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TRENT REZNOR / ATTICUS ROSS

General Discussions » TRENT REZNOR / ATTICUS ROSS (Posts 151 to 161 of 161)

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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2011
    I must admit that I can't remember the mix very well -- it might have been too low. All I remember is how excellently it underscored the dialogue scenes and the montage sequences. It was one of the most crucial components that made into a Film (capital F intended), and in many ways the seam that tied everything together. However, the approach here was more in musical colourization than pure narrative storytelling -- which is a no less valid approach than thematically driven scores that are more in-your-face.
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJon Broxton
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2011 edited
    Yes, but *is* it a valid approach to scoring a film? I would argue that if the score does nothing to enhance the emotion of the film because a) it's too low in the sound mix and b) the music is written in such a way that it's virtually indistinguishable from source music and sound effects... then what purpose does the score serve? What is it's basic function? If you can't hear it, and can't feel it, why is it there?

    Thor, you said "All I remember is how excellently it underscored the dialogue scenes..." - I'm genuinely interested in what you mean by this. I'm thinking about the dialogue scenes such as the one between Zuckerberg and his girlfriend in the bar, the legal scenes between Zuckerberg and the Winkelvi, etc etc.

    Hand on heart, I do not recall there being *any* music in those dialogue scenes and, as I said, I was really really listening - and if it was there, it was either dialed so low or so ambient that it had absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. I'm really genuinely interested in how you feel the music in those scenes was "the seam that tied everything together", because I really don't get it. I would have had the exact same reaction to the film in those circumstances had the film been entirely without music.
    Movie Music UK http://www.moviemusicuk.us
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 3rd 2011
    Jon Broxton wrote
    Yes, but *is* it a valid approach to scoring a film? I would argue that if the score does nothing to enhance the emotion of the film because a) it's too low in the sound mix and b) the music is written in such a way that it's virtually indistinguishable from source music and sound effects... when what purpose does the score serve? What is it's basic function? If you can't hear it, and can't feel it, why is it there?.


    Music in film can also work in a more visceral sense that may be more or less tied to and integrated with the sound effects. BLADE RUNNER is the ultimate example where music bleeds in and out sound effects (both diegetic and non-diegetic). It's more about creating an ambiance with musical qualities. I think that's the case for TSN too.

    Of course, too low mixing is always a problem -- but again, I'll have to see the film again to assess that. I didn't notice it while I was watching.
    I am extremely serious.
  4. Timmer wrote
    DreamTheater wrote
    Give me unoriginality any day over dreadful boring drones.

    Give me Space Battleship Yamato any day over The Social Network.


    What's that got to do with it?


    Uhm nothing I guess... I just wanted to derail the thread. Seemed like a good idea at the time. shame
    "considering I've seen an enormous debate here about The Amazing Spider-Man and the ones who love it, and the ones who hate it, I feel myself obliged to say: TASTE DIFFERS, DEAL WITH IT" - Thomas G.
  5. Erik Woods wrote
    Ok... what about Network. The China Syndrome. Dog Day Afternoon.

    -Erik-


    Sorry Erik, I don't mean to pick on you, but I think I can contribute something here.

    You've named 3 films which largely approach grave social issues (nuclear power, media manipulation, whatever-that-third-film-is-about) with very naturalistic, actor-driven filmmaking. Longish shots, actors lead the action, filmmaking clings to real time.

    The Social Network is a bit of a different kettle of fish. It's hard to believe, for example, that the early coding sequence for 'facesmash', as edited, could have played without music. The filmmaking is too decentered from the characters, so montagy (cutting faster than the eye at times), you need music to give it thrust. (Possibly an indication this scene was edited to the music that plays there, which gels with what else is known about this score's conception.)

    I think the score is partly used to grease the rails for zuckerberg's progress... facebook didn't begin seriously, according to the film. It just snowballed from party to party, and it felt good, so they kept going, until finally they ended up in a place where it had all become real and nasty and litigious.

    Now, I'm not saying that it couldn't have been better written, etc etc. I don't know electronica, so I don't know. I am a little surprised to hear it wasn't mixed well in the film. I think the album doesn't work because the music was mixed so well into the film that it had a heft to it I just can't get out of that album.

    One other point. These days, a dialogue heavy film is likely to have a score that is mostly harmonic tissue and rhythm. Melody is out. Discuss. The endless 16ths of every post-Dark Knight score making every exposition scene tremble with caution are surely examples, and it's something that runs through otherwise praised scores like Inception (done really well) and (yes) Tron: Legacy.

    Oh, and just one other thing. 'Hall of the Mountain King' makes much sense when it appears in HANNA. I don't get what such a famous piece is doing in SOCIAL NETWORK in a Wendy Carlos-ized version. I know the scene called for something a bit more outlandish, and boy is it that, but ... well, I probably notice music a bit too much from film to film to just sit back and enjoy it. There has to be a reason. When Kubrick was doing this sort of thing in CLOCKWORK or 2001 or SHINING, there was always good reason, even for the most perverse references. So too with Malick and what he's done with the classical back-catalogue. I'm not sure there's a good reason here - it just sounds cool.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2011
    Love it love it
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
  7. I'm beginning to get the feeling I spell the end of debate on a subject. (Or show up so late that it might as well be.)
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2011
    franz_conrad wrote
    I'm beginning to get the feeling I spell the end of debate on a subject. (Or show up so late that it might as well be.)


    No, it's only because you make too much sense!
    I am extremely serious.
  9. I saw that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was for sale as a digital download on Amazon and it was priced at £7.50. A bargain for 3 hours of music?

    Well, no. I am listening to the clips for the entire release and 50p would be a bargain. Some of the tracks are interesting ambient music with some catchy rhythms and percussion but the rest is distinctly uninteresting.
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
  10. My review of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, if anyone's interested smile

    http://moviemusicuk.us/2011/12/27/the-g … icus-ross/
    Movie Music UK http://www.moviemusicuk.us
  11. Jon Broxton wrote
    My review of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, if anyone's interested smile

    http://moviemusicuk.us/2011/12/27/the-g … icus-ross/

    Haven't seen the movie or heard the score, so I can't comment on the content of your review, but if the score is as you describe it, I believe I will be totally in your camp...
    Any way a very elloquantly written 'bash' review.
    Recognizing somebody else's strength doesn't diminish your own (Joss Whedon)
  12. Not that it really matters what I think, but HANNA is a well-crafted score Jon. In roping in that one as evidence of dire times, you run the risk of making it seem like you're on the warpath against a genre of music, rather than a style of storytelling.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorBregt
    • CommentTimeDec 28th 2011 edited
    It's not professional to let you lead by too much emotion like you do at the end of the review, because what you say there has nothing to do with the fact that this score sounds like that. wink
    Kazoo
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeJan 5th 2012
    HANNA had an incredible score that worked wonders in the film, hands down.
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeJan 5th 2012
    Demetris wrote
    HANNA had an incredible score that worked wonders in the film, hands down.


    My favourite of 2011.
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeOct 31st 2012
    ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ Soundtrack Announced - TRENT REZNOR

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009XH … lmusrep-20
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
  17. My review of GONE GIRL, for anyone who is interested:

    http://moviemusicuk.us/2014/10/06/gone- … icus-ross/

    Jon
    Movie Music UK http://www.moviemusicuk.us
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      CommentAuthorCaliburn
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2014
    An interesting read Jon!
    Editor-in-chief at http://soundtrackworld.com / http://soundtrackwereld.nl
    • CommentAuthorMWippel
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2014
    Fine review, exactly my point of view about this "music".
    http://soundtrackdoc.wordpress.com/
  20. The passion is fair, and I won't defend the music's compositional chops, but here's one caveat.

    On the business about the music picking up on unusual details - the vacuum cleaner in DRAGON TATTOO, the dial up sound in GONE GIRL - I don't think David Fincher is after music that lets you into the heads of the characters. He wants you to feel quite distanced from them at times, sometimes not even viewing them as people, but more foolish stick figures or unwitting puppets. Throwing the emphasis of score on something environmental is not a bad idea at such moments. It can feel like there's a process at work that the character is not sensitive to, and we feel the threat to them (certainly this is the case with the vacuum cleaner). It's like the anempathetic shower sound in PSYCHO - it doesn't care what Marion Crane was thinking either before or after she was stabbed a dozen times.

    Score can let you into a character's head.* It can also keep you out of it, and make you mindful of other things.

    * This is not necessarily the primary use of score by the way, but many films use it this way.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2014 edited
    Michael, i've seen the film last night. It's the worst major score of the year. Totally unfitting, except for the genius murder scene towards the end of the movie, where they score with very effective, raw, rough sound design. For the rest of the movie what they did is laughable. All the couple scenes, before and now, and all their flashback stories (which is basically more than half of the movie) is dressed with the same 2-3-chord, irritatingly simplistic 80's softcore synth porn for God's sake, it's ridiculous on screen!
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2014
    franz_conrad wrote
    The passion is fair, and I won't defend the music's compositional chops, but here's one caveat.

    On the business about the music picking up on unusual details - the vacuum cleaner in DRAGON TATTOO, the dial up sound in GONE GIRL - I don't think David Fincher is after music that lets you into the heads of the characters. He wants you to feel quite distanced from them at times, sometimes not even viewing them as people, but more foolish stick figures or unwitting puppets. Throwing the emphasis of score on something environmental is not a bad idea at such moments. It can feel like there's a process at work that the character is not sensitive to, and we feel the threat to them (certainly this is the case with the vacuum cleaner). It's like the anempathetic shower sound in PSYCHO - it doesn't care what Marion Crane was thinking either before or after she was stabbed a dozen times.

    Score can let you into a character's head.* It can also keep you out of it, and make you mindful of other things.

    * This is not necessarily the primary use of score by the way, but many films use it this way.


    That's a good point.

    I haven't seen GONE GIRL yet, but I think that philosophy worked brilliantly on THE SOCIAL NETWORK, in particular, where the discrete electronic beats and sounds underlined not only the technological part of the story, but also provided a backdrop onto which the extreme amounts of dialogue could be added. Plus, it also made the non-dialogue scenes all the more profound, like the famous rowing sequence with an electronic adaptation of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", which I'm sure you all remember.

    I dig Reznor & Ross' approach to scoring, so I have high expectations for this too.
    I am extremely serious.
  23. Demetris, I wasn't commenting on the overall score, I was commenting on one moment out of this film and another out of GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. And I said I wasn't going to defend the compositional chops of this score, because it's just not that kind of music where you bother. Someone better tell these guys the IFMCA is never going to award them. wink

    Having said that, maybe I've spent time in one too many massage parlours, but the idea of marital equilibrium having the same soporific effect as massage muzak is a joke that wasn't lost on me. (Not that it matters -- they don't care about the fraction of the people in the world who notice it, it's the majority who don't notice who are their real target.)
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeOct 9th 2014
    It doesn't have anything to do with ifmca or any awards. The music for the film, GONE GIRL, was completely off-putting, distracting, wrong.
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
  25. And that doesn't have a lot to do with the observation I made about Jon's review.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
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      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2014
  27. Your reviews of Gone Girl and Dracula Untold are the best argument I have seen why scoring systems for reviews should be kicked into the long grass.
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn
    •  
      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2014
    Arbitrary feeling and completely pointless, but I know it's the only thing that half the people who visit actually look at.
    http://www.movie-wave.net | http://facebook.com/moviewave
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2014 edited
    While we disagree on the merits of Reznor & co., even I thought the negative comment posted by someone below the GONE GIRL review went a bit overboard. What's with the "penguin lover" thing?
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorSouthall
    • CommentTimeOct 12th 2014

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