InfoAnda - Summer blockbusters present musical challenges

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Sony recruits information security boss after hacking | | 6 September 2011
Two dead, dozens missing in Canada after massive avalanche | 15 March 2010
Algeria declares ruling FLN winner of parliament vote | | 11 May 2012

Abbas considers options on peace talks restart | | 19 February 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Summer blockbusters present musical challenges

Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Asia Pacific World Summer blockbusters present musical challenges Reuters - 1 hour 25 minutes ago Send IM Story Print By Jeff Bond LOS ANGELES - When John Debney came to score "Iron Man 2," he faced a particular challenge: Being consistent with the first outing in the action franchise, while adding his own distinct voice. "It's quite different from the first score, but it retains a lot of the same cool elements," Debney says. "There's a lot of guitar in it, but most of it is couched with the orchestra, so we never lose sight of that whole thing." "That whole thing" means the vast enterprise referred to as a tentpole or summer blockbuster. Composers tasked with scoring these movies not only have to contend with super-heated action, rapid-fire editing and overpowering sound mixes; they also have to cope with schedules that can be in flux right up to the end of postproduction -- and convey a sense of bigness that belongs with budgets reaching $200 million and more. Ramin Djawadi scored the first "Iron Man" with a strong dose of metal guitar, and director Jon Favreau wanted to keep some of that while exploring a new direction. He also wanted to maintain the continuity of the rock guitar aspect that characterized the hell-raising persona of Tony Stark and his "metal man" alter ego, Iron Man. "As Iron Man has evolved from his scrappy beginnings, we want to establish him as being more comfortable with the mantle of a superhero," the director says. HARD ROCKERS MEET DISNEY A blend of classic orchestral film scoring from Debney; rock stylings courtesy of guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine; AC/DC songs -- and even a surprising touch of Walt Disney -- contributed to that. "What I like about Tom's guitar is that he tunes it down, doubles up, sometimes double-records and triple-records the guitars, and the orchestrations are built around his guitar work," Favreau adds. "It was interesting to see John collaborate with Tom, people who come from two different sides of the music business." That collaboration extended from the music team to the sound department. "What Debney brings to the table is how to write music around that , so you're not competing," Favreau notes. "Understanding what range to use, what tones to use, and how to time it so you're reinforcing the effects and you're not muddying things up and the music can be played at a high level without competing with the sound effects -- he's pretty masterful at that." Debney is also masterful at incorporating the classic songs that will allow the studio to issue a compelling soundtrack when the movie opens. While Sony Classical will put out Debney's "Iron Man 2" score, the lion's share of attention may go to the Columbia Records soundtrack that will consist entirely of AC/DC songs. "They've never done something like this, with all of their big songs together," says Dave Jordan, music supervisor on all the Marvel Studios productions. "Jon is a huge AC/DC fan and they're an expensive band to use. Here he could use any song in their catalog any way he wanted to. It's a very unique situation." NEGATIVE REACTIONS Blockbusters have the budgets to get such songs. But songs can present their own problems. "At one of our test screenings, we put a rock song over a big action sequence as an exercise and on the cards it got completely trashed," notes Brian Tyler, composer of Sylvester Stallone's upcoming "The Expendables." "People really hated it and asked why were we trying to make this into a rock video. We replaced it with orchestral music and the numbers for the film shot up and the notes on the music were great." Unless the songs are already classics, Tyler says, the results can seriously date a film. "You can imagine what it would be like watching 'North By Northwest' and having the train go into the tunnel at the end and going into a contemporary song of that period. It just would have destroyed it." Perhaps to avoid that, for "Iron Man" Favreau and Debney also used the music of Dick Sherman, the prolific songwriter who did a lot of the early Disney theme park material and even "Mary Poppins." "We brought him onboard and had him write a song for the Stark Expo, which in our movie lore has been going on since the '30s, much like the World's Fair," Jordan says. Debney interpolated Sherman's song melody into the "Iron Man 2" score, making it play as the theme for Tony Stark's father. The tune's origins will likely be revealed in the new "Captain America" film, set in World War II. "We're laying a lot of seeds for other films to explore musically as well as in other ways," Jordan continues. It's easier to lay such seeds when the director has already done one outing on a franchise. But dealing with directors has its own special challenges with blockbusters, whose helmers frequently have to marshall staffs of a thousand or more. Debney was fortunate to have plenty of face time with Favreau; but other key players can also play an important role. "Even if you're working with the same director, producers may change, film executives may change," Tyler says. "BOTTLENECK MENTALITY" Schedules may change, too. Trevor Rabin, who scored Jon Turteltaub's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," says the "race to the end" is becoming more prevalent in film. "It's such a bottleneck mentality: You start off, get ideas and kind of relax and then suddenly you've got three weeks left. There are picture changes all the time. You write a cue that you think is really tailored well to the picture, and three days later you see the music editor with the best intentions has chopped it to fit the picture and there goes the music." In the case of "Iron Man 2," Debney says that while the overall amount of time did not change, the amount given for demo'ing and adjusting to picture changes -- even on the dub stage -- did. "The process has become more technically oriented," he notes. "We're becoming so concerned with versions of scenes that we're constantly cutting and lengthening and shortening, that we can lose a vision of the overall work. This film is on a scale times five or 10 of what the original film was -- we have a lot of characters, we find out more about Tony and his relationship with his father and there are lot of other plot elements so it's a much more elaborate film than the first one and that presents a lot of challenges." TIGHT BUDGET At least Debney had the money to do what he needed. Or did he? "Marvel is very careful with what they want to spend on the music, so it was a rather tight budget," he says. "You can't run off willy-nilly, doing session after session." "You make budget decisions in a different way," Rabin argues with regard to blockbusters. "It used to be, 'Whatever you need.' But those days are gone. Today, if you say you need a choir, the question is: 'What size choir do you need?' Now there is an increasing request to size down the orchestra and do less days. There's definitely a nip-and-tuck going on." Rabin also had to budget time for research on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in order to musically reference one of the film's inspirations. "Part of the challenge is Jon Turteltaub's done an extraordinary nod to the 'Fantasia' film, and the Paul Dukas piece, which inspired the original, is what I had to look at and utilize within the context of this cue. So it was really exciting going in and analyzing that piece of music. The weird thing is that kind of has nothing to do with the rest of the film -- it's just that one area where they've done this nod to it and it's pretty extraordinary." With a big budget, however, there is at least time to perfect the details, the kind of details most composers only get time for with commercials. "I remember doing a Marlboro commercial for Tony Scott years ago and being quite shocked at the amount of detail required and how long it took him to sign off on the music -- something like 10 days or two weeks," says Harry Gregson-Williams . "And I remember thinking, 'How would this be with two hours of music?' I'm still asking myself the same question." MORE TIME In the case of "Prince of Persia," the film's release date wound up giving Gregson-Williams more time to hone his work -- far more time than he expected. "It was supposed to come out last summer, and they shot it 18 months ago, and it didn't quite look like it was going to make it. There were a lot of special effects, a lot of reformatting and quite a lot of recutting of the movie. And we made it and had it been a winter-type movie we would have been ready to release it at Christmas last year. But it's a summer blockbuster so they had to put it in a can and wait for the next summer. So with all that extra time they said, 'Well, let's beat up on the composer some more!' To be truthful I was on that picture longer than anything I've ever done. It was a pretty long time to be on a Jerry Bruckheimer film, I can tell you." A bigger problem for Gregson-Williams is how to contend with big overall sound mixes. Luckily, he says, producer Bruckheimer is "very interested in the whole sonic tapestry, but he's also very supportive of the music, which is good because he invests a lot of his time helping to create the musical soundtrack." Djawadi has his own solution when it comes to dealing with booming special effects. "Sometimes if the sound effects are ready I try to get them into my studio and lay them into the picture in a proper 5.1 sound mix to see what I'm up against," he says. "For 'Clash' there are areas with Medusa where I knew there would be voices in the background, so I tried to stay away from that in the score so we wouldn't clash." Handling such tasks has become incomparably more difficult than it was in the days of the first big blockbusters -- "Jaws" and "Star Wars" -- not because of all the software but because those films had far fewer minutes of music. "There's so much music that the challenge is to try and prevent it from sounding like wallpaper," Rabin says. "If you look back at 'Psycho,' there was 30 minutes of music. Now it's, 'How long is the picture? Two hours?' Well, that's probably how long the score will be." Recommend Send IM Story Print Related Articles US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary Reuters - 1 hour 25 minutes ago Summer blockbusters present musical challenges Reuters - 1 hour 25 minutes ago "Pornography: A Thriller" a multiple misnomer Reuters - 1 hour 46 minutes ago Carrie Underwood wins country music's top award Reuters - 2 hours 30 minutes ago "Titans" tops foreign box office again Reuters - Monday, April 19 News Search Top Stories Ocean census uncovers 'new world' of marine microbe life Volcano cloud pushes European airlines to the brink: analysts Discovery readies return to Earth unhampered by ash cloud Slow show reveals crisis impact on Abu Dhabi property IMF, EU, ECB visit to Greece delayed: official More Top Stories » ADVERTISEMENT Most Popular Most Viewed Most Recommended Airlines query flight ban as travel misery spreads Toad is a telltale for impending quakes: scientists Goldman fraud charges trigger possible wider crackdown Volcano cloud pushes European airlines to the brink: analysts Ocean census uncovers 'new world' of marine microbe life More Most Viewed » Toad is a telltale for impending quakes: scientists Two-million-year-old hominid sheds light on evolution Taiwan's male 'Susan Boyle' a web sensation Airlines query flight ban as travel misery spreads More Most Recommended » Elsewhere on Yahoo! Financial news on Yahoo! Finance Stars and latest movies Best travel destinations More on Yahoo! News Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Subscribe to our news feeds Top StoriesMy Yahoo!RSS » More news feeds | What are news feeds? Also on Yahoo Answers Groups Mail Messenger Mobile Travel Finance Movies Sports Games » All Yahoo! Services Site Highlights Singapore Full Coverage Most Popular Asia Entertainment Photos World Cup 2010 Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Community | Intellectual Property Rights Policy | Help

Other News on Monday, 19 April 2010
Iran to talk with Security Council members on nuclear deal
Afghanistan releases Italian charity workers
Poland holds funeral for president Kaczynski
Afghanistan releases three Italians aid workers
More than 100 die in week of Afghan violence: govt
Odierno "confident" U.S. Iraq drawdown on schedule
Yemen oil security tightened, two suspects killed |
Chavez marks Venezuela independence, foes unhappy |
MidEast Airlines Wait for Icelandic Volcano Ash to Settle
New York Teen Arrested After Making Threats To Carry Out Massacre
Supporter of north Cyprus independence claims victory |
LBJ's Daughter Hospitalized
Italy aid workers freed in Kabul in good condition |
Flood of aid reaches China's remote quake zone
Belarus says ousted Kyrgyz leader welcome
29 militants die in fighting in north Afghanistan
Pakistan leader to sign bill 'curbing his powers'
AP Exclusive: Taliban say buildup under way
Close to India, Pakistan shows military might
Indian police defuse two bombs at cricket ground
China's Hu comforts quake victims on scripted trip
'Bodyguards and Assassins' dominates HK awards
US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary
Saudi prince stars in TV commercial, marks royal change
Winners at the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards
Dragon edges out Kick-Ass at box office |
Saudi prince stars in TV commercial, marks royal change |
Al-Qaeda in Iraq using new 'H-bomb' to kill civilians
Car bomb targets official in Ingushetia: reports
Pressure builds to get Europe flying again |
Facebook deletes Osama Bin Laden account
U.S. considers options to curb Iran's nuclear program
Thai troops guard business zone from protesters |
Poland in mourning, Russia offers reconciliation
Sudan state media report Bashir poll lead
Loyalists of ousted Kyrgyz leader resist new rulers |
IMF, EU, ECB visit to Greece delayed: official
Embattled Japan PM's support rate slips further |
US-TECH Summary
Quake hits central Afghanistan, at least 7 killed |
Blast hurts official's driver in Russia's Ingushetia |
Publishing venture bets on iPhone short stories
Ocean census uncovers 'new world' of marine microbe life
Volcano cloud pushes European airlines to the brink: analysts
Discovery readies return to Earth unhampered by ash cloud
Roads clogged as China quake response ramps up
Slow show reveals crisis impact on Abu Dhabi property
Publishing venture bets on iPhone short stories
Major economies to delve into climate impasse
UNHCR concern as Australia detains asylum-seekers
Thai troops guard business zone from protesters
Prosecutors slam Philippine massacre acquittals
South Korea's Lee vows to root out navy sinking culprit |
SKorea's Lee vows strong action in ship sinking
7 killed, 30 injured in northern Afghanistan quake
Australia most famous mobster killed in jail fight
Publishing venture bets on iPhone short stories |
Pakistan: Blast hits oil tankers on NATO route
Armed Thai troops patrol Bangkok business district
Pacific countries meeting to conserve tuna
FCC awaits economic data from Comcast, NBCU |
Official: Geely mulling Shanghai for Volvo plant
Pakistani July-March c/a deficit narrows to $2.702 bln
Techs, financials send Seoul shares down 1.7 pct
Toyota agrees to pay US$16.4 million fine: US official
World Bank: East Asia 2025 emissions forecast
Mando's 2 top owners to hold over 30 pct after IPO
PAKISTAN
Summer blockbusters present musical challenges
Taiwan dlr falls; Goldman woes pressure risky assets
"Pornography: A Thriller" a multiple misnomer
Techs, financials send Seoul shares down 1.7 pct
Korea Hot Stocks-Airlines, tour issues down on Europe volcano
Carrie Underwood wins country music's top award
"Titans" tops foreign box office again
Drew Carey developing hidden-camera show
Milan expo about eco-friendly, affordable furniture
Michael Buble dominates Canada music awards
Jay-Z -- and even Beyonce -- rock Coachella fest
'Bodyguards and Assassins' dominates HK awards
Carrie Underwood wins country music's top award |
Jay-Z -- and even Beyonce -- rock Coachella fest |
Summer blockbusters present musical challenges |
Drew Carey developing hidden-camera show |
Pornography: A Thriller a multiple misnomer |
Michael Buble dominates Canada music awards |
Titans tops foreign box office again |
Baghdad recount throws Iraq election wide open
Minister: Finland does not need new nuclear plants
Iraqi panel orders vote recount in Baghdad
Lenovo looks to mobile internet for growth
Iraqi panel orders vote recount in Baghdad |
UK's third party surge raises election uncertainty |
Panel orders vote recount in Iraqi capital
New fears beset markets over Greece's debt
Al Qaeda's two top Iraq leaders killed in raid |
Israel's Barak concerned by rift with U.S
Tiger And Jesse’s Alleged Mistresses To Lead “Celebrity Cheaters” Reality Show
Illinois Lawmaker's Son Caught Driving State Vehicle While Drunk
NASA delays shuttle Discovery's return to Earth
Militants blow up NATO tankers in Pakistan: officials
Bomb in Pakistani city of Peshawar; 23 dead: police |
Gates: Report "Mischaracterized" Memo On Nuclear Strategy Against Iran
Toyota to pay fine but not off hook yet: US govt
Toyota Agrees To $16.4 Million Fine Over "Sticky Pedal" Issue
Iran says to start work on new enrichment plant |
UN calls on Gulf states to boost women's rights
EU emergency talks as volcano cloud havoc worsens
Carrie Underwood Wins ACM Entertainer Of The Year Again
Supreme Court To Hear Arguments From Christian Student Group Excluded From Law School
Pakistan sidelines some officials after Bhutto report |
Madonna Approves “Glee” All-Madonna Episode
Israel's Barak concerned by rift with U.S. |
New Smokeless Tobacco Products Could Poison Children
Doctors Call For Trans Fat Ban In UK
Vitamin And Calcium Supplements May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
Embattled Japan PM's support rate slips further |
Standoff with Sri Lankan asylum seekers ends
Pakistan president signs bill stripping his powers
Afghan police arrest 9 in plot for Kabul attacks
2 saved from rubble after China quake kills 2,000
Indonesia court mulls blasphemy law
SKorea's Lee vows strong action in ship sinking
Thai troops protect Bangkok's financial hub
Lenovo looks to mobile Internet for growth |
Cricket scandal topples Indian minister
Facebook investor DST takes stake in Groupon |
Pakistani stocks, o/n rates end flat; rupee firms
Japan's Uniqlo to open giant New York store
China shares plunge on moves to cool home prices
ADB: China should tighten policy to avoid bubble
Mitsubishi faces $900-mln suit, cuts outlook
Yuan unlikely to be main issue at G20
Police deployed over Indonesia blasphemy ruling
UN presses Gulf states on rights of women, workers
China steps up efforts to curb property prices
UN calls on Gulf states to boost women's rights
Plane kills 2 on motorcycle on Indonesia runway
Hong Kong's beleaguered film sector hopes for rebirth
World Bank urges Asia to boost clean energy spend
Not as close as once were, Aerosmith back to Europe |
OMG -- Usher tops UK singles chart |
Pop pioneer hails Germany despite Holocaust misery |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01