Info Wanted: AOTC score questions

I’m wondering if there’s a video or some website that better explains what happened with the Attack of the Clones score. I looked at wiki and it isn’t explained very well. It doesn’t help that I don’t understand much about how a film score is really put together and produced. What does it mean when music is “tracked”? Because, apparently there was a lot of it in this movie. I know chunks of TPM were used. And I know pieces of the actual soundtrack were not used. There was never an ultimate edition of this score released, right? But I do recall some unreleased tracks put onto a Star Wars video game a few years later, right? I just have lots of questions about this score. And I’m wondering if there’s some corner of the web that has more answers.

And YES I’m looking to see if someone has the most complete version of the score that might be willing to share. 😃

Should I post this in the General section instead?

Ah ok. Good to know. With that bit of info, I bet the Yoda/Dooku battle is one example of this. I’m sure it took them quite a while to nail down the timing of all the shots in that sequence. So to have the freedom to mix certain musical elements well into the editing phase would be helpful I’m sure. However, (if I’m even understanding all of this correctly) the score does seem to also suffer in this regard. John Williams TPM score is so wonderful (even putting aside Duel of the Fates, which I’m a bit sick of) and insanely detailed (for lack of a better musical term) while AOTC doesn’t seem to have nearly the same effort put into it.

Does anyone know why the Arena battle music wasn’t used but then latter repurposed in ROTS? If it had been used, where would it have been inserted exactly?

Ah ok. So yes there is some of this going on by using bits of TPM score towards the end of the movie.

Yes I did know about the bonus track. The end of the track they used in the TV spots for AOTC. I remember taking not of it at the time but then noticed later (probably once on DVD) that it was absent from the movie.

I seem to recall hearing a classical piece very very similar…maybe by Holst…don’t remember.

alexp120 said:

SomethingStarWarsRelated said:

What does it mean when music is “tracked”? Because, apparently there was a lot of it in this movie. I know chunks of TPM were used. And I know pieces of the actual soundtrack were not used.

Actually, the meaning that ‘tracking’ references is the practice of using music that is not written exclusively for the film that is being worked on. It can be music from other films, classical or contemporary music that has been released commercially (the film, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is a good example), or even pop music–old and new.

There was a separate release of the AOTC soundtrack CD with one bonus track, "On The Conveyor Belt," that was sold exclusively by the store-chain, Target.

I think in the case of AOTC, it refers to the fact that Williams wrote a bunch of music that could be used for scenes which Lucas was still figuring out/editing/re-editing, especially the battle at the end. This is a very different way of doing things than the OT, wherein Williams would receive the finished (save a few minor final cuts) film and write the music to match the nearly-final cut. This allows for a lot of nice touches to the music (timing to match events on screen), but restricts the director & editor to finish his work on time and then commit to it.

@timdiggerm
OK, yes, this is something I think I’ve heard before. Are there articles that talk about this anywhere? maybe on the DVD commentaries or something?

There’s even parts where there’s lots of “looping”. Like in the Zam chase there’s some percussion that seems to go on and on, where you wouldn’t normally hear this from Williams. The “mystery/Kamino” theme: even though it sounds kind of OT, again, it’s on a kind of loop if you will. Across the Stars is a nice piece, but it always seems to play out in it’s entirety. Whereas lots of times in the OT a theme will begin to play but then it will transition to something else as an action or emotion changes on screen. At least, this is what I’m picking up on.

On another note, I seem to recall in an old TV Guide with an interview of John Williams. It came out sometime after TPM but before AOTC. He mentions adding the Death Star music from ANH into AOTC. Of course, it ain’t in the movie…and I don’t know why. I don’t know if anyone has access to old TV Guides cirra 2000-2002, but that would be an interesting find…if I’m even remembering correctly.

OK, I was actually trying to find which TV Guide I would’ve seen back then and came across these 4 different covers for TPM. I don’t remember seeing this artwork before…pretty cool.

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/archive/suboffer/1990s/1999/19990515_c1.jpg.html

Damn! Then they did 4 more a month later!

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/archive/suboffer/1990s/1999/19990612_c1.jpg.html

Then for AOTC they had 3 covers:

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/archive/suboffer/2000s/2002/20020511_c1.jpg.html

I don’t remember if the John Williams interview (which wasn’t very long) would’ve been in any of these issues…although I typically would look through issues that had something on the cover I was attracted to. It more than likely would’ve been one of TPM issues. Because it was definitely before AOTC came out.

Hmmm…it could be in this one too…
http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/archive/suboffer/2000s/2001/20011124_c1.jpg.html