Music in the movie

[GulPlum]

"Hillman, Lee" <lee_hillman at u...> wrote:

> 1. He blew this thing off. He was asked, accepted it among a bunch 
of other
> projects (such as this year's Olympic theme, which is also ho-hum), 
and just
> knocked it off in a weekend or two. He really didn't put a lot of 
thought or
> care into the work, unlike his earlier films or projects he really 
wanted to
> be associated with.

I'm not entirely sure about that. Williams is very professional and 
rarely gives less than 100%. He knew this movie was going to be big, 
and would have been likely to try to do his best.

As it happens, I'm not a huge Williams fan (though I am of film music)
and one of my main problems is that he very rarely holds back. 
Williams is a very able composer, in that he has the talent to make 
music speak to us directly. This is one reason why his scores are so 
popular in their own right, as they often are "great music". But 
that's not his job. For instance, whilst I absolutely abhore Frans 
Zimmer's musical style (and question his talent), he does a lot for 
the movies he scores by really not getting in the way. The music (if 
that's what one wants to call it) is more a collection of notes 
rather than a musical work in its own right. Williams simply doesn't 
know how to write a piece of music which doesn't have intrinsic value.

Film directors know what they're going to get with Williams and hire 
him with full knowledge of that.

> 2. Chris Columbus. I would not be surprised if Chris had been a 
little timid
> about going to John and saying, "can we pull that back a bit?" the 
way that
> I'm sure Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas or any number of 
directors who've
> worked with Williams a lot are able to do. It's not that Williams is
> necessarily all that intimidating (though he may be, I don't know), 
but
> Columbus may be a little worried about expecting too much from a 
fabulously
> important composer who really doesn't want to expend any more 
effort on the
> project than necessary. And he may also be aware that he doesn't 
have the
> relationship with John that other filmmakers have.

err... they've worked together three times before (Home Alone I & II, 
Stepmon) and although the two HAs are similar (in "feel", if not 
melodically), Stepmom is very, very different.

I don't expect that Columbus was for a moment intimiated by Williams 
(who, by all all accounts, is one of the easiest "stars" to get along 
with in Hollywood). Williams is, however, very collaborative, and 
likes dialogue with his directors. If someone doesn't understand the 
use of music the way Columbus evidently doesn't, there's not much the 
composer can do. The use of Williams' music in their previous work is 
ample proof of this.

Besides, most of the scoring problems with HP (apart from 
Williams "borrowing" a lot of material from his past work) aren't 
about the music, but the sound mix in the finished product. More 
often than not, the sound editors simply did an appalling bad job. 
It's possible, though, that they had little choice - I recall 
Columbus saying that the sound editors had a challenge in this movie, 
getting rid of his constant instructions to the cast. The sound mix 
could be the way it is because they had to create a new soundscape 
and the easiest way was to do it with overly loud music...