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orchestral or synth?
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Topic: orchestral or synth?
dex
Oscar® Winner
Which of those two scoring methods tend to be used the most for documentaries?
posted 04-26-2000 02:06 PM PT (US) TimT
Oscar® Winner
Actually I was just watching a Documentary on Insects, the annoying music was all synths and electronic tribal drumming.
On the other hand, I own a score to a Documentary about the Amazon, that used a 80 piece orchestra with full female choir. Amazon by Alan Williams, that used synths as very little.
But on the left foot (:-) I made that one up) I have a documentary on World Cultures score by Hans Zimmer and Mark Mancina, thats all synth.
But on the big noise (ok now I'm just getting stupid) Hans Zimmer also scored a Documentary about the Holocuast (The Last Days) which was all orchestral.[This message has been edited by TimT (edited 26 April 2000).]
posted 04-26-2000 09:20 PM PT (US) H Rocco
Oscar® Winner
There's no identifiable pattern to this. Hans Zimmer's MILLENNIUM appears to be a mixture of the two; Goldsmith's THE GENERAL WITH THE COCKEYED I.D. was an orchestra, albeit a very small one; John Scott's Emmy-winning COUSTEAU documentaries have been orchestral, yet SOUND very synth-like, due, I guess, to what the producers wanted.Oh yes, Lalo Schifrin was very proud of his electronic score for the 1973 (?) Oscar-winning documentary THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE. "I had a great subject," he said: "INSECTS!" The narration was written by David Seltzer, who later wrote THE OMEN, PROPHECY, TABLE FOR FIVE and attempted to direct the Michael Douglas/Melanie Griffith "epic" SHINING THROUGH. (A buddy of mine worked on that set and told me it was really ghost-directed by Peter Macdonald.) (Have I taken it far enough off-topic yet?)
NP: "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" (speaking of off-topic)
[This message has been edited by H Rocco (edited 26 April 2000).]
posted 04-26-2000 09:23 PM PT (US) JJH
Oscar® Winner
Elmer Bernstein's Genocide is simply the hugest sounding documentary score I have heard. It really is a showstopper. Huge orchestra.
posted 04-26-2000 09:26 PM PT (US) Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
I find a number of docs for TV rely on synth scores--it's probably all they can afford. Even when they get good composers--I remember a National Geographic Explorer episode on Antartica with a score by George Fenton that seemed to be all synths, same with Gabriel Yared's score for Jacques Cousteau-My First 85 Years. Of course, my memory isn't always that sharp and these could be orchestral scores.NP: Captain Horatio Hornblower (Robert Farnon)
posted 04-27-2000 02:12 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB