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Very interesting exercice, I hope this will be released on album (does any of you know if there is a lot of score in the movie ?)
I asked someone who saw it and he said the score is used sparingly and it’s his best in years. He then compared it to Arcade Fire’s Her score which I wasn’t a fan of.
“Her” was lacking depth but worked well in the film. I doubt we’ll every get a release but I don’t recall Elfman going so minimal (Freeway perhaps ?) so I hope we’ll have the opportunity to get some tracks with time…
A thought : although it seems rather clear that Elfman decided, since the last ten years, to explore new musical territories, avoiding blockbusters for much smaller films, I can’t help to think he’s probably not as demanded for big budget movies as he used to, seeing how the Zimmer-mafia scores pretty much all of those these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love his low-key scores but I’m wondering if it’s only about his choices or also due to the era we are in.
Maybe it is a mix of the two ? The “Zimmer Mafia”, as you say it, can handle quite a lot of scores itself, and when a score for a big budget movie is given to another composer he is quite often asked to emulate the Zimmer sound (thanks god, it’s not always true, but it still happens quite often). Some succeed in it (Patrick Doyle’s “Thor” was a good mix of modern filmmusic sound and of Doyle’s more personal style), but I suppose it is hard for composers to impose their ideas when producers absolutely want something “in the style of…”. From what we know, that’s in good part because of this that John Powell has nearly completly left the world of filmscoring…
And I suppose the pressure is less and less important as the budget goes down, so that’s maybe a sacrifice to do in order to keep a greater artistic liberty, without having to fight for every single note.Yeah, I think you sum it up pretty well. From the way he talks about his involvement with a film or another, it always either comes down to wanting to work with a specific director, either to work on a project that will allow him to do something different; the fact that it’s a big or low budget doesn’t seem to matter to him, at least since the last few years – I guess he’s got enough money and a big enough address book now to have the privilege to get to chose with that in mind, instead of the pay check/opportunity the project will give him.
It’s just that it seems to be the case for so many talented composers out there (Giacchino, Desplat, Powell, etc.).
He’d never say it of course but I can’t help but wonder if the absolutely terrible treatment of his score for Terminator: Salvation was a turning point. There seems to be a complete cut-off of ‘noisy’ blockbusters after that.
Well to be fair he’s scored some big movies since, then — many of them noisy!
MEN IN BLACK 3, DARK SHADOWS, REAL STEEL, OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL. He’s not necessarily trolling the art house these days
Now, the question is will he score Gus Van Sant’s DEATH NOTE remake?
Real Steel only really stands out there, and even at that he only scored two of the fight scenes. He’s not really competing with gunshots or engines in the fantasy or animated movies, with the exception of Men In Black 3 which was a sequel.
THE END OF THE TOUR director James Ponsoldt spoke with Comingsoon.net, sharing a few thoughts about collaborating with Danny Elfman on the score:
CS: That’s pretty funny, wow. You mentioned Danny Elfman. He obviously is a great composer, but it seemed like an odd combination of you and him for some reason. He usually does Sam Raimi and Tim Burton movies, much bigger movies.
Ponsoldt: Yeah, I mean, from early on, R.E.M. and Brian Eno were two musicians, a band and a musician that sort of factored into the time that Lipsky and Wallace spent together and they had conversations about what they listened to. So I knew that R.E.M. and Eno would feature in the movie. We end the movie on this Eno song. We have a couple of R.E.M. songs. There was talk of potentially working with Eno, but then the assistant director that I worked with for multiple movies now, Nick Harvard, we spent a fair amount of time working together, he was the A.D. on Whiplash. He’s a great AD. He actually asked me, while we were pretty early in post, he said, “Hey, are you locked in on a composer or anything?” I was like, “No, not yet.” He said, “Well, there’s this family friend I have that is a composer. He’s been asking what I was doing up in Michigan while we were shooting this thing and he’s just really curious about it. Anyway, I feel like I should just mention it.” I was like, “Oh, who is it?” He’s like, “Oh, Danny Elfman.” I was like, “Oh, I’ve heard of Danny.” He’s like, “Yeah, well, he’s really interested. I don’t know what you think.” And the reaction I had was kind of the one you had, right? The truth is that Batman was the first movie that I ever… I never have told Danny. This is such a fanboy thing. Batman is the first thing I ever bought on VHS and when I was a kid I would watch it like, three or four times a week. I learned what a composer was through the Danny Elfman, Tim Burton collaboration, like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, everything after that. Then, the work that he’s done in the past few years with David O. Russell, but especially with Gus Van Sant, with both of them, it’s working in a completely different mode, a more minimalist mode, and it’s not the Danny Elfman sound we associate with “The Simpsons” or Burton. So I would love to meet with him because he’s a genius, and even if it works out or not, how can you say no to that? When we sat down, I just realized he was such a patient, kind, open collaborative real artist, and I was like, “Oh God, he could do this in his sleep.” He has gotten famous for doing Sam Raimi and Tim Burton movies, where he does 100 minutes of score with lots of sound effects and the London Philharmonic, but that must get old. I was interested in doing something that would be like 25 minutes of score that’s ultra minimalist, that’s real undertones to the movie.
CS: It’s very subdued, that’s what I’m saying. I would not have realized that he could do that kind of music.
Ponsoldt: Yeah, and I think he was really excited. I mean, the movies, he had done last year, he was working on Fifty Shades of Grey and Big Eyes. I think he was really excited about the challenge of this. Yeah, he was just a wonderful collaborator. He worked so, so, so, so hard on it. I was really blown away. As far as seeing someone who does something different than what I do, but my respect for his craft and artistry, he cared as much as if it was the first movie ever scored, like he was sensitive and vulnerable and self-conscious, like, when he was first playing me cues, he was really nervous. I was like, “How are you nervous?” It was mind-blowing and disarming. He was just a great collaborator.
Yes, the same for me…
I hope it will have a digital release at least (if there are only 25 minutes of score, an physical album isn’t even to consider…)Damn, I’ve been out of the loop for a while, and while perusing Elfman’s IMDB profile recently, I assumed this was an error (IMDB has several of those, conflating score assignments with the usage of an Elfman score cue or song). I’m glad to see this is, in fact, the real deal! Would love to get hold of this score now, somehow. Guess we’ll have to be patient.
There’s a track here.
July 31st release date.
This is Danny’s year right? Giacchino and Newman are also really prolific this year but Danny’s got everybody beat with the variety of his projects. Erotic romance, superhero epic, horror/thriller, indie drama and a period romance.
This is promising!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/913mSkwlwjL._SL1500_.jpg
I’m guessing this is a ‘To Die For’ situation. 20 minutes or so of score and a lot of songs.
Which is great, I wish Silver Linings Playbook got this treatment.
1. Intro – Danny Elfman
2. Talk to Jan – Danny Elfman
3. Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow – Felt
4. Perfect Circle – R.E.M.
5. Room of Books – Danny Elfman
6. Minneapolis – Danny Elfman
7. Reprise 1 – Danny Elfman
8. They Don’t Know – Tracey Ullman
9. Our Lips Are Sealed – Fun Boy Three
10. Going Sour – Danny Elfman
11. The Tour’s Over – Danny Elfman
12. Mall Of America – Danny Elfman
13. Walking the Dog – Danny Elfman
14. Invasion – Danny Elfman
15. The Shoe – Danny Elfman
16. The Big Ship – Brian Eno
17. Here – Tindersticks
18. Reprise 2 – Danny Elfman
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