1. What the heck is up with the title Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire? I’m an author too, and while no one is likely to make a movie from my book, I’d be embarrassed to have to deal with a movie titled Failure: Based on the Book “Legal Project Management” by Steven B. Levy. What’s next? Avatar: Based on the Screenplay “Avatar” by the Actual Winner’s Ex-Husband?
2. I’ve been part of an online discussion with other sometime musicians around the best-score award, which went to Up. The Avatar score was haunting, but Avatar would have been pretty much the same movie even if John “Star Wars” Williams or Elmer “Magnificent Seven” Bernstein had scored it. Up, however, was defined by the wordless four-minute sequence near the start that shows the two characters growing through 70 years of life. It was this sequence where an animated film moved through a magic curtain to become personal and real, and it was the score that made the sequence work.
Not all of John Williams’ or Elmer Bernstein’s music is as bombastic as the two movies I mentioned, by the way. Williams also scored Schindler’s List and Bernstein did A River Runs Through It. for example.
Here’s a clip of that scene from Up on YouTube. Listen to how the simple melody transforms constantly, especially the change a minute and a half into the scene.
