How does film music get made? Why are some musical themes—like those from, say, Star Wars or Harry Potter—so memorable? And how can it be that the most popular film franchise of our era, the Marvel movies, doesn’t have this kind of hummable music?
In this fantastic video essay, filmmakers Brian Satterwhite, Taylor Ramos, and Tony Zhou go deep on the issue. A big part of the issue is “temp music,” or music from other films used as a stand-in before a composer is brought in to write the real thing. You’ll be amazed at how close the temp music and final tracks are in the cases presented here.
Listen up:
If that’s not enough comparison of temp-to-real-score for you, here’s another eight minutes:
Finally, Dan Golding responds with his own essay on film music, taking the discussion deeper, particularly with regard to Hans Zimmer. Check it out:
See also: Everything is a Remix.
September 17, 2016 – 4:00am