For years certain telenovelas which may or may not end in -ebelde, -lase 401, and so on have been a not-terribly-guilty pleasure of mine. I think they're awesome. Just one of many things I find appealing about these shows is the music, which tends to be thematic, ridiculously over the top and occasionally reminds me of good ol' anime and VG soundtracks (though thematic more in the sense that they tend to recycle music rather than rework transparent themes, unlike primetime American TV which often consists of short sitcom-y jingles or brand new yet equally indistinguishable music that gets rolled out every week.) Despite a soft spot for it, this music isn't necessarily particularly interesting or of great quality. Just finished on the other hand watching my first episode of Eva Luna - which happens to be on demand starting at episode 84 - and the soundtrack rules. Hope to rub some of it off for some Shafted...Episode 5 should be along in the next two weeks!
-R
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Om Shanti Om and etc.
On a side note, Om Shanti Om is a wonderful movie. For the first half. After the intermission it jumps the shark something fierce.
Also, Daniel and I ought to be finishing episode 2 of Shafted soon.
-R
Also, Daniel and I ought to be finishing episode 2 of Shafted soon.
-R
Plagiarism
Hey guys,
So what counts as plagiarism? If Tosh can do his "Is it racist?" segment, I think I'm due for a "Is it plagiarism?" segment.
The following is the theme from the 2009 movie "The Uninvited", the refrain of which is time-linked through the link and features prominently in the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAu4SrY1wkA&t=1m15s
And here is a song from the 2007 Bollywood hit "Om Shanti Om", which incorporates the same theme, which was featured VERY prominently throughout the movie (after all, it's Bollywood. Thematic consistency - to the point of beating you over the head with it - is a hallmark of the genre):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjcUKhhsW0&t=15s
Is this plagiarism? Of course it could be (and it damn well sounds like it to me - although being a professed fan of Bollywood makes me a bit biased here.) Now on the one hand, this particular thematic motif is simply exquisite (and appears in much better renditions in Om Shanti Om as well - this is all I could find on short notice after just finishing watching the last 40 minutes of "The Uninvited" and noticing "hey, you know what? you stole that.") It's also very simple, so for two composers to arrive at the same theme is in principle not that difficult. Christopher Young! I've got my eye on you. Feel free to come out of the woodwork to defend yourself!
So what counts as plagiarism? If Tosh can do his "Is it racist?" segment, I think I'm due for a "Is it plagiarism?" segment.
The following is the theme from the 2009 movie "The Uninvited", the refrain of which is time-linked through the link and features prominently in the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAu4SrY1wkA&t=1m15s
And here is a song from the 2007 Bollywood hit "Om Shanti Om", which incorporates the same theme, which was featured VERY prominently throughout the movie (after all, it's Bollywood. Thematic consistency - to the point of beating you over the head with it - is a hallmark of the genre):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjcUKhhsW0&t=15s
Is this plagiarism? Of course it could be (and it damn well sounds like it to me - although being a professed fan of Bollywood makes me a bit biased here.) Now on the one hand, this particular thematic motif is simply exquisite (and appears in much better renditions in Om Shanti Om as well - this is all I could find on short notice after just finishing watching the last 40 minutes of "The Uninvited" and noticing "hey, you know what? you stole that.") It's also very simple, so for two composers to arrive at the same theme is in principle not that difficult. Christopher Young! I've got my eye on you. Feel free to come out of the woodwork to defend yourself!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
No, seriously.
Night shift here is such a toss up. Sometimes it's dead quiet, sometimes it's just really busy. Tonight was more of the latter, and though I clearly have some downtime right now, it's been a LONG shift (my karmic reward for complaining about not getting enough hours perhaps). Anyway, I just finished the final draft of the voiceover for Shafted! - Episode 2 tonight, which together with the writing and rewriting Daniel and I do together is by far the most difficult part of the process. I look forward to working with Daniel to add music and sound effects to the mix soon. So it should be done in the next few weeks.
Tron Legacy was good, but it didn't break my mind the way, say, the new Star Trek broke my mind. In fact, it really didn't do much in the mind-breaking field at all, and I saw it in an Imax. I did look forward a lot to hearing Daft Punk's soundtrack, being quite the fan. They delivered about as expected. Though their versatility is very impressive and I look forward to hearing their future cinematic offerings (of which I am quite confident there will be more), their lack of experience in the genre is telling, and some of the less dance-inspired and more cinematic tracks are quite derivative. Think Batman Betrons. Or to a lesser extent, Tronception.
Anyway gotta go.
-R
Tron Legacy was good, but it didn't break my mind the way, say, the new Star Trek broke my mind. In fact, it really didn't do much in the mind-breaking field at all, and I saw it in an Imax. I did look forward a lot to hearing Daft Punk's soundtrack, being quite the fan. They delivered about as expected. Though their versatility is very impressive and I look forward to hearing their future cinematic offerings (of which I am quite confident there will be more), their lack of experience in the genre is telling, and some of the less dance-inspired and more cinematic tracks are quite derivative. Think Batman Betrons. Or to a lesser extent, Tronception.
Anyway gotta go.
-R
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender so awesome it hurts
Some of you may remember me raving about how awesome the early episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender were and how disappointed I was when shortly thereafter the show fell to the level of your average good kid's show. Sure, the animation still kicks the stuffing out a lot of American TV programming, but art direction and execution by themselves are hardly ever a reason to watch something.
Well, I did really like Avatar's story, but since there was no way I was going to wallow through the mediocrity I was sure would be the second and third seasons, I decided to watch just the season 2 and 3 finales. 2 was certainly worth watching but didn't come close to living up to the show's early promise, but I see the 4-part episode that rounds off the series as almost living up to - and even in some ways equaling and surpassing - the quality of the show when it first began. Some parts of it were so awesome it hurt. Now take that with a grain of salt, because my expectations were low going into it - also one of the reasons why I was so blown away by James Cameron's Avatar.
And can we talk about music, briefly? *VERY minor spoilers possible, use no caution whatsoever unless you're like me and extremely uptight about that kind of thing* Avatar's score when it's at its best is very impressive, and a beautiful complement to the action. Since I didn't watch hardly any of seasons 2 and 3, I can't say how much of it was new for the episode, but the overwhelming majority of the music that accompanied the action scenes I don't recall having heard before. The Avatar's theme(s) are used very effectively, both what I'd like to call his "epic journey" theme and his otherworldly "Avatar state" theme that sets the tone for some prominent action at the end of season 1. I guess the soundtrack was done by Benjamin Wynn and Jeremy Zuckerman, and they did a really great job. I look forward to exploring any other work they might have done in my spare time.
-R
Well, I did really like Avatar's story, but since there was no way I was going to wallow through the mediocrity I was sure would be the second and third seasons, I decided to watch just the season 2 and 3 finales. 2 was certainly worth watching but didn't come close to living up to the show's early promise, but I see the 4-part episode that rounds off the series as almost living up to - and even in some ways equaling and surpassing - the quality of the show when it first began. Some parts of it were so awesome it hurt. Now take that with a grain of salt, because my expectations were low going into it - also one of the reasons why I was so blown away by James Cameron's Avatar.
And can we talk about music, briefly? *VERY minor spoilers possible, use no caution whatsoever unless you're like me and extremely uptight about that kind of thing* Avatar's score when it's at its best is very impressive, and a beautiful complement to the action. Since I didn't watch hardly any of seasons 2 and 3, I can't say how much of it was new for the episode, but the overwhelming majority of the music that accompanied the action scenes I don't recall having heard before. The Avatar's theme(s) are used very effectively, both what I'd like to call his "epic journey" theme and his otherworldly "Avatar state" theme that sets the tone for some prominent action at the end of season 1. I guess the soundtrack was done by Benjamin Wynn and Jeremy Zuckerman, and they did a really great job. I look forward to exploring any other work they might have done in my spare time.
-R
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