Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Not more boring questions, I hope, but rather "fun" ones perhaps.

(1) Out of curiosity, is there anything you can reveal that you have learned, let's say over the past 25 years, of producing and mastering CDs that has made you into a better "ear" as a composer?

(2) Also, what made you decide to go with "Intrada" when first creating your label over all else? Is there any fun tidbit you can share on its origins?

(3) Were there times that you were maybe producing an album back in the 80's or 90's, when fees were extremely high, that you really had to fight in letting a cue or so go for which you desperately wanted on an album but could not fit it in?

Finally, if you don't want to go into specifics with this next question, it's fine, but maybe just the title of the score?

(4) What would you say was the most technically challenging and/or exhausting score you've ever worked on in your career? Not so much one you disliked, but one where it was just not going right from all aspects of production.

Thanks!

Wasn't Intrada originally called something like "Cinemonde"? I could be thinking of another label.

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I-love-Goldsmith, yes-I-do...
I-love-Ber-nard-Herr-mann-too! EVERYBODY SING!!!

I can try to answer a few of these but time is precious lately. I'll just respond at random: Intrada is my favorite musical term, and also happens to be the first movement of a five-movement symphonic band piece by Clifton Williams I'm totally in love with. Cine Monde was a small movie memorabilia shop in San Francisco that I came across in 1979. I made friends with the owner, soon formed a partnership with him and added soundtracks to his inventory of posters. My soundtrack part of the business grew, I bought my partner out in 1984, formed a new partnership with an attorney and some fellow collectors and gave birth to Intrada. RED DAWN followed soon after and we're still going strong today.

In those days albums had to conform to 30 minute playing times in conjunction with union rates, but for additional fees a label could purchase additional 5-minute blocks of music. We many times encountered projects in which we struggled over what cues to include and what cues to drop. Standout instances include that first RED DAWN. As costly as it was, I paid for the additional 5-minute block to get a 35-minute album assembled. I still had to delete stuff and I really struggled with losing the music for Jennifer Grey's final scene since I thought it was a beautiful cue.

With regards to engineering albums, I've worked side-by-side with the best engineers in the business: Bruce Botnick, Armin Steiner, Mike Ross, Dan Wallin, Bernie Grundman, Simon Rhodes... I've picked up a lot from them, of course. In the final analysis, most engineering decisions still remain just a matter of personal choice as apposed to right and wrong choices. Yes, violins should be on the left, but Mancini and Hefti moved them to the right sometimes so... who am I to write the rules in stone? I'm not a fan of this current trend of mixing orchestras and electronics into one loud mushy sound and then mastering everything at one maxed out loud level. It's one thing to have an exciting wall of sound come at me but if I can't even tell what the melody or harmony is, or what instruments may be playing what parts in relationship to each other and whatnot... well, I just don't enjoy it that way. It sometimes just borders on distortion to me. But again, I just have my own opinion to work with. Other engineers have other ideas. In a nutshell, I guess since I grew up playing trumpet in bands and orchestras and also know how to write for both ensembles, I tend to want to hear intricate musical details that these sensational groups can offer. 80 players in one room! What a joy it can be to hear just how much incredible detail those guys can provide! So when it's all reduced to loud mush... well, I'm just not the target audience so it probably matters not in the least.

The hardest project I have dealt with really can't be pinned down to one album. Preparing IVANHOE for re-recording was a massive project with an incredible amount of paperwork involved. Recording JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS was a uniquely stressing project because we recorded under full union rates with top London musicians AND hired all those extra tubas, trombones, harps, bassoons and whatever. Locating and transferring all of Universal's masters for BACK TO THE FUTURE was a major challenge since we were looking for all of the early rejected sessions as well as the finished score everyone knows. AMAZING STORIES had similar challenges in finding all of those separate scores recorded at studios all over LA with different engineers and composers on each episode. Roger and I spent years putting together some of our deals and that was pretty difficult as well. The initial deals with Disney that led to us doing all of those Goldsmith and Horner soundtracks took agonizing negotiations, hard work and real money to make happen. So I can't really pin down the most "exhausting" project - only numerous examples of ones that I had tough, individual challenges to deal with.

Speaking of challenges, I'm hard at work mixing 24-track and 32-track elements on simultaneous Universal and Disney projects right now so I'd best get back to them.
--Doug

Doug, I know--or at least suspect--how busy your job can be, so with that, I do really appreciate you taking the time to entertain my questions. It meant a lot to me.

Very interesting beginnings with the "movie memorabilia" connection--makes me wonder what sort of goodies you may have on your wall, poster-wise, signature-wise, etc.. Then again, I always sense you being super classy in the presence of composers and celebrities alike, so maybe you've never asked for all that you could have out of respect for treating them like normal human beings. Hey--not a bad idea, I guess.

In regards to the masterings, I'm completely in concurrence with you. I, as well, always like to differentiate between instruments and melodies. There are plenty of classic "albums" that would be much less fruitful had the tracks originally been "mushed" together as a whole. In fact, I always believed Horner may have understood this more than most. Take a look at his conducting and one can safely assume how obsessive he is in terms of where his orchestra sits, how loud or soft they play, etc. With Flightplan, he had the orchestra so tight around his table, I thought Horner was going to play all the instruments himself! Meticulous... yet meaningful.

I'm not certain if folks like Varese Sarabande are innocently aiming their efforts toward their modern, ear-bud audience, or if they're just not as experienced behind the curtain as soundtrack engineers, but I'd like to see it quieted down so we can really enjoy each of the players on stage. After all, we only have two channels to hear the most we can. Mastering really can--and often does--ruin the beautiful work they do on those floors. If only what they performed made it to our ears precisely the way it first fell from their fret-bearing fingers--boy, I'd be a happy guy.

Again, thanks a lot for the response, Doug. I await your magic on whatever's to arrive from Universal and Disney (Disney--what a place for scores!). Count on me riding in your back seat 'til you run out of gas. Remember, you're my taxi to Intradaville... week after week... for life.

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

Doug, you're not the only one who has lowered himself to "bugging" the Illustrious for an autograph. On my one chance to meet Goldsmith in 1989, he signed my LP jacket of Intrada's ISLANDS IN THE STREAM for me (along with SAND PEBBLES and UNDER FIRE).

Since I have to share our home's wall space with my wife, my film posters which are on display framed and/or linenbacked are mainly limited to just some top favorites. But "Jerry Goldsmith in the '60s?" Sure, if I owned my own business (or a bigger home!): LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (standard 1-sheet, military, and an entirely different international design which I had never seen until I found one about six years ago); LILIES OF THE FIELD; RIO CONCHOS; MORITURI; IN HARM'S WAY (Bass artwork); A PATCH OF BLUE (standard and an international design which matches the Mainstream and Intrada art); VON RYAN'S EXPRESS; THE SAND PEBBLES; THE FLIM-FLAM MAN; HOUR OF THE GUN; BANDOLERO!; SEBASTIAN; PLANET OF THE APES; and 100 RIFLES (1-sheets A & B).

(I don't like to boast very often, Doug, but it seemed like a "kindred spirits" moment.)

Years ago my brother and I answered a classified ad of someone selling one sheet posters. The guy at one time managed a drive in theatre and saved the posters over the years, he had hundreds. Lived way out in the county, middle of nowhere in Ohio, the sticks. We bought as many as we could afford at the time (late 60's early 70's stuff) and landed some nice ones for $5.00 each. Only wish we could have bought them all. I have The Hills Have Eyes, Dario Argento's Deep Red, Rolling Thunder (a favorite), and about twenty or so others.

As for autographs, I gathered a few while working at a coast highway filling station in Santa Monica, California awhile back. Didn't ask just anyone, just occasionally. Didn't have the nerve to say anything to Alex North whenever he stopped in for fuel (was sure he heard it all before anyway) I sure wish I would have asked him to scribble his name on a piece of paper. He and his wife were always decent folks.

Charlie Sheen was in for gas once or twice a week. Don't care what the media has to say about him, he was always cool with everyone in the place. Walking along the sidewalk on the beach one morning around 6:30 am heading for my 7:00 am shift at the Chevron, and there's Charlie, Keefer Sutherland and a couple of buddies down on the beach partying. He sees me, holds up a bottle of vodka and motions for me to come down and join them, "Can't...headin' to work!", I say.

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"I used to worry about losing my mind. Now that I've lost it I don't worry about it anymore." -Wavy Gravy

Ouch, Doug; you have my condolences on that autograph incident. Long ago, one part of me dreaded the prospects of actually meeting my favorite film director (Sam Peckinpah), actor (Jason Robards Jr.), and composer (Goldsmith), precisely because I knew I risked possibly tainting my future enjoyment of their work if things "went badly." Fortunately, all those encounters went well (Peckinpah even autographed my WILD BUNCH one-sheet!) even if Goldsmith was a bit more distant than I had hoped he would be. However, only a week later his good friend Franklin J. Schaffner died of cancer -- so I know it's possible he had known that was coming, even as he endured us concert fans.

My BANDOLERO! is the dark one. I'm unfamiliar with an orange design; but is the artwork of that pre-Intrada, German CD (which I barely remember) based on that? I, too, own a BLACK PATCH poster -- I didn't mention it in the last post because I was restricting that list to the '60s. (Just as I forgot to include the Rockwell-art one-sheet for the '66 STAGECOACH.) Don't have a PATTON -- although I'll happily alert you to that early version, should I ever come across one!

Since Doug didn't answer to my thread, i repeat my question here.

Doug, could you elaborate on the alternate STAR TREK V fanfare never recorded? Did it sound RAMBO/late 80's or more like the 70's theme? I wish that could've been included on the recent release...

I know you're getting sick of all of this, Doug, but what do you mean by "fell apart"????

_________________
I-love-Goldsmith, yes-I-do...
I-love-Ber-nard-Herr-mann-too! EVERYBODY SING!!!