Other talented men

[chani]

Very interesting blog by Bear McCreary on the music he scored for "Unvanquished":

"Tonight’s mid-season premiere, Unvanquished, was directed by Eric Stoltz (Daniel Graystone), who brings an uncompromising visual and narrative style to the story.  Having worked with Eric as an actor, writing him piano arrangements to play on set, I knew he was a talented musician.  So, it came as no surprise when working with him as a director that he brought a sophisticated ear and honed musical instincts to the process."

More here

I'm mostly happy with this bit:

"Towards the end of the episode, Zoe is revealed to be roaming freely through New Cap City and she is attacked by a bunch of goons.  As she proceeds to kick their asses, the score transitions from the expected suspenseful underscore to an oddly simplistic child-like waltz.This was another idea from Stoltz, who wisely felt that a typical action cue would not really add anything to the scene.  Instead, he wanted something innocent and simple, the kind of music that Zoe might have played on the piano as a child, perhaps even something her dad taught her.  With the action effectively choreographed and shot, the action spoke for itself.  The music was now free to explore a deeper narrative thread.  This scene is about a lost child, roaming a dangerous world on her own. I found these ideas artistically challenging and happily tackled scoring the scene in this unconventional matter.  This was a technique that worked very effectively in the past on “Battlestar Galactica,” most notably on The Hub.  Musical scoring that approaches a scene from nearly the polar-opposite perspective from the expected is what makes working on these series so rewarding, and I was grateful that Eric crafted a sequence like this".

It was indeed a great idea and a lovely surprise (and again with the" it's nice to be surprised" leitmotiv that ran throughout the episode) to hear that waltz instead of the expected techno-music you usually get with action scenes. I love Bear's (or was it Eric's?) take on it. It was definitely my favourite part from the episode's score.

McCreary and Stoltz are both very talented men and it's obvious they enjoyed working together. Caprica should be saved if only for that reason!

Comments

[lijability.livejournal.com]

This scene is about a lost child, roaming a dangerous world on her own.

I remember the music. I don't necesarily interpret it the same way that he does but only concerning the above statement. Zoe evidently escaped to New Cap City when Vergis tried to download the chip. I saw the waltz as nothing more than the fighting and even the virtual world of New Cap City was for Zoe nothing but the whimsey of her childhood.

Because they returned to that deep, heavily bass drum/techno beat when Zoe held the man with the gun in her grasp (figuratively held in her grasp) and kept him from doing anything, even in the 'real world.' After she killed him (was that just in New Cap City or also in reality) the music returned to the waltz. It was more a mockery of her adversaries and the virtual world than pointing out that she was lost. And returning to the more serious techno beat pointed out her power in controlling others via their holobands.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

The waltz is a playful piece like Chopin's Valse du Petit Chien. Don't forget that New Cap City is basically a game, a world wherein youngsters rule (like the droogs in Clockwork Orange). I don't think that the music was meant to point that Zoe was lost indeed, but she's still a lost kid, and kids are very cruel and dangerous especially when they play...or fight. New Cap City is actually the perfect world for a lost kid (remember how out of place Joseph was in there?).

This makes me think of the first cylons. They are "the children of humanity", kids turned into soldiers (and as Cyrus said, all that the military wanted was robots that could fight)...hence deadly!

PS: Zoe controlling others is very Matrix-like, not my favourite bit.

[lijability.livejournal.com]

PS: Zoe controlling others is very Matrix-like, not my favourite bit.

You may not like it but I believe it to possibly be the very key to the show. Zoe created her virtual self, imbued it with her own 'soul' so to speak, and she appears to be the only one with the knowledge to do so. She evidently escaped when Vergis tried to download the chip. It's Mother Clarice's "code into a soul" which Zoe came to her about before her death (did Zoe tell Clarice all she needs to know to pull it off?). But if Zoe in the virtual world has all the knowledge and ability to use it that she had in life, then in Clarice's virtual heaven, Zoe is the 'one god.' A god not that just rules over its 'virtual heaven' but has powers that reach into all creation.... as long as that creation is plugged-in. (That is, unless Zoe and Tamara Adama join forces as a dual godhead).
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[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I don't think Zoe told Clarice since Clarice had to steal secrets (the code) from Daniel's lab. After all that's the reason she started a relationship with Amanda.

Virtual Zoe wasn't really Zoe no matter the memories and the personality, she had her own life (the pilot pointed out the differences between the two of them) and she even became something new after Zoe died, and again when Daniel captured the code and downloaded it into the U-87.

Also I tend to think that New Cap Zoe is a new character, and that we haven't seen the end of Cylon-Zoe yet.

Damnit it's worse than Fringe! :- )

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Ahh... you're right. I remembered Zoe going to Clarice but forgot that she stole the code from Daniel.

I tend to think that Zoe did escape to the virtual world from the U-87 because the code they did download didn't test in the 'sentient level' as they said. How else would Zoe be in New Cap City? If everything that was imbued into virtual Zoe's code (by Zoe herself) included everything she knew of her own abilities to create a sentient code, then surely virtual Zoe (v.Zoe) has those computational abilities. Yes, it is not Zoe, people are people, not just our code - our DNA - but more. Yet, Tamara and Zoe are the personification of what was living and like people, v.Zoe is perhaps learning to outstrip even her code.

I got the feeling when they were boxing up the U-87 that it was akin to a funeral. That it was v.Zoe's body, but not her v.soul - the computer code. In that way Clarice is somewhat correct, but, yes, there is a clear disconnect between one's organic mind and what is created in cyberspace. They are not the same.
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"You can't forget this." - Peter on Fringe. Damn, that made be break down crying.
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