Thanks so much for the link, Mike. I didn't want it to drop out of sight before people have had a chance to see it. I've just dipped in, and there's a whole lotta great stuff there! Will try to get organizized over the weekend to explore it in depth.
Having seen - some time ago - early cuts of the interviews with Laurence Rosenthal, Dave Grusin, and Lalo Schifrin, let me say that these are really excellently put-together videos, with top-notch interviews, with wonderfully detailed reminiscences and discussions of style and approach to their various projects. The Film Music Foundation is doing wonderful work - and these oral histories are an important addition to preserving the history of the medium.
I missed this thread and by looking for some Grusin piano videos I found the FMF interview. Great stuff! Can anyone tell us when the two and a half hrs interviews will be available to watch?
It would make no sense to have had such great lengthy interviews to just show 10 minutes.
And by the way I've been thinking about starting a thread about this great composer. I wish he did what Marvin Hamlisch did and composed a score today as Marvin did coming back to film scoring after many years for The Informant which was wonderful.
It would be so great, Grusin's music just gets to me. He's a great living composer when so many have gone, why don't film makers use him
They just added another clip, this one featuring Bruce Broughton. Sounds like his was a full 2.5 hour interview as well. I can't wait till they upload the full versions.
There are more key interviews on the way soon. Jon Burlingame is our lead interviewer for the majority of them, who better?!
The full length videos will be made available for educational purposes, namely used for various workshops and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum. Having these seminal musicians' words and experience documented on film for future generations is very important.
The gallery page of the website will be updated soon. Thanks for the feedback.
I LOVE the mix of popular composers and behind-the-scenes arrangers/orchestrators. Unfortunately, some of the interviews with elderly gentlemen (especially Jack Hayes) are very tiring to listen to.
As is the interview with Lalo Schifrin. Which doesn't surprise me the least bit: A friend of mine, 22 years ago, interviewed him in L.A. and I was called upon to translate the interview (also 2 hours). Having listened to about 30 minutes, I refused. His English was almost unintelligible, and the guy's been working in Hollywood for more than five decades.
These interviews are very similar to the one John Burlingame did with Goldsmith, which is available on youtube:
Which, despite being illuminating, is also very difficult to enjoy because of the particular cadence of Goldsmith's speech.
Which, despite being illuminating, is also very difficult to enjoy because of the particular cadence of Goldsmith's speech.
I'm also getting the vibe (which is subjective, I'll grant that) that JG wanted to be anywhere else than in that chair doing that interview. A pity, because what he is saying is very interesting.
The Broughton interview is just unbelievable. It's not only that he's a great story teller. It's the fabulous recollection of details of things that happened decades before. Unequaled in any interview of film composers that I've ever heard, or was compelled to translate.
The Broughton interview is just unbelievable. It's not only that he's a great story teller. It's the fabulous recollection of details of things that happened decades before. Unequaled in any interview of film composers that I've ever heard, or was compelled to translate.
Oooh, can't wait to see that one. I watched the Elfman interview yesterday and it was really fantastic.
