# Desplat, Godzilla -- ???



## JohnG (May 25, 2014)

I'm listening to it now. What a surprising (to me) choice!

Don't get me wrong, I like his music a lot, but what an unexpected treat.


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## dcoscina (May 25, 2014)

Interesting. I'm usually very impressed with Desplat but thought he missed the boat on this. Plus the orchestra sounds way too close mic'd and not big enough. That said, I'm a die hard daikaiju fan and have been since I was 6 and grew up listening to Akira Ifukube's music so this new Godzilla music just didn't resonate win me. The best scored part of the film was when they tracked Ligeti's Requiem under the halo drop.


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## AlexandreSafi (May 25, 2014)

Not big enough? I kinda know what you mean, but "correction":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHXR9DX5Wh0

Absolutely John! What a master on this one! His skills, because of this project have proven to be enormous! The tone is perfect. The monster in this movie is never clearly defined as "the" threat, it's all ambiguous, the unpredictibility of the nemesis and figuring out what they're really up against, hence the lack of a distinctive theme, even the ending leaves a question mark, diminishing the possibility of a melody statement, however, the tone again is absolutely spot on...
It doesn't get any more brutal than this one. In fact, i'd call it a thematic melodic-less score...

This is one of the best orchestration lessons we've had in this genre in this decade...
What Desplat did in the first half tension-building scenes of the movie (Intro, Power Plant, San Francisco, etc...) is so quite close to JW's War of The Worlds's craft level here. I love this score, and i won't make the mistake to forget this one...


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## José Herring (May 25, 2014)

dcoscina @ Sun May 25 said:


> Interesting. I'm usually very impressed with Desplat but thought he missed the boat on this. Plus the orchestra sounds way too close mic'd and not big enough. That said, I'm a die hard daikaiju fan and have been since I was 6 and grew up listening to Akira Ifukube's music so this new Godzilla music just didn't resonate win me. The best scored part of the film was when they tracked Ligeti's Requiem under the halo drop.



I'm exactly opposite . I'm usually very underwhelmed by his work. So much so that I wonder most times how he even gets the opportunities he gets. But, I thought Godzilla had some really good moments. Only a few moments where I was rolling my eyes :roll: But overall it was really, really good to hear the natural orchestra again, with mean adjusted tuning and everything, even better that the movie is a success, proving once again that there's room for these kinds of scores in a commercial film. With Godzilla and XMen huge successes, There's a ray of hope for us Hollywood orchestral guys after all. It was looking bleak for a while.


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## Lex (May 25, 2014)

I love the score. It's been a while since I went out of cinema humming the music, and one of my favorite movie score recordings ever, plus fantastic writing.

alex


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## rpaillot (May 25, 2014)

Lex @ Sun May 25 said:


> I love the score. It's been a while since I went out of cinema humming the music, and one of my favorite movie score recordings ever, plus fantastic writing.
> 
> alex



Great score but I found the recording to be rather dull , small , despite the huge number of musicians, everything sounded "little" and close-miked.


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## Lex (May 26, 2014)

rpaillot @ Mon May 26 said:


> Lex @ Sun May 25 said:
> 
> 
> > I love the score. It's been a while since I went out of cinema humming the music, and one of my favorite movie score recordings ever, plus fantastic writing.
> ...



I found it so refreshing that it sounded so detailed and "straight from the stage", it wasn't dry or closed miked at all, but it didn't have the usual 7 sec hall tail added either, which I thought worked really great in combination with huge sound fx.
Great use of sub synth too!

alex


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## dcoscina (May 26, 2014)

I guess I need to listen through a few more times. Conrad Pope was very articulate and enthusiastic about this score from the get go. Speaks volumes since this chap has been one of the best orchestrators in the biz for quite some time.


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## TheUnfinished (May 26, 2014)

I'm not a big fan of Desplat's either (though he has now scored my two favourite films of the year!) but I thought his score worked really well for the most part.

I felt it was a bit over-used in the first third of the film. Loud where it didn't need to be, felt there was more of a build-up required.

However, the final third of the film was spot on for me. Especially some of rather judiciously juxtaposed quieter/calmer moments during the fighting.

Not something I'd listen to for pleasure, but refreshing in its very sparse use of the old electronics (and this from a synth man!).


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## Vin (May 26, 2014)

Very dull-sounding recording. Score was ok. Average music for an average movie.

Regarding Desplat, I have kind of love-hate relationship with his music. Some great scores (_Tree of Life_, _King's Speech_) and some not so great (_Argo_).


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## StephenForsyth (May 26, 2014)

I get the feeling with desplat a lot of his western work is almost like "going through the motions" and just putting out a product and doesn't consider it his real artistry considering he does a lot of non english language film and stuff on the side, alongside writing new concert works outside of film. 

I think with a lot of western movies he's just in tune with what they want rather than what he wants. 

I absolutely adored the grand hotel budapest's score though. The digetic/non digetic interplay on the chase sequence was so cool to see.


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## Lex (May 26, 2014)

Oh how I wish Mr. Desplat was a forum member.

alex


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## Jetzer (May 26, 2014)

I love Desplat's work, one of my favorite composers of today. I especially like his softer, mellow, darker tone, like the ones in Pearl Earring, King Speech, Philomena. I just like his sound, he has a very special 'voice'. 

Haven't seen Godzilla yet so can't really comment on this score yet.


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## dcoscina (May 26, 2014)

It would be great of more composers than Zimmer would drop here once in a while. 

John Powell's recent FSM interview is quite refreshing. He talks about the film scoring industry and why listening to classical composers is better than other film scores. 

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonli ... ssueID=113


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## JohnG (May 26, 2014)

tekkentool @ 26th May 2014 said:


> I absolutely adored the grand hotel budapest's score though. The digetic/non digetic interplay on the chase sequence was so cool to see.



Yes -- it is a genius score. So economical and effective. 

Not that there is any resemblance in sound, but the high ratio of effective / sparse reminded me of Giacchino's "Lost" television music, still my favourite work of his.


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## StephenForsyth (May 26, 2014)

Lex @ Mon May 26 said:


> Oh how I wish Mr. Desplat was a forum member.
> 
> alex



It'd be fun to read them in his accent.


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## Jetzer (May 27, 2014)

After all this talk about natural orchestra's etc in Hollywood movies, people definitely have to check out James Newton Howard's Maleficent Score. 

Only had a first listen on Spotify, but this is by far the best pure orchestral score I have heard in a long time.


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## muziksculp (May 27, 2014)

Big Desplat fan here. 

But... I didn't enjoy the Godzilla score as much as some of his other works. I didn't see the movie, but maybe that's the kind of energy, and sound it required. A bit too tense and brass heavy for my ears. 

Oh well... Maybe I will enjoy his next score.

Cheers,
Muziksculp


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## Consona (May 27, 2014)

rpaillot @ Mon May 26 said:


> Great score but I found the recording to be rather dull , small , despite the huge number of musicians, everything sounded "little" and close-miked.


That was the point. It tried to emulate that old-school monster movie feeling (and it really succeeded imo). Even monsters felt like moved be puppeteers.

I especially loved the music for the opening sequence, it felt just spot-on.


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## SymphonicSamples (May 28, 2014)

I have yet to see the film , but I must say there were some gorgeous moments in the score . I actually enjoyed the fact in the title track the Brass section wasn't the normal wall of Brass sound . What a wonderful piece , the scores orchestral colors were spot on and beautifully orchestrated .


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## Waywyn (May 28, 2014)

such a refreshing moment to listen to a 15/8 maintheme! loved the score!


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## Jacob Cadmus (May 28, 2014)

I can hear why some folks are complaining about the mix; it does sound very dry, but it's certainly not small. It's very oldschool-sounding is what I got from listening to it. Also considering the huge ensembles and the complex orchestration, could it be that maybe a wet mix would have just made it sound muddy?

On a side note: in the main theme, I love that part the lo woodwinds (doubled by celli??) are playing at 1:26. "dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, duuun, DUUUUN" XD


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## Guy Rowland (Jun 5, 2014)

Finally seen the movie and liked the score - I agree with those who said it successfully got the old school feeling, both in orchestration and production. The very start was interesting and effective as the music was obviously EQ'd / recorded to sound old without being OTT (no optical noise or distortion), then when the first BOOOOM sound effect came in it had real punch as a result. Think it was an important part of why so many have commented on the (excellent) sound design for this movie - Desplat both got out of the way and made an impact at the same time.

As for the movie itself - utterly bonkers, ludicrous plotting, characterisations all stopped after 20 minutes and it took itself way too seriously. But on the plus side - super stylish all round and Edwards knows how to use light and shade to stop the horrific Man Of Steel Wall Of Visual And Aural Noise effect. Overall felt like it was a very decent attempt at making a silk purse out of a sow's ear - 3/5.


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