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Even ST:TMP might be tough to fill a hall, assuming you could get the blaster beam accounted for, probably with keyboards. The movie did well but I wonder if it is popular enough to sell enough tickets (thought I’d be first in line). I do think POLTERGEIST might draw the crowds but you’d need a choir and a girls’ chorus, and of course the piece itself is extraordinarily complex in parts. I think the Dallas players in my town could handle it but would it sell out like JURASSIC PARK did? As much as I’d give anything to hear Goldsmith performed live to film, I think at best some kind of anthology program would work with various film scenes, or just a plain old tribute concert with orchestra alone. The Dallas Wind Symphony performed an excerpt from ALIEN one evening here which was thrilling. But I’m not holding my breath for a complete film any time soon.
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That’s really impressive they did PLANET OF THE APES and RUDY of all films. Did PLANET OF THE APES have a bunch of metal bowls for the percussionist?
Overall I wonder what is required to put these performances together and if any of these elements would pose the most challenges.
- Rights to perform music AND show film
- Access to the sheet music and ALL notes regarding edits made within the film (having seen all 3 Star Wars films live I can attest to the fact that orchestras CAN handle tracking)
- Scheduling orchestra and venue
- Making the streamers and punches for the conductor
- Acquiring any unusual instruments
- Rehearsals for the conductor and orchestra
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How about "Freud" or "The Mephisto Waltz"? It would be interesting to see these two feature films accompanied by a live orchestra (though the electronic music by that was composed by Gino Marinuzzi and performed by Henk Badings for the dream scene would be hard to replicate).
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Another thing to keep in mind is that Goldsmith often spotted films very judiciously, at least before the 80s/90s. So stuff like Patton wouldn't make sense to do live-to-film so much, since it's only a half hour of music in a three hour film. You'd be paying the orchestra to just sit around for five sixths of that time!
This is a great point and I must say I was impressed when I saw RETURN OF THE JEDI performed live. On CD it's not obvious how continuous the final battle music is, but literally for 50+ minutes straight all of that stuff "Battle of Endor I, Battle of Endor II, Battle of Endor III, Death of Darth Vader (spoiler)" is played continuously without a single break.
It was really amazing, but also very cool to see how smart Williams was with his use of the orchestra and changing things up so that each instrument and group was well-balanced with their moments to shine as well as moments to rest.
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The Goldsmith Live-To-Film I'd love to see is THE OMEN.
Cheers
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[startquote...I was impressed when I saw RETURN OF THE JEDI performed live. On CD it's not obvious how continuous the final battle music is, but literally for 50+ minutes straight all of that stuff "Battle of Endor I, Battle of Endor II, Battle of Endor III, Death of Darth Vader (spoiler)" is played continuously without a single break.
I got a smaller version of that with EMPIRE's Battle in the Snow, just under 15 minutes. That audience was already unusually responsive for these programs, and at the end of that swath of music they applauded, very clearly not for the film, but for the players. It was really nice, and I saw a few appreciative smiles in the orchestra too.
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I guess I should count myself lucky to have seen Goldsmith conduct the TSO live in 1990. Hearing ST:TMP under the baton of the maestro was a great experience. We also got Total Recall and Russia House as they were current scores of his for that time.
Jeff Bond- I have never seen Mephisto Waltz but like more than a few 70s horror films, its description seems incredibly nihilistic... so I will just listen to Jerry's score and leave it at that. 
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[startquote...I was impressed when I saw RETURN OF THE JEDI performed live. On CD it's not obvious how continuous the final battle music is, but literally for 50+ minutes straight all of that stuff "Battle of Endor I, Battle of Endor II, Battle of Endor III, Death of Darth Vader (spoiler)" is played continuously without a single break.
I got a smaller version of that with EMPIRE's Battle in the Snow, just under 15 minutes. That audience was already unusually responsive for these programs, and at the end of that swath of music they applauded, very clearly not for the film, but for the players. It was really nice, and I saw a few appreciative smiles in the orchestra too.
It’s so impressive!!
The orchestra didn’t record it that way, which is a whole other fascinating story with how Williams divided everything up into separate cues - but it’s so impressive to see. Those scores in particular are great because of Williams’ orchestral balance so it’s so satisfying to watch sections of the orchestra prepare, play their part, pause, pick up again, etc. Especially if you can sit close enough to SEE the orchestra, it really strikes you how much more impressive it is than electronic scoring. The fact that a giant orchestra plays together and does WELL is a miraculous invention, especially with playing unique parts. And in some of the shows I’ve seen there have been a couple errors here and there. Orchestral scores are really a huge achievement.
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That’s really impressive they did PLANET OF THE APES and RUDY of all films.
It is kinda wild that these two (plus the one live-to-picture performance of "The Invaders" from The Twilight Zone) are the only Goldsmith live-to-film events so far -- you couldn't pick two scores or films in his output that were much more different than these two!
That said, it's a clear case of both the films and the scores being generally beloved, so it kinda makes sense also.
One I'm surprised no one has brought up is Chinatown. Of course it'd be a little weird since it's about half an hour of score in a two hour film, but not as weird as Patton having as much music spread over three hours.
Yavar
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One I'm surprised no one has brought up is Chinatown. Of course it'd be a little weird since it's about half an hour of score in a two hour film, but not as weird as Patton having as much music spread over three hours.
I thought of it but it’s another score that’s short and for a film that probably doesn’t have mass appeal and a lot of it is quiet and moody. But that would also be awesome to listen to because it has so many weird creepy effects. It would be really cool to see it all performed live.
I’m kind of assembling different tiers of Goldsmith scores in my mind for live-to-picture:
TOTAL RECALL, STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE, THE SHADOW, THE EDGE, AIR FORCE ONE, STAR TREK V, RAMBO, RAMBO II, THE RIVER WILD
Broadly popular-ish and melodic with full orchestral excitement.
PATTON, RIO CONCHOS, 100 RIFLES
Older but with historical significance (in musical terms) with catchy melodies.
ALIEN, PLANET OF THE APES, CHINATOWN, POLTERGEIST
Fascinating for all the unique instruments and performances (Star Trek would also fit in this category too.
OUTLAND, WIND AND THE LION, MEDICINE MAN
Not my favorites but fascinating to hear because the music is intriguing and Goldsmith.
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Also I can’t find this in the booklet anywhere, but I could have sworn that THE EDGE has no electronics at all and that for the main theme, Goldsmith instructed the trumpet players to mimic the shortened attack of synths to make a synth-like effect. Did I just make that up?
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Also I can’t find this in the booklet anywhere, but I could have sworn that THE EDGE has no electronics at all and that for the main theme, Goldsmith instructed the trumpet players to mimic the shortened attack of synths to make a synth-like effect. Did I just make that up?
The Edge indeed doesn't feature any electronics. Not sure about the trumpet part, I do remember once reading that some of the piano parts duplicate rhythms that in any other Goldsmith score would've been synths.
Considering the film is pretty much forgotten, I'd say there's very little to no chance this film will get the live-to-film treatment.
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Also I can’t find this in the booklet anywhere, but I could have sworn that THE EDGE has no electronics at all and that for the main theme, Goldsmith instructed the trumpet players to mimic the shortened attack of synths to make a synth-like effect. Did I just make that up?
The Edge indeed doesn't feature any electronics. Not sure about the trumpet part, I do remember once reading that some of the piano parts duplicate rhythms that in any other Goldsmith score would've been synths.
Considering the film is pretty much forgotten, I'd say there's very little to no chance this film will get the live-to-film treatment.
Yeah, I kind of remember it being a sleeper hit even back then. It might the least-dated in its premise, but I'm not sure it has much to offer modern audiences.
But it does have some really great stunts that they filmed live.
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Posted: |
Aug 4, 2021 - 4:30 AM
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By: |
alexp
(Member)
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These concerts are not cheap to produce and they require multiple stakeholders to approve them, so only big name properties are worth their time. According to some people involved in licensing the LtP concerts, even the big ticket films are barely profitable. Marvel, Disney, Pixar: safe bets, but even then, they are not huge money makers for orchestras.
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That part is true. For ‘Jurassic World in Concert’ there were only two bookings—the ‘World Premiere’ in Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center on May 2018 and in Greensville, CO on October 2019.
I was there for the World Premiere’ in DC. Michael Giacchino greeted the audience on stage just before the show started. During the later-half of the end credits, both he and director Colin Trevorrow got up on stage and did some free-style Q and A. After that, there was a screening of the first 7-minutes from ‘Jurassic World 2’ (no live score, as the musicians were already gone), finally a formal Q & A moderated by conductor Emil De Cou that included the director, composer, and some dinosaur expert. You can find that part here:
https://fb.watch/7abWX_KwVU/
After the event, which must have been around midnight, Giacchino stuck around on stage to do autographs and pictures for the remaining audience members.
I still didn’t like the movie and score, though.
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