Bland superhero scores and temp tracks

Gbear

An interesting video about how bland the MCU scoring is.

Having said that, I watched Civil War again yesterday and I actually thought the scoring for the fight scenes between the Avengers was quite good. It captured a more mournful tone quite well, or at least parts of it did.

The only issue was that the sound effects got in the way of it and reduced its punch.

Antar Bolaeisk

Gbear wrote: »

An interesting video about how bland the MCU scoring is.

Having said that, I watched Civil War again yesterday and I actually thought the scoring for the fight scenes between the Avengers was quite good. It captured a more mournful tone quite well, or at least parts of it did.



The only issue was that the sound effects got in the way of it and reduced its punch.

Hardly a problem with only the marvel movies, most films these days go with a bland, generic, muzak like style score. I can't remember the last film I saw where the score was really another dimension to the story rather than just there, droning away in the background. Perhaps Interstellar in which the score, while not to my taste, was a huge part of the film.

Also, the problem of composers having to produce something to fit in with the existing temp tracks is hardly new either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGcpLm989-U

While not as blatant as some of the other stuff William's has copied over the years it's definitely there.

Antar Bolaeisk

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Hardly a problem with only the marvel movies, most films these days go with a bland, generic, muzak like style score. I can't remember the last film I saw where the score was really another dimension to the story rather than just there, droning away in the background. Perhaps Interstellar in which the score, while not to my taste, was a huge part of the film.

Also, the problem of composers having to produce something to fit in with the existing temp tracks is hardly new either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGcpLm989-U

While not as blatant as some of the other stuff William's has copied over the years it's definitely there.

Keep waiting for the text to start scrolling

Sad Professor

Temp tracks (and getting composers to copy them) are a way for musically illiterate directors to exert control over the scoring process. I'd consider it a consequence of auteurism. There's nothing wrong with this in itself. In fact, it's a very effective way for the director to communicate what he wants to the composer. The problem comes when all directors are using the same few scores on their temp tracks (Hans Zimmer is frequently told to copy himself!) and everything sounds the same. This has gotten out of control in recent years. I'm not sure if it's that directors just don't know any music, or if digital editing has made it easier for the editor to slap a track on before the director has anyone input and it ends up sticking. In contrast, Lucas's temp track for Star Wars was pretty impressive in its variety. Lucas listened to a lot of music and this informed Williams's score enormously. It's not like Lucas just edited the whole film to whatever film score came out the year before like many directors do now.

Sad Professor

Excellent response to Tony Zhou's video by Dan Golding. Touches on many of the points made above about temp tracks and how technology has changed film composing:

Edit: I've split this off the MCU thread as I think it deserves its own thread.

Unrelated, but damn I love Every Frame a Painting. They do some excellent work.

FortuneChip

Deleted User wrote: »

Unrelated, but damn I love Every Frame a Painting. They do some excellent work.

Yup, I've never really been a big fan of the typical comedies without knowing why. His video on Edgar Wright's movies summed it up perfectly.

Quite shocked to see Mad Mad Fury Road was based on a temp track, I know that sounds odd when you see "by DJ" but still figured it was just a new composition.

Some of the James Horner ones have always been obvious to me. Loved the score when I first heard it in Enemy At The Gates, but then heard it in Avatar and other movies and wow, it's everywhere.

Captain America is the only Marvel movie that's really had the feel of a "classic" superhero theme, and even then it's a lot more subdued (aside from the end credits in "First Avenger".

Iron Man in particular I've always found bland. I felt like it was just a generic rock song minus the vocals.

For me the best guys in the film score industry are arrangers of music. This is how Ennio see's himself, arranging music to suit the film. So cogging parts here and there in order to arrange something else, is not necessarily a flaw if it produces the best possible result.
I do agree that everything is generic in the main these days, but if the studio is making a completely generic movie to appeal to brainless people or people who wish to leave their brains at the door upon entry, why would the score be any different? These movies are about flashing lights, magic sparkles, fights in the sky and explosions, not to evoke emotional responses...

Sad Professor

I think directors and music editors are increasingly doing the arrangement as well. One of the best musical cue in Interstellar (No Time for Caution) seems to have been mostly created in the editing room after Zimmer had moved on by splicing together different tracks. Nolan is an interesting example as he says prefers to edit to the actual score, which he gets Zimmer to start working on before production. In future I wonder if composing the score in advance might become the preferred method?