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SCOREcast 23: 10 Most Influential Scores

By   /   October 9, 2009  /   9 Comments

Having just wrapped our 10-day feature on the “The Top 10 Most Influential Scores of the Past Decade” as voted on by the SCOREcast community, Deane and Lee take this month’s podcast to go head-to-head on why they think the list came out as it did.

Also, Lee explains his “lesser love” of the “Lord of the Rings” scores, and Deane goes all “Michael Moore” on the film music community in a rant that lasts almost 9 minutes!

If you thought the Roundtables were interesting, you won’t want to miss this “shootout” with SCOREcast’s two head honchos!

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SCOREcast No. 23
Podcast Shownotes
Original Air Date: October 9, 2009
Focus: Top 10 Most Influential Scores of the Past Decade
iTunes Link

Rumble from the Gulag

Having just wrapped our 10-day feature on the “The Top 10 Most Influential Scores of the Past Decade” as voted on by the SCOREcast community, Deane and Lee take this month’s podcast to go head-to-head on why they think the list came out as it did.

Also, Lee explains his “lesser love” of the “Lord of the Rings” scores, and Deane goes all “Michael Moore” on the film music community in a rant that lasts almost 9 minutes!

If you thought the Roundtables were interesting, you won’t want to miss this “shootout” with SCOREcast’s two head honchos!

Weigh in on this episode — we want to hear your thoughts! Log into the COMMENTS below to leave your opinions and participate in the discussion.

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About the author

The SCOREcast Editorial Staff combines the talents, knowledge, and experience of dozens of top composers working today in film, television, video games, and new media.

  • http://www.michaeldanchi.com Mike Danchi (Infinite5ths)

    Well, just in case I ever get REALLY famous…definitely call me. :-D

  • lhsanders

    Thinking about it, it makes me want to call up some well-known performers, just out of the blue, and see if they want to… you know… collaborate! :-P

  • http://www.michaeldanchi.com Mike Danchi (Infinite5ths)

    I wish they'd do that more with Anne-Sophie Mutter. She was on “There Will be Blood” – in the end credits or something.

  • lhsanders

    I actually had a couple of phone conversations with friends in the last few days where they specifically mentioned they'd swap one of our Top 10 for Santolalla—based on their own direct experiences.

    I think the Academy loves it, btw, when something other than the usual orchestral score gets attached to a picture that's up for a bunch of awards. That combo results in an Oscar nom VERY frequently… as does the “put a star instrumentalist (preferably Yo-Yo Ma) on the score” trick.

    Not saying anything bad about those types of scores—just saying they're catnip to the Academy when awards season rolls around. They're an easy vote.

  • http://studiosixmusic.com William Arnold

    Hey composers! I'm still talking way down here! Check it out! ;-)

    I listened to what was, for me, an enlightening interview yesterday of Gustavo Santaolalla. I remember being annoyed when he won the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain. Listening to him talk, made me think twice about some presuppositions I have about film scoring, though. He inspired me to rethink some of my own personal goals.

    He seems to think that his work has helped to open up directors to non-symphonic music (“symphonic” was the term HE used).

    So do any of you guys care to comment? I think you mentioned in the podcast that he almost made the top ten. How much has he really been an influence in your opinion?

  • http://studiosixmusic.com William Arnold

    All of this talk about the large teams needed and short deadlines for film scoring makes me wonder if I would rather put my efforts into scoring for games. I wonder if more and more others will feel the same way? This is coming from a film lover, by the way. Part of the initiative for me getting into film scoring in the first place was because of my love for films in general.

    BTW, it might be worth mentioning that not all composers have the same experience and not all directors wait till the last possible second to bring on a composer. for example, I was just listening to an interview of Dario Marianelli recently. He talked about being involved, early on, with both Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Both of these were directed by Joe Wright.

    So how do we help more directors to think the way Joe Wright does? Or do we want to? Some composer seem to actually like having a short time frame as long as it's not unreasonably short.

  • http://www.michaeldanchi.com Mike Danchi (Infinite5ths)

    In this sense, “Good” means “exactly what you're looking for”, rather than merely “doesn't sound poorly written/produced”.

    This reminds me of the “Strad” sound for a violinist: “Sure…if you want THAT EXACT sound, I'll need about $3million to go buy it. ;-) OR, let me show you this OTHER great sound I can make for much less…”

    Your answer raises a parallel question regarding the online music libraries article from a few weeks back:

    When writing for a library (where there is often NO budget or time limit up front) how do people balance the Cheap/Quick/Good equation?

    Pick your genres carefully?
    Set your own time limit for each library project?
    Pour in time till it sounds great…and hope sales pay the bills?

    EDIT: Thinking some more, Lee mentioned libraries in his “good enough” comments. So how does one balance:

    1) Portable (easy to fit in many projects)
    2) Cheap (easy on budgets & production time)
    3) “Good enough” quality (desireable & unique)

  • http://deaneogden.com Deane Ogden

    I think you have to use the old rule of “Cheap, Quick, or Good: Pick Two.”

    There is really no way to score a film well if you don't have budget OR time. Likewise, you cannot pull it off quickly and make it good with no money. And so on, and so on.

    We constantly run up against this wall at SCOREcast, but when asking this question, if we aren't honestly transparent with where we are in our careers (and what our experience and gig pipeline will tolerate) we are just talking in circles.

    What do I mean? I mean that nobody that is scoring a summer blockbuster for Sony is going to have a budget problem. But someone who is working for an unknown filmmaker who mortgaged his house to make his zombie film probably *will* run into issues. There will just simply be things you cannot do on that small a budget, such as hire an orchestra or get your score mixed by a studio-quality engineer.

    I think your director has to be realistic about what their expectations are of you. If they want the massive, pounding, battle-armament sound that you *could* give them with an adequate budget and a good amount of time, then they need to pony up the dough and get you an assembly cut 8 weeks out.

  • http://www.michaeldanchi.com Mike Danchi (Infinite5ths)

    OK…so given what Deane said about the influence of Zimmer-style production (huge productions, massive & powerful studios, multiple assistants, very short time-frames), what is a practical approach for folks who don't have all those resources at their disposal?

    Say you have a director who wants a Zimmer-esque score (thanks to his huge influence), but you're a one-man/woman show with a great, but not state-of-the-art studio & no army of studio musicians. Is it even worthwhile to attemp an imitation in that situation, given the size & quality of production with which you have to compete? It seems like the gap between YOU and 'the real deal' could be embarrassing, especially if you work in the same time-frame.

    How do folks approach projects with these influential temp-tracks that defy their studio resources?

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