Christian Filmmakers

Samuel, I haven’t seen Chinatown, but I do have the score. (The film is in my netflix queue!) It’s definitely an older one ... 1974! That trumpet theme you’re talking about is nice. 10 days is crazy! The score is 38 minutes and 31 seconds long ... that’s an average of 3.85 minutes of music a day! (By comparison, I usually call 1 minute a day a good day’s work, although I have done 3.5 minutes a day in short bursts ... I suppose 1.5 minutes or so a day is my average.) I’m looking forward to seeing the film. Thanks for the recommendation!

Alex Beard, composer
http://www.composeralex.com
http://www.myspace.com/composeralex

Has anyone seen movies with particularly interesting/compelling/etc. scores worth studying lately?

While I don’t hold it to the “masterpiece” standard set by many of the aforementioned scores, I think Michael Giacchino’s score to the new Star Trek is pretty interesting. It’s a cool score to the casual listener, but he somehow melded Jerry Goldsmith’s approach, Horner’s sense of fun, and his own unique voice (along with lots of energy!) to create an interesting blend ... like the film, it’s vaguely reminiscent of previous Star Trek stuff, but it’s fresh, new, and bold.

For instance, he uses a proud, bold, fanfarish-theme for Kirk and our heroes. We get a very Goldsmith-esque, golden rendition as we see the Enterprise in space for the first time, after a somewhat Horner-esque buildup as the shuttles take off for Spacedock. Nero (the bad guy, a Romulan) is given a simple, 7-note theme that’s very similar in orchestration to Goldsmith’s theme for Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis (man, I hated that film ...).

I’ve noticed more, but those are the 2 majorest (like that word? ) things.

Alex Beard, composer
http://www.composeralex.com
http://www.myspace.com/composeralex