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Rogue One - Rescored (* unfinished project *)

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 (Edited)

Hi there!

I’m currently working on a Rescore for Rogue One as I thought the music didn’t do the film justice at all. Nothing against Giacchino but I think the score just ended up being too “Disney” and not really adding much on a emotional level.
So I’m cutting together new tracks out of existing scores and if the 5.1. mix has no or little music in the center channel, it should be relatively easy to put it in.

Would you guys be interested in a version with a different score?

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A lot of the music in the movie felt like fan film music. What do I mean by that? It’s music that’s different enough to avoid copyright infringement, but similar enough that you what it’s supposed to be. Like that Imperial theme that’s not quite the Imperial March, but sounds an awful lot like it. The thing is, they have the rights to the songs, so there’s no need to do that.

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My take is that the main saga should have the good music by Williams. Side films like this should follow in line with Clone Wars and Rebels. They use the same themes, but the music is completely different. So I’m good with how the Rogue One score came out. It was Star Wars enough in the same way the film was.

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The score was pants. One thing I liked though was the evocation of the Death Star fanfare and the original Imperial theme. I always thought the PT jumped to the Imperial March too quickly.

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Mink2301 said:

if the 5.1. mix has no or little music in the center channel, it should be relatively easy to put it in.

If it isn’t that simple?

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Thanks guys! I’ll share some more updates along the way!

Jeebus said:

Mink2301 said:

if the 5.1. mix has no or little music in the center channel, it should be relatively easy to put it in.

If it isn’t that simple?

Well, then it might be very difficult to replace any music. The rescore would most likely be too loud because it would need to overpower the original score. It probably won’t sound any good.

But I’ve “rescored” other movies before where you wouldn’t have thought that their mix would leave room for new music (Sunhshine, Prometheus), so finger’s crossed 😃

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I think it really depends on how intensive the rescore is. There are parts of the score that work well and could be left as is. The real issues will arise when you are trying to rescore scenes with dialogue and/or with very loud music. Battle scenes are relatively ok if you can find the correct sound fx to fill in the lost sound. Does the new battlefront have a file folder with rogue one sound files? That would be a good start.

digmodification.wordpress.com

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DigMod said:

I think it really depends on how intensive the rescore is. There are parts of the score that work well and could be left as is. The real issues will arise when you are trying to rescore scenes with dialogue and/or with very loud music. Battle scenes are relatively ok if you can find the correct sound fx to fill in the lost sound. Does the new battlefront have a file folder with rogue one sound files? That would be a good start.

Yes, this would definitely apply to an “unfavorable” mix where the original music is presented rather loud.
Very good idea to check the Battlefront sounds library! Although of course creating a SFX/dialogue only version would be very time consuming if at all possible.

If the rumors are true we’Ll have the blue ray on March 28th, so not that long from now on to find out 😃

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Thanks for the suggestion! However, my goal is actually to make the score less Star Wars. Giacchino’s original, albeit largely ignoring the drama and being generic, already has that vibe to it.
What I’m trying is to give the music more depth and impact on an emotional level. Make it more serious. Thematically it’ll probably be less coherent than the original score, but again, putting emphasize on the human drama and an overall adult tone of the film is what I’m aiming for.
However, I’m going to use snippets from William’s original trilogy scores, namely The Imperial March for parts of Vader’s scenes as well as the Death Star motif from A New Hope. I think both of those make sense to be in the movie.

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Mink2301 said:

Thanks for the suggestion! However, my goal is actually to make the score less Star Wars.

Very interesting idea. I might suggest watching some war movies and paying attention to their scores, and trying to emulate that style.

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I’d definitely be more interested in a rescore that tries to make the film sound less Star Warsy.

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Jeebus said:

Mink2301 said:

Thanks for the suggestion! However, my goal is actually to make the score less Star Wars.

Very interesting idea. I might suggest watching some war movies and paying attention to their scores, and trying to emulate that style.

Thank you guys! I’m happy to hear that a more non-classical Star Wars approach is also appealing to some of you 😃
The war movie suggestion is a good one! I might use some of the more serious one’s. There’ll be no Dirty Dozen or Delta Force in it for sure 😉

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Well, you could always use John William’s Saving Private Ryan if you’re going that route. Then you’d have a complete Williams Star Wars anthology.

digmodification.wordpress.com

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The music is unfortunately mixed equally loud across all channels, the Center Channel is full of it.
Unless a SFX/dialogue only track miraculously appears, this project is dead.

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This film really needs to be re-scored. I found the music from the rogue one trailers, featurettes, and celebration reels superior. It had a more emotional feel to me.

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I’ve been using some John Williams War of the Worlds cues in my TFA edit and I think that soundtrack would be a great source for Rogue One. I’ll probably end up using it in my own edit in the near future.

digmodification.wordpress.com

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Mink2301 said:

Hi there!

I’m currently working on a Rescore for Rogue One as I thought the music didn’t do the film justice at all. Nothing against Giacchino but I think the score just ended up being too “Disney” and not really adding much on a emotional level.
So I’m cutting together new tracks out of existing scores and if the 5.1. mix has no or little music in the center channel, it should be relatively easy to put it in.

Would you guys be interested in a version with a different score?

You have my 500% support! Rogue One score was too Star Warsy for a film that dared to divert from the usual Star Wars formula. It also had loud booming music for scenes that didn’t need music at all like in some fight scenes (Rogue One would’ve been more immersive that way) I cannot wait. Hope this rescore is more subtle and more akin to Alexandre Desplat and Johann Johannsson’s stuff.

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zoidar said:

Mink2301 said:

Hi there!

I’m currently working on a Rescore for Rogue One as I thought the music didn’t do the film justice at all. Nothing against Giacchino but I think the score just ended up being too “Disney” and not really adding much on a emotional level.
So I’m cutting together new tracks out of existing scores and if the 5.1. mix has no or little music in the center channel, it should be relatively easy to put it in.

Would you guys be interested in a version with a different score?

Go for it. Cant wait
You have my 500% support! Rogue One score was too Star Warsy for a film that dared to divert from the usual Star Wars formula. It also had loud booming music for scenes that didn’t need music at all like in some fight scenes (Rogue One would’ve been more immersive that way) I cannot wait. Hope this rescore is more subtle and more akin to Alexandre Desplat and Johann Johannsson’s stuff.

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Hi, any news about that exciting project ? Ideally, if ANH great music could be rescored into RO that would be marvellous. I thought the movie was brilliant but missed the John Wiliams’s ouch so much to match the grandiose pics… All the best and keep us updated !

Major General Maximilian Veers
Imperial Army
Commanding officer of the Blizzard Force of the Death Squadron at the Battle of Hoth
(actually I am not an admiral, damn it !)