Additional Unused Material

Umm, yes and no. I mean, the fact that an album like Beyond Rangoon and The Last Samurai does tell the story, sometimes even better than the film itself (the latter case) is a bit of, really, a miracle stemming from the original structure though.

I mean, let's take a look at Samurai - the action cues are in the right place chronologically. They might not be the particular action SCENES (To Know My Enemy is far later in the film, for example), but structurally, it's in the right place. What's chronologically correct is Spectres in the Fog (a favourite track title of mine, when it comes to Hans, BTW) and the final action cues including A Small Measure of Peace. At least make sure you somehow maintain the right emotional arc that doesn't have to be literally "there" chronologically, but is there structurally.

Beyond Rangoon is the same. Village under Siege is actually WAY earlier in the film than on album. But an action scene is how the film ends. No harm done to the material's structural intricacy that way.

On the other hand - Peacemaker is all action and no respite which makes no sense, because there's also totally ignored suspense and more variations on the Sarajevo theme, some very nice. Tyler just throws his highlights at the beginning of the album and it really sizzles somewhere 30-40 minutes in.

Williams, Goldsmith were masters (though how one of the most important themes was totally left out of First Knight escapes me. And I can't forgive whatever compilation they did with Mulan, to be honest). But it's not always that certain how things are gonna end up, like me and First Blood or The Peacemaker.

yes. compact, properly cut and edited into standard album friendly cues and normal cd durations, with more coherent structure. as in a properly edited film score album. not overlong pieces that are basically either recording sessions or the music audio channel without the rest of audio sfx and dialogue, that without the movie narrative and dialogues and on-screen visuals, takes you nowhere, for hours.

(moved here from the Now Playing thread)



Well, yes, I think first of all a score needs to be released in a 'highlights' version which sustains a great listening experience for everyone and consists of the best material from the score that can stand on its own. And then if it proves itself to be popular and if the rest of the material warrants it, which generally should mean: if the demand from the community is there, go ahead and release a deluxe version.

But it went from; the limitations of 70 min. CD's forced record companies to carefully produce a program, to; the freedom of digital releasing frees them from the obligation of carefully producing an album and they start to find out they can do minimum album prepping and just prepare a range of tracks for iTunes. I think the one C goes hand in hand with the other C: when you're forced to make a selection of tracks, you also start rearranging them to still warrant a proper experience and balance the tracks out. When you release it all, the balancing becomes less of a problem and you're more inclined to leave it all the way it is.

And not just because of the digital medium; it also helps there are growing communities online that demand those C&C releases which basically legitimises the record companies to throw it all online. So I'd say the C&C market is in part to blame for the current album problems.

At least there was a transition period, in which like you say, Oblivion had multiple versions, or Junkie XL's Mad Max. Then there's his Brimstone, which had a way too long listening experience digitally, but was forced to be cut down to CD length for the physical release. So for that one and then The Mummy I awaited the CD tracklisting to compile my own playlist without needing to slug through the whole thing first before I was able to compile a listening experience which would suit my need; I want my first exposure to a score to be a satisfying one.

But then there was the new Transformers, and now IT in which even the CD release expands over 2 discs, so they effectively don't need to bother making that selection anymore. Because that's what the filmmusic community wants.

yes who doesn't need 70 minutes of sweeny in their lives

I agree here. Scores need to have stood the test of time to justify an archival release. For original releases I normally prefer a length of about 60 Minutes.

Volker

We all know of course that the cd is going away. Some of the companies such as Intrada, La-La Land and BSX seem unwilling to convert over.

The collector wants the CD he can put in his hands of course. He reads paper books. I've slowly found myself converting to digital files. The wave downloads are fine with me. I've now got a kindle so the only thing I'll keep are the books on the Hollywood and music material I have. For a 70 year old I think I've adapted well.
Tom

and yet I still use a land line for a telephone.

Not having CDs does mean that a lot of the music I have doesn't feel like a collection. And I think that now most music is available to everyone rhe concept of personal collections doesn't really apply much nowadays - except for the CDs that the likes of Intrada and Kritzerland release. But even then a lot of what they put out ultimately ends up being released digitally.

I will never own a Kindle.

and the reason for this, is..what?

I don't know, I know I'm weird. It's just satisfying to me. Might be a mildly OCD thing.

With Amazon Prime I started with a Kindle reader on my computer and downloaded some free books. It cost nothing to try and from there went to a Kindle reader. I found to be cost effective for me especially on reference books.
Tom