Polls, Anyone?

by Lukas Kendall

Last week we asked our reader to suggest some cool poll ideas, in another crafty way for us to avoid work. We got some great ones, and we'll endeavor to do most of the following. I've deleted the readers' suggested "answers" for now, so as not to get people too fired up:

From: Henrik Jordan <henrik.jordan@berlin.snafu.de>

1) Which singer or group would you like most to contribute the title song for a future James Bond film?

2) As we know, Danny Elfman is adapting Bernard Herrmann´s PSYCHO score for the remake. If any of the following films should be remade, which one do you favour most for using the same score in a newly adapted form?

3) And if they made a better (Not a director´s!) cut of ALIEN: RESURRECTION and replace the music of the unlucky Mr. Frizzell, whom should they choose to write a new score to save the film?

Hm. We probably won't do #1 because there are too many (way too many) possible choices. I'll bet the most popular score would win #2, no matter what the movie was. As for #3, I think we've picked on that movie and score enough.

From: Juan-Luis Sanchez <juanluis@rhythm.com>

Here's a few variation on a theme poll ideas:

1) Worst movie Goldsmith has scored (regardless of score quality)

2) Best score Goldsmith has made for a really bad movie (ie. biggest difference between quality of score and quality of movie).

This could be varied in a number of ways...

Hm! The Swarm would win #1, because even though it's more entertaining than some of his other worst movies, it's the one the most people would have seen - and it really is inept. I'll be Star Trek: The Motion Picture would quality, and win, the latter.

From: Mathieu Beauregard <mbeauregard@lexitech.ca>

Which of the following John Williams score is your favorite? Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Star Wars: A New Hope, Superman.

Of course, you could do the same for a number of composers like Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Bernard Herrmann, etc. and even James Horner! I suggested John Williams because you mentioned he's very popular in these polls. Maybe there could be a new composer every week. I realize that it is impossible to put all of a composer's interesting work in one poll (the limit of choices per poll is 8 isn't it?) and that there will always be people writing to complain that their favorite score was not in the choices but hey, it's supposed to be fun.

You recently asked which decade was our favorite regarding movie music. Why not ask which score in each of these decades people consider to be the most influential or simply their favorite? Again there's a possibility for a number of polls. The selection of scores for each decade would be very difficult to make though and I'm nowhere near knowledgeable or qualified enough to try. I'm afraid that job would be up to you, sorry...

Since the re-release of scores is getting more and more popular these days (and I think that's great!), maybe a poll could ask people which of these they consider the most well done or successful. Here are some titles that come to mind: Gone With the Wind, Poltergeist, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars (all three of them), Close Encounters, North By Northwest. You could also ask which old score people would like the most to be re-released, like Jaws, Superman (of course), Once Upon a Time in the West, The Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia.

From: Chris Olson <colson@intervideo24.com>

I'd be a little curious as to see which of the Star Wars scores (once again, John Williams), people like the most. Just an idea. Personally, I think Empire Strikes Back.

Yes, it would win, just based on our last poll of favorite Williams blockbusters. Speaking of which, I was surprised Close Encounters rated so highly (I picked Superman), because it is less heroic and accessible than some of the others. The recent CD release probably had something to do with that.

From: XSOUNDTRAK@aol.com

How about a poll on some overseas composers such as Frances Lai, Phillipe Sarde etc. They too have a style of their own & have influenced some of the scores we hear today.

Oh yeah. We keep on forgetting about those guys.

From: "Paul M. Forster" <forsterp@mrl.ucsb.edu>

This may be difficult to set up, but should be interesting. I'd like to see if there is a correlation between people's favorite classical composer and people's favorite contempory film composer. Could you set up a poll where people pick their favorite classical composer (of about 5 offered, say Beethoven, Bach, Mozart...) and then pick their favorite contemporary film composer (Williams, Goldsmith, Horner, Elfman...). Let me know if this is possible.

Hm! This would be cool but probably not possible under our current mechanism. And as with the James Bond singer question, there are too many potential options.

From: Brian Nettles <dbnettle@uncc.edu>

Here's one for you along the same lines as the original Star Trek composers poll: Who is the best composor who for the entire Star Trek franchise (discounting Jerry Goldsmith, of course)?

Cool! We'll do this later on.

From: James Mansfield <jamesdv@earthlink.net>

I'd be curious to poll visitors of the site on who they think should/would like to see score Peter Jackson's upcoming live-action "Lord of the Rings". I'm not sure how to create a list of "interesting" options if John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith are included, so I thought that might it be better to go with something a tad more oddball, where the choices are perhaps: any of the Newmans (David, Thomas, Randy), or Wojciech Kilar.

Yeah, but then I have to deal with letters, "Why isn't my favorite composer on your list?"

From: Sergio Hardasmal <sergio@ingenia.pta.es>

Which great filmmusic composer should get his FIRST OSCAR?

Good question! The answer is of course Ennio Morricone, but we'll see what people think.

From: Chris Kinsinger <76263.2355@compuserve.com>

Always obsessed with the "Oscar", here is my idea for a poll: Which Film Score Least Deserved To Win The Oscar?

Hm. I'll bet Midnight Express gets the most votes, even though in retrospect it's kind of cool.

We'll do the above two closer to Oscar time.

From: "SARAH" <BLUET@IDA.NET>

How about best baseball movie score? I would vote for Field of Dreams, The Scout, Angels in the Outfield, the Natural, Soul of the Game, etc.

That's a good one.

From: "RomanDeppe" <roman.deppe@metronet.de>

Who is the best composer at Media Ventures (leave Zimmer out here)? I thought it could be interesting to see, whether there are people who really think it would make any difference which of these composers writes the music for a movie. Well, I would just say that Mancina showed the most creativity among them all, that's maybe the reason why he isn't at MV anymore. Besides him I like Rabin a lot, but just because of his brilliant guitar-playings. That leads to a similar poll:

What is the best action-score that came out of MEDIA VENTURES (and Mancina Music):

What's the best Action Score since 1985?

Good ideas, all.

And now, for the corker:

From: wcox <wcox@hertreg.ac.uk>

Which composer, living or dead, should score "The Phantom Menace" if John Williams were unavailable?

Which composer has the grooviest/funkiest hairstyle?

Which composer would you most like to spend a drunken lost weekend in which both of you could get arrested for various reasons, with?

Disregarding #2 and #3 for now... #1 is now the current poll on our home page. I hope you vote. Friday I'll share my prediction for who actually would score the Star Wars prequels if Williams suddenly could or would not do them.

Reminder...

ScoreLogue is having a chat today with John Beal and Basil Poledouris. It's tonight, some time. See the details at: http://chat.yahoo.com/chat/events/calendar.html

Send your poll ideas and comments:

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