According to my brother, vivid film scores, like John Williams back in the day, are not seen as archaic and dated. Say goodbye to character "theme" tracks and high adventure scores that let you relive the movie in your head. Listen to Rogue One vs New Hope, the changes are saddening.
Listen to the first trailer for the harry potter movie. The music literally makes the movie. Imagine it now with some shitty Zimmer music and the trailer blacking out every 5 seconds. youtube.com/watch?v=jGRtKaFGVdo
The sad thing is that the Rogue One score is decent by today's standards, I'd argue slightly superior to Williams' TFA ost. And the funny thing is that Zimmer of all people was the one to buck the shitty trends he created with the BvS score.
Lucas Barnes
Are you fucking kidding? TFA had at least two memorable leitmotivs. It was better than Episode 3's score
Samuel Roberts
There's a "movement" in the Hollywood composer scene that the music shouldn't "stand out" or take attention away from whats on screen.
Justin White
There is more to film music than John fucking Williams.
It has one, Rey's theme, which I honestly can't remember in it's ENTIRETY, just how it starts. It's not like William's music is super dense so the fact I don't have it seared into my head after 2 viewings is a bad sign.
directors now use temp tracks of previous soundtracks during editing and then want their composer to make music just like that, so it's just a continuing shit sandwich of derivative uninspired noize
Even VII's score sucked. Williams is getting old, and hasn't really done a good score in years, as well as the fact that the editing process was different than before.
Nathan Phillips
the best part of this is the end, was probably the first theme song i learned as a kid in the 70's
Easton Gomez
That's so fucking stupid of you to say.
Episode 3 is superior on all fronts. The last battle motif, the temptation of Anakin, incorporation of the Qui Gon funeral scene and Duel of Fates are just a few notable standouts.
VII has none. I remember Rey's theme, but I didn't like it. I remember the X Wings descending, and I hated that. Only thing I remember that I liked was the teaser trailer, not included, and the Snope scene. Which was minimal and novel.
Benjamin Clark
>Not recognizing the heavy Shostakovich influence.
>TFA score better than III's score You've got to be kidding me, III blows TFA the fuck out when it comes to it's score. The intro track alone is better than anything in TFA.
Carter Harris
John Williams didnt write the rogue one score you fucking idiot TFA was writted by him, and it did have character themes, some of which were quite good
Robert Miller
R1 could have gone in all the way on the war movie feel and had a straight up WWII style soundtrack.
Game of Thrones, as shit of a show as it currently is, still has the best soundtrack out of any current show or movie. Everything else is forgettable as fuck, especially the horrible TFA Score ironically done by the ever-praised John Williams.
Jaxon Morales
It's not in the composer scene, it's in the director's scene.
Composers are slaves to the people they're working for. You think they don't want people to notice their work? Fuck no. That's how they get more work!
Director's, producers, and all these other guys, are paranoid of music "telling people how to feel", as if that wasn't a central thing in every other aspect of film making.
You think costume design doesn't tell you how to feel about a character? Cinematography doesn't guide you to feel something in a scene? It's ludicrous.
Oliver Perez
sounds like super 8 john williams knockoff
John Jones
Film scores are the main thing keeping any sort of composer who doesn't want to forced to teach at a uni, working.
You think you can just write a symphony, and get money? Even back in the day, artists had to put up with tons of bullshit, and capitulate to the wills of royalty, courts, of whoever their benefactors really were.
True "art", in the sense that it solely came from the imagination of the composer, is a lot rarer than you may think.
Michael Fisher
To have a great score, you need elements to tie the themes to. In Lawrence, you have the overture which occurs during moments of triumph (sans intermission) - it also ties back to the character arc of Lawrence himself.
See those other links you posted? It's not a coincidence that they're all named after characters. Exceptions to this are the Jaws theme and the Jurassic Park overture - both of which are tied to the suspense of the monster and the 'idea' of a the theme park, respectively.
The point I'm trying to make is this: GOOD SCORES NEED GOOD CHARACTERS. ToA and R1 had fucking horrible characters. The plot was predictable in the latter. Therefore, the score had nowhere to settle and become associated with.
Also look at Thomas Newman. Ties his scores heavily to transition and emotion in scenes.
Without strong thematic or character establishment, the score stands on its own and jerks off.
Then you have scores that help tell the story, like Wes Anderson films. That's something different and more rarely used in cinema.
Chase Anderson
>R1 had fucking horrible characters. The plot was predictable in the latter. Therefore, the score had nowhere to settle and become associated with. Go fuck yourself Plinkettdrone. Rogue One wasn't good, but its score and the movie itself was much superior than TFA.
Colton Robinson
2/2
tl;dr = scores aren't given enough room to sound unique or entrancing because writing in Hollywood is so so SO fucking bad these days
Ryder Peterson
You know what a lot of people don't bring up when talking about R1? The score. That says a lot when JW composes it.
Blake Cook
Sometimes it also just straight up comes down to people in the production not wanting music to stand out.
Luis Gonzalez
lotr soundtrack was so good holy shit
Jeremiah Adams
that's another point. scores were huge in 20th century because they were ways to show off the composer's marriage of his music with the visual elements; remnants from when silent films were still without dialogue.
now composers are an afterthought. they get tacked on to projects that have no heart in them.
Owen Sullivan
because the writing was good. holy shit, the shire theme?
The LoTR score was so good, my girlfriend and I cried when Frodo was leaving Sam behind at the end of RoTK. Fucking phenomenal.
Adrian Lee
Say what you will about George Lucas, but he kept Williams in mind when making his movies.
There's that clip I think, from where he was watching Episode I, and noticed a glaring error, but said others won't, because they'll be too busy listening to the music.
Brody Morgan
George only knows Williams from his time working with Spielberg
Adrian Parker
That's networking.
Still doesn't change that he respects the man enough to factor him into the film making process.
Luke Cruz
holy shit you need to be baiting, the new movies have worst music.
Charles Thomas
>shitty Zimmer music And yet BvS had the best score of any film in 2016. So many good tracks.
Aaron Brooks
Ramin Djawadi is literally the last hope for film composition in an old-time Basil Pouldoris sort of way. Game of Thrones, Pacific Rim, they're all memorable and effective.
Gavin Turner
People hate on Zimmer for being popular, but the man does write memorable themes, and you can always notice his scores.
It's the thousands of people who badly rip his style off that bring down his name.
Film scores are doing fine. The problem is mostly just focused to Disney due to their design by committee approach to filmmaking.
Kevin Bell
I disliked the music in TFA because it felt like it didn't own the piece the way they used to, it used to guide your memory and feeling in the scene and with R1 it..it was wholly mismatched to the scene and misused.. which feels like a weird thing to miss..the things that would key you into how you should feel about the movie.
Alexander White
Didn't they replace the composer for Rogue One half way through filming?
Isaac Parker
Just no. Giacchino is literally the worst composer, a hack, an unimaginative and uncreative yes-man who will just rip-off with 0 talent anything he will be ask to rip-off. Everything he do is mediocre (lmao at that Medal of Honor people are posting, it's terrible, and just a rip-off of good war movie soundtracks, exactly as he was asked to do) and it's in now way representative of the current state of film score. His score for Rogue may seems a new low (probably his first -1/10 soundtrack) but it's what Disney wanted after firing Desplat for too much creativity and originality.
Also, Zimmer, you are hating on him because he is popular. In every score he makes, good or bad, he tries to bring something new. Not his fault if everyone is ripping off his inventions afterwards.
Caleb Russell
They had to find a replacement due to scheduling issues a few months ago.
Owen Collins
I highly respect Giacchino for his music to Lost.
It was a key part of the show, and very memorable.
The only memorable theme from TFA is the theme that plays during the fucking trailer
Aaron Green
>but it's what Disney wanted after firing Desplat for too much creativity and originality. Fuck Disney. In time they will suffocate on their own cowardice and greed.
>that scene in Rogue One were those menacing empire ships are ominously revealed from the darkness of infinite empty space >"BAAAAMMM BAABOUMMM TRUMPITY BOUM BOUM BOUM STAR WARS THEME TRUMPET FANFARE LOUDER PLZ GIACHINO THANKS" literally what the fuck
Wyatt Diaz
>English version Also The Shin Godzilla score is a masterpiece.
I think it's Anno's strong direction and hands-on approach to every aspect of his films and series.
Benjamin Edwards
>Talk about anime music quality >Posts an OP
I mean it's a great OP, but it's not the score.
Anime music can be brilliant though, I'm not gonna lie. So can video game. Lots of talented composers out there if you look, but it's a shame movie-making's changed to the point of where finding good soundtracks is a challenge.
English version is best, the other one is just nonsense.
Dylan Cooper
Movies mostly never had good soundtracks. Video Games has a better track record of good soundtracks. And anime too. It's really just those damn japanese making all the worthwhile tunes and hollywood relying on the same two composers for the last thirty years.
Michael Torres
Movies with good soundtracks:
Jurassic Park, Jaws, Back To The Future, Rockies, Indiana Jones, Grease, and home alone and harry potter(but barely).
That's all.
Josiah Price
Yeah, it's pretty, I'm not denying that.
Though the way anime music works is distinctly different from movies.
Your typical anime has the composer write a set of pieces before, or during the production, with knowledge of the setting, characters, and other elements in mind. These are individual compositions, not directly tied to a film.
Then a music editor comes in, and proceeds to place the tracks into scenes, and wherever they may see fit.
The downside to this, obviously, is the music doesn't always fit exactly what's going on, because it might not have been written for whatever scene at hand. It can also be repeated, so you may here a track dozens of times in a show's run. Mileage may very on how much that annoys you.
Stop this meme that the whole medium revolves around your shitty Disney blockbusters. Expand your taste. Listen to some Max Richter.
Zachary Clark
Is there a reason you are just regurgitating random statements without context?
Joshua Baker
I'm just commenting on the way anime music is written compared to movies.
Movies are scored scene to scene, with them having to react to what's going on always. This can lead to some brilliant stuff, and it can lead to crappy stuff, depending on what's going on in the movie.
Film composers are slaves to a multitude of factors, from the director's wants, to having their work fit with the production.
Easton Jackson
Zimmer is one of the last high class soundtrack composer. He always goes beyond what is expected of him, and just goes ahead and create new sounds, instruments, tones. youtube.com/watch?v=OCAIOXgpWBE
I feel ashamed for him what I see him mentioned in the same post as Hackino
Sebastian Jones
It's really a shame. What went wrong with the Episode VII score anyway? Sure we got a few new semi-memorable (arguably) with Rey and Kylo Ren's themes and maybe another queue here or there. But overall it was just a mishmash of old shit or inane sound that did next to nothing.
Pretty much all of the music for the action sequences was unmemorable. The scores for the battle of Yavin, Hoth and Endor or the asteroid field chase in the OT all had memorable melodies and managed to be exciting and intense. There was nothing close to that in TFA.
Jordan Wood
Interstellar, Man of Steel, BvS, all great Zimmer scores. He needs to stop being shat on because he's popular. He's popular because he's good. It's all the other Hollywood hacks trying to emulate and fail at his style instead of bringing their own shit to the table. Or rather the studio suits forcing them to ape Zimmer.
Ep 1: Duel of the Fates Ep 2:??? Ep 3: Battle of the Heroes, The Immolation Scene, Anakin vs Obi-Wan Ep 4: Main title, Cantina (1 & 2), The Throne Room Ep 5: The Imperial March Ep 6: ??? TFA: Scherzo for X-Wings, Rey's theme, The Jedi Steps R1: Hope, The Imperial Suite
Can't recall any other really memorable tunes apart from these
Hudson Gutierrez
The Island had a good soundtrack and I don't care what you think
Chase Robinson
>TFA: Scherzo for X-Wings, Rey's theme, The Jedi Steps Yeah, nah.
