Oh man, thankfully it's finally FRIDAY!!! That said, I had a pretty cool idea this morning and it's something I think at least a few of you will really dig. Every Friday, I'm toying with posting something I'm calling "The Melee". Basically, it's a post which I'll write something totally random (but music related) that I've done, someone else has done, discuss film / game music, etc etc.
It's also a place where I'll encourage you people to post comments.... not just in relation to what I post, but any sort of rants, reviews, likes dislikes that you have in regards to game audio, game music, or film music. If there's something you want me to discuss in future Game Biz posts... that works too! Just about anything music related goes here... hence why I call it "The Melee". The whole purpose of this thing is just to discuss music, what got us here, film / game scores that really move you, what we like / dislike about game music, etc etc... an open forum if you will.
So to get things started... James Bond music. Bond music is what has inspired me for my last 30 years on this crazy planet and is something I like to create in my spare time as a composer. I think that Christopher Lennertz has truly nailed the bond games he has scored in the past (though I hear he's sadly not on the next bond game). I also think that lately... David Arnold is doing an OUTSTANDING job at scoring the most recent bond films (not to mention Craig is the best bond yet in my opinion, exactly who Fleming wrote about in the books).
All of that said, Goldeneye is one of those scores that didn't really do it for me. Eric Serras avant garde overly electronic style of composing just doesn't really gel well with the James Bond universe in my opinion. Like many, I wondered what Goldeneye would have sounded like if David Arnold had done the music for it. What if The James Bond theme made a more prominent appearance in the pre-titles sequence? What if Goldeneye was scored more like a regular bond film rather than one which featured bond returning after an almost 7 year hiatus?
Well my fellow music fanatics, I took matters into my own hands and not only rescored the Goldeneye pre-titles sequence in its entirety... but did a sound design pass over it as well so my music would feel more like it was part of a real film mix and not just hover over dead silence. So this melee shows off my approach to scoring to picture... which some of you might find interesting as you may end up scoring cinematics in a game one day. Scoring to picture takes cracker jack timing and is a bit different than laying down background music for a game. To practice, I'd say rip a scene or two from your favorite film, import into your sequencer, and score away!
You'll notice that I didn't hesitate to bring the bond theme in early when I scored it... which some will argue takes away the mystery of who the man is on the dam. Well in my defense, I scored it like a regular bond film... leaving out the mystery and just bonding it up the best I can. We all know it's a bond film, and we all know by now who the guy on the dam is. Moving on.
Without further delay... here is my approach to scoring Goldeneye in a more traditional manner in two parts.
Goldeneye Rescored Part 1 - Arkangel Infiltration:
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0PJAXl6SNE
MP3 Download:
http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/GE_Arkangel_Infiltration_RichDouglas.mp3
Goldeneye Rescored Part 2 - Arkangel Escape:
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9wan-6nQgE
MP3 Download:
http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/GE_EscapeFromArkangel_RichDouglas.mp3
Here's another random bit of bond music I've done in the past... some bloke actually edited a Casino Royale trailer to it:
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKmvrhxpuLc
MP3:
http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/Remix_RichDouglas_TheJamesBondTheme_HardEdgeMix.mp3
And for good measure... here are two more of my recent bond cues:
Boat Escape:
http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/QoS_BoatEscape_RichDouglas.mp3
Bond Theme '09
http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/QoS_TheJamesBondTheme_2009_RichDouglas.mp3
Hope everyone has a good weekend! I'll be back first thing next week with more game industry goodness.
I'll have to disagree on this. While your music sure is very traditional Bond and very good at it too, I just can't help but really like the Eric Serra's ost. I always like things done a bit differently in situations where you expect something traditional.
ReplyDeleteSerra makes this exotic weird brilliant hybrid of a music when it comes to films and I feel bond needed that at that point, I mean you yourself said it, it had been so many years.
One of course would then already expect it to be different after such a long pause but Serra somehow manages to come up with something you just didn't expect. Also I kinda liked the fact it sounded a bit like a game score as well. :)
But kudos to you for seeing such an effort making those, more of these! :)
To each their own Yasah :). You know, the Goldeneye score is a funny thing... it seems peeps either hate it or love it with absolutely no in between. I gotta say though, I've actually come to like parts of that score in my slightly older age... namely the unused tank chase cue which is on the album... funky stuff!! Check it out... it really works well with the scene imo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysh-R1SNi2E
Just wanted others to see how the film would be if scored like every other bond film is all. Thanks for chiming in! Going to add a few more links above in regards to some more of my bond music.
Haha, it's like I'm waiting for Bruce Willis to pop up from the tank and put a taxi sign on the hood :)
ReplyDeleteAre you going to make more types of Bond film like scores?
ReplyDelete