I guess I'm going to have to get the original Alien. I too have the quadrilogy.

William,

I definitely Definitely feel the same way; although in specific reference to the Star Wars #1-3 I also mean it literally!

These movies are wall-to-wall music, and IMHO have horrible dialogue and characters/acting (Jar-Jar, Anakin) so they are a perfect candidate for the "5.1-1" treatment. It truly is an orchestral-music-video in the grand sense!

But it is sad that directors feel that they need so much dramatic redundancy built in to their movies when they only needed 1. the dialogue 2. the SFX or 3. THE MUSIC. Sometimes only the visual is needed. I, however, feel that just music and visual can be so much more powerful and imply a story just as sophisticated (if not more) than something that utiizes a lowest-common-denominator approach with all three (or a multiple combination of the) techniques.

Clark

Aye .. The Original Alien DVD is worth getting if you want to learn about composing for Horror or Fantasy movies .. cos not only does it have alternate takes of the music (the main title being the most obvious), it is one of the most wonderful scores. So damned haunting.

I don't know that it's still available but you may be able to get it second hand if you can't buy it new. And I heartily recommend ripping the seperate audio channels off the disc and making your own 2 CD set out of it to listen to. (Takes a while but I'm glad I did it.) There's so much you can learn from the techniques used within the score. Cos there are some really weird instruments in that score.

Also interesting to note the orchestra positioning and panning. These early recordings can teach you a great deal about monoizing instruments .. or rather the need to .. so you can get a bigger sound out of your virtual orchestra.

Well I shan't go on anymore .. needless to say one of the best DVD's out there. If only they'd done the same for Star Trek: TMP.

I really agree with you hetoreyn on Star Trek TMP - that would have been great with only the music and the special effects by Douglas Trumbull.

By the way did you notice the ST "collector's edition" 2-disc CD? It has 25 minutes of music not used in the film.

I noticed an unused music cue in the making of Docu .. but I never saw extra music .. please let me know where it is [:D]

It's on a two disc music CD that was released, the "Collectors Edition". I don't have it, but am going to get it soon as this is one of my favorite scores of all. Probably one of the greatest film scores ever composed. Even though the movie itself is pretty dorky. Except of course for Douglas Trumbull's incredible FX. No computers used, and still unmatched to this day, like "2001."

I've not heard of that CD edition but damn If that's out there I am soooo ordering that. As this is also my favourite score too.

Another great score - one of the few from today (or almost today) - that is really great - Batman. But I got the new 2-disc DVD and it does not seem to have the score isolated. Damn!

Anyway, the best things about that movie, despite its occasional story problems, are the production design by Anton Furst, and the incredible score by Elfman. I just re-watched this recently, and couldn't help thinking how it is one of the truly rare film scores recently. Most scores simply do the job technically. But the greatest ones - like Bernard Herrmann, Goldsmith, Korngold, Raksin, a very few others - create "moments" that are pure music, combined with pure cinema. Batman has that, in a few scenes - the Batmobile to batcave scene (sounds a bit ridiculous, I know, but never mind) and the awesome ending, in which a magnificent brass fanfare is heard as everyone on the night street looks upward to the light, and then slowly the orchestra builds to a climax with Batman standing atop the dark city, a brooding but powerful gothic figure. Fantastic! Better than anything else in the film. It is the use of just film images and music in combination - nothing else - to create an emotion. That is a tribute to Tim Burton also, but Elfman did some truly brilliant stuff in that.

Yeah that's a pretty damned nice score that. I remebr feeling a similar thing to what you said ... the story was kinda weird .. as was the whole thing but the music was awesome. Certainly it'd be nice to get a complete score out of this .. But if there's an isolated score on the DVD .. well hehehe it's rippy time [:P]

yeah, that is a great way to get music you can't otherwise. Like the Robin Hood score, for an example I was thinking of, you can get the whole thing, down to the last little fanfare. There is no soundtrack album that has all of that.

You know what? Vertigo should have this more than anything, but it doesn't damn it!


Wait a minute - the film that should have this more thany other ever made is "Obsession." A stupid story, a really lame rip-off of Vertigo that you just don't want to watch. But it has the most FANTASTIC score by Herrmann - one of his best. An amazing combination of crazed pipe organ, ghostly choirs, wistful strings, pounding brass and timpani - a whole symphony of intense emotion. And it is coupled to a dumbass piece of shit movie.

Come to think of it, this one you would not want to see even images from - just rip the complete soundtrack and forget the movie.

Good God, what a POS that must be!

I can actually stand to watch the Star Wars 1-3 with the center channel disconnected; it actually makes those movies pleasent. Judging by your testimony, this one must REALLY be unsavable (even by the likes of Herrmann). Anyone for a "What's up Tigerlilly 2?"

This reminds me of a L.A. composer interview where the individual remarked (can't remember who it was--Oh, it was Jeff Rona) that getting more and better work off of your recent projects depends more on the success (critical and otherwise) of those movies than the actual level of quality in the music.

Clark

So crappy music is elevated by box office?

Somehow I am not surprised. Especially considering a number of the major "composers" now strutting around. (Please note quotation marks.)

To me as composer, it would make more sense if they would release the movie DVD's without the music soundtrack

.

The Spiderman DVD has a special feature segment with Danny Elfman, where he explains how he constructed the score to Spiderman. And there are a few video shots of the scoring sessions. It's pretty good. Check it out.