ARRRRRRR

[cleolinda]

ZOMG, TEH KRAKEN.

Just acquired and still listening to the POTC2 soundtrack; will have to get back to you as to relative quality as compared to the first movie. It uses a lot of the themes from the previous score, but it's more complex and more richly orchestrated and... as a result, I kind of don't like it as much so far. Like, it's not the stupidcrackearcandy that the first one is. LESS ATMOSPHERE, MORE ACTION! I know, I'm a philistine.

(I still can't quite get over the Baby Pirate song. "And that's a peg below me knee!" Maybe it's because I'm imagining my stephew singing it.)

(Speaking of baby pirates, the "Davy Jones" track reminds me a lot of a baby crib mobile at the beginning and end. It's... odd.)

Keira Knightley plays down anorexia rumors. I love how, after our discussion today, this article appeared at, like, the speed of thought. However, as discussed here, I think I believe her on this one--anorexics are underweight, but if you're underweight you're not necessarily anorexic. That said? EAAAAAT SOMETHIIIIIIING.

Keith Richards to Be in 'Pirates' Movie. As we have heard many times. And they do keep saying, "It's not certain until he's actually on the set," I imagine because rock-star wrangling is hard. I'm also not entirely sure how this is going to work, as I thought that sunlight killed vampires. (Aw, Keef. I kid. Seriously, the old--early '90s?--episode of SNL where Mike Myers played Mick Jagger and Mick Jagger played Keith Richards makes me laugh just thinking about it. Can't find it on YouTube, though.)

Depp dazzles again in 2nd "Pirates" escapade. Basically, this is a review--with same spoiler that pissed me off in the other one, i.e., what's actually in the chest, because apparently I live under a rock (AND I LIKE IT).

Meanwhile, there were some family tensions earlier in the evening, but frequent applications of barbecued ribs to the afflicted persons improved the situation somewhat. Also, there were brownies. I got a teensy bit of writing done today, but was interrupted (by said dinner) and didn't get back to it. I feel creative yet scattered, like I can't quite focus, but I'd like to.

Comments

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeee I love that song! Last time I was at the movies they showed a trailer for PotC and I audibly squealed at Teh Kraken, which confused the hell outta my friends. "Uh... what's with the giant squid?" "ZOMG ITS A KRAKEN!"

Damnit, I may have to actually shell out for this OST. I'm digging it way more than the first one (which I actually loved, a lot)


Icon love! ;-)

[tabbyclaw.livejournal.com]

And they do keep saying, "It's not certain until he's actually on the set," I imagine because rock-star wrangling is hard.

Also 'cause they have to clear all dangerous palm trees from a 20-mile radius around the set.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

ostnotes. Go to "tags directory" on the sidebar. I'm just saying.

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

*drool*

life is good.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Damn straight.

[julianelupin.livejournal.com]

As for that spoiler (which hit me by surprise as well)... maybe mention that it's revealed in Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com)'s interview with Johnny Depp as well (available online here (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10714717/the_last_buccaneer). It's a great article. Just avoid the second page of it if you don't want to run into that terrible awful no-good very bad spoiler. ;)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Man, that's a good interview.

[julianelupin.livejournal.com]

My favorite bit is the Iggy Pop story. "You little turd." Man. Imagine if you could one day have the honor of being called a turd by Iggy Pop. ;)

[butindreams.livejournal.com]

I got the same spoiler (what's in the chest), along with few couple others in a Tribute (http://www.tribute.ca/) KIDS magazine! It was just like, little tidbits about the movie, except not just little tidbits, but major plot points (presumably). So not impressed.

[boundandchained.livejournal.com]

Well damn. This computer has NO SPEAKERS. *facedesk*

[shebit.livejournal.com]

I was interested to see on the PotC2 poster that Zimmer had been promoted to composer this time, rather than just supposedly producing Klaus Badelt's score, as the credits for the first film suggested.

About six years ago - on whenever it was that Gladiator came out - Hans Zimmer was promoted into my list of favourite film scorers - knocking Horner off the list, because he gave up doing anything remotely interesting some time in the 90s.

I liked the score for PotC, but though that the orchestrations were a little ... the best may I can describe it is that at times it almost sounds like sampled instruments or even midi at points. I don't know who was to blame for that, as Baselt, Badami and Zimmer all had a hand in the music.

Anyway, what this is leading to - in a long-winded way - is saying that I'm really looking forward to hearing the ways in which Zimmer has reworked and hopefully improved on what were already really good themes.

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

Underweight=/=anorexia, but new and sudden underweightness often = cokehead.

Just sayin'.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Re: Keef--I just really, really want them to introduce his character by having him fall out of a palm tree. Because that would be awesome.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

ALSO! (Sorry, braindead over here.)

That said? EAAAAAT SOMETHIIIIIIING.

And don't wear dresses that emphasise just how thin you are. Actually, don't wear that dress ever, whoever you are, because cleave down to the waist? Damn, and I thoguht my pirate outfit would be walking the line.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, what they say on the DVD is that the movie went from idea to finished in a *year*, which is *nothing.* I think at one point on the commentary Johnny Depp says, "Who ended up doing the music?" And Gore Verbinksi says (direct quote), "Uh, like six people." Apparently they were all frantically working simultaneously, and while he gives the credit for the major theme composition to Badelt, it seems like they had a crew of people working as fast as they could to finish the music. And apparently they'd record each instrument separately--the strings would come in and record, the brass would come in and record--just because that was the only way they could schedule them. It *does* have a bit of an artificial, slapdash quality (despite the awesomeness of the themes on their own), and I think that's why--and it's why the second soundtrack sounds so different, because it's clearly had the hell orchestrated out of it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was saying that over on Snarkfest. Didn't she have some wild 21st birthday party a couple of months back? I mean, it would break my fannish heart, but I think coke is far more likely than clinical anorexia.

[shebit.livejournal.com]

That stuff from the dvd might have been R1 only, because there was nothing about that on my R2, as far as I remember.

Interesting way of doing things, but I think the score did suffer because of it. As you say, the themes themselves are brilliant and I am very fond of the score, but with some proper orchestration it could have been so much more.

And I love that phrase, by the way - 'had the hell orchestrated out of it'. Marvellous. I suppose the slapdash orchestration on the first film was almost a feature of the score and therefore of the film, so having a fully orchestrated Hans Zimmer score might make the sequel a very different animal - though I hope it won't have lost any of its charm.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

And that's partly why filmmakers like having someone like Hans Zimmer involved (or at least nearby) on crazy productions like these: he keeps everyone's sense of humor up and running while they madly write music. He's a good guy, from everything I've heard. He did a similar job of shepherding on The Rock, which also had an insanely short post-production schedule and about five different people banging out notes.

And I'll always like Michael Kamen (who I got to interview once, a highlight of my geek life) for doing a similar let's-keep-everyone-as-calm-and-amused-as-possible job when scoring the Costner Robin Hood. One hundred thirty minutes of music in three and a half freakin' weeks (with over a dozen people adding music for Kamen to adapt and conduct, sometimes at scoring sessions in the middle of the night!) might kill you otherwise.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Aww! It's true, it might be R1 only.

If you want to grab the POTC2 score, go to ostnotes, join up, and go to "tags directory." That way you won't have to scroll through the last couple of days, you can just go to the title.

And I think you're right--the second score plays very differently to me because it's so much more polished and orchestrated. Since people are releasing more and more extended scores these days (LOTR, King Arthur, etc.), I wish they'd go back and rerecord the POTC1 score. It'd still be the same relatively simple themes, but just a full, polished orchestra would sound awesome, and it'd be different enough to be worth also buying.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

DUDE. That's insane.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

A Robin Hood moment! Kamen'd play his themes on piano for his orchestrators. He accidentally played Maid Marian's theme two different ways when playing it for two different groups, and confusion reigned soon after when the music being turned in had that theme written (of course) differently. This led to several people on the very punchy scoring crew adopting English accents and saying, "Hello, I'm Maid Marian, I've lost my theme, can you tell me where my theme is?"

[naeelah.livejournal.com]

but frequent applications of barbecued ribs to the afflicted persons improved the situation somewhat.

I have to say, the first thing I thought of when I read this was that you'd been showing off the picture of Keira Knightly... although I didn't see how that would improve any situation, except to distract people with horror...

[missmp.livejournal.com]

The "OMG, Kiera's anorexic!" stuff has been bugging me b/c my best friend is slim like that, and whenever she got the flu and lost five pounds she had to deal with people asking her if she was anorexic.

Then again, she never went out wearing a glorified scarf as a top and acting shocked that people found it disturbing that her sternum was showing. Anyway. I still love Kiera, so I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears and sing la la la until she eats some burgers and this blows over.

I'm glad your writing is going well. You sound really happy, which is always cool. :-)

[adoresixtyfour.livejournal.com]

The mention of Mike Myers as Mick and Mick as Keith reminded me of Tim Curry as Mick on an earlier SNL. He winds up tongue-kissing Sheri lewis and Lamb Cop (yes, the puppet). Don't ask.

I don't think Keira has an eating disorder. Hasn't she always been skinny as a broomstick? But she is wafer-thin, no question 'bout that.

[quenbolyn.livejournal.com]

The "OMG, Kiera's anorexic!" stuff has been bugging me b/c my best friend is slim like that, and whenever she got the flu and lost five pounds she had to deal with people asking her if she was anorexic.

Same here. Though I have a suspicion that people wouldn't feel the need to be so concerned if I/Keira had breasts.

Then again, she never went out wearing a glorified scarf as a top and acting shocked that people found it disturbing that her sternum was showing.

Hell, I used to pad my clothing to look curvier. I KNOW that wearing a glorified scarf in public would just open a whole can of trouble for me.