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TCM Young Composers Competition
Topic Started: Jul 26 2010, 08:52 AM (1,442 Views)
mort bakaprevski
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Anyone, besides me, miss the TCM Young Composers competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0O623HhX2U

I thought it was a terrific idea. Silent films, after all, are the ultimate challenge for a film composer. There's no dialogue to interrupt the music. Plus, it was a great opportunity for young composers to get their feet wet. Finally, it was nice to hear serious films presented with serious scores.

TCM discontinued the competition a year or two ago. The reasons were unclear (at least to me), but I suspect the enormous expense of the project probably had something to do with it.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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That was the buzz at the time, mort, and I don't doubt it. it might be cheaper for TCM to hire proven talents like the Matti Bye Ensemble, The Alloy Orchestra, Stephen Horne or Donald Sosin -- so why not go with that?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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mort bakaprevski
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I'm not familiar with any of the names you mentioned.... so my further comments may not relate to them at all.

Most silents I watched have had simplistic scores and none have had a full orchestra. What I liked about the student compositions was that they DID use a full orchestra and they were geared more to audiences familiar with all of the great composers of the sound era.

It might be argued that these simpler scores more accurately refected the era the films were made in. But, I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in seeing the film come alive to me. And, an excellent film score really helps that come to fruition.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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panzer the great & terrible
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No argument from me, but you really should hear the guys I'm talking about. You'd love them. Simplistic ain't even in it.

The Young Composers Composition was one of those noble ideas that died when it's proponent got fired, like, for instance, the entire Fox Classic Films Department after the Murnau/Borzage debacle. Incidentally, folks, pick up one of those Fox sets before they disappear, and don't break the plastic. Talk about appreciation! The thing will be worth more than a K in two years, and that's just the start. Fox won't duplicate anything in it until they hire some conscious person, which I figure will take them about a decade, at least. I'm selling mine in 2018...or my son is. In any case, you can pick it up then for about 10,000.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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mort bakaprevski
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Woke up the morning for a 4:00 AM bladder release. Turned on the TV to see if anything was on..... & was surprised to find MISS MEND on TCM. Really wanted to watch the whole thing after seeing a few scenes, but needed my sleep, turned off the TV & returned to my slumbers.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up three hours later to find the film still going strong (& I do mean strong). Migawd, this must be where the Republic writers went for inspiration: fights, car chases, bondage, poison gas, etc., etc. etc!!

At any rate, caught the restoration credits at the end and noticed that Robert Israel had created the music. This is the kind of music I was objecting to above (although, it was obviously PERFECT for this particular film): limited orchestration & simplistic scores which sound like they might have been dredged up from the old Abe Meyer library.

Now, I notice you didn't include Israel in your list above. So, I'm hoping the work of the folks you mentioned are clearly superior to his efforts??
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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I'd certainly say so -- I'm no big fan of Israel's -- but you have to realize that with only a very few exceptions silent film accompaniments are live, improvised performances, not written scores. I've seen the Alloy Orchestra's score for Metropolis and it's two pages long.

Miss Mend is a must-buy, however, and the price is right. Great editing. I doubt if any shot in it lasts more than two or three seconds, and as you say it's the source of all things serial. It's so packed with cool stuff I only watch about ten minutes at a time.

Why, when the Russians were capable of lively films like this, did they end up making movies about tractors? I know, I know, Stalin. When a bureaucrat knows for sure that his head will roll if he does something out of the ordinary (i.e., normal), then he gets damn cautious.
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Inspector Carr
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panzer the great & terrible
Jul 26 2010, 10:20 PM
for instance, the entire Fox Classic Films Department after the Murnau/Borzage debacle. Incidentally, folks, pick up one of those Fox sets before they disappear, and don't break the plastic.
What Fox sets are you referring to PP
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The Murnau/Borzage set. If you think about it, it may well become the all-time priciest DVD collectable. I have two, one to watch and the other still in the wrapper. I figure someday it will at least pay for my tenth copy of Rio Bravo, in Smell-O-Vision.
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mort bakaprevski
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Caught the last portion of WHITE SISTER w/ Lillian Gish & Ronald Colman today. The score was by Garth Neustadter, a winner of the TCM competition, & it really added a lot to the film.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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I like his score too. If you've seen the film without it, you'll know how cool it is!
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mort bakaprevski
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The plot IS a bit much, but Lillian is just so damn fetching..... even if she was a bit of a fascist!!
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panzer the great & terrible
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We wouldn't really want dear Lilian to understand politics, would we? And what was the deal with the giant thermostat?
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mort bakaprevski
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I dunno!!!

Looks like somethin' left over from a Paul Panzer serial!!
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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It does, too.

Miss Gish asked an old buddy of mine to condense The White Sister so she could show it to her friends. When he got through it was a scant 4 reels, mostly involving the thermometer. He said he wished he could have cut the rest. This new score, however, has rescued the film, which was, after all, a big hit in its day. It probably had good music then, too. It's wonderful what a great score can do for a movie. Ya think anybody would call Vertigo or La Dolce Vita great movies without the scores? I kinda doubt it. And would anybody even tolerate Woody Allen's later movies without their superb soundtracks? 'Course not.
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mort bakaprevski
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Couldn't agree with you more re VERTIGO. Herrmann deserves at least 51% of the credit for making this a classic. Been too many years since I've seen Fellini's opus to remember the impact the music had.

Big fan of Woody's. Loved MATCH POINT & MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. Music certainly played a major role in the latter, but.......

"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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