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Lorne Balfe's BLACK WIDOW (2021)


Jay

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

There were probably more reasons at play, but it seems highly unlikely that they threw at out a whole score more or less finished at the eleventh minute if it was just scheduling issues. Remember, Desplat also has a team of guys helping him out, they would have found a way to make this work.

 

 

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There were five scores you had that could have been nominated. When you have so many films coming out in the same year, how do work on all of them?

 

I finish one and I start another. It’s the only way I know it. I’m on my own in my studio. I don’t have a team of composers. It’s just me and myself so, in French you say, I can’t chase several rabbits at the same time. I can only focus on one. I go step by step. I do Godzilla, then I do another one, then I do another one. It’s crucial for me because I really want to be dedicated physically and mentally to one project at a time. It’s a lot of work that is requested from you. I don’t think I would deliver the best work if I would do several projects at the same time. So it’s one at a time, but I work a lot. I work nonstop actually, but that’s what I like. Also through the years I’ve improved. I can work faster.

https://ew.com/article/2015/02/05/alexandre-desplat-talks-oscar-nominated-scores-grand-budapest-and-imitation-game/

 

(obviously he has a team of people that assist him in some way, I just remembered this interview when I read your comment)

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Other than Zimmer, are there composers who regularly bring in other composers to help them write scores? (Whether credited or not.)

 

I enjoy the fact that when I listen to a JW or AD (or, presumably, DE) album, I know it's his material alone I'm hearing. For better or worse, each of them is doing the heavy lifting alone. I respect that.

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About him being fired or not from R1, this is what is on Hollywood Reporter:

 

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But the reshoots also altered the scoring calendar and Desplat, who won an Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel, was no longer available. Disney and Lucasfilm then turned to Giacchino, who has a long relationship with the studio and its various divisions.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-rogue-one-replaces-929387

 

Here's Jon Broxton's review of Gia's score, and he is familiar with people working on the film score world:

 

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The score for Rogue One is by Michael Giacchino, but as most people know this was not always the case . The original announced composer for the film was Alexandre Desplat, who worked with director Edwards on Godzilla. However, wholesale re-shoots of the film over the summer of 2016 resulted in the film’s post-production period being pushed back, and considering the fact that Desplat had added a total of nine (!) other projects to his docket throughout the year, his schedule suddenly closed and he was no longer able to find the time to do Rogue One. Giacchino was brought in very late in the game, and only had four and a half weeks to compose the music for the film; however, as often tends to be the case in these circumstances, the pressure of having no time inspires the composer to do some of their best work.

 

https://moviemusicuk.us/2016/12/20/rogue-one-michael-giacchino/

 

I don't think I've ever heard someone saying Alex was fired, or that he even wrote something for the movie, despite rumours saying that Valerian includes some unused Rogue One material. But if anyone has any evidence, please come forward.

 

(reposting it because I idiotically posted it on one of TROS' threads :pat:)

 

2 hours ago, Bayesian said:

Other than Zimmer, are there composers who regularly bring in other composers to help them write scores? (Whether credited or not.)

 

 

Marco Beltrami and Blake Neely are the first that comes through my mind, these two have their own studios with their own set of composers.

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3 hours ago, Bayesian said:

Other than Zimmer, are there composers who regularly bring in other composers to help them write scores? (Whether credited or not.)

 

I enjoy the fact that when I listen to a JW or AD (or, presumably, DE) album, I know it's his material alone I'm hearing. For better or worse, each of them is doing the heavy lifting alone. I respect that.

Why is that something you respect? A director doesn’t make a movie alone. An editor doesn’t edit a movie alone. Most films have multiple writers and drafts. A band has multiple members all contributing creatively. So yes, many composers have teams that help them throughout the entire scoring process.

 

This brings me to the point people love to throw at Zimmer. He doesn’t use ghost writers. He gets credit for his collaborators. There are composers that you may think work alone, but in fact have actual ghost writers. 

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11 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Why is that something you respect? A director doesn’t make a movie alone. An editor doesn’t edit a movie alone. Most films have multiple writers and drafts. A band has multiple members all contributing creatively. So yes, many composers have teams that help them throughout the entire scoring process.

 

This brings me to the point people love to throw at Zimmer. He doesn’t use ghost writers. He gets credit for his collaborators. There are composers that you may think work alone, but in fact have actual ghost writers. 

I get that films are team efforts. But within the team effort on any given movie are several elements that can stand apart as the work of a single man or woman. For me, these include acting, cinematography, direction... and music. In a film, each of these should be the work of one person. Obviously they collaborate in order to complete the project that they find themselves together on, but each of these parts is the work of individuals and can be clearly identified as such. 


What I respect is the fact that even though these roles could be done by multiple individuals, for the creatives I follow or appreciate, they don’t need help to do their jobs. I like being able to listen to a score and not have to think about whether a particularly nice moment was written by this guy or the other guy or some third uncredited guy — if it’s JW, AD, or (in most cases) DE, I have my answer.
 

(In the case of direction, I find myself increasingly uninterested in paying attention to who the director is, now that it’s clear that studios are willing to hack a movie to shreds after the director has finished with it (latest exhibit A: TROS). In other words, it’s getting harder and harder to know if what I paid $12 to see in theaters was actually what the director wanted me to see. And of course, this individual-contributor element doesn’t apply to every role in a movie; producers, for instance, seem to do a hell of a lot in movies and there’s always like eight or nine of them in any given film, so telling apart which producer does what is hopeless. Same with screenwriters and “story” writers, at least lately.)

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5 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

 

https://ew.com/article/2015/02/05/alexandre-desplat-talks-oscar-nominated-scores-grand-budapest-and-imitation-game/

 

(obviously he has a team of people that assist him in some way, I just remembered this interview when I read your comment)

 

He works with two different sets of orchestrators, depending on the project of origin. For his European films, he tends to work with Nicholas Charron, Jean-Pascal Beintus, and Sylvain Morizet. For American films, he tends to work with Conrad Pope, Nan Schwartz, Bill Newlin, and Clifford J. Tassner.

 

Even with two sets of orchestrators, Desplat will co-orchestrate when he can. Every note is his, even if the orchestration isn't.

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6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I don't think I've ever heard someone saying Alex was fired, or that he even wrote something for the movie, despite rumours saying that Valerian includes some unused Rogue One material. But if anyone has any evidence, please come forward.

 

The stuff you linked is the official press release version. People close to the production, probably the same who later leaked the Williams/Giacchino stuff, claimed that this was not the chain of events at all. Director Gareth Edwards, the guy who hired Desplat, worked with AD on his version of the movie, which was finished in rough state much earlier. Who knows how much was written. When Disney guys took over production (mid to late summer) there was a lot of rupture and requests for changes and all in a rather hurried state. It's true that Desplat had other things on his plate later on, but it's extremely naive to think an old pro like him didn't make room for last minute changes, which often come on such big productions. At some point, there obviously was a straw that broke the camel's back. I presume it had a lot to do with him standing up for Edwards and Disney wanting things he wasn't happy with. 

 

Again, it's not important who fired whom, the simple fact that a high-profile composer abandons ship on a troubled production like this late in the game usually is a sign that there is more at play than schedule problems. Everyone working on 'Timeline' claimed that Goldsmith was let go because of such reason, in reality Paramount got cold feet after people complained about the score in test screenings and was more than happy when Donner let Goldsmith go (it didn't occur to them that the movie was rotten). 

 

 

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It's another story revealing studio execs are fickle who don't (and don't care to) understand creativity. They'll blame every inconsequential thing before admitting they're just picky assholes.

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11 hours ago, publicist said:

The stuff you linked is the official press release version.

 

I know, I was just telling what I was aware of. Until this day, I haven't know that Desplat could have written something, and was fired because Disney and the people who took charge of the movie disliked what he did. So far, the only thing I've read that indicate that he did write something for R1 was some throwaway rumours that his Valerian score includes unused Rogue One material.

 

I don't doubt this is true, who knows? It's a dog eats dog industry anyway. But, tbh, until I joined JWFan, I couldn't imagine that JW himself was displeased with Giacchino's Rogue One score (I thought he didn't even bothered to listen, as he doesn't care for what other film composers do) and that's why he had a heavier involvement on Powell's Solo, and that neither Desplat was actually fired because he wrote something for R1 that Disney people disliked.

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20 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Why is that something you respect? A director doesn’t make a movie alone. An editor doesn’t edit a movie alone. Most films have multiple writers and drafts. A band has multiple members all contributing creatively. So yes, many composers have teams that help them throughout the entire scoring process.

 

This brings me to the point people love to throw at Zimmer. He doesn’t use ghost writers. He gets credit for his collaborators. There are composers that you may think work alone, but in fact have actual ghost writers. 

You are describing the Hollywood model largely.

 

For some auteur films from Europe and other parts of the world, the movie can be said to be the singular vision of a single mind. Sure you have other people doing the actual work but every single thing in the frame is absolutely 100% the director's choice through and through without any intervention of any kind from anybody.

 

Also happens in Hollywood but is much rarer. 

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  • 5 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Kaitain said:

Desplat has been fired from the role of composer on Black Widow. 

Spoiler

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4 hours ago, Kaitain said:

Desplat has been fired from the role of composer on Black Widow. 


Give a source.

 

2 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

Incoming Michael Giacchino


They better not. Desplat is 10x the composer Giacchino is. I'm still salty about ROGUE ONE.

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10 hours ago, Kaitain said:

Desplat has been fired from the role of composer on Black Widow. 

This is definitely trolling. Did you get a good chuckle out this, kaitain? Show up out of nowhere to shitpost and then vanish?

 

In any case, if this ever were to happen, it would be the last time I’d have anything to do with the MCU.

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The only thing I've seen about Desplat getting the boot is a fan poster that likely existed before the last trailer, where a sound mixer is given the composer credit for whatever reason. At this point, I doubt Kevin Feige and co. are having SW esque issues to warrant repeating such a firing.

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  • 1 month later...
13 minutes ago, Þekþiþm said:

 

Film scoring, social isolation style.

No point of risking the lives of LA or London musicians for this. I applaud Disney for keeping everyone safe. ;)

 

Karol

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Balfe can be great on occasion (really liked his stuff on AD ASTRA, for example, even if Ricther's material is superior), but he really eats up all the major assignments these days. He's also a great businessman, no doubt.

 

I don't like superhero movies, and I don't like Desplat, so in this particular case, I don't really mind or care Balfe taking over.

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I just heard him on a 2013 BBC podcast in which he says, amongst other things, that he doesn't know musical terminology and refuses to discuss how Hans Zimmer makes other composers work together for him. I do hope he knows more about music than he did back then, but Military Wives sounded as simplistic as all the other crap. Film music is dead.

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3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Could you highlight some of his better tracks for us?

 

I really like that bit where Henry Cavill is in the helicopter in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. It's a really cool bad guy motif.

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