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shock
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Oct 23, 2003
Member#: 3465
Posts: 380
Location: Switzerland
   
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 Posted:
Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:19 am Post subject: "Fable" (XBox Game) Theme by Danny Elfman (clip) |
 
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As some of you may know, Danny Elfman has recently finished writing & recording the main theme for the new epic XBox RPG by Peter Molyneux, the guy that brought us "Populous" and "Black & White".
Here's a soundclip (beware: extremely bad sound quality).
I love it! Sounds a bit like "Sleepy Hollow" meets "Lord of the Rings"...
And here's what Elfman has to say about scoring "Fable":
(source: www.1up.com )
Hollywood legend Danny Elfman
dishes the inside dirt on his music.
by Matt Leone 07/28/2004
Batman, Chicago, The Hulk... chances are, you've heard Danny Elfman's work before. A box office regular, the former front man for seminal '80s rock band Oingo Boingo found his true calling scoring some of Tinseltown's biggest blockbusters. But thanks to Microsoft, the composer -- whose performance in last year's Big Fish netted an Oscar nomination -- will soon be expanding his horizons. Fable, Peter Molyneux's long-awaited role-playing opus boasts an original theme penned the renowned musician. With the title's debut impending, we caught up with the acclaimed artist for an exclusive chat about one unsuspecting songwriter's foray into the glamorous world of game development.
So why would Elfman, having achieved success in other mediums, decide to take on a game? "For exactly that reason -- because Fable wasn't a film or commercial," he says. "It's a welcome break from the daily grind that is working on a movie's score. A movie can consume your life for months on end. It's nice to have something that takes roughly a week to complete. That's a break, from my perspective."
When talking about working in the game industry, it's unusual for anyone to refer to their time as "a break," but Elfman has found a common ground between writing music for games and films. "Working on a game versus a movie really wasn't all that troublesome for me," he says. "In fact, in my mental processes, I was simply doing a fantasy/action flick. Had Fable really been a feature film, I don't see how the work would have been any different...Microsoft didn't even have an introductory sequence to show me when I wrote the theme. I just pictured an imaginary intro and ran with it."
In creating that introduction, Elfman incorporated a few of the main concepts from the game. Most notably, his theme is designed around the difference between those who choose to be heroes and those who play with evil thoughts. "In the context of the game, there's still a light side, a dark side, and an action-packed side to the adventure," he says. "It's a fairy tale with monsters, battles, heroes -- all the standard elements are there. I'm simply setting a tone in the title sequence that states for the audience what's about to happen. The difference is that users can simply dial up the degree to which light and dark side elements factor into the experience."
As for how he expects players to react to his tune, Elfman is non-committal since he doesn't know exactly how the music will be used in the final game. "It's like when I do a theme song for a movie, but don't wind up doing the whole score," he says. "I write it, turn it in to the director, and then have no idea what they'll do with it. Who knows? The score as a whole could wind up being s***ty. A lot of what peripheral composers do can be good or bad. On this end, I set a really strong tone for the game that'll make the user go, "wow." Fable's theme feels big, that's for sure. But who knows what the final mix will sound like, or what the people composing the soundtrack will do to expand upon it."
Elfman says players may be surprised to find out that when he went in to record the song, he only used "a small orchestra" and he prepared for it like he would a commercial. "I tried to coax this big-sounding song from a really small group by adding synthesized natural sounds," he says.
Given that his time investment was relatively small, why does Elfman think more well-known composers haven't helped out with games? "Most have probably avoided the crossover because of the constraint that with most games, you're typically asked to make a synthesized score that's supposed to sound like an orchestra," he says. "To me, that just sounds cheesy. Who wants to hear synthetic oboes and clarinets? I [understand] why most game developers have to do it -- they have no money -- but for me, I won't use anything less than 80% real instruments."
Though Elfman is not much of a game player himself, he sees that as a good thing for a composer. "I approach every piece of work the same way," he says. "Let's say a project has some history behind it, like a franchise such as Batman or Mission Impossible...I try to divorce myself of any connection to that. History isn't a good thing to consider from a composer's standpoint. Approaching any project with a sense of its history automatically pulls down you a few notches and prejudices you as an artist."
However, Elfman wasn't always a distanced fan of the game industry. "There was a point in my own life where I was going to arcades in Venice, California all the time," he says. "I got so involved with these machines; it'd make your head spin. As a result, these days, I actually like recreations that don't involve and flashing lights or loud music. Surfing the Internet is about as much excitement as I can handle."
Despite that, Elfman is pleased with his contribution to Fable. "It was definitely easier than expected," he says. "I didn't encounter any pitfalls, even though I thought some might arise. Working on Fable was a lot nicer than working on a commercial too -- advertisers are a pain in the ass to deal with. The guys at Lionhead were charming by comparison."
As far as future game work goes, Elfman says it's a possibility. "By all means, [though] I try to avoid genre quicksand whenever possible. For example, movies in the action category come to me all the time, but I hate doing two films in the same genre in a row. I was thrilled to have Big Fish arrive between Spider-Man and The Hulk. The next Mario or Pokemon titles are certainly possibilities. Whatever genre I just worked on, my desire is to never do it again. At least, as long as I'm not asked to do a romantic comedy instead. That's where I draw the line." |
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shock
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Oct 23, 2003
Member#: 3465
Posts: 380
Location: Switzerland
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Posted:
Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Update:
Link Removed.
Shock, for frick's sake. |
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 thuringwethil
Captain
Joined: Jul 30, 2004
Member#: 7505
Posts: 1871
Location: Deep in the heart of Texas, formerly from the Heart of Dixie
  
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Posted:
Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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Very cool, never would have guessed it was a game.
_________________
'He looked at her, and being a man whom pity deeply stirred, it seemed to him that her loveliness amid her grief would pierce his heart.' —Faramir's thoughts on Éowyn |
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Cocles
Commodore
Joined: Mar 06, 2002
Member#: 15
Posts: 2587
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Posted:
Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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Please do not post anything larger than a 30 second clip on these forums. Anything more could be viewed as Music Piracy. |
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shock
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Oct 23, 2003
Member#: 3465
Posts: 380
Location: Switzerland
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Posted:
Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:31 am Post subject: |
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I understand - and you all know how I think about music piracy. However, since that theme isn't available on CD and the only way to get it would be to buy an X-Box and the game (= 200$), I thought it would be safe to let you hear it. After all, who (besides me) would be willing to spend 200$ for 3 minutes of new Elfman music?
To stop further discussions, I will post an edited down 30-seconds version though. |
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Cocles
Commodore
Joined: Mar 06, 2002
Member#: 15
Posts: 2587
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Posted:
Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:03 am Post subject: |
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Piracy is Piracy regardless of how difficult it is to acquire a creative work.
Thanks for editing it down. |
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Haurk
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined: Jan 04, 2004
Member#: 4340
Posts: 85
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
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Posted:
Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:04 am Post subject: |
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I got my copy of Fable yesterday... It's wonderful. The gameplay, the graphics, and the music.
If I've understood correctly it's only the main theme that's made by Elfman, and it's beautiful but all music so far is really great. Let's just hope they release a soundtrack CD sometime soon. |
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schroddie
Commander
Joined: Jul 30, 2004
Member#: 7501
Posts: 574
Location: Baltimore,MD
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Posted:
Wed Oct 13, 2004 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| thuringwethil wrote: |
| Very cool, never would have guessed it was a game. |
Some games have very beautiful musics. Listen to Final Fantasy or Resident Evil for example. It's hard to say if it's a soundtrack or game music... Very enjoyable.
_________________
Always wondered what a French photo album could look like?
Come and see mine at http://www.schroddie.com/ |
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Obi-son
Captain
Joined: Sep 10, 2002
Member#: 211
Posts: 1897
Location: Winchester,Va, USA
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Posted:
Sat Oct 16, 2004 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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i'll add the metal of honor series. Oh and i'm playing Halo for the first time and i'm glad SST has the st from this. the music is great thru the whole game. very nice st.
_________________
If you have it you don't need it. If you need it you don't have it. You need it to get it and you certainly need it to get more of it. Which means you don't have it to begin with people just know. |
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thuringwethil
Captain
Joined: Jul 30, 2004
Member#: 7505
Posts: 1871
Location: Deep in the heart of Texas, formerly from the Heart of Dixie
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Posted:
Sat Oct 16, 2004 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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I don't like a lot of the final fantasy, i do however like medal of honor.
_________________
'He looked at her, and being a man whom pity deeply stirred, it seemed to him that her loveliness amid her grief would pierce his heart.' —Faramir's thoughts on Éowyn |
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