42 replies to this topic

[Mr. Blofeld]

Thanks for the info... but, then, if Barry composed so much music, why didn't he create any for the Little Nellie chase?

Also, was all this scoring done before or after Thelma Connell was replaced by Peter Hunt in the editor's chair?

[The Cat]

Regarding "Little Nellie", I'm not going to blow my best stories away on forums. Let's just say it was a peculiar situation.

YOLT (as almost any movie to this day) was cut to the last possible date. However, there's this some kind of myth that Peter Hunt edited the movie and they only credit Thelma Connell because of contractual obligation. In reality, Hunt merely shortened the movie because the producers felt that it was lagging at a couple of places, even they weren't sure where. Hunt touched up several sequences, but the bulk of the editing was done by Connell.

Let me give you an important example. As Bond and Kissy are climbing the mountain, Bond suddenly becomes non-Japanese again in a matter of minutes. In reality, there was a long sequence of mountain climbing / character building / helicopter spying. What Hunt did was shorten this whole sequence by 1-2 minutes. If you look at the scene now, you'll see that Hunt took the existing footage and liberally re-shaped it, often placing the dialogue at different points. This is why towards the end of the scene, you'll see that there is dialogue, yet you never say the person who speaks, we're given reaction shots. When Bond speaks, we see Kissy, when Kissy speaks, we see Bond. This is because this was taken from a completly different scene and there was no clear footage of Sean saying those lines while lying on his back. Hunt solved the issue by only using the audio and not showing the act of speaking.

Barry scored the movie after these more drastic changes were made, but there were several minor cuts later on in which he was not involved. In this case, the situation was once again saved by the unnamed crewmembers whose job was to fit the music to slightly re-edited scenes. One sequence where this is evident is Bond being tied to the chair with Helga "torturing him." If you listen to the CD, you hear the cue as it was recorde. If you watch the movie, you'll see several minor differences - apart from some minor shift in pitch and tempo, you'll notice that opening four note motive is repeated again to fill out the time. Barry however just watched and scored one version of the picture - everything else was either already done or was changed without his direct involvement.

[Vauxhall]

Regarding "Little Nellie", I'm not going to blow my best stories away on forums. Let's just say it was a peculiar situation.

This is all very interesting, and I thank you for posting the stories. Without meaning to sound too rude, where are you planning to distribute your "best stories"? Are you planning a book or similar project?

[The Cat]

Let's just say I don't know which is longer: the time I've been waiting or the time I still have to wait. Let's just say that if my first book goes well, this one will happen. Fun fact: The appendix itself is as long as a regular book.

Edited by The Cat, 12 April 2009 - 06:09 PM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Makes me wonder what the peculiar situation was...

Let me take a stab at it: Were they trying to match up the initial footage shot in Japan with the majority of the helicopter footage shot in Spain?

[The Cat]

Good guess (it happened on some other picture), but nothing like that here. Let's just say the story is too unreasonable to have it guessed correctly. I can only say that nothing was ever recorded instead of the James Bond Theme, so you're not missing out on anything.

[Blofeld's Cat]

The Cat is too modest to mention his very informative bog. If you are really into soundtracks in general and the history and background behind them, do yourself a favour and check out THE CAT PRESENTS.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Wow! Very substantive; thanks!

[Marcato]

where do yoi get studio log - do ypu ask for them by e-mail and do you have any music sheet from the bond films


BTW some part of the TANAKA material actually made it into the film - A DROP IN THE OCEAN

Edited by Marcato, 13 April 2009 - 09:35 PM.

[The Cat]

where do yoi get studio log - do ypu ask for them by e-mail and do you have any music sheet from the bond films

The Cat works in mysterious ways...

BTW some part of the TANAKA material actually made it into the film - A DROP IN THE OCEAN

The discussion was about Tanaka's World, which is a completely different track. One of the melodic ideas does appear in the Drop in the Ocean cue, but "Tanaka's World" itself is not in the picuture.

[Marcato]

anyway i can tell you that the flute-oboe-clarinet part that made it into the drop in the ocean was difficlut for me to play when i had trascriped the music the first time back in 2005.

On a side note - on your site LP Liner Notes - do you re-check and dubble-chechk the notes when you had them written

when i wrote the REMASTERED BONDS liner note to com-document-paper i had to recheck all the time to make sure it was correct - and some time i would spot a word that i had not seen or wrongly written

[The Cat]

when i wrote the REMASTERED BONDS liner note to com-document-paper i had to recheck all the time to make sure it was correct - and some time i would spot a word that i had not seen or wrongly written

I have absolutely no idea what you want to say here....

[Marcato]

then let us forget that it ever happened (to the other feller)