Recently I discovered a site called The Playlist and it has quickly become one of my favorite places to read about what’s going on in the film world. The Playlist bills itself as “A place ostensibly dedicated to that sweet spot where movies and music meet but a place to discuss whatever the f we want”, so you can see why I dig it. A quick search for the word music on their main page yields 46 hits. A query for movies nets 24. Isn’t it refreshing to see weight given to the composers and recording artists who breathe life into film?
Maybe I’m biased, but often I feel like it’s easy to overlook a score when watching a movie. Especially these days with our box offices being invaded by blue creatures from a galaxy far far away. Today’s films are extremely bombastic and there is so much eye candy that it’s easy for our thalamus to screw off our temporal lobe in favor of our friskier occipital. Also, maybe it’s just me, but it always seems like the best scores really go unnoticed because they mesh so well with a film. Perhaps, for that reason, I feel like notice a score more if the music doesn’t seem to work in concert with a scene. Que sera? At least it’s really nice to see a site like The Playlist helping to give some credit where it’s due. The only thing the writers there are missing is a spotlight for set builders. Those guys always get shafted.
If you have a moment, I’d highly recommend checking out what The Playlist is doing. Here are a couple of their recent articles I’ve really enjoyed. Happy clicking!
The Best Soundtrack, Scores & Music Moments of 2009
Grizzly Bear Contribute Songs To ‘Jack Goes Boating’
Marvel Head Confirms The Hulk Will Appear In The ‘Avengers’ Film
More Anticipated 2010: The 15 Most Anticipated Arthouse Films
‘Avatar’ Featurette Provides Insight Into Production, Footage of Sam Worthington With Plastic Ears
On an Avatar-related note, I couldn’t help but share this piece by Scott Wampler of the Dallas Comedy Examiner with you. I’m just going to leave the video bit of it here…
Hope this finds you feeling healthy!
-Mason
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read about My Top 10 Favorite Movies.
Tags: avatar, avengers, comedy, film scoring, grizzly bear, marvel, movies, music, score, scott wampler, set builders, soundtrack, the hulk, The Playlist
February 3, 2010 at 1:41 AM |
“Today’s films are extremely bombastic and there is so much eye candy that it’s easy for our thalamus to screw off our temporal lobe in favor of our friskier occipital”
…what?
I totally didn’t understand that at all. Haha I feel so clueless right now. =/
Though reading through it I can guess… Hmmmm. The visuals are so flashy we don’t play too much attention to the audio, yes?
February 3, 2010 at 1:45 PM |
Exactly! I became curious how we processed sound and vision when writing this so I paid a visit to Wikipedia. After a quick bit of research, I thought it would be fun to share my findings. On second review though, that doesn’t sound nearly as interesting or as cool as I initially thought it did
Fire the writer!
-Mason
February 3, 2010 at 5:45 PM |
Actually it did sound pretty cool, once I worked it out. Haha.
February 3, 2010 at 7:18 PM |
Sweet! I think “friskier” may have saved it. I love the way that word sounds
-Mason
February 3, 2010 at 7:25 PM |
Hehe, nice. I just love the context. It’s like… “That’s one frisky occipital!” “Why yes indeed, it does seem quite frisky today!”
Sorry. My brain is frozen. I’ve been outside. Haha.
February 3, 2010 at 7:38 PM |
haha Thanks! Did you see any copsicles?
February 3, 2010 at 8:18 PM |
Nope, no copsicles… Fortunately for my eyes. Hahaha oh dear. They’re brave, you’ve gotta give them credit for that!
February 4, 2010 at 9:15 PM |
haha! I agree.
February 5, 2010 at 2:16 AM |
I am somewhat curious as to why they opted for that particular method of raising money (was there really no other way?), but not curious enough to click the link. Haha.
February 5, 2010 at 12:38 PM |
I don’t know. But they got some great PR out of it so more power to them!
February 5, 2010 at 6:21 PM |
[...] packaged. Avatar is doing beacoup bucks in the box office and it’s in 3-D right? (See my entry, Meet The Playlist: The Sweet Spot Where Music and Film Converge for some funny commentary on this) And the Grammy’s viewership has been sucking lately so they [...]