The Book Thief (2013) - New Williams film score!

[Incanus 5,722]

Is the click track used for tempo and syncing music to the action?

Yes. More info here.

[Jilal 569]

Well, I guess this means the score will be around 100 minutes long, going by the assumption that about 20 minutes of music is recorded each day. Yay!

[karelm 2,915]

Well, I guess this means the score will be around 100 minutes long, going by the assumption that about 20 minutes of music is recorded each day. Yay!

I don't think so. They have the luxury of rehearsing, getting it right, then had a day to go back and see if anything could be improved.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

A 100 minutes of music for this movie? What are you smoking? lol

[Jilal 569]

Well, I guess this means the score will be around 100 minutes long, going by the assumption that about 20 minutes of music is recorded each day. Yay!

I don't think so. They have the luxury of rehearsing, getting it right, then had a day to go back and see if anything could be improved.

Yes, uhm, of course... Lincoln took about four days to record (according to this link), so you must be right.

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

Is the click track used for tempo and syncing music to the action?

Yes. More info here.

Hmm. Then I think this will be a non-synced score, meaning, long melodic pieces that he will be in the background of the film without intricate syncing like say in Tintin or Star Wars etc.

Even War Horse had synced music but Lincoln it was just applied like wallpaper in some scenes as just musical accompaniment.

So this might be a score like that.

---

And wasn't the screening incredibly quick after the score was recorded?

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Karelm, do you know how much score was recorded? Concert suites included.

[Mari 279]

The release date for The Book Thief movie has changed from 11/15/13 to 11/8/13 source

 

Coincidentally, that is same date as the first John Williams concert in Chicago. I'd say the odds of music from the score being included have just improved.

 

 

 

Edited to add this tweet from JoAnn Kane Music Svc:

 

The Book Thief final session today. A beautiful score from the master, John Williams.

— JoAnn Kane Music Svc (@JKMSlibrary)

October 6, 2013

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Nice!

Just found this quote on FSM. Geoffrey Rush talks a bit about the score:

A big plus is the score by 48-time Oscar nominee and 5-time winner John Williams. It will likely bring him his 49th nomination. He does very few scores now outside of work with Steven Spielberg or the occasional blockbuster. But Rush tells me this is a job the composer actually sought himself. “I think I am right in saying that he contacted the producers and said ‘I read this book and I know you are making a film and I would really like to write the music for it’ , so I think they took that as a plus,” he said.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/can-20ths-under-the-radar-entry-the-book-thief-steal-a-spot-in-the-oscar-race/

[Jay 37,418]

Wait, if they just finished recording the score today, than that must mean the version of the movie being screened does not include the Williams music, so those reviews that talk about it must have been talking about a temp score

[Alejandro 26]

But this was on deadline :

“We only wrapped on it in May or June (on location in Germany). And John Williams is still tweaking the score but it played beautifully here on Thursday night at the official premiere,” Rush told me when he spoke to me earlier today before his Mill Valley tribute. “I hadn’t seen any of it apart from a little bit during looping so it’s always a little exciting and unnerving at the same time. You have 600 strangers sitting around and you can gauge that their level of involvement was very, very nice. It got a standing ovation and I’m told that is not part of the Mill Valley norm. Sometimes people leap to their feet in certain contexts or Broadway – it’s part of the ritual – but they said ‘no, that’s a really deserved accolade’. It was exciting for us.” Ironically Rush had missed the Sundance debut of his Oscar winner Shine 17 years ago and caught it for the first time when it played Mill Valley. That worked out okay so maybe this is a good luck fest for him.

[mrbellamy 6,310]

Wait, if they just finished recording the score today, than that must mean the version of the movie being screened does not include the Williams music, so those reviews that talk about it must have been talking about a temp score

Hmm, I dunno. Do you think they'd show a temped version for its official premiere at a film festival? It may have been album-only pieces he was recording on the last day.

[Incanus 5,722]

Wait, if they just finished recording the score today, than that must mean the version of the movie being screened does not include the Williams music, so those reviews that talk about it must have been talking about a temp score

Hmm, I dunno. Do you think they'd show a temped version for its official premiere at a film festival? It may have been album-only pieces he was recording on the last day.

As the above article that Alejandro quotes says Williams must have scored most of the film before it was rushed to the premiere and there was just some fine tuning left for him to do. I doubt they would temp track it at this point anymore, when JW's music is available. And yes they might have also scheduled possible album material recording for the final day for just such reason.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes.

[mrbellamy 6,310]

Also one of the reviews mentioned there were no end credits with the film, so he could have been recording a suite.

[Sandor 798]

http://if.com.au/2013/10/06/article/Kudos-for-The-Book-Thief/WYRESNSMOZ.html

"The cut we saw tonight isnt the final mix, and I hope they tone down a few of the big-swell John Williams music moments, but thats about the only flaw.

[Incanus 5,722]

Also one of the reviews mentioned there were no end credits with the film, so he could have been recording a suite.

Yes please!

http://if.com.au/2013/10/06/article/Kudos-for-The-Book-Thief/WYRESNSMOZ.html

"The cut we saw tonight isnt the final mix, and I hope they tone down a few of the big-swell John Williams music moments, but thats about the only flaw.

Oh come on! Let the old man have his big orchestral swells!

[crocodile 8,027]

Sounds like War Horse press all over again...

Actually, that score (WH) was one of the few elements of its film that put it in the right direction/genre. Love it or hate it, but WH was a 40's weepy flick, but most audiences confused it for a serious war drama. And even Spielberg's direction is schizophrenic. Hence, some negative response to the music. I admit is somewhat confused by this film at first.

Karol

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

I don't think it was the "official" premiere per se. It was a work in progress screening.

One thing I take away from this is that Williams has basically final call on this. That they just put in what he wrote without editing. That's a good thing. But this all seems rather rushed to me, this is an unusually tight schedule for a score.

Wasn't Tintin recorded a year and half in advance?

[Incanus 5,722]

I don't think it was the official premiere. It was a work in progress screening.

One thing I take away from this is that Williams has basically final call on this. That they just put in what he wrote without editing. That's a good thing. But this all seems rather rushed to me,

The premiere and release date for the film were moved earlier than initially planned by the studio in attempt to put it smack in the middle of the award season. And it was an official premiere screening at the film festival on the 3rd of October. But this quick change must have put some pressure on the music recording schedule as it is usually the last element to be created and put into place. I have no doubt that there was music editing involved but it was not the absolutely final mix yet at the premiere.

As it says in the above article:

While distributor 20th Century Fox seems to be putting most of its marbles on this weekend’s New York Film Festival launch of their big Christmas Day release, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, the studio has concurrently picked another festival , the lower profile but respected 36 year-old Mill Valley Film Fest, to World Premiere their stealth entry into awards season, The Book Thief.

[publicist 4,643]

Oh come on! Let Incanus have his big orchestral swells!

[Incanus 5,722]

Oh come on! Let Incanus have his big orchestral swells!

Amen! I need some in this drab sound designy modern film music environment.

[publicist 4,643]

Don't watch GRAVITY then! *just joking, watch it and block out the music

[chinaismine 64]

http://if.com.au/2013/10/06/article/Kudos-for-The-Book-Thief/WYRESNSMOZ.html

"The cut we saw tonight isnt the final mix, and I hope they tone down a few of the big-swell John Williams music moments, but thats about the only flaw.

Funny enough, that article cuts off the original review right before it says "For the most part, Williams’ score is great." http://www.blogarithms.com/index.php/archives/2013/10/04/thebookthief/

[King Mark 3,631]

Now we have to worry about getting the final film score, AND the pre-release version

[crocodile 8,027]

Maybe it was just an issue with the mixing?

Karol

[Hlao-roo 389]

Oh come on! Let Incanus have his big orchestral swells!

Amen! I need some in this drab sound designy modern film music environment.

One thing you can always count on from Williams is a swell score.

[TownerFan 4,991]

Maybe it was just an issue with the mixing?

My feel is that the issue lies with the average audience's perception of what the music does within a movie. Williams still writes in the "old-fashioned" (hate the term, but it's for brevity's sake) way of using dynamics (i.e. soft/loud) within the orchestral/symphonic language, so in this sense it's natural he weaves in and out of the narrative using the whole range of musical dynamics, from pianissimo to fortissimo, going through mezzoforte, mezzopiano and so on. Let's be frank with ourselves: this is not what film music does now, especially in Hollywood movies. We're now to a point where the audience is getting to notice a scoring approach that follows with dynamics the action on screen, because most of today's film scores instead seems to be just blaring-out-loud all the time or unobstrusive/unnoticeable/sound design-y all the time.

[King Mark 3,631]

Oh come on! Let Incanus have his big orchestral swells!

Amen! I need some in this drab sound designy modern film music environment.

Problem is a lot of reviewers don't like anymore when music carries a scene. They want it relegated to the background, or just "loud noise" like RCP scores because we've gotten use to that.

Of course it's just this guy's opinion. I just with a director would let loose Williams music once in a while, the only time it happened in the last decade it Memoirs of a Geisha

We're now to a point where the audience is getting to notice a scoring approach that follows with dynamics the action on screen, because most of today's film scores instead seems to be just blaring-out-loud all the time or unobstrusive/unnoticeable/sound design-y all the time.

that

[Hlao-roo 389]

The transformation has been remarkable. As late as the mid-nineties, Williams' approach was still very much in the Hollywood mainstream. Now Williams is no more than a niche composer.

We do go through pendulum swings with this sort of thing, but I have a feeling the old-school symphonic style will be in vogue again about the same time short shorts return to the NBA.

[filmmusic 1,845]

but I have a feeling the old-school symphonic style will be in vogue again about the same time short shorts return to the NBA.

it will be in vogue again, when there is a daring and musically literate director that will want such a film score for his big blockbuster film (and a daring and musically literate producer behind him to support this), and this film becomes a great success in the box office, owing half of its success to the music!

Then, the traditional symphonic film score will flourish again!

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

Maybe it was just an issue with the mixing?

My feel is that the issue lies with the average audience's perception of what the music does within a movie. Williams still writes in the "old-fashioned" (hate the term, but it's for brevity's sake) way of using dynamics (i.e. soft/loud) within the orchestral/symphonic language, so in this sense it's natural he weaves in and out of the narrative using the whole range of musical dynamics, from pianissimo to fortissimo, going through mezzoforte, mezzopiano and so on. Let's be frank with ourselves: this is not what film music does now, especially in Hollywood movies. We're now to a point where the audience is getting to notice a scoring approach that follows with dynamics the action on screen, because most of today's film scores instead seems to be just blaring-out-loud all the time or unobstrusive/unnoticeable/sound design-y all the time.

yes sadly today's score are just deafeningly mixed. Like Zimmer. Even Gravity, which does not have sound effects because there is not sound in space, and where the score is not competing with the sound effects to be heard, the music is still so loud as to be almost deafening.

Oh come on! Let Incanus have his big orchestral swells!

Amen! I need some in this drab sound designy modern film music environment.

Problem is a lot of reviewers don't like anymore when music carries a scene. They want it relegated to the background, or just "loud noise" like RCP scores because we've gotten use to that.

Of course it's just this guy's opinion. I just with a director would let loose Williams music once in a while, the only time it happened in the last decade it Memoirs of a Geisha

We're now to a point where the audience is getting to notice a scoring approach that follows with dynamics the action on screen, because most of today's film scores instead seems to be just blaring-out-loud all the time or unobstrusive/unnoticeable/sound design-y all the time.

that

This is such a sad scenario. Frankly there has also been a shift even in reveiwers. Today critics are mainly 20 something young male bloggers and for most of them are even film-maker wannabes.

So they absolutely rave scores like Drive or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I remember reading reviews in disbelief as they disparaged Williams War Horse score showing a very poor understanding for music.

Trust me, the film music taste amongst these younger critics is so piss poor that had E.T. been released today, a classic score which was praised in every film review at that time, these guys would tear it apart.

It is Williams who has remained the same and the world around him and the critical community that has changed.

I like "modern" scores now and then and when done well but if there's a score I prefer an old fashioned orchestral symphonic score. Like I said before, an autopilot score from Williams even now would be better career best of most working composers.

[Luke Skywalker 1,798]

so the accordion pieces will get more attention than williams work. great.

Maybe voters will confuse things and Williams will win the Oscar because of the accordion bits . Just like Santaollala won for pieces he didn't compose for the film or other film score win because of the associated songs

that's awesome then!

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Another comment, not much but still nice:

It was a surprise to see John Williams' name in the after-credits, having thought he was on permanent retainer to one S. Spielberg. At the premiere screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival, we were told that a week's mixing remained to be done on the movie, but these ears detected no problems.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/the-book-thief-review-roundup

[chuck 155]

Well everyone's getting used with JW and SS together. They're practically married to each other already!

[TownerFan 4,991]

Another comment about the score found in a review of the film (which again curiously seems more a ponder about the film's potential award strength than an actual film review. Go figure):

As the emotional anchor for the story, Geoffrey Rush is perhaps the best shot at major awards attention, though young Sophie Nélisse is a sensation to keep an eye on as she progresses in her career. Emily Watson carves a fun character full of piss and vinegar, and John Williams' score is appropriately delicate (though, for a legend like him, curiously unmemorable).

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/off-the-carpet-fox-enters-the-oscar-season-with-the-book-thief-and-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty#~ojClmNamPT3747

(Thanks to Mari for pointing it out)

[chuck 155]

Curious indeed.

[TownerFan 4,991]

Randy Kerber, piano soloist on The Book Thief at Fox in LA

pic.twitter.com/EkmcXScKzf

[chuck 155]

Is this his article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Kerber

Maybe he'll be the next John Williams!!!

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

He definitely looks the part. Just needs some turtlenecks, a beard, about 50 lbs, and some glasses.

[chuck 155]

Give him another 10 years.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

There is no established correlation between time and the acquisition of turtle-necks.

[chuck 155]

But the facial features though... Needs more time.

[Tom 4,680]

Another comment about the score found in a review of the film (which again curiously seems more a ponder about the film's potential award strength than an actual film review. Go figure):

As the emotional anchor for the story, Geoffrey Rush is perhaps the best shot at major awards attention, though young Sophie Nélisse is a sensation to keep an eye on as she progresses in her career. Emily Watson carves a fun character full of piss and vinegar, and John Williams' score is appropriately delicate (though, for a legend like him, curiously unmemorable).

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/off-the-carpet-fox-enters-the-oscar-season-with-the-book-thief-and-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty#~ojClmNamPT3747

(Thanks to Mari for pointing it out)

Williams just cannot win the battle of critical comments--too overbearing, too unmemorable. In the words of Han Solo "Well, what would you like?"

Anyway, my money is still on the themes being very memorable to those willing to listen ala Memoirs, AA, or Lincoln.

[chuck 155]

He has already win the most, so he cannot lose what was never even lost.

[filmmusic 1,845]

Another comment about the score found in a review of the film (which again curiously seems more a ponder about the film's potential award strength than an actual film review. Go figure):

As the emotional anchor for the story, Geoffrey Rush is perhaps the best shot at major awards attention, though young Sophie Nélisse is a sensation to keep an eye on as she progresses in her career. Emily Watson carves a fun character full of piss and vinegar, and John Williams' score is appropriately delicate (though, for a legend like him, curiously unmemorable).

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/off-the-carpet-fox-enters-the-oscar-season-with-the-book-thief-and-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty#~ojClmNamPT3747

(Thanks to Mari for pointing it out)

Williams just cannot win the battle of critical comments--too overbearing, too unmemorable. In the words of Han Solo "Well, what would you like?"

Anyway, my money is still on the themes being very memorable to those willing to listen ala Memoirs, AA, or Lincoln.

The "delicate" characterization, brought my mind to another "delicate" score: Stanley and iris.

But i doubt it would be something along those lines...

[Not Mr. Big 4,644]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm861985792/tt0816442?ref_=tt_ov_i

The official poster, it's always cool to see John Williams's name on the poster.

[Jay 37,418]

Time for a new custom cover Sandor!

[JohnnyD 1,223]

The official poster for the film is pretty epic.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Yeah man with that fire blazing in the background and the book right up close in the foreground. I hope this is in 3D.