Much Ado About Scoring: Joss Whedon’s Score to Much Ado About Nothing

By Michael Harris

In my previous post (here) I detailed some of the creation behind Joss Whedon’s new film, Much Ado About Nothing and also why he decided to score it himself—namely that everything about this film was done on the cheap, so Joss decided to tackle the music himself.  The question of if he was successful I was leaving open until I saw the film.[1]  I have now viewed Whedon’s masterful Shakespeare adaptation, and am pleased to say that the score is a total success. Continue reading “Much Ado About Scoring: Joss Whedon’s Score to Much Ado About Nothing”

Temp Track 2.0 – A Manifesto

By Michael Harris

This site was re-launched amidst the release of Man of Steel, and for my second score review, hopefully to be posted this weekend or early next week, I’ll be reviewing the score for Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, written by the director.  Within these two scores, and films, we have an interesting case study about the current state of Hollywood.  On the one hand you have a big studio effects film designed to draw in large crowds with a score by one of film music’s biggest names, and on the other, you have a nearly no budget, passion project done by one of Hollywood’s biggest directors and writers, but also one of its biggest rebels.  Leaving the subject of big Hollywood and Team Zimmer aside for now (this will hopefully be the topic of The Temp Track’s first podcast next month), let us ponder the case of Team Whedon and what he has done that points the way for what I feel is the future of creativity, the internet, and the new idea economy.  (Warning: This is a much larger discussion then I do not have room for here, so look for these ideas to be expanded upon in future posts.) Continue reading “Temp Track 2.0 – A Manifesto”