Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

I don’t know why the orchestrator did not transpose the full score. I see a lot of
these “new” guys (this generation) tend to do concert “C” scores and not properly
transpose the transposing instruments such as the Bb clarinets and trumpets, the horns,
and so forth (as Herrmann did, as Murray Cutter did, and at least 90% of all the other
back in the “old” days). Is it laziness? Is it they’re simply not proficient in it and tend to
make a lot of mistakes if they tried? Is it what the composer wants (unlikely)? After all,
when the Parts are done, they have to be converted to a transposed score—normal way
for the professional player to read the music. I don’t know. If I ever get into a room with
a bunch of these younger orchestrators, I’ll ask! [end session Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at
11:05 pm]
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-Vertical Limit (2000) *** 1/2 [music ****]
http://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Limit-Special-Scott-
Glenn/dp/B00003CXQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292986687&sr=1-1
Speaking of James Newton Howard’s music, here is another score he did for this
movie. Now: I know a lot of people did not care much for this action flick, but I thought
it was good escapist entertainment. It reminds me somewhat of Stallone’s Cliffhanger
that I also liked (but was much more violent). I like the stars, especially Chris O’Donnell
(I remembered him from the two Batman movies), Bill Paxton and Scott Glenn. There are
a fair number of excellent “Freeze Frame” shots (as I call them) when you hit the pause
button on the dvd and you see the still frame of a picturesque shot (natural, special
effects, whatever). Some of the opening cliff-climbing shots are nice. The digital
placement of K-2 in the 00:12:58 scene is nice. I liked the “Rescuers Arrive” chapter
when the helicopter perilously lets off the rescue party onto a mountain cliff. This
includes, say, 1:00:59 and 1:03:34. The ledge-cracking scene is nice. A free frame
location is 1:16:30. Be sure to listen to the commentary by the director (Martin
Campbell) and Lloyd Phillips because it provides lots of insights and info on the making
of the scenes. They briefly praise the composer starting at 00:23:34. The director states
that Howard is a “very clever composer” who wrote maybe about 90 minutes of music
that never intruded but helped the scenes and create mood.
I discussed this score in my Blog # 26. Here’s the paste below but with added
information from today’s observation of the dvd, add cue delineations, and so forth:
“As I mentioned above, while I do not have access to the King Kong written
score, I did very briefly study James Newton Howard’s score for Vertical Limit. I looked
at it at Columbia five years ago when I researched Goldsmith’s score for Hollow Man.
Howard’s score is a “Concert Score.” This means that the full score is not transposed to
the proper notes for transposing instruments such as the alto flutes, clarinets, horns, and
so forth. This is curious. I wonder why the orchestrators (Brad Dechta, Jeff Atmajian,
Pete Anthony, Jon Kull, Frank Bennett) do this?? Why let the copyists do the
transposing? The score is dated June 18, 2000.
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