This YouTube video by user "partmor" cracked me up--it's the vintage 1967 trailer for the old-school Star Trek episode "Space Seed," but what if it were filled with the lens flares that cinematographer Daniel Mindel (Enemy of the State, Mission: Impossible III) made heavy use of during J.J. Abrams' Star Trek(*)? Someone was obsessed with Holly Valance's naked "Kiss Kiss" video, All Saints' "Never Ever" video and Jay-Z's "Jigga What, Jigga Who" video while working on the new Star Trek.
[Via Geeks of Doom]
And this concludes today's edition of "Stuff That's Funny Only to Cinematography Geeks."
(*) Abrams' Trek is the best Trek feature film since 1996's First Contact. Michael Giacchino's exciting Trek score is a nice throwback to the epic sounds of '80s Trek film composers Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner after years of yawn-inducing, tinny-sounding musical wallpaper by Rick Berman's stable of composers. Giacchino's "That New Car Smell" cue (track 13 on the Varèse Sarabande score album) is straight out of those '80s Goldsmith/Horner Trek scores.
Ha, the youtube clip was hilarious. Perfect if he had added tiny bits of unsolicited and completely random shaky hand-held camera action.
ReplyDeleteRe: Giacchino's score... at some points I detected just a whiff of "March of the Losties" in it. But I really liked it.
The score's two most emotional cues, the music during Kirk's birth and the Spock/Uhura love theme, are also reminiscent of Giacchino's music from Lost. I kind of wish Giacchino snuck in a bit of the ol' Trek fight music during Kirk and Sulu's fight with the Romulans.
ReplyDeleteGlad you weighed in. I've seen some rather absurd criticism of Giacchino's score. "He's no Goldsmith!" Well, no... duh. "Sounds too much like a TV score!" What? By far the most ludicrous was an Amazon commenter who said "He got Alexander Courage all wrong." Okeydokey. I saw the movie twice and I've listened to the score about a dozen times and I think it's just crackerjack. The themes are memorable and exciting, even if they're repetitive.
ReplyDeleteFinally, this is the first time I've commented, but I've been reading you for awhile and -- more importantly -- I've been listening to you for a long, long time. Thanks for everything you do. What little I know about film music, I know in large part because of your work. I really appreciate it.
"memorable and exciting"
ReplyDeleteTwo words that could never describe the scores of the Berman-era TV composers, except for Ron Jones, who had the balls to ignore Berman and add an ounce of energy to his scores. I've only seen the new film once so far, and Giacchino's new theme for Kirk and the Enterprise (a.k.a. that terrific opening title theme) has been playing in my head all week. That's how catchy Giacchino's score is.
"'Sounds too much like a TV score!'"
These trolls need to have their ears examined. Saying that TV scores will always be weaker than film scores (wow, they must really hate the stellar work of the likes of Giacchino, Bear McCreary, J.G. Thirlwell and Yoko Kanno) is foolish. These commenters are just like any one of those irrelevant film critics who cling to the old argument that film will always be superior to TV (uh, it's been the other way around for a while, stupid!).
Thanks for the kind words and for being a loyal listener, Ben.
Jim, if not for you, I wouldn't know who Yoko Kanno is. If you would be so kind, drop me a note at bboychuk@dslextreme.com. I have a question.
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