chani: (Caprica daniel and joseph)
chani ([personal profile] chani) wrote2010-10-06 09:26 pm
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Other talented men

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!

[identity profile] lijability.livejournal.com 2010-10-07 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
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.