I want you to imagine that you are at the movie theater and you
are watching the newest blockbuster hit.
Now fast-forward to part of the movie where all heck is breaking loose. The hero is in the midst of a life or death
struggle to save his family and the world as we know it. Tensions are high, and the stakes are
higher. There is no dialog during this
scene, but there are two things. There is
action and there is music.
The scene I just described to you could probably be taken
from one of a hundred adventure or superhero movies. It seems that there are
times in cinema when actions and music speak louder than words. If you
don’t believe me let’s try another example. Now I want you to picture yourself at a
different movie. The main character has
tried their hardest, done everything within their power to succeed, and yet
still things don’t go their way. Perhaps
it is the death of a loved one, a breakup, or lost fortune. These are some of the most emotional heart wrenching
moments that you find in movies but now imagine watching that same scene on
mute. Does the emotion of the scene hit
you? Are you affected at all? My guess
is that if you watch the scene with volume it will be many times more emotional
and real than if you watch it without sound.
When I was in middle school I had a brilliant music teacher
who used this very technique to show my peers and me just how important music
was when trying to convey emotions. It doesn’t
matter if that emotion is fear, sadness, joy, or epicness, music is able to transcend
genres. From my eighth grade music class
I learned to respect music’s place in movies and now when I critique a movie
the effectiveness of the music is one of the major areas I observe. My sister works at a local movie theater so I
am able to see a lot of free movies and hear many film scores. From watching all these movies something troubling
is becoming apparent to me. What is this
troubling issue you may ask? It is that many of the big pictures, the most
popular films of the last few years seem to have similar sounding scores. This notion got me to thinking, “who exactly
is composing the music that we hear?” Is the music in major films the product
of many different composers with maybe a few repeats? Or are there a few dominant
players who control the industry? Below
are the results of what I found…
(Lists appear with film
first followed by composer of film score)
Highest Grossing
Films of 2013
1.
Iron Man 3 – Brian
Tyler
2. The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire –James Newton
Howard
3. Despicable
Me 2 – Pharrell Williams
4. Man
of Steel- Hans Zimmer
5.
Monsters University- Randy Newman
6. Gravity-
Steven Price
7.
Fast & Furious 6- Lucas Vidal
8.
Oz the Great and Powerful –Danny Elfman
9. Star
Trek Into Darkness – Michael Giacchino
10.
Frozen *- Kristen
Anderson Lopez/Robert Lopez
*The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
is likely to be in the top 10 bumping out Frozen. This soundtrack was conducted by Howard Shore
Highest Grossing
Films of 2012
1.
The Avengers- Alan Silvestri
2.
Dark Knight Rises- Hans Zimmer
3.
Hunger Games- James Newton Howard
4.
Skyfall- Thomas
Newman
5.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey –Howard Shore
6.
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2- Carter Burwell
7.
Amazing Spider-Man- James Horner
8. Brave- Patrick Doyle
9.
Ted- Walter
Murphy
10.
Madagascar 3-
Hans Zimmer
Highest Grossing
Films of 2011
1.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Alexandre Desplat
2.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Steve Jablonsky
3. Twilight
Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 – Carter Burwell
4.
Hangover Part II – Christophe Beck
5. Pirates
of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides- Hans
Zimmer
6.
Fast Five- Brian
Tyler
7.
Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol – Michael Giacchino
8.
Cars 2- Michael
Giacchino
9.
Sherlock Holms: Game of Shadows- Hans Zimmer
10.
Thor- Patrick
Doyle
Highest Grossing
Films 2010
1. Toy
Story 3- Randy Newman
2.
Alice in Wonderland – Danny Elfman
3.
Iron Man 2- John
Debney
4.
Twilight Saga Eclipse- Howard Shore
5.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1- Alexandre Desplat
6.
Inception – Hans
Zimmer
7.
Despicable Me – Pharrell Williams
8. Shrek
Forever After – Harry Gregson-Williams
9. How
to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
10.
Tangled – Alan
Menken
The Breakdown (Number
of Movies per Composer)
6 Hans Zimmer (Inception, Man of Steel, Madagascar
3, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Dark Knight Rises, Sherlock
Holms Game of Shadows)
3 Howard Shore (The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
3 Michael Giacchino (Cars 2, Mission Impossible
Ghost Protocol, Star Trek Into Darkness)
2 Alexandre Desplat (Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows Part 1 and Part 2)
2 Brian Tyler (Fast Five, Iron Man 3)
2 Carter Burwell (Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
Part 1 and Part 2)
2 Danny Elfman (Oz the Great and Powerful,
Alice in Wonderland)
2 James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games,
Catching Fire)
2 Patrick Doyle (Thor, Brave)
2 Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me, Despicable
Me 2)
2 Randy Newman (Monsters University, Toy Story
3)
1 Alan Menken (Tangled)
1 Alan Silvestri (The Avengers)
1 Christophe Beck (Hangover Part 2)
1 Harry Gregson Williams (Shrek Forever After)
1 James Horner (Amazing Spider-Man)
1 John Debney (Iron Man 2)
1 John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon)
1 Kristen Anderson Lopez/Robert Lopez (Frozen)
1 Lucas Vidal (Fast and Furious 6)
1 Steve Jablonsky (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
1 Steven Price (Gravity)
1 Thomas Newman (Skyfall)
1 Walter Murphy (Ted)
Results
Twenty-four different composers have been responsible for creating
the scores of the 40 highest grossing films of the 2010’s (Highest 41 if you
include The Desolation of Smaug). That
number works out to about 1.7 films conducted per each of the twenty-four
composers on the list. That stat in and
of itself is not bad. There are a few
composers like Hans Zimmer that lead the pack and plenty of composers with only
a single film to their credit but on a standard distribution curve these numbers
would plot quite nicely. There is
however more to this story than meets the eye and that comes in the form of the
film score production studio: “Remote Control Productions.” You see many times composers act as their own
bosses making deals to do films with music studios or being selected by
directors (ex: John Williams and Steven Spielberg) but sometimes composers work
for film score studios of which Remote Control Productions is an example.
What sets Remote Control Studios apart from other production
studios is that it is massive and that it is owned by non-other than Hans
Zimmer the number one man on our list. Remote
Control Studios employees not 10, 20, or 30, but over 50 composers who are constantly
working on movie scores and in addition to that they produce music for films which
they are not directly composing. Many of
the composers who are employed at Remote Control Studios have become very
successful and are on the list I created above. This includes: James Newton Howard, John Powell, Steve Jablonsky,
Henry Gregson Williams and production for Pharrell Williams. So let’s see what the results look like when
we factor in all music that goes through Hans Zimmer and his studio.
6 Hans Zimmer (Inception, Man of Steel, Madagascar
3, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Dark Knight Rises, Sherlock
Holms Game of Shadows)
2 James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games,
Catching Fire)
2 Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me, Despicable
Me 2)
1 Harry Gregson Williams (Shrek Forever After)
1 John Powell (How to Train
Your Dragon)
1 Steve Jablonsky (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 Films with Music
Scored by Remote Control Studios
These results mean that out of the 41 highest grossing
movies of the past four years over 31% of them have been created or produced in
some way by Hans Zimmer. This is an
impressive feat but at the same time I feel like it leaves room for concern. I
am a big fan of Zimmer’s work especially in the Pirates of the Caribbean series
but I feel like since that it has been slipping some. Could we have a case of quantity over
quality? Moreover, is it possible that
because of Zimmer’s great success other composers are borrowing his style to
create the popular sound that “everyone” wants to hear? I don’t know the answer, but what I do know
is that when nearly a third of the music in popular movies sounds the same
people are going to start to get bored and that will usher in change. The question really is will Remote Control
Studios be part of the change or a casualty of it?
Sources:
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