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  4. filmmakers who use VSL

  • filmmakers who use VSL

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    Since I am one of these, I wonder about others.  

    Filmmakers who do  both film and music are John Carpenter and of course Charlie Chaplin, though he had considerable help from David Raksin.   It makes sense to do both cinema and music as they actually are very similar in their real artistic nature, as opposed to the conventional use they are put to.  A good documentary, Hitchcock and Truffaut, recently discussed the poetic aspects of Hitchcock's films which were never considered in the past.  These are essentially the same as pure music, and Hitchcock was a genius at creating cinema that affected people similarly to music, regardless of the story content.  He even said that in Psycho he was trying the "play" the audience.  Also, Vertigo is a pure work of musical/cinematic poetry helped immensely by Herrmann's score.  
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    Another filmmaker-composer more recently is Mike Figgis, who has made some very interesting independent films and scored them as well.   
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    Here is an example - a trailer for my film Disembodied which is going to be released fairly soon and may cause me to be incarcerated. Anyway it uses VSL except for some analog synthesizer -

    Disembodied trailer
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    Alejandro Amenabar, Clint Eastwood (he got help from Lennie Niehaus) - off the top of my head, there would be others.
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    Well, one that comes to mind is Rob Zombie.  I don't particularly care for Mr. Zombie's films nor his music but his films are a reflection of his antisocial rage-filled music.  Come to think of it his films and music are a reflection of his name too.  The S.O.B. completely defiled and insulted Carpenter's Halloween by making The Shape (Michael Myers) human.  How stupid could he be? Part of what made Halloween so good was the mystery and mysticism behind the inhuman shape.  Leave it to a guy named Zombie to take a gem and turn into a turd.

    Vivian Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick's daughter is a composer/filmmaker but aside from the documentary she made for the making of The Shinning and an unreleased documentary for the making of Full Metal Jacket she really doesn't have much of a filmography to speak of.  She composed the score for Full Metal Jacket but under a psuedonym. 

    Then there's Jim Morrison of The Doors.  He started as a film student before becomming a rock star.  But his bizarre visions were too much even for counter cultured 1960's Los Angeles so he quit.

    I'm really struggling to find better examples here....

    How about filmakers from a musical family.  One that comes to mind is Francis Coppola.  His father Carmine did the score for The Godfather saga which, like the score, had strong operatic qualities and motiffs.  Those were really good scores too by the way.  That lone trumpet is so iconic of the series and even the other minor keyed string theme is unforgetable.  Actually, even Francis dabbled in film scoring with his father's assistance.  Francis Coppola composed the cold and moody synth score for Apocalypse Now.  I'm not sure if he did any scoring after that.  Francis' daughter has worked both in film and music but I don't think she's combined the two in any artistic sense.
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    Another is Frank Laloggia.  He wrote/directed the film Lady in White, which is a pretty good ghost story, and did an orchestral score for it.  

    I really like John Carpenter's stuff though, because both Halloween and Assault on Precinct 13 are classic synth scores.  He also did Big Trouble in Little China which has a great later hybrid analog-digital score and some rock tunes he did with his band.  

    The reason I am interested is because of a probably misplaced fascination with the idea that cinema and music are the same in their most basic nature.  So if one can do both it could be the ultimate example of what Wagner envisioned for opera.  Though of course I realize that is delusional to the point of my needing therapy. 
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    Off the musical focus of this topic, but only by a little, there's Walter Murch, an acknowledged master of both film editing *and* sound design, arguably two of the the three most important roles in the film-making process (the third being the music composer). The academy award for "sound design" was invented to recognize his work on Apocalypse Now. His film editing credits are equally exemplary. Think of The English Patient for which he won both best editing and best sound mixing (withtwo other mixers).
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    Escape from New York - One of the greatest, or at least one of the most underrated films of all time. One of the few, maybe the only film that successfully combines Action (box office), Future-Noir, and Art-film elements. Congratulations John Carpenter.
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    That is so right - it is a supremely ironic film with fabulous music.  
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    I don't remember The Fog having much of an impact on me but I'm rather fond of The Thing even though it's a synth realization of a Morricone score.

    And let's not forget the haunting score for Christine which is also a fine example of analogue synth scores.
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    kenneth, that is an interesting comparison.

    I also remember the score for The Thing being oddly like Carpenter's own scores, even though it was Morricone.  That was a very chilling film and music to put it mildly.  
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    @William said:

    I also remember the score for The Thing being oddly like Carpenter's own scores, even though it was Morricone.  That was a very chilling film and music to put it mildly.  

    It was Carpenter's idea to synthesize Morricone's score much to Morricone's annoyance.  In fact Morricone wanted his name removed from the credits if his original organic score wasn't used.  So a compromise was made in which the opening and closing credits would keep Carpenter's synth arrangement while the cues in the film would remain organic.  However, Carpenter was able to slip a few synth cues here and there.  That's the nice thinkg about being a filmmaker and composer, you have the technical skills to get away with something like that.  
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    what do you mean "organic" ?

    btw I noticed the Laloggia music here -

    Lady in White music

    very cool that it is on vinyl
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    Well, I've always used the term "organic" to describe music that is realized through acoustic means without electronic enhancement like synths or amplifiers.  Examples would be like a Jazz band, Folk music or an orchestra. 

    So why didn't I just say, "orchestraded?" 🤔

    In retrospect, perhaps "organic" was a poor choice of words😳

    Anyway, if you watch The Thing most of the cues during the film are orchestrated not synthetic.  If I recall, mostly woodwinds. 
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    Yes I do recall a lot of cues with acoustic.  It is a gloomy sounding score that adds to the extreme effect of that film. I've always felt it was not a box office success because it was truly a horror film - brrrr!  😮  Now it is a classic example of Carpenter's great directing. 

    Speaking of analogue synth we are now living in the Renaissance of Analog Synthesizers, with Korg creating new Arp Odyssey, Moog, Roland, etc.  I recently got a Korg Minilogue which is fantastic, and I am using it with MIR, placing it on the Vienna Konzerthaus stage along with the other players. 
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    @William said:

    I've always felt it was not a box office success because it was truly a horror film - brrrr!  😮 

    ...and because it played against Spielberg's E.T. 

    In fact, for years after, Carpenter refered to The Thing as his Anti-E.T.

    I don't know what it is about that score.  It's so simple yet so penetrating.  I think for me the score grabs hold of you and drags you to this dark and gloomy place where you feel cold, lonely and hopeless just like the characters in the movie which is set in the most freezing and isolated place on Earth.

    The score to The Shinning had a similiar affect on me.
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    The score to The Shinning had a similiar affect on me.

    I just remember Bartok in that film, did Carpenter do some too?

    Sorry, but not a fan of Carpenters' music, (like his films though).  I think Williams' own scoring will be a considerable improvement.

    www.mikehewer.com
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    "I think for me the score grabs hold of you and drags you to this dark and gloomy place where you feel cold, lonely and hopeless just like the characters in the movie which is set in the most freezing and isolated place on Earth." -Jasensmith

    That is a perfect description.   Also, the ending- that is one of the most brilliant and radical endings of a movie ever.  

    On the Shining Kubrick used his  "temp track" approach to scoring which is very mean to composers but works  for his films.  Remember that "2001" had a fabulous score by Alex North that Kubrick never even told him was replaced by the temp track and North found out at the premiere.  Holy crap! That is cold.  Also, Kubrick never paid Ligeti one cent!  Typical treatment of composers.

    But the score of The Shining was very effective with some tracks by Penderecki as well as Wendy Carlos riffing off Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.   
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    Here is why I do also absolutly count to the filmmusic-guys using VSL:

    http://klassik-resampled.de/promethe (link is fixed now !)

    Of course this is one of the most signifcant films ever done with music at al.... 😃
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    link doesn't work