The BBC asks: Where are the new movie themes? It’s an interesting thought, I remember many of the big songs that raced into the chart and stayed for weeks on the back of films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard. Am I sad to see them disappear, yes and no, I’m not sure if the music added to the film or the film added impact and romanticism to the music, they do seem a little OTT these days.
Having said that, I’m equally aware of many music scores making inroads into the public psyche and themes from a number of films are identified by a lot more people than you would think (a guy I work with recently added a track from Jurassic Park as his ringtone and everyone in the office recognised where it came from).
I’m a big fan of movie music and it’s not surprising the big hits have dropped wailing ballads in favour of mood music. Equally music tracks still play a big part in setting the scene in movies about a certain era, for example.
I guess one question is have music companies and artists become too greedy? Looking at the costs mentioned in the article and knowing how much movies help to sell tracks you’d have thought they would be a little more pragmatic.
A couple of things that always surprise me is that some movie soundtracks don’t include all the tracks, usually missing some of the key ones and add ‘music inspired by the movie’ instead and that, if there isn’t a soundtrack album, the like of iTunes and other download stores don’t produce (or allow their users to produce) a set you can buy from the individual tracks.
If movie music is your thing, the Beeb also has an interview with music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas and another with score composer Hans Zimmer (who did the latest Batman film amongst others).
Read Full Entry | 26th Aug 2008 | Comments (0) | General
The buzz of internet film teasers is an interesting article from the BBC about the power and marketing buzz of online trailers.
As someone who invariably has seen the trailer before it’s in front of a movie in the cinema I tend to agree, aside from whetting the appetite they can be a work of art on their own (they generally make very good use of music too, I’ve picked up quite few tracks from trailers and the help of IMDB to find out what they were).
Read Full Entry | 25th Aug 2008 | Comments (0) | General
I noticed iTunes had added Films here in the UK by accident while looking for something else on iTunes this morning (you can tell how early I was, the Top Rentals column only had one thing in it). The range isn’t overwhelming and prices seem to be £3.49 for a rental and £6.99 to buy for new-ish releases, while older ones are lower (Bad Boys II, for example, is £2.49 to rent, but no option to buy, while Risky Business is £2.49 to rent but still £6.99 to buy). Some films state “This movie is available in HD on Apple TV.”
According to the BBC article:
New releases cost £10.99 to buy and £3.49 to rent. Movies from the iTunes library cost £6.99 to buy and £2.49 to rent. HD versions cost £1 more.
Those renting films have up to 30 days to watch what they have downloaded and once they have started watching it have 48 hours to finish viewing.
Read Full Entry | 4th Jun 2008 | Comments (0) | General
I was contemplating when would be the right time to move to Blu-ray as my preferred format over the weekend and I wondered about the supposition that Apple is trying to encourage everyone to skip physical media and go to digital downloads.
While I think there is a lot of merit to downloads, ease of access, no physical storage problems, no issue with needing a physical player, which should guarantee playback well into the future. There are also limitation, a normal DVD comes in at 4-8Gb, an HD version nearly double that. I have somewhere north of 250 DVDs, assume they’re all single disks and 4Gb and you’re still talking about over a terabyte of data, and that’s before you consider the stuff I have recorded from TV. I’d put the total in excess of 3Tb.
Read Full Entry | 14th May 2008 | Comments (0) | General
I had an email from a guy on my film course earlier today concerning a couple of TV features about their new short film: Undertow. Having had a look at the two features they are interesting for anyone, not just those interested in the film industry.
The short clip contains both of my old comrades, Antony (co-writer) and Neil (co-writer/director), while the longer clip is focused more in-depth on Neil.
Neil picked up the Best International Director of a Short Film award at the 2008 New York Film and Video awards, and star Matt Jure picked up the Best Actor (Short Film) award. It has also been accepted at the Swansea Film Festival and they will also be appearing in the Short Film Corner at Cannes.
Neil and Antony aren’t the only two have some success making movies, Paul Gerstenberger wrote the 2004 film Fakers and has another project, Bad Meat, in production.
Read Full Entry | 12th May 2008 | Comments (0) | General
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