Composer Threads The Official Michael Giacchino Thread

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

Wow Erik, these are amazing, particularly the Underground video. Love that you used the "Motorcycle Chase" for the end credits! Love that statement of the Underground theme.

Thank you so much for sharing!!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Excellent videos, Erik!

[QMM 4]

I remember when I bought Frontline watching the credits all the time because it was so well made

Very nice that they're up now, thanks much

[QMM 4]

Quint's review of Cloverfield over at AICN had this little thing in it

One thing I must bring up is ROAR! the Michael Giacchino score that plays over the credits. I love that the film has no score, it really helps sell the gimmick of the premise, but goddamn… Once you hear Michael’s score you’ll wish to all the film score Gods you pray to that you could hear his entire score. It’s like Godzilla, but not quite, It’s huge, epic and instantly iconic.

EXPLAIN ERIC

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Yeah, I read that the end credts list the piece as "Cloverfield Overture" by Giacchino. Not that such a title makes sense, the piece being played at the end of the film.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I just got extremely excited for this. I hope it's as outstanding as Carter Burwell's end credits piece for No Country For Old Men.

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

I'll be seeing Cloverfield tomorrow! I can't wait. I'm so glad it was so veiled in secrecy, I haven't been able to get spoiled!

[crumbs 14,301]

I've heard the end credits suite about 4 times today (I work at the cinema and was cleaning all the Cloverfield sessions today), and it KICKS ASS! It's a blend of massive bass, drums, and a haunting female sololist. It's definitely iconic, EXTREMELY BRASSY (a stunning homage to the old monster movie fanfares of King Kong), but also extremely unique. In fact, I never found the guy that great a composer until I heard these end credits.

[Luke Skywalker 1,792]

Will this 4 minute track be released?

Well at least, since its in the credits it can be heard in the DVD.

[Ollie 1,059]

The rumors had been making the rounds that Giacchino was writing an end credit piece for Cloverfield.

Some people even say it's Ifukube inspired, can't go wrong there as far as I'm concerned.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Yeah, I read that the end credts list the piece as "Cloverfield Overture" by Giacchino. Not that such a title makes sense, the piece being played at the end of the film.

The term "overture" has long been used for something like a one-movement suite from a larger work like stage music., or even standalone pieces of music. I've never been able to figure out why, but in that context, Giacchino's title seems ok.

Another example would be Eidelman's overture from Trek VI, which is basically just a suite of the score's highlights (I don't recall if it plays during the end titles though).

[Erik Woods 555]

Giacchino recorded a 12 minute piece for the end credits with an 87-piece orchestra and vocal soloists in Bratislava. No other score is used in the film. Michael is working on getting this released some how... it seemed like iTunes (or some other download service) would be the the logical solution.

-Erik-

[Ollie 1,059]

Another example would be Eidelman's overture from Trek VI, which is basically just a suite of the score's highlights (I don't recall if it plays during the end titles though).

The overture listed on the actual Star Trek VI CD is the opening credits.

The end suite is the End Credits although they are slightly edited/shortened in the film.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Ah, my bad. I thought the last track was labelled "overture".

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Idiot!

[Ollie 1,059]

Ah, my bad. I thought the last track was labelled "overture".

On Star Trek Generations the first track is called the Generations Overture but that is the End Credits.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Giacchino recorded a 12 minute piece for the end credits with an 87-piece orchestra and vocal soloists in Bratislava. No other score is used in the film. Michael is working on getting this released some how... it seemed like iTunes (or some other download service) would be the the logical solution.

-Erik-

iTunes doesn't seem like they would release a single track of score. He could easily post it on his site for download. That's how I got all that other unreleased music of his.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

How do you know he could easily do it? And that if he could, he wanted to?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It's not that hard to post music on the internet, that's why I said "easily." And why wouldn't he want to? He already has a ton of his other unreleased music on his site. Yeah, maybe it's not the best choice for exposure, but to deliberately not want to post something on your own site sounds stupid.

[Ollie 1,059]

You just don't understand things do you?

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

iTunes is easily the most logical place to release the track. Giacchino deserves royalties for any music that's available to us. I frequently buy single tracks.

Incidentally, my friends and I left the theatre about a minute into the music so I couldn't stay and listen. I hope it is released soon!

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

It's not that hard to post music on the internet, that's why I said "easily."

You can also easily go to jail for that.

And why wouldn't he want to? He already has a ton of his other unreleased music on his site. Yeah, maybe it's not the best choice for exposure, but to deliberately not want to post something on your own site sounds stupid.

Then why doesn't Williams simply put all his full scores on a website in some uncompressed format?

[Ollie 1,059]

Besides the studio owns the music and a composer cannot simply do what he wants with the music.

[David Coscina 3]

Besides the studio owns the music and a composer cannot simply do what he wants with the music.

Exactly! As for iTunes and one-off singles, they put up that Nike ad music The Next Coming for sale and that was just an advertisement music cue so why could they not put up Giacchino's piece? I think it would be a smashingly good idea.

[Hlao-roo 389]

It's not that hard to post music on the internet, that's why I said "easily."

You can also easily go to jail for that.

And why wouldn't he want to? He already has a ton of his other unreleased music on his site. Yeah, maybe it's not the best choice for exposure, but to deliberately not want to post something on your own site sounds stupid.

Then why doesn't Williams simply put all his full scores on a website in some uncompressed format?

He doesn't want to get on Thor's bad side?

[QMM 4]

Just got back from Cloverfield and I'm still humming Giacchino's theme from the credits!

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

He doesn't want to get on Thor's bad side?

Ha!

[Ollie 1,059]

Lest Thor smite him with his mighty hammer.

[ashinyobject 0]

I REALLY enjoyed the music during the end credits

I REALLY enjoyed the movie as well!

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

ON a completely different note, any word yet on a release for Gia's score for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty?

Obviously the game has not been released yet and I have not heard the music outside the brief footage of the recording sessions, but I am curious as to whether - and if so, when - it will be released.

[GoodMusician 56]

saw clover field... my friend with me loved the credits music. I hated it.

Then again I've never ever liked Giacchino.

He does NOT connect with me. It's like someone taking building blocks and making a castle and saying "look what I can do."

Nothing new. Nothing inspiring.

It also sounded like...video game music... which is why my friend liked it.

It felt entirely innapropriate to me.

The vocalist, seriously, made me laugh... out loud. I heard the voice, and started laughing.

All I could think of was the original Star Trek TV series theme...and how it worked there... but NOT here...

The piece should have been see-sawey... to mimic the sea-sickness I got from watching the film lol

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

Considering it's played at least a minute into the end credits which hardly anyone watches it's not quite the artistic bowel movement you make it out to be.

[QMM 4]

ON a completely different note, any word yet on a release for Gia's score for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty?

Obviously the game has not been released yet and I have not heard the music outside the brief footage of the recording sessions, but I am curious as to whether - and if so, when - it will be released.

The orchestration he's using for the score is what really intrigues me about it. I can't wait to hear it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

It also sounded like...video game music... which is why my friend liked it.

Is that similar to when people hear orchestral music and say it "sounds like film music"?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Humbug!

[Romão 2,274]

The thing with Giachino is that he seems to be a very good pastiche composer...but nothing I've heard from him has really grabed me so far.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes!

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I listened to the first Alias CD the other day.

I was... disappointed.

As far as techno/symphonic combos go, you can do a whole lot better.

Doesn't mean his other stuff isn't still very good. I lately find myself taking note of a lot of his video game music whenever it tends to pop up on shuffle.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Just listen to The World Is Not Enough.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Exactly.

Or Mona Lisa Overdrive.

[David Coscina 3]

I think John Powell does a nice job marrying techno with orchestra. But I also think Giacchino is good at it too. But he's not everyone's cup of tea so there you go.

[GoodMusician 56]

I sat through the entire end credits to hear the final words on the tape at the very end so I heard the entire suite.

The loud pompous parts were predictable and the chord progressions were weird and not very serious.

The piece, on the whole, seemed like a long joke with no punchline.

The solo voice was just odd. It was too out there but at the same time, too clean. Maybe if it hadn't been some normal every day singer... sort of like how Munic or Minority Report used a more ethnic voice...

This was just... voice.And it sounded to me almost similar to the original Star Trek TV series theme how it had that voice in it. Just some random lady singing along. (not to nock star trek because that completely worked... here, it was just funny!)

Had it been a chorus? Maybe it would have been better.

But the wandering of the melody, which was an ok melody, was odd. How it moved around from one chord to another was just either obvious or strange.

It could have worked for Video Games, but it doesn't work for film.

When I said it sounded like video game music, what i meant was it would have worked for that. It doesn't work for film.

And on top of that, the emotional aspect of it was absent. It had no real emotion to it. It didn't capture the film at all to me, which was ultimately NOT about the monster... NOT about the attack... NOT about why it was here, how it got here, what it was, why it had these... parasites on it... why when they bit you things happened...

But really... it was about what we do with the time we have and the people we spend it with... How we tell the people we love we don't love them, put them through pain, and in the end will do anything for them.

How we waste the time we have to leave the people we love and treat them like garbage.

And the musical ending spoke none of this. All it sounded like was a big, boisterous, bombastic melody with a solo voice over it kinda just singing along as it moved around in predicticable and increasingly odd ways...

And THAT is why I didn't like it.

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

That's why it was great. It was the pure monster movie throwback that wasn't there in the film.

[GoodMusician 56]

Ok, I'll give you that... Although I would argue it wasn't so much a throw back but more of a cheap knock off...

That's one thing about his composing style. It's very rough. It doesn't sound finalized to me. Seriously, if I were a director, I'd say "Is that it? THat's the FINISHED product? ...Go back and keep trying."

But it still was inappropriate for the film.

It would be like hearing Its A Small World in a 9-11 movie... just inappropriate.

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

Not really. Anything like that would be tasteless because of the reality of 9/11. This is fiction. At least the way I see it, the overture was a kind of tongue-in-cheek way of saying "Even though this isn't at all like other monster movies, that's exactly what it is."

[GoodMusician 56]

hmm... I guess I take film a bit more seriously than that.

Video game? It would work because it's that sort of thing... You can do that sort of thing and get away because of the massive amount of media that you are introduced to... a little tongue in cheek there can add a quirk to it.

But being the ONLY music in the film, written for the film... and being after such a ...sensative moment as that... in a way it's almost like laughing at the audience really.

"You actually just sat through this and are walking out knowing about as much as you did walking in but with even more questions than before! hahahah!"

I dunno... I suppose it depends on where you're coming from but with the subject matter treated with that degree of reality... You say it's fiction, I say it's a new genre. It's not real, but it's fiction treated as reality.

I can't think of many things like this but maybe...

Blair Witch Project

Battlestar Galactica

Cloverfield

All fictional, but presented in a such a state of reality that they are no longer truly fictional.

[QMM 4]

The vocalist I took as an homage to that high whistling noise that was in all of the old monster movies. There were certain parts of the piece where the voice sounded exactly like it

[pixie_twinkle 48]

I'm sorry but during the screening of Cloverfield I went to yesterday there were about 10 people who stayed until the end of the film to see if there would be any easter eggs hidden after the credits (there were a few crackly lines of dialogue, that's all). All 10 of them started making fun of the music for being so bad. I have to say I agreed with them.

[Indiana_Fett 0]

The vocalist I took as an homage to that high whistling noise that was in all of the old monster movies. There were certain parts of the piece where the voice sounded exactly like it

The Theremin? They should have used one of those as well.

[Ollie 1,059]

Giacchino's Roar! is a nice tip of the hat to the old 50's and 60's monster music as well as a nod to Akira Ifukube's Godzilla themes.

I could understand today's movie audience finding it "funny", after all they thought Yared's Troy to be old fashioned so all that says to me is how sorry the state of movie music has become when good music is frowned upon and replaced with crap.