Aazealh said:
Okay, thanks for your opinion, I agree, though I'll keep in mind that there's a very small possibility it might be what Hirasawa wrote, but I agree with you much more
Berserk Movie OST
- Thread starter SaiyajinNoOuji
- Start date
Okay, thanks for your opinion, I agree, though I'll keep in mind that there's a very small possibility it might be what Hirasawa wrote, but I agree with you much more
Lukis said:
That seems like a decent improvement to me.
Walter said:
I know, but it's better than the other movies' OST, especially the one which I think some member worded it well; the track that makes Berserk feel like "Desperate Housewives"
I listened to some of the other OSTs of the third movie, so I'll take back what I said in the first sentence. I liked the second movie's OST more.
The studio is not only retarded for butchering what's most likely the greatest story for adults ever, but also for not licensing the old anime's OST (I doubt they even tried). Honestly that's the best OST of every show, movie or game I've ever watched or played, not only fantastic by themselves, but also fitting so well with the Berserk world and characters.
Walter said:
Then using the old music AND getting new music sounds a better solution to me. It's not like the old OST had many tracks anyway.
It might sound better in the movie, but by itself I can't say I like it..
frankencowx said:
Pretty much my feelings about it. It's pretty generic and "meh" by itself.
I didn't think the music for the first two movies was anything special really either, but they did work better in the movie. Basically every track other than two or three were really forgettable though.
nomad
"Bring the light of day"
First and foremost, I'll go ahead and say that despite my complete hatred to this entire project, the Original Soundtrack for this project has been completely professional and a lot of work was put into it. I'll try to elaborate on this as I go.
The good the bad and the oh so ugly
As it was mentioned by Aaz in the Podcast, Berserk being a fantasy genre gives it the ability to pretty much be open to anything in terms of style. Orchestra is one that I have always found fitting, personally. But just like anything, it requires a bit of understanding. I don't know how much data the composer had to create his hard worked results, but it plays a huge role for that matter. From where I stand, it felt as if he didn't have much knowledge on the Berserk world in general, so instead he chose to only highlight the scenes as they went, and used textbook techniques to achieve a movie score/soundtrack. To be more specific, he did in fact attempt to achieve a theme throughout both movies (the ones I've seen so far). However, it doesn't bring any sort of Berserk grasp whatsoever. Instead, it focuses on the one linear emotion each scene carries. Blood and Guts (Walter's favorite) is written in several different ways, but the one thing it misses is teasing the listener with sounds that can reflect the magnitude of this world, or the gravity of the scene at play. A good example is the horrible montage they did in Arc.1 when the nobles were talking about Griffith and the success of the Band of the Falcon. If I hadn't read the subtitles, I would've sworn they were just cracking jokes or this was intended to be a funny scene. A horrible decision by whoever chose that track for that scene (I almost turned off my TV, btw).
Old School VS. New School:
I wouldn't even dare to put these two soundtracks together for two major reasons. One is Hirasawa's inspiration to Miura in the early years (don't know if it still stands). But the most important of all, is that in the original series we had 25 TV episodes with VERY limited tracks to pass as a whole. This creates an automatic hit or miss scenario by forcing the viewer to listen to literally the same track in 2-3 different scenes in a 30 min. period. Powerful, blunt and somewhat saturated melodies alongside Hirasawa's voice (in some) really gave the series the edge it needed to succeed. There are reasons melodies are played, and they can be even more specific than lyrics themselves. And it shows with the tracks "Guts" and "Beherit" that it was designed to be blunt (as in being able to fit any scene that required the emotion it wanted to bring), but somehow leave enough room for you to identify the detail and gravity in each scene it carries. I don't ever remember a time where I said to myself, "I'm sick of listening to the same track" even after all the times we heard those two tracks in particular.
This new movie series is designed using more ambitious tools. And as I had said before, the work is in need of credit for the hard work and awesome quality. However, all I felt in each scene focusing in the music was "Something bad happening", "Casca, sad" "Band of Falcon fights" etc. etc. Projects like these have a disadvantage due to the much bigger library it offers. Meaning that we are no longer "forced" to identify the track with any kind of character or world it tries to describe for the sole reason that most likely, we will only hear it once or twice in a rounded 2-hour period. What is needed? To be powerful enough to stand out, or at least enough for the audience to remember it for X or Y reasons. Giving this project more room to "miss," but at least hold one or two tracks to keep the audience invested without questioning it. Zodd's 5 minute scene filled the blank in Arc.1 It was the only part in which I felt overwhelmed by the strength of the current threat and also wonder my mind outside that box. Other than that? Nothing else, for me at least.
Nomad's Final Thought
I have no basis nor information to prove what I am about to say about this OST. But I can't help feeling that these compositions were created with the western target in mind. And perhaps that drew the composer to explore other alternatives in which perhaps affected the final product as a whole. Japanese music by default is one to be respected for its complicated and extremely unpredictable melodies for western ears. And even in a score form, there has always been at the very least a fragment of that. The fact that we are calling it "generic" makes me question what exactly was the target here.
And on a side note here, I go back and wonder how much information was given or studied. There are many ways to complete a project like this, and it plays a huge role into how much time did the composer have to prepare as well. In no way shape or form are my intentions to bring negativity to him nor anyone involved. But I would recommend a rethink of the strategy for the coming films.
EDIT:
There are ways however that allows such things to be "accepted" by portraying a "tribute to". But normally that only takes one scene, one track and moving on with the show kind-a-thing. Personally? It would be neat to see a fan or someone just posting something like that in the internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60V733uqDM
But that's as far as it will go.
The good the bad and the oh so ugly
As it was mentioned by Aaz in the Podcast, Berserk being a fantasy genre gives it the ability to pretty much be open to anything in terms of style. Orchestra is one that I have always found fitting, personally. But just like anything, it requires a bit of understanding. I don't know how much data the composer had to create his hard worked results, but it plays a huge role for that matter. From where I stand, it felt as if he didn't have much knowledge on the Berserk world in general, so instead he chose to only highlight the scenes as they went, and used textbook techniques to achieve a movie score/soundtrack. To be more specific, he did in fact attempt to achieve a theme throughout both movies (the ones I've seen so far). However, it doesn't bring any sort of Berserk grasp whatsoever. Instead, it focuses on the one linear emotion each scene carries. Blood and Guts (Walter's favorite) is written in several different ways, but the one thing it misses is teasing the listener with sounds that can reflect the magnitude of this world, or the gravity of the scene at play. A good example is the horrible montage they did in Arc.1 when the nobles were talking about Griffith and the success of the Band of the Falcon. If I hadn't read the subtitles, I would've sworn they were just cracking jokes or this was intended to be a funny scene. A horrible decision by whoever chose that track for that scene (I almost turned off my TV, btw).
Old School VS. New School:
I wouldn't even dare to put these two soundtracks together for two major reasons. One is Hirasawa's inspiration to Miura in the early years (don't know if it still stands). But the most important of all, is that in the original series we had 25 TV episodes with VERY limited tracks to pass as a whole. This creates an automatic hit or miss scenario by forcing the viewer to listen to literally the same track in 2-3 different scenes in a 30 min. period. Powerful, blunt and somewhat saturated melodies alongside Hirasawa's voice (in some) really gave the series the edge it needed to succeed. There are reasons melodies are played, and they can be even more specific than lyrics themselves. And it shows with the tracks "Guts" and "Beherit" that it was designed to be blunt (as in being able to fit any scene that required the emotion it wanted to bring), but somehow leave enough room for you to identify the detail and gravity in each scene it carries. I don't ever remember a time where I said to myself, "I'm sick of listening to the same track" even after all the times we heard those two tracks in particular.
This new movie series is designed using more ambitious tools. And as I had said before, the work is in need of credit for the hard work and awesome quality. However, all I felt in each scene focusing in the music was "Something bad happening", "Casca, sad" "Band of Falcon fights" etc. etc. Projects like these have a disadvantage due to the much bigger library it offers. Meaning that we are no longer "forced" to identify the track with any kind of character or world it tries to describe for the sole reason that most likely, we will only hear it once or twice in a rounded 2-hour period. What is needed? To be powerful enough to stand out, or at least enough for the audience to remember it for X or Y reasons. Giving this project more room to "miss," but at least hold one or two tracks to keep the audience invested without questioning it. Zodd's 5 minute scene filled the blank in Arc.1 It was the only part in which I felt overwhelmed by the strength of the current threat and also wonder my mind outside that box. Other than that? Nothing else, for me at least.
Nomad's Final Thought
I have no basis nor information to prove what I am about to say about this OST. But I can't help feeling that these compositions were created with the western target in mind. And perhaps that drew the composer to explore other alternatives in which perhaps affected the final product as a whole. Japanese music by default is one to be respected for its complicated and extremely unpredictable melodies for western ears. And even in a score form, there has always been at the very least a fragment of that. The fact that we are calling it "generic" makes me question what exactly was the target here.
And on a side note here, I go back and wonder how much information was given or studied. There are many ways to complete a project like this, and it plays a huge role into how much time did the composer have to prepare as well. In no way shape or form are my intentions to bring negativity to him nor anyone involved. But I would recommend a rethink of the strategy for the coming films.
EDIT:
Because this project started with their own and for good reason too, it would be a horrible mistake to implement them in the next Arc. For starters, the old OST was created for The Golden Arc, as far as we know. Implementing them in a different Arc and not adding it to Golden Age to begin with, wouldn't make much sense. Should they do something like that (which it wouldn't surprise me if they even tried), the immediate reaction most people would see, is a huge neon sign saying "Desperate". It would discredit *cough* even-more *cough* the entire basis of the original soundtrack. This is one topic that can go forever, bur it's important that we acknowledge the attempt. And all of this ties with the entire "streaming off Hirasawa" conversation in the Podcast. But most important, the worst thing that could happen to a film/soundtrack, is an attack from any media, questioning it's originality.SuperVegetto said:
There are ways however that allows such things to be "accepted" by portraying a "tribute to". But normally that only takes one scene, one track and moving on with the show kind-a-thing. Personally? It would be neat to see a fan or someone just posting something like that in the internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60V733uqDM
But that's as far as it will go.
I was talking about the current trilogy when I spoke about getting the old OST
I thought Shiro Sagisu did the lyrics for songs like "Blood and Guts" but it seems like it's some Mike Wyzgowski guy. (And for some reason I'm reminded of that little one eyed green dude in Monsters inc.)