though he hasn't mentioned anything on these threads about it yet, Faleel also did a kick-ass job breaking down the themes in Super 8. (You guys are starting to make me look lazy by comparison!)- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Here's their track listing template:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Track_listingI was able to create a template on Scorepedia, but simply copying the code from Wikipedia didn't seem to work.I'm currently working on that. But your basic intend was right: Just copy the template from Wikipedia and you're set. However, in this occasion a bit more work obviously needs to be done. Here's their track listing template:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Track_listingI was able to create a template on Scorepedia, but simply copying the code from Wikipedia didn't seem to work.I've successfully integrated the template. You can see a use case here: http://en.scorepedia.org/wiki/Super_8#Soundtrack_Releases_and_Cue_Lists Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Fantastic that this really happens. I will gladly contribute.And man, did you ever. Absolutely phenomenal job on the Minority Report article! The anecdotal material is superlative. You nailed the formatting and layout on the head. You even took the time to transfer in the headings from the other pages. Very nice work indeed.I do have one question, and it involves something I might want to put up there in the guidelines: you did reword the external articles you cited, right? I mean, you didn't just cut and paste them as-is? Copyright issues make that kind of thing sticky. (I'm assuming you recast it all. I just want to make it clear to everyone what we can and can't do in cases like this.)Again, great work on this.>A big thank you to Uni and all people involved for posting these guidelines and for all the effort!Quite frankly, if you want to thank me for the effort I've put in so far, this is unquestionably the best way to do it. . . !And on that note: though he hasn't mentioned anything on these threads about it yet, Faleel also did a kick-ass job breaking down the themes in Super 8. (You guys are starting to make me look lazy by comparison!)- UniWell, i didn't reword the interview and liner notes... but if i have to i will although that would be a pain in the ass. Is it really necessary? We are not writing a scientifical thesis and even then i could copy the text as is as long as the citation is right and it all appears in italic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Here's their track listing template:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Track_listingI was able to create a template on Scorepedia, but simply copying the code from Wikipedia didn't seem to work.I'm currently working on that. But your basic intend was right: Just copy the template from Wikipedia and you're set. However, in this occasion a bit more work obviously needs to be done. >Here's their track listing template:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Track_listingI was able to create a template on Scorepedia, but simply copying the code from Wikipedia didn't seem to work.I've successfully integrated the template. You can see a use case here: http://en.scorepedia.org/wiki/Super_8#Soundtrack_Releases_and_Cue_ListsThank you, Marcus! I'm looking forward to giving this a try later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Well, i didn't reword the interview and liner notes... but if i have to i will although that would be a pain in the ass. Is it really necessary? We are not writing a scientifical thesis and even then i could copy the text as is as long as the citation is right and it all appears in italic.Well, copyright laws for a thesis are just the same as for any other work. As far as interviews go, I assume we can use them based on fair use (and there's no point in re-wording an interview), as long as they're appropriately quoted.I've been thinking about something else... and I understand that I've been taking the easy way so far, commenting on procedures without actually contributing any content myself (all I've done so far is sign up for an account). But does it really make sense to import entire articles from Wikipedia? Of course, it's nice, easy content, but there might be some issues with it down the road. If something gets corrected at Wikipedia, we'll still have the old version. If someone notices an error here and fix it, exactly the same correction would have to be done at Wikipedia. (I understand that similar problems will occur, to an extent, if we write our own articles, as much of their content will undoubtedly still come from Wikipedia). But also, many of the links in those articles probably won't quite fit into our structure. When composer X write score Y, Wikipedia will mostly talk about X providing the music for film Y (with the corresponding links), whereas on Scorepedia, it'll be about the music anyway, i.e. X writing Y.Just something that occurred to me, and maybe you completely disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 I think importing stuff from wikipedia makes perfect sense as long as we 1) Check for mistakes and correct them 2) Keep them up to date but not necessarily the same as wikipedia 3) Have the correct citationsOur version will be different (much more details, informative) than wikipedia but parts of it can stay the same if well written. Don't change good things for the sake of change, that makes no sense except it is necessary because of copyright issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 Well, i didn't reword the interview and liner notes... but if i have to i will although that would be a pain in the ass. Is it really necessary? We are not writing a scientifical thesis and even then i could copy the text as is as long as the citation is right and it all appears in italic.Oh, yes, it's absolutely necessary. We can't just copy text outright from another source and use that for articles on SP. Wikipedia doesn't allow it, and while we may have a little more flexibility when it comes to certain wiki concepts, this isn't one of them. It's a bit of a pain, yes, but that's part and parcel of writing an article in any format: you have to do some writing.Now, here's the thing: I don't want you to worry about it in this case. This'll make for a good example of how to take an original source (liner notes, periodical material, internet information) and recast it so you convey the same information in essentially your own words. You won't change the wording of the quotes themselves, of course. Only the "narrative" stuff has to change . . . although it can also make a nice effect to take the information from some of their quotes and change it into narrative style for variety and readability.You can actually see an example of this in the Raiders article, under the heading "The composing process." I got everything from the Laurent Bouzereau interviews, but did a little creative reshaping, using the information from the Williams quotes to tell the story and the Spielberg quote for the final emphasis.I'm going to do the same with your Minority Report article, just to show you how it works. So you don't have to burden yourself with this particular pain in the ass. Like I said, it'll make for a good way to show the sort of thing we need to do in order to avoid any legal problems in the future.I've been thinking about something else... and I understand that I've been taking the easy way so far, commenting on procedures without actually contributing any content myself (all I've done so far is sign up for an account). But does it really make sense to import entire articles from Wikipedia? Of course, it's nice, easy content, but there might be some issues with it down the road. If something gets corrected at Wikipedia, we'll still have the old version. If someone notices an error here and fix it, exactly the same correction would have to be done at Wikipedia. (I understand that similar problems will occur, to an extent, if we write our own articles, as much of their content will undoubtedly still come from Wikipedia). But also, many of the links in those articles probably won't quite fit into our structure. When composer X write score Y, Wikipedia will mostly talk about X providing the music for film Y (with the corresponding links), whereas on Scorepedia, it'll be about the music anyway, i.e. X writing Y.Just something that occurred to me, and maybe you completely disagree. I see what you're saying, but I don't see it as a problem. The thing is, we're not responsible for Wikipedia's content. We're going to be doing some resculpting on these articles to reflect the viewpoint of this website. Wikipedia is a general encyclopedia, while Scorepedia deals specifically with a very narrow and focused subject. Think about it this way: if you wanted to find out about something—let's say an automotive engine—you might look it up in your Encyclopedia Britannica to get the general picture. But if you wanted to know the history of automobiles, or how to rebuild the motor for a Volkswagon Bug, or something along those lines, you'd get your hands on a book or manual devoted entirely to that subject.Wikipedia is the Britannica in this case. It may have some useful info about these composers, but there's more to be had. Someone looking up one of these composers on Scorepedia is expecting to get more and different information than they would on the general site. The imported articles aren't meant to mirror what appears on WP. They're just foundations to be built on, to save us some time so we don't have to do them from scratch. I expect that if you come back in a few months or a year and compare them on both sites, you'll see they've become quite disparate (and for good reason).Does that make sense? We should want all of this information to be presented in a manner that's distinct from WP . . . otherwise, we'd do just as well to simply edit and add what we've got to WP and leave it at that.- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Oh, yes, it's absolutely necessary. We can't just copy text outright from another source and use that for articles on SP. Wikipedia doesn't allow it, and while we may have a little more flexibility when it comes to certain wiki concepts, this isn't one of them. It's a bit of a pain, yes, but that's part and parcel of writing an article in any format: you have to do some writing.Just for clarification: Wikipedia generally does allow you to reuse their texts if you keep the license:Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.Scorepedia uses the same license, so copy/paste is fine in both directions, although in both cases the original authors must be credited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Well, i already changed the text. Interview quotes have to stay the same and therefore must not be changed . The same thing is true for personal quotes. Spielbergs quote has to be taken as is, everything else would not reflect his own wording. These two things are essential in my opinion for scorepedia to work.I agree about all the other points, articles should be reworded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,349 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Though he hasn't mentioned anything on these threads about it yet, Faleel also did a kick-ass job breaking down the themes in Super 8. (You guys are starting to make me look lazy by comparison!)- UniI can't take credit for that, I used Jason's Analysis for the themes, and just edited a few things here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 I looked over your changes. They're much better, certainly.But just to be clear: you can recast a quote as a story, using the quote as the source. For the Raiders article, I had two interviews to draw from, one for Williams and one for Spielberg. I used the Williams quote as grist for the "story" preceding Spielberg's quote. But I could just as easily have done it the other way around. I could've quoted Williams word-for-word as he spoke about the difficulty in finding just the right iconic, "inevitable" theme, and then written this to follow it:Spielberg's only input, after hearing the two themes, was to ask Williams whether he could use both. Williams agreed, using one as the Main Theme and the other as the bridge.There's nothing inaccurate or dissembling about this. You're not changing anything by extracting the relevant information from a quote to shape your anecdote. Newspapers, magazines, and all other press sources do that in every story they write. That's how they get the information they reveal in their articles. And it's a good way to break up a long quote in a way that provides balance and variety.Just for clarification: Wikipedia generally does allow you to reuse their texts if you keep the license:Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.Scorepedia uses the same license, so copy/paste is fine in both directions, although in both cases the original authors must be credited.Just for further clarification: I wasn't referring to copying pages from WP over to SP (which, as you say, we can do). I was talking about copying text, other than direct quotes, from outside sources directly into an article. That we can't do.I can't take credit for that, I used Jason's Analysis for the themes, and just edited a few things here and there.You can take credit for making the effort to do so . . . and you should! Just like you deserve the credit for the rollout of roughly 200 new pages (or so it seems!) in the last few hours. The site's growing exponentially already, and it's mostly because of one person. . . !EDIT: Forget what I said about the extra templates and interlinks being a problem because of the importing process. Looks like they wind up on SP regardless of the way we get the articles there. So for now I'm spending most of my time deleting all that useless stuff to clean up the articles. We can use some templates (if we import them from WP), but most of them are for options I don't think we really care about at this point.- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 I looked over your changes. They're much better, certainly.But just to be clear: you can recast a quote as a story, using the quote as the source. For the Raiders article, I had two interviews to draw from, one for Williams and one for Spielberg. I used the Williams quote as grist for the "story" preceding Spielberg's quote. But I could just as easily have done it the other way around. I could've quoted Williams word-for-word as he spoke about the difficulty in finding just the right iconic, "inevitable" theme, and then written this to follow it:Spielberg's only input, after hearing the two themes, was to ask Williams whether he could use both. Williams agreed, using one as the Main Theme and the other as the bridge.There's nothing inaccurate or dissembling about this. You're not changing anything by extracting the relevant information from a quote to shape your anecdote. Newspapers, magazines, and all other press sources do that in every story they write. That's how they get the information they reveal in their articles. And it's a good way to break up a long quote in a way that provides balance and variety.I think it's a matter of taste then. I simply prefer to read and use the exact quotes as much as possible because they provide the most detail in itself. But i don't necessarily use all the quotes of an interview. But when i use quotes i want them to be as accurate as possible meaning i use exactly what they said or wrote. It more than often happens that crucial things get changed in newspaper recastings of interviews that destroy the context and meaning of a quote.Of course i could also reword JW's or Steven Spielberg's quotes but often the way they say things cannot exactly be replicated by rewording it. It is also more credible to have the actual interview quotes in my opinion. And it's no problem as long as the citation of the source is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 15, 2013 Author Share Posted February 15, 2013 All of which is correct, and perfectly fine. - Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,349 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Anybody who wants to, can contribute information from their Analyses posted in the reviews section here.I just ported my Themes analysis for The Ten Commandments over to Scorepedia myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig 1,120 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I've only just read through this thread and think it's a great idea. I have a couple of suggestions - let me know what you think.First, I think it would be useful to have a "Style of the Score" section on each entry that discusses general points like -harmonic style (tonal, atonal, modal, etc.)- melodic style (intervals emphasized, whether there is a predominance of themes or not)- instrumentation- use of diegetic music (occurs in the fictional world of the film, heard by the characters) vs. non-diegetic music (not occurring in the fictional world of the film)- use of original vs. pre-existing musicThese sorts of things - you could have more or less depending on the score. None of these require too much detail, but I think something like this would give people a sense of what the score's about, musically speaking. And it would also be a good summary of the character of the score. It might be a good way to describe how one score differs from the next.Second, I could add a sentence or two about the musical features of the score's themes that contribute to the theme's emotional character. Just simple things, nothing too theoretical. Things like use of dotted rhythms to suggest a military feel, or rising fifths to suggest a heroic character. That sort of thing. Not too much, but just enough to give an idea of how the composer makes the theme sound like it does.I would be happy to add what I can - I have had extensive training in composition and music theory, and these kinds of things would not take long to add for a single score at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 That would, of course, make an outstanding edition to the articles on Scorepedia. Feel perfectly free to add a new heading ("Musical analysis" or something similar) to any page already posted. Alternately, you could start a new article on any score for which you already have this information. Don't feel like you have to fill in the rest of the info under the other headings; just kick it off with a summary sentence and jump straight down to your analysis. As I've said above, someone else will come in behind you and flesh out the rest of the piece.So knock yourself out! Any ground you break with this kind of thing will be an example to encourage others to do the same.* * * * * * * * * * *While we're on the subject of that first sentence of an article's opening summary: we've been experimenting on some of the pages already in place, and we're settling on a sentence type that seems to work pretty well. First off, this is supposed to be an encyclopedic presentation, so the first sentence should be a declarative statement, not a verbal narrative. In other words, it shouldn't open with something like this: "In 1991, Steven Spielberg created his own take on the Peter Pan legend, and once again invited collaborator John Williams to do the score. Thus, Hook was created." That's known as "burying the lede." The score—which is the main subject of the article—should be mentioned first, not last.Also, this being a site specifically about film music, we don't need to state the obvious and make some kind of delineation between the movie and the score (with an awkward phrase like "for the movie of the same name"). Scores always share their titles with their respective films, so there's no reason to be needlessly redundant.So the opener should first mention the film, then the composer, then give information about the movie (year, subject, etc.) and its director. This is a good lead to follow: "Minority Report is a John Williams score for the 2002 neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg." Basic, straightforward, informative. Go and do thou likewise.- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Just a note: The server is currently unavailable due to unknown reasons. The tech-team of the hosting company is aware of the problem and is dealing with the situation. Once the server is back up, I'll inform you. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. And we are back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I have a suggestion for all articles in the Score category: The name of the article shouldn't contain the phrase Score and/or Soundtrack. Unlike the Wikipedia there won't be an article for the film itself as it would make no sense. It looks just strange to have it here or there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Agreed.I also noticed Wikipedia has fairly extensive articles on the Star Wars scores. I wonder if we might want to import those as a starting point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 I have a suggestion for all articles in the Score category: The name of the article shouldn't contain the phrase Score and/or Soundtrack. Unlike the Wikipedia there won't be an article for the film itself as it would make no sense. It looks just strange to have it here or there.Yup. It is, after all, a wiki about film music, not the movies themselves, so there's no reason to have "Score" in the title. (I've been trying for a while to figure out how to get rid of the one hanging on the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark page title. Still not sure how to get that done.)Agreed.I also noticed Wikipedia has fairly extensive articles on the Star Wars scores. I wonder if we might want to import those as a starting point?This seems like an excellent idea. No reason not to do it—for these, and for any other particular scores that have a significant page on Wikipedia.- Uni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,349 Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 You are probably going to have to just make a new page and redirect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF1_freeze 131 Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Sad to see that all enthusiasm for the pedia seems to have vanished as fast as it appeared...Well at least i can say that i have contributed one article. Still, as no one seems to organize and motivate people to actively add stuff i decided to wait till it picks up steam again for my next contribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig 1,120 Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Part of the difficulty of this project is the unavoidable perception (whether it is true or not) that Scorepedia duplicates what is already present on Wikipedia. Perhaps the site's purpose is at present consumed by the soundtrack pages on Wikipedia. Scorepedia's name, look, and editable-by-anyone format may be too similar as is. And we've even talked about importing material from Wikipedia. What we have to ask ourselves is, what does Scorepedia offer that Wikipedia does not? If we can come up with something clearly different, we should focus on that and hopefully interest will again resurface. If not, perhaps we should focus on improving the existing pages on Wikipedia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,349 Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 Just thought I would warn Marcus etc. that we are getting spam accounts, with "porn" links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 Part of the difficulty of this project is the unavoidable perception (whether it is true or not) that Scorepedia duplicates what is already present on Wikipedia. Perhaps the site's purpose is at present consumed by the soundtrack pages on Wikipedia. Scorepedia's name, look, and editable-by-anyone format may be too similar as is. And we've even talked about importing material from Wikipedia. What we have to ask ourselves is, what does Scorepedia offer that Wikipedia does not? If we can come up with something clearly different, we should focus on that and hopefully interest will again resurface. If not, perhaps we should focus on improving the existing pages on Wikipedia.A project like Scorepedia can be much more specific as Wikipedia when it comes to such specialized topics like filmmusic. Obviously this is true for every specialized wiki.If I see what trouble the La-La Land Records entry on Wikipedia got I see the value in such a project like Scorepedia.The greatest problem we have is the will and time to participate. In the last months I was unable to devote any time to the project. But this is the vital point. Having enough time and will to support this idea. So the question is: Shall we proceed with the project? Or should Scorepedia ultimately die to have an answer to the question if such a project useful?Just thought I would warn Marcus etc. that we are getting spam accounts, with "porn" links.I've taken care of these users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once 605 Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 I really want this to work, I think it could be awesome. That said, it's not something I have the time to do, unfortunately! Which is frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,349 Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 More spam users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 More spam users.I have purged those accounts and also added email confirmation for each account. If you want to contribute you need to confirm your email. If this doesn't work I'll restrict registration for the time being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 I agree with Marcus - the big problem for all of us who are excited about Scorepedia is finding time to work on it. Still, I feel strongly that it's exactly what we need here at JWFan and over time, as people get excited about various scores and releases and do new work analyzing them, the usefulness of Scorepedia will become apparent and new content will gradually appear.I think it's important not to rush the gestation of a project like this. If it takes time to build steam, that's actually better than populating it with tons of content before we have taken the time to thoughtfully establish some early articles and organization as a solid foundation for others to build on. I say we continue to contribute here and there as we are able, and the project will build organically at a measured pace. Once it becomes a good enough resource, at least for certain scores and composers, it will attract more attention from other score enthusiasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieter Boelen 740 Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Big free-lance projects don't start up overnight. Giving up on them ensures that they never will get there.You need a looong breath to see this to conclusion. If people think it is worthwhile, keep it up! Smeltington 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuisWookiee 0 Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Hi, is this interesting project still active? I don't see a link in Scorepedia to register. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck 154 Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Hehe, it died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Hi, is this interesting project still active? I don't see a link in Scorepedia to register.Yes, the project is still active and if you don't mind sending me a private message, I'll be happy to create an account for you.Hehe, it died.Nope, it didn't. I can assure you that the project is dead when the wiki got deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 This project is much needed, but will take time to find its footing. There's no use giving up on it just because the small number of initial contributors haven't had time to expand it much so far. Every little bit helps, and it will only gradually become established as a resource, but once that begins to happen I would expect it to get more exposure and thus a lot more people will begin to add to it. Marcus Stöhr and Once 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Okay . . . time to break the silence on this. Like everyone else, the last six months have made it brutally difficult for me to commit extra time to this project. As the creator and "sponsor" of this thread, I carry an extra helping of the guilties over it--but what's done is done.I'm going to make a real effort to get back to this, and in a better fashion than I did before. Part of the problem was that I burned myself out a bit in attempting to clean up every article that people imported from Wikipedia (by extracting the useless templates and links that were broken in the transfer process). That was ultimately some pretty tedious and unrewarding work. It got me away from what I really enjoy doing, which is writing the articles themselves . . . and when things got busy for me, the thought of spending my free time doing more of that kind of detailed nitpicking just didn't appeal to me enough to come back to it.But I've thought about it occasionally, and regretted that we didn't get things off to a better start. And there's still nothing preventing that.A couple of (belated) responses to comments left before:Part of the difficulty of this project is the unavoidable perception (whether it is true or not) that Scorepedia duplicates what is already present on Wikipedia. Perhaps the site's purpose is at present consumed by the soundtrack pages on Wikipedia. Scorepedia's name, look, and editable-by-anyone format may be too similar as is. And we've even talked about importing material from Wikipedia. What we have to ask ourselves is, what does Scorepedia offer that Wikipedia does not? If we can come up with something clearly different, we should focus on that and hopefully interest will again resurface. If not, perhaps we should focus on improving the existing pages on Wikipedia.A project like Scorepedia can be much more specific as Wikipedia when it comes to such specialized topics like filmmusic. Obviously this is true for every specialized wiki.If I see what trouble the La-La Land Records entry on Wikipedia got I see the value in such a project like Scorepedia.The greatest problem we have is the will and time to participate. In the last months I was unable to devote any time to the project. But this is the vital point. Having enough time and will to support this idea. So the question is: Shall we proceed with the project? Or should Scorepedia ultimately die to have an answer to the question if such a project useful?This was an excellent and necessary point. Ludwig, you were the one who wanted to add a "Style of the Score" section to the articles, a detail that would be too esoteric for Wikipedia's tastes. If you go on too long or indulge in fine-print excesses about a subject they feel only deserves a few paragraphs, the editor types get restless and start slashing prose. Scorepedia is exactly the place where that sort of information can flourish--which is precisely why there should be such a place existing independently of WP.I think people are interested in seeing this work, and I'm thinking it won't necessarily require the amount of time and will you're talking about, Marcus. Here's the thing: the vast majority of members on this board will think nothing of spending five minutes writing about how Rambo or Total Recall were composed on the Jerry Goldsmith thread, or the importance of Cocoon amongst the early elements of James Horner's repertoire, or whatever. If each of those people were to spend that same five minutes writing the same information over on Scorepedia instead of here, in a few weeks' time things would really start to take off. What we're really asking people to do is take the stuff they're BSing about here and put it to good use there, just a little at a time.Will they do it? That remains to be seen. Chances are better, though, if a few of us take the lead and set the example.I agree with Marcus - the big problem for all of us who are excited about Scorepedia is finding time to work on it. Still, I feel strongly that it's exactly what we need here at JWFan and over time, as people get excited about various scores and releases and do new work analyzing them, the usefulness of Scorepedia will become apparent and new content will gradually appear.I think it's important not to rush the gestation of a project like this. If it takes time to build steam, that's actually better than populating it with tons of content before we have taken the time to thoughtfully establish some early articles and organization as a solid foundation for others to build on. I say we continue to contribute here and there as we are able, and the project will build organically at a measured pace. Once it becomes a good enough resource, at least for certain scores and composers, it will attract more attention from other score enthusiasts.This was a fantastic way to put it. We don't need to see the place explode overnight to consider it a success. It'll be much more successful in the long run if we take the time and caution to build a strong, solid foundation that'll give folks the right idea about how to approach this thing. The alternative is to rush something into place that's a mile wide and an inch deep, that outsiders will see more as just another fan site than a serious attempt to chronicle an important artistic form in its own right.So I'm back in again. I'm going to commit to spending a few minutes every day adding something to the site--whether it's a new page or a short paragraph or a bit of editing--or even cleaning up an imported article once in a while, which still needs to be done (though not for hours on end). If a few others will join me in this, we'll see some growth before too long. I remain eminently optimistic.- Uni Once 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smeltington 1,440 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Go get 'em Uni! It's actually a fun stage of the project to work on, where a lot of big scores don't even have their own pages yet. Gives you a lot of freedom to work on the particular scores that interest you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig 1,120 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Okay . . . time to break the silence on this. Like everyone else, the last six months have made it brutally difficult for me to commit extra time to this project. As the creator and "sponsor" of this thread, I carry an extra helping of the guilties over it--but what's done is done.I'm going to make a real effort to get back to this, and in a better fashion than I did before. Part of the problem was that I burned myself out a bit in attempting to clean up every article that people imported from Wikipedia (by extracting the useless templates and links that were broken in the transfer process). That was ultimately some pretty tedious and unrewarding work. It got me away from what I really enjoy doing, which is writing the articles themselves . . . and when things got busy for me, the thought of spending my free time doing more of that kind of detailed nitpicking just didn't appeal to me enough to come back to it.But I've thought about it occasionally, and regretted that we didn't get things off to a better start. And there's still nothing preventing that.A couple of (belated) responses to comments left before:Part of the difficulty of this project is the unavoidable perception (whether it is true or not) that Scorepedia duplicates what is already present on Wikipedia. Perhaps the site's purpose is at present consumed by the soundtrack pages on Wikipedia. Scorepedia's name, look, and editable-by-anyone format may be too similar as is. And we've even talked about importing material from Wikipedia. What we have to ask ourselves is, what does Scorepedia offer that Wikipedia does not? If we can come up with something clearly different, we should focus on that and hopefully interest will again resurface. If not, perhaps we should focus on improving the existing pages on Wikipedia.A project like Scorepedia can be much more specific as Wikipedia when it comes to such specialized topics like filmmusic. Obviously this is true for every specialized wiki.If I see what trouble the La-La Land Records entry on Wikipedia got I see the value in such a project like Scorepedia.The greatest problem we have is the will and time to participate. In the last months I was unable to devote any time to the project. But this is the vital point. Having enough time and will to support this idea. So the question is: Shall we proceed with the project? Or should Scorepedia ultimately die to have an answer to the question if such a project useful?This was an excellent and necessary point. Ludwig, you were the one who wanted to add a "Style of the Score" section to the articles, a detail that would be too esoteric for Wikipedia's tastes. If you go on too long or indulge in fine-print excesses about a subject they feel only deserves a few paragraphs, the editor types get restless and start slashing prose. Scorepedia is exactly the place where that sort of information can flourish--which is precisely why there should be such a place existing independently of WP.I see what you mean, Uni. And yes, I agree that in-depth information would be great on Scorepedia and certainly set it apart from Wikipedia's soundtrack pages.Writings about film music have really only flourished relatively recently, and there's still tons and tons out there that has nothing or next-to-nothing on it (I mean, come on - Star Wars, really?). So I would say that the wonderful kinds of details so many of us love on film music would have a happy home on Scorepedia. Count me in. Smeltington 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uni 306 Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Exactly. I actually spent yesterday creating my case-in-point: Poltergeist.It's not quite finished yet, but I've been working it up as a sort of "ultimate example" of what a complete score page can potentially be. For obvious reasons, I used a score for which a wealth of information is available (not all pages will be able to reach this level of detail). I'd really like to see us get some better formatting—tables for the soundtrack releases, cue lists, and that sort of thing, and I'd really like to see the template for the Infoboxes at the top of the page get up and running.But with the tools we have available so far, this is the kind of thing I think we're aiming for . . . and it's another answer to your original question, Ludwig. Let's say you're a new collector interested in learning more about Goldsmith's score for Poltergeist. If you look the title up on WP, you can find one brief page summarizing all three films at once, and absolutely zero on the score itself. WP is frankly a dry well for this kind of specific information. And I don't know why we should slave ourselves creating pages for them over there when we can expend the same effort building something for a ground up that caters directly to film score lovers like us—and something we can put our own names on and take pride in helping create.You'll notice that I left a space open on the Poltergeist page for your proposed take, Ludwig ("Style of the score"). I'm wondering whether you'd be willing to fill in that blank with the sort of thing you have in mind, so we have a better idea of what you're suggesting. With that in place, and perhaps a couple of other bells and whistles (such as a complete cue analysis), we might eventually be able to direct new contributors here as an example of how to build a new page for a score.- Uni Once 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig 1,120 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Exactly. I actually spent yesterday creating my case-in-point: Poltergeist.It's not quite finished yet, but I've been working it up as a sort of "ultimate example" of what a complete score page can potentially be. For obvious reasons, I used a score for which a wealth of information is available (not all pages will be able to reach this level of detail). I'd really like to see us get some better formatting—tables for the soundtrack releases, cue lists, and that sort of thing, and I'd really like to see the template for the Infoboxes at the top of the page get up and running.But with the tools we have available so far, this is the kind of thing I think we're aiming for . . . and it's another answer to your original question, Ludwig. Let's say you're a new collector interested in learning more about Goldsmith's score for Poltergeist. If you look the title up on WP, you can find one brief page summarizing all three films at once, and absolutely zero on the score itself. WP is frankly a dry well for this kind of specific information. And I don't know why we should slave ourselves creating pages for them over there when we can expend the same effort building something for a ground up that caters directly to film score lovers like us—and something we can put our own names on and take pride in helping create.You'll notice that I left a space open on the Poltergeist page for your proposed take, Ludwig ("Style of the score"). I'm wondering whether you'd be willing to fill in that blank with the sort of thing you have in mind, so we have a better idea of what you're suggesting. With that in place, and perhaps a couple of other bells and whistles (such as a complete cue analysis), we might eventually be able to direct new contributors here as an example of how to build a new page for a score.- UniCongratulations on some very fine work on Poltergeist, Uni. It's a good example of what's possible on the site. Well done.For style of the score, I don't know this one well enough to fill it in myself, but what I'm suggesting is a brief paragraph or two that gives us a sense of why the score sounds like it does. The section would discuss some details of the score in terms of:- Harmony - things like whether it's tonal, atonal, or somewhere in between, and if one dominates the score; also perhaps the genre the harmony evokes - for tonal, there's classical, jazz, popular, folk, and perhaps even more specific breakdowns of these (Mozart-like classical, Coltrane-like jazz, etc.); and for atonal, whether it's freely atonal, twelve-tone, aleatoric (chance music), experimental, etc.- Melody - whether there are full-phrased themes (a la Williams) or short motifs (a la Herrmann), whether the melody is largely on-beat (more of a classical Hollywood trait) or more off-beat (in a more jazz or popular vein), whether there is a melody at all (often not in modernist scores), and perhaps something of the genre of the melody (this is usually tied to genre of the harmony as described above)- Rhythm - whether it's generally rhythmically active or more relaxed, whether it has a regular or irregular meter or lacks a sense of pulse altogether, whether there are syncopations (off-beat accents) or not (again, this strongly ties into the genre)- Instrumentation - speaks for itself, but would be good to describe a few unique aspects of the score in this respect- Timbres - tone colour, meaning the quality of the sound - especially useful for odd uses of instruments or electronically-created ones- Textures - whether it's usually the full orchestra blasting away, or small groups from the orchestra, or combinations thereof, or something in betweenIn analyzing style, different scores will call for emphasis on different combinations of these aspects. If I was analyzing a Williams score, for instance, I would focus on harmony, melody, and instrumentation, whereas if I were analyzing a Zimmer score, I would focus more on rhythm, timbre, and texture.This may seem overwhelming, but not a whole lot has to be said to cover the main points of a score in these respects. Harmony's probably the hardest because it requires some musical training or at least an ability to discern different musical styles like jazz, pop, classical, etc. from the harmony of the music.Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once 605 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Exactly. I actually spent yesterday creating my case-in-point: Poltergeist.It's not quite finished yet, but I've been working it up as a sort of "ultimate example" of what a complete score page can potentially be. For obvious reasons, I used a score for which a wealth of information is available (not all pages will be able to reach this level of detail). I'd really like to see us get some better formatting—tables for the soundtrack releases, cue lists, and that sort of thing, and I'd really like to see the template for the Infoboxes at the top of the page get up and running.But with the tools we have available so far, this is the kind of thing I think we're aiming for . . . and it's another answer to your original question, Ludwig. Let's say you're a new collector interested in learning more about Goldsmith's score for Poltergeist. If you look the title up on WP, you can find one brief page summarizing all three films at once, and absolutely zero on the score itself. WP is frankly a dry well for this kind of specific information. And I don't know why we should slave ourselves creating pages for them over there when we can expend the same effort building something for a ground up that caters directly to film score lovers like us—and something we can put our own names on and take pride in helping create.You'll notice that I left a space open on the Poltergeist page for your proposed take, Ludwig ("Style of the score"). I'm wondering whether you'd be willing to fill in that blank with the sort of thing you have in mind, so we have a better idea of what you're suggesting. With that in place, and perhaps a couple of other bells and whistles (such as a complete cue analysis), we might eventually be able to direct new contributors here as an example of how to build a new page for a score.- UniThat is one brilliant example! Very well done, Uni, very impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Stöhr 34 Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Exactly. I actually spent yesterday creating my case-in-point: Poltergeist.One word: Wow!Thank you very much for this in-depth article.I will update the startpage of the wiki to add information about contribution and maybe even add a small showcase for outstanding articles like Poltergeist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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