Cool Pete, thanks for sharing. It's nice to still have a guy who's main thrust is themes, melody and orchestral...But more importantly, is still allowed to do it. Nice to read his shout out to Bruce B and Silverado.
Funny you mentioned that - I just watched the most recent Planet of the Apes film and thought, many times throughout, "Man, this score mix is super dry!" Very little reverb or space to the sound, which was a bit odd. I can only assume this was an intentional, creative choice made by the composer, mixer, and director.
I would like him more if his recordings didn’t do so dry. Needs a new recording mixer!
Believe it or not he is on his second. Must be his preference to be dryer.
Although the recent ones have been marginally better in that regard.
Michael has used a bunch of different recording engineers over the years. While Dan Wallin and Joel Iwataki are (were) his regulars, he's recorded with Peter Fuchs and Steve Smith as well.
While I've enjoyed his melodies, I've never been a fan of the sound of Giacchino's recordings. "Dry" never occurred to me so much as the term "muddy," but perhaps what we're hearing is all the same thing and we're just expressing ourselves in different terms. Regardless, yes, I'd love to hear Giacchino's melodies in great sound!
Great thing to remember: how LITTLE time there is to assemble a CD soundtrack. Easy to forget that in most cases it becomes an afterthought by necessity, not choice.
Not even close. Wish I could more easily multi-quote here because the suggestion that Giacchino is some last bastion for quality themes in film music is laughable. Most of his motifs are forgettable and barely survive past the film. It is a rarity that I find anything he writes that sticks with me for long. Closest he has come was the Spock theme for his first Star Trek film which he hasn't come close to very often since.
Not even close. Wish I could more easily multi-quote here because the suggestion that Giacchino is some last bastion for quality themes in film music is laughable. Most of his motifs are forgettable and barely survive past the film. It is a rarity that I find anything he writes that sticks with me for long. Closest he has come was the Spock theme for his first Star Trek film which he hasn't come close to very often since.
I love Giacchino's Spock theme as much as anyone else, but...that stuck in your head and his main theme for Star Trek didn't??? I'm not calling Michael Giacchino a Max Steiner or anything—I don't know Max Steiner well enough to call anyone a Max Steiner—but just reading a thread like this puts that theme on repeat in my head, perhaps even annoyingly so, though I haven't seen any of the films or listened to any of the scores in months.
Not even close. Wish I could more easily multi-quote here because the suggestion that Giacchino is some last bastion for quality themes in film music is laughable. Most of his motifs are forgettable and barely survive past the film. It is a rarity that I find anything he writes that sticks with me for long. Closest he has come was the Spock theme for his first Star Trek film which he hasn't come close to very often since.
Sadly this is his weakness. Though I think he's much better at writing "pretty" themes or motifs than action music. He's gotten better, or at least some of his scores from the last few years work great within context of the film itself.
Not even close. Wish I could more easily multi-quote here because the suggestion that Giacchino is some last bastion for quality themes in film music is laughable. Most of his motifs are forgettable and barely survive past the film. It is a rarity that I find anything he writes that sticks with me for long. Closest he has come was the Spock theme for his first Star Trek film which he hasn't come close to very often since.
Who, from a more recent generation, comes close, SJ - what was the last film you saw that had a memorable story and musical score to go with it?
Well Alexandre Desplat and Patrick Doyle both have the chops. They rarely get to exercise them though and rarely get the bigger projects. They are the first two that come to mind. Either one of them should be tackling these projects that Giacchino gets as if it is nothing. Doyle has only had a handful of interesting projects lately because he has shown a willingness to write generic music when asked like everyone else.
Beyond that I would look to Japan because Yoko Kanno's Lady Lord Naotora blows away everything written for Hollywood films this past year easily. Though sadly it doesn't really go well with the show itself and so that specific score would have been rejected immediately by any producer outside Japan.
