Trouble is, the trailers are made LONG before a single note of the score is written. The movie isn't locked yet, hasn't been handed to the composer yet, the composer isn't the one doing music for the trailer regardless - it's all farmed out to one company, that's handed a pile of footage, with no script to tell them what the story is, and given instructions to "make a badass trailer", so they do what they do for every movie

Bingo. Could not have said it better.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, composes new music for a trailer. Period.

The only way they would do it is to compose the score first, and take bits and pieces from it.

But, since the trailer is made a year before the film's release, and none of the score is completely scored yet (if anything, a theme or two, but no orchestration. Too expensive.) they have to use previously recorded music.

What amazes me is that John Williams KNOWS this. And while me may not like the trailer score, and thinks it could have been done better, all he had to do was say, Hey, hand me the trailer, I'll score it for nothing in 30 minutes, and they would have said "done".

But I'd be willing to bet that he would not do it for nothing.

Eh, while the music is shite I don't fault Mr. Williams for failing to rescue them. Even at 80 he's still a busy sonofagun. I'm sure he'd ask for a little something (at least scoring expenses) in principal, as he should, but I'm equally sure nobody asked him.

Because it would not be worth the money just for a trailer.

I'm not faulting him for not rescuing them. I fault him for saying, "NOOOO!!!" instead of "So? It's a trailer, for crying out loud..."

...did he actually say that in some interview or was that just from the above video? because that video was spliced together by some random dude from other JW clips, that wasn't him responding directly to Star Wars. From the few times I've seen him in person he's WAY too classy to $#|+ where he eats.

In fact, I'll even give him the benefit of the doubt.

He *could* have actually said, "So?" and the guy making the video said, "Well, what if they scored the whole movie like that?" THEN he said, "NOOOOOO!!" and the guy edited it as if he were reacting to the trailer score.

That's what I'm trying to point.

I wanted to share this video to make us composers rethink our standards, especially since we don't have any specifications to meet while uploading our tracks on FA. We are free

Pretty much what deamon said above. The music for the trailer is rarely if ever done by the original composer itself - mainly because this early in production it often isn't even set in stone yet who will write the score. In SOME cases the composer might have started to write a few cues and that script is sent to a thir-party company. In case of big Blockbusters it often is TrailerMusic Productions (co-founded by Mr. Nick Phoenix). They made the trailer theme for Inception for example, but Zimmer commented in an interview that the infamous deep Brass hit was actually taken from the early versions of the soundtrack.
For trailers goes the same thing as for the music - Don't read too much into them, it may turn out completely different ;3

That being said with Disney in charge I wouldn't have too high hopes either -_-

Disney actually have amongst the best OST of US productions. They hire the best composers on the market since... well... they have the money ! :P

When you listen to the Classics' soundtrack, you often find a richness, a quality of composition that is often overlooked in other movie genre.



Agree on what has been said : the trailer is rarely composed with the theme in mind. However, it doesn't mean the trailer has to be formatted. This, sadly, is a standard amongst producers who think the more badass, the more it'll sell. Also, the less energy and time it takes, as composing such things takes, not 30mn like the guy said in the video, but not more than a couple of hours...

The re-scored version shows how it could have been handled, while staying in the same "spirit" of the original trilogy soundtracks. It's more a "sound alike" exercice, but it shows it can be done, that it matches the picture as well as the generic trailer, but has more to do with the SW universe.




I didn't make this journal to change Hollywood. I know I won't

I just want to put in perspective that we, composers of the furry fandom, do not have to meet specifications from a producer. We produce music for ourselves and our community, and thus we should express our feelings and soul, and not write generic music-that-fits-all.

I liked the middle one with the composer... I'd truly like to hear more from him...

V.

John Williams. Truly a wonderful composer. I assume you already know him, but if you don't, he's the one who wrote most Spielberg's soundtrack, as famous as Indiana Jones, ET, Jurassic Park... And of course Star Wars from G. Lucas ! :P

All favorites to be sure...

V.

Enjoyed the re-scored one a lot, but it contains too much flourish, even by John Williams' standards. Some of the melodies get interrupted and shift abruptly to make way for some barely-musical scramble of notes. That said, I suppose I liked it better than the actual trailer music. I didn't mind the actual trailer's score, personally. I listen to it a good deal. Nothing wrong with some simple and to-the-point, although I'm not happy that so many people think that the Hans Zimmer knock-off sound is what they're going to get in the actual movie.

I doubt we're going to get the HansZimmer archetype soundtrack in the next SW. But that raise that question : why is the trailer sounding like HZ?

Very good points have been made by previous answers, but still. I cannot help but think a more JohnWilliam-ish approach to the trailer soundtrack would be nice.

Oh yeah, I doubt it too.

I think it sounds that way because that simpler style is in vogue right now. Zimmer's stripped down approach can often "cut to the heart" of things, so to speak, but it lacks the intricacy and flare that makes Williams the more interesting composer. I would definitely have preferred a more John Williams-ish approach, too. It would have been more nostalgic.