Whats up with trailer music

[btriangle]

I have noticed a lot of trailers, have music that is very generic, and kind of boring, and isn't as powerful as the soundtrack within the movie itself.

Is there any reason why composers do this in trailers? Or is it music not created by the composer?

If so, than damn, making us composers look bad lol.

[MaestroRage]

well you nailed it. Trailer music is generic music with the pure intention of having impact. There is no other intention to it then to amplify the feeling of excitement, or make a movie trailer itself seem more interesting.

Why do they do it? Because the royalties you can get from a single trailer song can easily break into 6 digits. Music is a business, trailer music is just another branch.

[Back-From-Purgatory]

To my understanding, the composers of the movies score don't do the trailer music for advertising, companies such as Immediate Music/2 Steps From Hell are famous for creating trailer music, in fact I own an immediate music album, and almost every song on it I've heard in a trailer for either a movie or a game advertised on TV or on the web.

I've no doubt that some trailers do have music composed by the composer for the movie itself, but the trend seems that most choose to go with something made by a 3rd party.

[nathanallenpinard]

At 11/5/09 10:40 PM, btriangle wrote: I have noticed a lot of trailers, have music that is very generic, and kind of boring, and isn't as powerful as the soundtrack within the movie itself.

Is there any reason why composers do this in trailers? Or is it music not created by the composer?

If so, than damn, making us composers look bad lol.

Music in trailers is already grabbed from other works owned by the picture company. Trailers are usually done long before a composer is even hired. There are some exceptions, depending on the schedule.

Most composer don't get a film to score till like 3 weeks before release. Trailers are often done way early before that.

[nathanallenpinard]

Btw, 2 Steps from Hell is Nick Phoenix's companyl.

[btriangle]

Music in trailers is already grabbed from other works owned by the picture company. Trailers are usually done long before a composer is even hired. There are some exceptions, depending on the schedule.

Most composer don't get a film to score till like 3 weeks before release. Trailers are often done way early before that.

Whoa what the hell, 3 weeks before release? You're joking right?

[nathanallenpinard]

At 11/6/09 02:10 AM, btriangle wrote:

Music in trailers is already grabbed from other works owned by the picture company. Trailers are usually done long before a composer is even hired. There are some exceptions, depending on the schedule.

Most composer don't get a film to score till like 3 weeks before release. Trailers are often done way early before that.

Whoa what the hell, 3 weeks before release? You're joking right?

Jerry Goldsmith had 2 weeks before scoring the first Star Trek movie. It varies. Some are long, some are short. Depends on the project, picture company, and money.

[Jirohbomb]

At 11/6/09 02:10 AM, btriangle wrote:

Music in trailers is already grabbed from other works owned by the picture company. Trailers are usually done long before a composer is even hired. There are some exceptions, depending on the schedule.

Most composer don't get a film to score till like 3 weeks before release. Trailers are often done way early before that.

Whoa what the hell, 3 weeks before release? You're joking right?

Actually, I think he ain't joking, to get an entire symphony to record a single section of a movie costs hundreds even thousands of dollars. So to have them come is just a one time thing, everything is recorded once and that's final. If one person messes up, they will be fired. So in the stupidity and genius of Hollywood, they decide to send out the finished product to the composer for his choir can go to a studio and record upon that. From there it gets sent back to production which allows the editing guys to have the single takes of each song and put it in the movie. Then the last week until the film is just relaxing. I know this because my teacher is a sound engineer and he deals with this stuff.

[nathanallenpinard]

The job is in fact not as stressful as it sounds though for most composers. Composers DON'T orchestrate the music. And often composers just hand an orchestrator a lead sheet with chords and a melody, and that's it. Some composers barely sketch ideas. The orchestrator does the rest. After that, a transcriber comes in and puts it to sheet music.

However, it's changed a bit with some composers that utilize DAWs. It adds more more work in the process.

Danny Elfman doesn't orchestrate his own music. In fact his orchestrator probably leads to the sound that he's achieved with some exceptions. He might learned to do it himself later.

Also, there are ghost writers that are hired as well. These are composers that write sections of score for the movie, but are never mentioned in the credits, so the composer takes the credit. The trade off is the ghost writer gets paid a hefty sum, regardless of the success or release of the project.

[btriangle]

At 11/6/09 03:13 AM, nathanallenpinard wrote: The job is in fact not as stressful as it sounds though for most composers. Composers DON'T orchestrate the music. And often composers just hand an orchestrator a lead sheet with chords and a melody, and that's it. Some composers barely sketch ideas. The orchestrator does the rest. After that, a transcriber comes in and puts it to sheet music.

However, it's changed a bit with some composers that utilize DAWs. It adds more more work in the process.

Danny Elfman doesn't orchestrate his own music. In fact his orchestrator probably leads to the sound that he's achieved with some exceptions. He might learned to do it himself later.

Also, there are ghost writers that are hired as well. These are composers that write sections of score for the movie, but are never mentioned in the credits, so the composer takes the credit. The trade off is the ghost writer gets paid a hefty sum, regardless of the success or release of the project.

This is gold information here, it makes sense too. However, wouldnt a composer be hired much earlier than 3 weeks before the release? I understand about the orchestration and sound engineering process, but the composing process takes a while if you want music to sound good, and just right.

And wasnt Han Zimmer a ghost writer for the first Pirates of the Carribean? Maybe thats why they hired him for the other two.

[PeterSatera]

Yeah, Klaus Badelt was the original composer. I hate it how people are like thats zimmer's theme. Its not. He did the sequels which have additional themes in them but its a complete misconception which bugs me.

[brokendeck]

If I remember correctly, Hans Zimmer was the overproducer for the first Pirates soundtrack. There's also a misconception that Klaus Badelt is a protege of his.

[nathanallenpinard]

Hans Zimmer owns his own music production company "Remote Control Productions". The difference is he actually gives credit where it's due, rather than put his name on everything.

A giant list of composers, including Klaus Badelt and Harry Gregson Williams, have worked there at one point. Zimmer puts his name on scores he does the most work on, or develop themes on, while others help if needed.

An unofficial, but accurate list is here: http://www.hans-zimmer.com/fr/newsite.ph p?rub=rcprod

Also, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (the trailer) most definitely is Zimmer and HGW.