Composing : Birdman Score by Brandi Thomas

Hmm that doesn't seem right. Hans Zimmer argued and succeeded in reversing the decision not to nominate The Dark Knight in 2008, he argued that "The process of creating a modern film score was collaborative, and that it was important to credit a range of people who had played a part in its production." So the same logic should apply to Sanchez's tracks, even though the other 2 composers aren't alive anymore, Mahler and Tchaikovsky.

Christopher - are you suggesting politics were at play here?

@Brandi: Not sure, I'm thinking it had more to do with the fact of Zimmer having the experience of dealing with Academy morons for the past 20 years and knowing how to handle them. ;) This was Sanchez's first recognized film score done and nomination ever received, and he had no clue what to do properly. Brandi is right though, almost every aspect of the Oscars has some kind of politics behind it. 1)You don't even need to have a good song to get a nomination. All you need is boatloads of money to hire marketing/promotional agents to glad hand/bribe/blackmail the higher ups or have social networking connections that get you nominated every year even though you haven't done a single good song in 10 years. That is why I don't watch or care about any awards shows or who wins them. I've heard probably over 10,000 songs in my life so I kind of have an idea if a song is good or not, quite quickly. I don't need some Academy idiots telling me what to like, so I don't really pay attention to them. 2) Some people act like whoever wins the Oscars for Compositional scores each year is suddenly going to be the new J.S. Bach or something when it really means nothing. You could write the greatest score ever created by humans tomorrow, but pretty much every chord progression or counterpoint in it is based on Mozart/Bach/Beethoven's ideas from 300 years ago. 3) For example the head guys at the Academy are like 50 years behind the times, and they are who decide who gets nominated or their nomination gets removed.They hate any genre or style that's not classical/romantic and that is what Zimmer specializes in with a little electronica thrown in, That is about as far away as you can get from Sanchez's style, more of a musician's feel which is a lot like mine. Minimalistic improvisations with a few surprising sounds thrown in. Zimmer throws in a little electronica as well but most of it is well protected behind solid creative baroque/classical/romantic chord progressions backed up with atonality and Leitmotifs. He plays most of the instruments usually. Sanchez was just probably new and didnt' know what he was doing, made a few mistakes we all do at some point. 4) Honestly if he would have done the exact same score without the Mahler and Tchaikovsky the guy would have been 100% nominated for sure and easily would have won it because the main reason for disqualification was the high up Academy dudes were worried that people would hear Sanchez's score and just assume that Sanchez wrote all of it instead of Tchaikovsky and Mahler. Being a drummer/composer is like 10 times harder than being a pianist/composer though so I really feel for Sanchez. ;) 5) Because of Zimmer's experience in dealing with the academy he knows what genres to use and not to use to get Oscar nominated each year when most composers have no idea about these things. Like I said Sanchez was new and probably had no idea. I feel bad when I see composers entering competitions using certain genres and I Just cover my face and sigh, knowing that the people putting on the contest don't even recognize these sounds as real instruments and disqualify them subconsciously before even listening to the whole song. 6) When I look at what happened to Sanchez I feel awful about it though. If Hans Zimmer or any respectable composer could have helped Sanchez out or something with some advice on dealing with the academy then none of this drama would have happened. Also us pianist/composers have it easy basically compared to drummer/composers so I felt bad for him. I can just sit down with zero preparation and start playing notes, and improvise 8 minutes with my 88 key midi keyboards, and boom it's almost done basically. Just needs a little post production like additional instruments/counterpoints. Drummer/composers can sit down and improvise 8 minutes of the greatest most creative drumming ever, but it will still have zero tonal chords so it's a pointless exercise. Drums are like atonality basically and you don't use only atonality in an entire 120 minute score. With too much atonality and hardly any tonality you will numb people to what they're seeing on the screen along to the music and feel nothing when epic moments happen, thus ruining everything. :p

That's sad. In my opinion, it should be about which score was a.) most effective in the film, and b.) which score stood on its own best. Notice I said AND... not OR.

Another of these Oscar rules that's simply absurd. Damien Chazelle being forced into the Best Adapted Screenplay category because he adapted his screenplay from, you know, his own material, was another.

Yeahhh... any idea what the reasoning for that was, RB? I'm wondering if there are any similarities between that situation and this one.

Silly rules...That's all. Nothing more.

Hmm. Well it sounds like some change might be in order........

@Kathryn: Yes well the academy guys in charge are like 50 years behind the times. They have no idea what's going on. Eventually they will be replaced by somebody more competent. It's depressing to me though, I do improvisations a lot on piano like Sanchez on drums with a couple loops thrown in and wouldn't be eligible for the awards either. Would have to go old school notation scoring on them or something. :D

Trivial story performed by a dull actor.

What makes you say that, Vladimir?

the Oscars hardly ever reflect the best film. Some fantastic films take a decade or more to build a cult following, often with years of annual broadcast on television building up a fanbase, gradually becoming part of our culture.

i wanted to kill that damn score!

Matt Damon famously said that the vote for Best Picture in any given year should happen 10 years later.

Having said that, Birdman was my favorite film of last year and I thought the screenplay was quite brilliant.

Predictable narration, importunate music and presumptive acting hold back audience's imagination.

As Jeffrey Lebowski said, "Yeah...well...that's like...just your opinion, man."

RB, I honor your participation. 'Just an opinion' is the beginning of a self confidence.

Dig that comment, Vladamir. Agree wholeheartedly.

I agree the music was a bit overpowering at times. I thought that was to emphasize his mental instability though. No?

Oh, Coreetta. Such a gem you are. :)