Danny Elfman's Greatest Hits

Danny Elfman is one of the most successful (and highest-paid) film and TV composers ever. Like John Williams, Elfman's music often transcends mood-setting background and becomes hummable foreground music. Think "The Simpsons" theme. Even if many of the movies he's graced with his talents didn't deserve it (e.g. that gawdawful remake of Planet of the Apes).

Check out this montage of Elfman's greatest hits on Youtube.

Not a big Elfman fan. I do recognize him as being a talented guy but I find his style to be a bit predictable and cutesy (and as a result irritating). Actually I think what ended it for me was the "Batman" patch in Dimension pro. Instant Elfman!

Elfman = predictable
Williams = predictable
Kaman = predictable

That's why they keep getting hired over and over.

Again, I agree with Mark, not necessarily a bad thing.

They negelected Elfman's greatest movie moment...

Dead Man' party in Back to School
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIOulqDF_l4

bapu


Elfman = predictable
Williams = predictable
Kaman = predictable

That's why they keep getting hired over and over.

Again, I agree with Mark, not necessarily a bad thing.

Well Kamen has been dead for almost ten years so I don't think he keeps getting hired anymore!  And Williams? Have you heard the scores to "Memoirs of a Geisha" or "Catch me if you can"? Completely different, and just as good (if not better) than his more traditional scores (which I also love). Elfman on the other hand is just lucky someone keeps greenlighting Tim Burton's overrated crap.

Hi,

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000384/

Between you and I ... this is good stuff, but not great.

I would not compare Danny to a Maurice Jarre, a Vangelis Pappathanassiou, a Gabriel Yared, a Bernard Herrmann or a Zbigniew Preisner ... people whose music for the films is timeless and has graced the theaters of the world with an astonishing effect and degree.

That said, I think that Danny's best work is almost always with The Simpsons and Tim Burton ... even though I really think that he could get a bit weirder and stranger with Tim and the director would make the music work and then some.
 
All in all though, the music and how it is used in the majority of his work is fairly conventional and not really that special in my book. But it is good, or on par with other Hollywood composers like James Newton Howard.

My other I love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOhncfDJum8

It doesn't really work that way. I read an interview with Elfmann once and it made me appreciate what an incredibly challenging job the composer has. Writing great music must be challenging enough (I'm not a composer, so I can only dream of being able to do that). But what makes it far more difficult for the film score composer is the short time frame the composer has to work in. He cannot complete a score until the final cut of the film is "in the can", at which time the studio demands the music be completed yesterday. These guys probably earn every penny of the big bucks they get paid. Maximum stress, I'd say.

 
Actually it does in some cases.
 
There is an interview with Florian Fricke (Popol Vuh) and he was asked about the music used in various films. The comment was that he always had tapes around and that Werner would stop by ... find a piece of music he liked and leave. And later you found some magnificent visuals to a lot of Popol Vuh in the films.
 
David Lean also stated that there were times when he had to cut down the scene, because the music was just too much, and he just wanted to sit there and close his eyes and listen to the music and imagine the rest!
 
Hitchcock, actually learned to be more "weird" and "strange" with the camera angles AFTER he started using Bernard Herrmann music ... some of its weirdness having the effect of dis-associating you with the visual ... and leaving you hanging.
 
Roman Polanski, did this with the aid of a hand held camera as well, to create some really scary moments.
 
Vangelis pretty much stopped doing soundtracks because many directors were only cutting out a minute or two of his music and forget the rest. The 2 people that didn't, got him an Oscar and one of the prettiest soundtracks ever written for a film ... Blade Runner! The scene with the chairs was actually a piece of film on the floor ... that was not going to get used and became the symbol of the film.
 
The Hollywood model is about the little pieces and bits to help with the transitions, whereas a lot of european film does a bit more with music than just transitions. The majority of pieces of music, in the credits at the beginning and end, are usually fine, but in between, it's mostly a filler.
 
The creative process is ALSO about the music. The rest is about how a director uses the music ... and if you have not seen Carlos Saura use music ... ohhhh ... you're in for a treat. You need to find his film "Carmen" ... to get totally stupified, and then later catch his "Tango" ... which is just a tribute to the dance with massive music to lead the way!
 
In America, too much of the film is about the "action" and the music is almost incidental, and it's only job is to enhance that moment or let the sound effects do it. Try telling a Bertollucci that! A director whose film got an Oscar for Riuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne, and Riuichi did the western music and Byrne the eastern music in the film ... go figure, that an Italian director would even know how to make music shine in China! ... because the director also knew how to show case the music with Storaro's color filters and ideas and creativity!
 
See a film called "Visions of Light" ... it explains music a lot more than anything else ... but it's about the camera!
 
I don't dislike Danny ... but he is terribly conventional for my book. And a product of his environment. He will never get better, because the stars and the whomever is always more important and his music is secondary. At least with Tim Burton and The Simpsons, the creators are less afraid to have fun with the music and expand the idea. But visually, Hollywood won't allow it to happen as they think your attention span is only 30 seconds long courtesy of the daily tv load!

ee a film called "Visions of Light" ... it explains music a lot more than anything else ... but it's about the camera!

I've just added it to my Netflix queue. Thanks for the tip.

Speaking of interesting documentaries, I recently saw "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey". Interesting guy, Theremin was, and had an interesting life. It's got to be the hardest instrument in the world to play serious melodies on, but Theremin himself was pretty good at it. The film also features a true virtuoso of the theremin, Clara Rockmore.

recently saw "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey".

When that came out, I excitedly went and saw it with my girlfriend at the time. She didn't like it. I should've known at that point that the relationship was doomed.

Bitflipper
Order Forbidden Zone.  You may hate it, you may love it, but it will definitely rank in the top 20 strangest movies you will ever see.  Elfman's bro produced it, Oingo Boingo scored it and Danny acts in it.