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Posted: |
Oct 25, 2014 - 10:56 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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Bear McCreary, as so many composers before him, has become not just a composer (and I believe a very fine one), but a brand name as well. His name assures skittish network executives (whose creative choices are entirely fear-based) that their choice of composer is empirically sound. If the show is unsuccessful, an executive can point to McCreary's status (and, of course, to brand-name writer/producer/directors) as evidence that their choice should not be a fireable offense.
Of course nobody can write as much music as McCreary is credited for on television these days. His name more or less means that he scores the first episodes and major episodes and sequences later on, and supervises all scoring not done by him. What he doesn't compose himself is done at his instruction, and subject to his review. Since a show like "The Walking Dead" has a few major musical sequences but many, many, many more ambient cues and source pieces, I'm sure he feels comfortable farming those out to Ortega and Beach. Basically, the score has the Bear McCreary seal of approval. I do believe he writes the majority of music he's credited for. But far from all of it. If Ortega and Beach (and any others) receive proper credit on the cue sheets (and I'm quite sure they do), they are compensated properly for their compositions. This is not always the case when uncredited composers work in television.
We can all be shocked and outraged by this news, but are we similarly indignant that there was no credit for Fred Steiner on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" or Morton Stevens on "Outland"? Didn't Steiner adapt a few bars for Williams on "Return of the Jedi"? This happens when composers are under the gun. It's a fact of life. And I wouldn't say that "TMP" is any less a Goldsmith opus for Steiner's contributions.
The fact is, a favorite sequence from a favorite film of yours may not have been directed by the credited director. Writers who contribute whole sequences go uncredited. I write for television, and I can tell you that some episodes on which I have the "written by" credit have fewer words written by me than episodes on which somebody else's name is on-screen. This is simply how the business works.
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Really poor analogy and paper thin rationale.
Well, with Michael Beach and Jonathan Ortega posting cues of theirs from Bear McCreary scored TV shows, there's something to the idea that McCreary doesn't write every single note of music for all the shows he's attached to.
I don't think he is disputing that but more saying that the analogies above are pretty poor. IMO ghost writing sullys the name of the composer on many occasions, putting their name on a score that is a poor substitute for what the composer would have done on his own (except for something like The Lone Ranger where Zimmer wouldn't have written anything close to what we got on his own).
Exactly
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Just to supply a little perspective here, I was a very vocal advocate of Bear's The Cape score/series. I own the 2 disc CD and though it was a very ambitious, theme driven series.
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Just to supply a little perspective here, I was a very vocal advocate of Bear's The Cape score/series. I own the 2 disc CD and though it was a very ambitious, theme driven series.
Yea, but that's like one of eighty shows he's done/is doing!
The show didn't last long. The music was the best part of the show. IT was pretty terrible.
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Mr. McCreary is probably my favorite modern film/TV composer. I enjoyed his score for the 1st episode of CONSTANTINE quite a bit. HUMAN TARGET gets a play on an almost monthly basis in my apartment -- I loved the show and the music was, frankly, almost better then anything else I've heard on TV -- and that would include STAR TREK, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCHOCK PRESENTS, and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. I loved HT. Of course, just my tastes and opinion.
The 1st CONSTANTINE episode, though, was wonky. It felt as if a longer pilot episode had been edited down to total incoherence -- characters sort of appearing without introduction -- situations thrown at me without any indication of what they meant -- wait, there's writing on the wall that I can't read -- what it's a message from someone -- wait, who the hell is that angel -- wait, he's damned -- he's dead?!?!? I had absolutely no knowledge of the comic before dipping into Episode 1 -- and it left me totally at sea. The music did help weave things together tremendously.
Does anyone know if a longer pilot was planned but then edited down and/or scrapped? I'll keep watching because I like the cast -- and for the music! Maybe the narrative and motivations seem more coherent as it goes along.
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