which version of Tropic Thunder?  Theatrical or Director's cut?
I only have the theatrical cut....

"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me   

What a happy accident! I just rented The Social Network from Netflix! It arrived yesterday!

I'll probably just hang out in the chat room and listen to DiF do Tropic Thunder. Funny movie, but I don't particularly care to watch it again. It's very much how I feel about Judd Apatow's work, even the ones he just produces: They're funny once, in a theater with a crowd of people howling with laughter. But when viewed a second time, at home alone, they're surprisingly flat, boring and awkward. Well, at least RDJ still kicks ass in that movie, no matter how many times I see it.

I was listening to DiF's Tron Legacy commentary the other day (I sometimes like to rip the audio from the Justin.TV streams and piece them together. Since the movie is streaming on Netflix, but through Starz, I figured I should take advantage while I still can). Near the end, Teague goes on this confusing, surprising diatribe about the score and how he feels the main theme is too simple. Like the rest of the panel, I was shocked and in strong disagreement, especially given Teague's well-documented love for the score in the past, especially The Grid. After The Boys (quite convincingly, I thought) punched holes in Teague's argument, I waited patiently for him to say, "You know what? You guys are right. I take back what I said". Instead, he gave up and chalked it up to failure on his part to articulate his point.

I thought it was plenty articulate, just incorrect and perhaps Teague was just being stubborn. Yes, the theme is simple, but I think of it as an observation, not a criticism. Just because it's simple, doesn't mean that just anyone could come up with it. It takes knowledge and skill of music to conjure something so pure and effective. Most themes by their very nature and function are simple, it's what you do with them and how you manipulate them throughout your score that can make them complex. Listen to the end credits track. It shares the same spine as The Grid, but it's more "flowery", as Daft Punk has built upon the melody. If I had been present for the conversation, I would have simply said, "Keep digging, Teague! We can still see you!"

I bring all this up because if Teague doesn't feel similarly about the Social Network score, in particular "Hand Covers Bruise" (which I also love) is also simple, I fear my head may explode. Depending on how things go tomorrow, the first row could get wet, with gore. You've been warned.

Last edited by johnpavlich (2011-11-05 18:04:14)

Bullet hit the nail on the head.

Which is impressive for bullets.

Didn't see Pav's post, I guess I was looking at the second-to-last page.

I thought about how to re-approach this issue, because on the podcast I gave up, because I wasn't getting anywhere, and was looking increasingly like an idiot. The main problem is that there's not a good shorthand layman way to communicate my point, without everyone listening knowing some stuff about the music theory side of things. So I did a little video to talk a bit about melody and chord theory, and how that relates to other film scores and then to TRON.

I don't expect anyone to particularly care, except for Pavlich, but here. Let me explain it. I put a lot of time into outlining together how best to make my points, and present them here with what might be some interesting information about the process of writing instrumental music, and give you more of an appreciation for it.

This stuff interests me, I know it doesn't interest most people, but what you'll take away from this is that I'm not insane. Perhaps subjectively wrong, but I do, you know, actuallly have a point.

(Also, Hand Covers Bruise is trying to do and be something different, and we can go into that here on the forum if you want, but I'm done trying to talk about music on the show for a while, I think.)

Oh, I like Horner's, too. Not sure I'm familiar with Goldsmith's.

Anyway, glad that may have cleared the thing up. Thanks for taking the time to watch it.

Awesome. High five.

The "it sounds good enough for me" reasoning is one I definitely can't argue, so I'm stoked we at least got to an understanding. 

Social Network, followed by Tropic Thunder?  I could get whiplash from that quick a turn.

Those outside the US should note that the US just changed from daylight saving time to standard time.

Teague always writes the time as "1 PM PST" even when it should have been "1 PM PDT" all summer, but this esoteric point of time notation is a mere human construct and one more reason that daylight saving time ought to be abolished.

#858 answers that, but incorrectly

Last edited by Fido (2011-11-06 21:47:53)

Theatrical Tropic Thunder and the show is starting two hours from the time of this post. If that could possibly help.

It won't be for a few weeks.