This News Friday 11/14/97
by Lukas Kendall
As you can see, we've added yet more cool stuff to the FSM site. First
of all is a direct link you'll see in the lower right of the home page
to the soundtrack search index formerly at www.filmmusic.com. This comes
to us courtesy Ellen Edgerton, who maintained that site (it is now being
transferred to David Koran's www.soundtrack.net),
and Tom DeMary, who compiled it. They have our most sincere gratitude.
This search engine has been around for a while, but I don't think people
knew about it. Basically, you can type in any movie title and it will tell
if there's a soundtrack album for it. That's a pretty useful feature. Type
in a composer name and get his discography--or type in a record label name.
It's endless fun, and now you have easy access via the Film Score Monthly
site when you forget the URL!
Also added is a new article I've compiled, So
You Want to Be a Film Composer? This comes in response to all the letters
and E-mails I've been getting from people who want to score movies. The
response has been so overwhelming that we'll add a feature to FSM in 1998
(the hardcopy only) on aspects of being an aspiring composer. For now,
the on-site column incorporates some comments and suggestions by myself,
plus a short interview with Richard Kraft from a few years ago with some
helpful tips.
And as always, check out Andy's
Aisle Seat for the latest movie and video comments from our resident
space alien, Andy Dursin. His newest
column covers Starship Troopers.
Incidentally, the reaction to Starship Troopers has been extraordinarily
divided and in many cases harsh. This is my favorite comment from the Internet
(rec.arts.movies.current-films):
"Starship Troopers is an obimination [sic] of the worst kind. The
plot is horribly predicatable [sic]."
Who needs the future of Starship Troopers when real life is this
scary?
When CDs Are Coming Out
Okay, now for something useful. Amistad (John Williams) will
be out from Geffen/Dreamworks on December 9.
Several albums are due from Varese this coming Tuesday: L.A. Confidental
(Jerry Goldsmith score), Mad City (Thomas Newman), The Man
Who Knew Too Little (Chris Young), and volume two's of Hercules
and Xena (separate discs) by Joe Lo Duca. By the way, there
was a Joseph Lo Duca who went to my college, Amherst, he graduated a year
ahead of me. He was big in the emergency medical service program. I wonder
what he's up to.
Tomorrow Never Dies (David Arnold) will be out on A&M a week
after, on November 25.
Questions
From JnEScott@aol.com:
Have you ever done an article on the finances of film scoring? Things
such as how much a composer makes on average, or per film; Things like
that. I know that we all like to think our beloved composers are such altruistic
artists, but we all know what makes the world of filmmaking go round! I
would be really interested to know the finances behind it all.
This is something we'll cover in our upcoming articles (see above) on
film scoring and how to get into it. I'll answer it now to tell roughly
what the A-list composers make per film. The top 4 or 5 guys (you can guess
who they are) have been pushing the $750,000 barrier creative fee. But
the thing about film scoring is that it varies completely on the movie.
On some low budget projects the music budget might be a few thousand dollars.
From: LogieD@aol.com
When I heard the theme to Twin Peaks, it of course remainded me
of Mancini's Experiment in Terror and the other day I took out the movie
to watch it . I was enjoying the opening sequence of Lee Remick driving
over the bridge and up into her housing project when I was taken back by
the name of the project, Twin Peaks. Creepy
In case you're wondering what the question here is, it's "did anyone
notice." The answer to that is, no, but yes it is creepy.
From: Rune Karolius, rkaroliu@online.no:
In your last Friday news column you started off with some composer
trivia about Goldsmith and Poledouris' past "careers"...as a
typist and an actor in Star Trek, respectively.
I stumbled across this piece of trivia today at http://www.cerbernet.co.uk/makingmusic/sep97ish/newsse97.htm
and, well, I just had this crazy idea I'd pass it on to you.
"What's the worst job you've ever had? Lets face it, while
waiting for the big break, lots of us have found ourselves doing the most
demeaning things (working on magazines, that kind of stuff). David Arnold,
who masterminded the new star-studded James Bond cover versions album,
'Shaken & Stirred', has had a few - like removing water from a flooded
lift-shaft with a shovel, cleaning the inside of cornflake ovens, and loading
potatoes for Asda."
That sounds like what I used to do. I used to cook breakfasts at a restauarant
on Martha's Vineyard when I was 15 while the real cooks smoked pot in the
walk-in refrigerator. Jeff Bond used to work at a Holiday Inn where the
cook would lock him in the walk-in and say, "Goodbye, Mister Bond."
Somebody was wondering what the short clip of romantic music is at the
end of Moonraker when Jaws and his pigtailed woman reunite. I'm
told it's from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet ballet.
Radio Programs
From: Jim Metzendorf, JimM94@aol.com
Hello, I host a classical music program for NPR affiliate WYSU-FM
in Youngstown, Ohio. As an avid film and film score enthusiast, I am in
the process of developing a one hour, weekly film music radio program for
our station. I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions you could
offer for a program of this type. I hope to hear from you soon!
Always a good idea, asking my advice. I have never done a film music
radio show, but I have guested on a few. I have to tell a great story about
what my friends would deal with as DJ's at the college radio station. One
DJ did a heavy metal show and he'd get all these requests from inmates
at the local prison. However, to avoid phone charges, they would call collect.
The DJ would answer the line and the operator would say, "Will you
accept a collect call from [for example] Pantera?" He'd say no, hang
up, and play something by Pantera.
My suggestions to anyone doing a radio show of any kind are, don't be
a stuttering nerd! I know that's hard since talking spontaneously is not
natural, and anyone who has heard my voice knows it ain't the best for
broadcasting. But I've heard a few film music radio shows where the announcer
is like, "Uh, next we are going to hear, uh, Ben-Hur, uh, composed
by Miklos Rozsa in 1959 for the Metro-Goldwyn-Uh-Mayer, uh, film. The selection
is, uh, Parade of the uh Charioteers. Conducted by Miklos Rozsa. Uh. [click]."
My suggestions for anyone doing a radio show:
1) Play a wide variety of music from film, although this will depend
on the format of your station.
2) In your comments, play up the movies and how the music is working
in them, so that people have something to think about during the selection,
and they won't just think it's inadequate concert music.
3) Be interesting! Don't talk about silly collector trivia or concerns
but from the perspective of someone who likes movies and is interested
in what music can do for them.
I'll also add that the motivation for many people doing these shows
seems to be to get free CDs, at which point they send me a list of record
labels they want e-mail addresses for. If you're gonna do this, try to
be a little subtler, OK?
Finally, we hope in the coming months to add a database on this site
of existing film music radio shows, so that readers can check their geographic
area and see if there might be a show around. That will be cool, and hopefully
soon.
Horner Cornering
Chris Tilton wrote in to say we screwed up the last line of the Glory
lyrics. The correct line is "Blow the horn, play the fife, make
the drum beat glory," instead of "make the drum beat lowly,"
which now that I think of it makes perfect sense.
Chris goes on to say,
You said you don't like James Horner because he takes pieces from
previous scores and puts them together for other scores. This is true,
but keep in mind that the director may have chosen Horner because he liked
something that he has done before. The director then may ask him to do
something exactly like that or something very similar. Ron Howard my have
liked the certain scene in Sneakers and asked Horner to use it again in
Apollo 13. Plus a composer is writing the score for one reason: to support
the film and enhance it. If a certain piece of music fits perfectly then
he should use it. A perfect example would be the use of a segment from
the "Mars" section of "The Planets by Holst used in Star
Wars. My point is that music used in movies by a composer may not have
been the composers choice.
Yeah, but if it sucks, it sucks, and I don't care who is responsible.
People have used this argument before about James Horner but it doesn't
hold up. Nobody has consistently, constantly ripped off as many other scores
as he has--if Goldsmith, Williams, Howard, Kamen and others can avoid getting
as close, why can't Horner?
From: Marcus Moore, marcusm@king.igs.net:
Hopefully to offset the hate mail you may get concerning your Horner
bashing (it's not really...) let me just say this: it is unfortunate that
Horner reuses his own material so much, especially considering when he
comes up with something original is usually good. I buy pretty well everything
he writes, and to a certain extent I enjoy hearing different takes on his
various ideas. Considering the time he's put into it (better that half
a year by my reconing) and, as you said, the immense potintial of the film,
I will be as upset as you if Titanic isn't something special (and original).
Yeah, amen. Everybody is going nuts over this movie and if the score
is lazy I'll blow my top. About Sneakers, a Horner score that is
fairly original (probably the last one):
From: CLauliac@aol.com
Funny information: the repetitive, racing piano writing heard in
James Horner's scores for Sneakers and The Pelican Brief sound a lot like
estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tuur. Just chek his "Sonata for Piano"
(1985) on Finlandia Records!
I remember hearing some Tuur in music class and thinking the same thing.
Finally, about a Horner topic from last week, Dan Goldwasser writes:
It should be noted that I've seen The Rocketeer available for $11.99
from Pentagon Records (www.pentagon.net),
and it seems to be readily available... mine arrived a few days after ordering
it!
Elmer Bernstein Piece in Concert - Review
This is about a concert that happened last Friday in Pomona, with Peter
Boyer conducting a small chamber orchestra. Tocatta for Toy Trains is a
score Elmer Bernstein wrote for a short film in 1957.
From Justin Doring, BMW750iL@pacbell.net:
I just returned to my dorm from the "Tocatta for Toy Trains"
concert at Scripps College. Because I'm about five minutes away, I just
HAD to attend, so I missed a class. Was I surprised when I sat down to
see Elmer Bernstein sitting not five yards from me! I had no idea he would
be there, although it does make sense. The concert began with Britten's
Sword in the Stone which was pretty good, but the "Tocatta" was
the main event. What was really cool is that they synchronized the music
to the film up above, but they didn't use clickers or streamers. Peter
Boyer, one of Bernstein's former students at USC and composer of "Titanic"
(the musical, not the film) conducted the 14 minute score.
The music, of course, was superb. Listening to the "Tocatta"
confirmed to me that Bernstein really is a master of small ensembles. The
score was not unlike Copland's original version of Appalachian Spring,
but it bore the unmistakibly Bernstein qualities. The piano and percussion
seemed fairly dominant in the orchestration, which I liked, and there was
this neat repeating trumpet fanfare. The whole score was clever and was
perfect for the entertaining film. Much of the music reminded me of Bernstein's
older westerns, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Americana parts of the fairly
recent The Good Son. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and everyone else
there did also, especially some of the children, but mostly, it was for
the children at heart.
John Morgan and Bill Stromberg on Sci-Fi Channel
The Sci-Fi Channel's weekly half hour newsmagazine, Sci-Fi Buzz, will
feature Marco Polo reconstructor/orchestrator John Morgan and conductor
Bill Stromberg on the show airing Nov. 21 (3 pm), 22 (12:30 am - i.e.,
a half hour after midnight) & 23 (9 am). All times are EST.
The CDs featured will be Monster Music of Salter & Skinner, House
of Frankenstein, Beast with Two Fingers, and Music for Frankenstein.
Miscellaneous
Eliot Handelman wrote me to see if I'd be interested in an article on
Goldenthal's Vietnam Concerto. I wrote back, but the E-mail bounced. Eliot
buddy, if you're out there, write me again.
Forgot to add this above, but also a reminder for aspiring film composers:
check out Ron Jones's emotif.com site for
useful classes and lessons. He's just added a "Dick Grove School Without
Walls" section for learning basic music skills. See http://www.emotif.com/stores1.html
Chris Caine (integtec@ozemail.com.au) wants to know what the music is
in the New York Stock Exchange promo ad (building synth punches) and the
Unisys Computer Systems promo ad (lots of drumming with choir). He saw
them on Asia Business News.
Alien Resurrection Vibes
The Alien 4 CD is out, and getting almost universal pans from soundtrack
buffs. I wonder if Frizzell is reading these comments, or if he doesn't
give a shit. He's probably reading these comments. Biggest sting would
be Variety:
"Sole tech weakness is John Frizzell's score, which adds propulsion
but almost no atmosphere or emotional arc to the visuals."
As movie score fans know, that's practically a novel coming in a review
in the trades. I've heard the CD and it is disappointing in that it's so
persistently screaming... there are a few interesting moments, but you
have these big pedal points and minor chords, avant garde orchestrations,
and frenetic spotting, and it all cancels each other out. The thing that's
brilliant about Goldsmith's original Alien and Planet of the
Apes (and all his atonal writing, for that matter) is the way he uses
space. Not space as in outer space, but space as in sustains and sounds:
it's not constantly attacking, but creating a shape of sound vs. silence,
and density. It's not enough to have interesting orchestrations: sometimes,
you have to trust them to be interesting if played on their own, they don't
need to be shrieking.
Harry News
Recently, on his awesome Ain't
It Cool News site, Harry Knowles wrote about being on the Fox lot
and mentioned that he was not able to get into a scoring session, where
allegedly John Williams was scoring Warren Beatty's latest film. I've tried
to confirm this with Fox but it is complete news to me. I should have something
by next week.
Story Time...
Speaking of studio lots, do you guys want to hear a great agent story?
This is what happened to a certain prominent film music agent when one
of his clients was recording at Todd-AO earlier this year. Todd-AO which
has a bit of a parking problem; it's on the CBS Radford lot in the valley.
Usually guests have to park way down in another area and then walk to the
stage. This agent was pissed off about this and told the stage manager
that he had to have his own parking space by the stage. He was told, politely,
that this was not possible--they could not possibly reserve such a space
for an occasional guest. The agent threatened to pull all of his clients
(and there are a lot) out of Todd-AO unless he was granted this request,
a ludicrous ultimatum to which the stage manager replied, "We'll miss
them."
The agent stormed out and found his car blocked by one of those small
studio golf carts--because, naturally, he had parked in someone else's
spot right by the scoring stage. He proceeded to back into the cart, like
Jodie Foster in The Accused or something.
So the next day, the agent showed up and was refused admittance at the
gate, where the guards had his photo in the booth.
Ta-da, what a great story! Have a wonderful weekend. Send your letters
or questions to MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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