@jasensmith said:

I'm wondering how many of those 30 million viewers were international.

I was wrong, this year was around 42 million, and that's only counting US viewers, I don't know if there are any international figures.  That's about the middle of the pack for ratings over the past 20 years.

@jasensmith said:

People who live and work in fantasyland getting up on a stage and bagging their political drums about the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the fight against the big greedy corporations, gay rights, Save the Shrimp, etc.

Not sure how many people are aware but the news around here (Detroit) has been buzzing about a lawsuit against the makers of "The Hurt Locker".  Geoffrey Fieger is representing West Virginian Master Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver claiming that he was the real-life character who the story was about.  Screenwriter Mark Boal was an embedded report for 30 days with Sgt. Sarver and took the real-life experiences and wrote a script which then became the movie.  The movie even used Sgt. Sarver's code name.  Sgt. Sarver wasn't consulted or given any recognition or compensation, which has become the basis for the lawsuit.  You can read more about it by clicking the link below......

http://www.clickondetroit.com/entertainment/22727775/detail.html

@aural said:

and i wonder how good writing can be offensive...

Surely you're not referring to, "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp?" 

oh no... maybe we were talking about different things or i misread your initial post. i was talking about good writing that does not get recognized.

the award for this particular tune rather was a desperate attempt of the academy to be contemporary and to suck up to the 15-year-old bourgoise "kidz" who indulge in ghetto-romanticism...

@aural said:

and i wonder how good writing can be offensive...

Surely you're not referring to, "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp?" 

oh no... maybe we were talking about different things or i misread your initial post. i was talking about good writing that does not get recognized.

the award for this particular tune rather was a desperate attempt of the academy to be contemporary and to suck up to the 15-year-old bourgoise "kidz" who indulge in ghetto-romanticism...

Oh! ok...   I must admit I was a little worried there for a second LOL! 

It looks like we have more common ground on this issue than I thought, Aural,  because I agree with your "kidz" statement 100%.  

I know this thread has moved on, but I just wanted to toss my agreement in with Chuck Green that the "Titanic" score was memorable.  It seemed to go perfectly with the sea, with just the right amount of melancholy to produce that emotional response.

I kind of miss the soundtracks from the nineties.  John Williams--"Angelas Ashes" Hans Zimmer--"Beyond Rangoon"  John Barry "Dances with Wolves" James Newton Howard-- "Snow Falling on Cedars."  There was a fresh lyricism & vibrancy then.  These days there seems more reliance on the big hit chase scene cues, which often do sound the same, at least to my ears.  I've bought a lot of soundtracks in the past five or six years that I only listen to a few times.  I realize you can't really appreciate one's work if you don't really give it a fair listen, but so often there seems nothing that pulls me in and gets me to keep playing.

I'll take a listen to "Up."  Any other recommendations out there?

All best, Tom

Hi Tom,

Actually, the other night I happened to catch Flyboys on Cable.  I've seen the movie before but this time the score caught my ear.  I downloaded it off if iTunes.  You may want to check that one out.  The score is written by Trevor Robin.  He has some other great scores out there as well.

Richard Struass wrote some of the first movie scores with his heavy drive to create 'program music;' ironically before there were any soundtracks on movies. Indeed his scoring techniques are closely studied by the likes of John Williams and others.

Movies are usually made in committee style of functions with the majority reports winning out or the person with the most rank pulling things in their direction. I've often wondered how much control directors really have over the final cut of the movie; seems to me that the process goes something like this:

Director decides, after consulation with the arts committee and the production committee, (which committee is often just one person), which scenes require a musical backdrop and then requests the mood to be set, the style and the thickness or thiness of the music, one insturment, chamber group or Straussian dimensions to the max.

Interestingly, one of my favorite movie scores is Stanley Kubrick's '2001, A Space Odessy' which uses only music that was previously composed, a favorite technique of Kubrick.  I wonder if any one has some statistics on how many times that music has been quoted in other contexts (Strauss's fanfare to Thus Spake Zarathustra) where the implications are either Mocking or serious. In other words, Kubrick wanted his audience to notice it:

• Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra
• Johann Strauss, The Blue Danube Waltz
• György Ligeti, Atmospheres, Lux Aeterna, and Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra
• Aram Khatchaturian, Gayane Ballet Suite

I wonder that in the process of trying to make orchestral cues sound contemporary, (nothing against contemporary music - I love all kinds and styles), that the ability to produce various orchestral colors (of which only an orchestra can provide) is lost?  If you listen to the the top 40 on American Radio and focus on the instrumental arrangements, most are very basic and simple with the vocals leading the way.  That seems to be what is selling now.  Using a similar approach with an orchestra arrangement, (a few tutti strikes and a bunch of drum hits),  I believe limits the possibilities and in the process, much is lost in the end product.  Just my opinion.....

2001 is an interesting case.  The existing classical music was originally a temp score and then the film was fully scored by Alex North but they decided to just keep the temp score.  North's unused score was recorded years later and I believe it's still available.

@mike connelly said:

2001 is an interesting case.  The existing classical music was originally a temp score and then the film was fully scored by Alex North but they decided to just keep the temp score.  North's unused score was recorded years later and I believe it's still available.

Just curious Mike, does a composer usually get paid for his time if the score in the end is not used in a movie?  I assume that would be driven by a contract but is their a norm? 

I don't know for sure but I would assume they would be paid at least a partial fee.  With many parts of the film and TV industries the contracts have multiple stages of a project with parts of the payment sent out when each milestone is met.  I would think that composers would have something similar, but someone who does film scoring could clarify.