Mr. Uni's Film Score Video Tributes

[Uni 306]

I recently mentioned in the Scorepedia thread that I've been working on some "score-related material" that I wanted to debut here when it was ready. I think the time has arrived.

I've been collecting film scores for more than a quarter of a century now. I've always enjoyed listening to them (of course), but for a long time, I've wanted to do something more with the materialto use them in a new way, to celebrate them in some unique fashion, to recognize the composer's achievements in working with such a broad array of visual and dramatic material. It's possible to edit different themes and sequences, from the same score or from different ones, into our own "suites" (and many of us have), but that's just an alternate way to listen to the same music. Some of these are posted on YouTube as "best of" compilations, where you get maybe 60 seconds of one piece from a score before it moves on to the next, with nothing more to look at than a static shot of the album or DVD cover as a background.

I've also always had a great affinity for movie montages, especially when set to film music. The Oscars have long been one of the best sources for these. And I loved the trailer THX made about 20 years ago that featured the music of JW supporting a lengthy lineup of action scenes from the movies of George Lucas (the SW trilogy, the IJ trilogy, and Willow). That kind of thing, to me, is the best marriage of music and cinematography short of the films themselves.

It got me to thinking: instead of a mere minute or so of music accompanying a bland background, why not put together substantial tributes to great scoresand set each one to a montage from the film that inspired it? I'd picked up a video editing suite for another project; after that was done, I began experimenting. The details evolved as I went along until the general parameters for each video fell into place. Originally, I was aiming for shorts about 8 minutes in length; the average sorta grew on its own to about 12 minutes. If there's any video material of the composer discussing the score, I try to work it into the run, but usually there's only a photo or two available (if that). At times I allow sound effects and dialogue to emerge, and at least once I attempt to bring the score into sync with the scene it was written for, at least for a few seconds. The idea is to weave together something that reflects the power and effectiveness of the score as it relates to the story it was written for.

The idea is not to retell the story in short form, since anyone can watch the entire film and listen to the full score along with it anytime they want. With that in mind, I do everything I can to rearrange the linear elements into something that's more abstract and impressionistic: an action piece under a general collection of action shots, romantic music for the mushy stuff, etc. It's made for an interestingand highly entertainingchallenge.

I'm constantly analyzing and tweaking them (I'm a perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing), which is why it's taken a long time to get around to putting them up. But at some point I need to call the thing finished and let it be what it is. I have no intention of doing anything with these other than enjoy making them, post them on my YouTube channel . . . and share them with the one group of folks I think will appreciate them the most. That's what this thread is for.

I started with James Horner because, frankly, the man's broad, impressionistic palate makes for easy splicing. Goldsmith and Barry will follow soon. I'm just now venturing into Williams territory, which is proving a heckuva steep and rocky climb (as I knew it would). I'll be posting new videos in this thread as I polish them off.

This was actually the third one I put together, but a natural choice for Horner's Volume I. It was his first big-time score, and had the best interview material available (along with a fun bit of trivia I never knew until I put this together):

[Muad'Dib 1,514]

This one's fantastic

[Roll the Bones 2,967]

Is this the kind of thing you are talking about?

[Uni 306]

Well . . . that's the general idea, yes. That "Temple of Music" one had some good moments (the best was the pirates from Raiders pointing at the Orca as it chased the barrels), but it many places it cuts to a different track almost before you can even recognize the one playing--and what's with the bizarre instances of multiple tracks of music playing over one another? The 1941/Raiders combo was interesting, but the rest of the time it just made for confusion. And, frankly, a few of the bits were tacky--like cutting shots of the shark into the Normandy beach scene.

The others were close, too, but what I'm doing is a bit different. The videos I'm making feature multiple pieces from the same movie, as a tribute to that score.

I suppose, for the sake of better comparing and contrasting, I may as well go ahead and put up another one that's ready so you can see the common theme. I chose for Goldsmith's first volume one of my favorites from his repertoire, a filmography that provided a wide range of styles and colors to work with. Ultimately I was more pleased with the music editing in this one than the one I did for Star Trek II, and in a sense this one is even more indicative of the approach I'm after with these videos. (The only thing missing in this one, sadly, was a better representation of Jerry himself.)

[Uni 306]

All right . . . it's been a couple of months, but I've finally gotten around to posting the next one. It's been nearly ready for a while, but I got carried away with several other new ones and left off polishing and posting the ones that were close to being done.

It's another Horner score since, frankly, his are much easier to put together. I mentioned earlier that Star Trek II was the third Horner video I assembled; this was actually the second. As with the Poltergeist video, the down side was the paucity of Horner interview or behind-the-scenes material to incorporate; I had to settle for a couple of crummy photos.

In any case, I'm putting it up now as a sort of placeholder, and to bump the thread, while I put the final touches on the first John Williams tribute video (I'm hoping to have that up by next week).

https://vimeo.com/100234238