[Closed] Now Playing XLV

I haven't given up on it either. There are a largish number of albums I could name that I was initially underwhelmed by that eventually became loved favourites. For the meantime I'll rest it and try it again when I feel my mood is more receptive to that style of score.

Close Encounters John Williams

No words necessary. Except these.

Nice.

I really enjoyed the film. It film plays more like a stage play. Lots of dialogue and static scenes where Spielberg just locks off the camera be and lets the actors fill the scene with there performances. Daniel Day Lewis is superb as is Tommy Lee Jones. And the cinematography is gorgeous! Great music as well!

-Erik-

I think Daniel Day Lewis's performance is the only thing that makes me want to watch this film. I'm sure it's a very well made film, it's Spielberg after all. But I can't say I'm particularly interested in a film about Lincoln. Simple as that really!

...and some are worried about J.J. Abrams taking over Star Wars.

p.s. I love History and all things historical and I'm trying to figure why a film about Lincoln doesn't interest me at all?

I think you're confusing it with ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER!

Thanks Franz and Martijn! I got a used copy of th re-recording this morning. I will listen to it in the course of the weekend.

This is another score that I might enjoy more now.

NP: "Sound of Cinema: Composing for Hollywood" - BBC Radio 3 show

This is an interesting 45-minute radio show on writing music for movies. I'm 10 minutes in and there's been interesting discussions from James Horner and Danny Elfman. And now a bit of a discussion on the Titus vs 300, a discussion on Hollywood's aversion to the original score in order to minimise risk at the box office and Gabriel Yared's rejection of his score for Troy.

Interviews with Lorne Balfe (he's Scottish!) and Hans Zimmer as well. Interesting to hear that Balfe is reluctant to talk when asked about the work allocation when a group of composers are working on a film.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bfjqv

(not available outside UK & available for another 2 days only)

Turned out to be a very interesting critique on the homogenisation of film score music for big Hollywood films to sound pretty much the same.

NP: Arthur And The Britons - Paul Lewis

It's not hard to understand why Timmer loves this: there's a strong Barry-esque current running throughout the compositions. It's not bad! and for seventies UK TV scoring this is quite big in scope (the orchestration is way beyond what I'd expect from that time), but whether it's the miking or budget constraints (historically I would assume it's the latter), the orchestra sounds quite small.

What doesn't help my appreciation is that I have no attachment to the television series, never having seen it.
So as interesting as it is, I remain a little lukewarm towards it.
As the score is VERY long (80 minutes), it might be a good idea for me to revisit it later and create a shorter playlist.

I'm talking about the Spielberg film. If you think its not filled with sugar-coated historical inaccuracies, then you should probably do some research about its subject matter.

It's sometimes a disadvantage for us to be immersed in this sort of subject so that we are familiar with the points covered in the documentary. But, as you hint at Martijn, it's a change to hear the composers themselves talk about the subject rather than having people on both sides bitch about it in ever decreasing circles.

It was interesting to hear how disillusioned Horner seemed to be about the state of film music in general at the moment. And it was also interesting to hear how he isolates himself from all that is Hollywood in his home: no memorabilia at all of the movies. I liked how Horner referenced Williams' Superman score (particularly the opening scene) and how it is so distinctive. Jump ahead to now and he was saying that it would be difficult to tell any of the current superhero scores apart, including Man of Steel.

And I hadn't realised that there was such a large "gagging order" in place over the Titus/300 incident.

It's a shame that the programme isn't more widely available.

Clearly, growing up with a certain kind of music prevalent gives you ears specifically trained to discern details about that kind of music as opposed to others, because I find Horner's comment to be ridiculous. If anything, Williams' score is much less distinctive, since it uses the same structure and same "bold brassy hero theme" concept that the rest of Williams' scores of that time period use. Whereas Man of Steel, whether you like it or not, does things that a blockbuster action/adventure score has never done before. Obviously, he hasn't actually listened to many modern superhero scores. I couldn't tell Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones apart if I wasn't already familiar with them, either. In fact, for much of my life I couldn't hum the love themes of those 3 films to myself because they are so similar that they got mixed up in my brain.