And I'm tired of looking at that goofy guy in the cowboy hat. He's blinking and it looks like he lost an eye. Maybe he did.Anyway... I wonder who won HHD this week? By which I mean last week. Johnny's been too busy scoping out piles of free dirt to tell us. I hope my wife's depressing entries hasn't resulted in the cancellation of further Haiku Hump Days, or a cancellation of summer altogether.
8 comments:
awesome -- new desktop image.
the image it's replacing is this one, also from T:L
i was raving about this image to octo while we were in the theater waiting for Kick-Ass to start. i guess this is my way of saying, i have high hopes for the look of this movie.
I kind of wish they'd done the Toy Story 3 thing and aped the look of the original movie.
Last month, I watched Tron for the first time since it came out. (I was going to review it here but I didn't get around to it.) I was impressed with the concepts and the design, both of which were incredibly advanced for their time and weirdly beautiful. The new movie just looks like everything else.
I can't remember which humor site it was on, but to the best of my knowledge, here's what someone imagined the concept meeting for the Tron tie-in video game to be like, based on what actually came out:
Exec #1: So, what do people want out of a Tron video game?
Exec #2: Well, the lightcycle grid, obviously. But there's also Space Paranoids, and that Jai Alai type thing where you bounce the ball off the ceiling, and of course the disc fight with the MCP, and, well, pretty much everything you saw in the original movie!
Exec #1: So it's agreed. We'll do absolutely none of that, repackage a generic run-around-and-fight game, and that will be that.
Exec #2: Agreed. What about the discs?
Exec #1: We can make them less fun by making them just a generic weapon that you throw in a straight line over and over again.
Exec #2: Yep, yep, I'm with ya. And the lightcycle game?
Exec #1: We'll just put in a generic race with lightycles like every other racing game, and completely ignore the grid maze, or the walls that the cycles trail behind them.
Exec #2: Brilliant!
since you're bringing up the original, i'd say that one other thing that will be a step down from original to sequel will be the sophistication of the musical score.
obviously i'm not talking about the overall sound -- like the computer graphics from the film, the sound is a combination of traditional symphonic instrumentation and vintage technology (Moog synthesizer, in this case) and is technologically far less advanced than the television you're watching it on.
but the underlying composition itself is intricate and beautiful. (this is about to get nerdy, so bail now, if you're not interested)
the fundamental harmony of the original score is the augmented triad -- most of the music you've ever heard in your entire life is fundamentally based around either the major triad or the
minor triad. there's a reaching sensation to that augmented fifth. it's being used here as a musical symbol to evoke feelings of "the future."
i find this pleasing, because it's coming from the direction of using compositional techniques to stimulate emotional responses. the sounds of the instruments (or "instruments") could almost be considered after the fact paint-ons.
a band like Daft Punk, who put together the Tron: Legacy score is coming from the exact opposite direction. it starts with the sound itself and the composition stems from the sound.
to summarize, the first method is to imagine the musical figure and think, "what instrument could play that?" the second is to hear the sound and say, "what music can i make using this sound?"
beyond music, there's pedigree. wendy carlos is clearly coming from a compositional education background, whereas daft punk came from more of a street level education. the difference is obvious in their sound. check it:
daft punk's tron sound
wendy carlos's tron sound
see what i mean? it's like daft punk are builders, assembling sound brick by brick. wendy carlos is more like a genetic engineer, creating living systems that have to hold structure, while simultaneously operating in mathematical sync with each other.
Nerd.
In all seriousness, I see what you're saying. I feel like I could've done the Daft Punk song myself through Garage Band.
And I actually feel smarter after reading all that. The music was so distinctive in the original, but never called any super-specific attention to itself; it just felt like the right thing to be listening to while trapped inside the computer, i.e. The Future.
Major Triad is a pretty good band name. You could all dress in military uniforms. Medals and everything.
by the way, i don't mean to indicate that there will be a step down in *quality* from the original score -- i like a lot of tone based music with repeat figures.
nor am i one of those people who bemoan the widespread incursion of digital sound into popular music.
there's a bumper sticker on a locker at school that reads, "drum machines have no soul." every time i see the sticker i want to find the guy who stuck it there and punch a hole in his snare drum.
musical tone of any kind is just math processed by our ears, translated into sentiment and memory. we can have an emotional experience listening to digitally produced sound just as easily as we do when we're listening to a cello. it's just a different emotional experience.
anyone who attempts to argue in favor of one over the other is cheating themselves out of their own emotional responses.
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