Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Oscar Awards, the outstanding HBO documentary on Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, or wrestling’s Monday night wars, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
New Coffee: Totally forgot about this, but I opened a bag of Colombia La Piramide Reserva from Stumptown last week.
Last night at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Michael Giacchino snagged an Oscar for best original score for Up, adding another accolade to his phenomenal career. While he’s gained fame for his work on Lost, The Incredibles, Ratataouille, and more, Giacchino got his start in games. From The Lost World: Jurassic park to numerous Medal of Honor titles to several Call of Duty games, he has composed some of the best soundtracks in gaming.
As someone that’s followed his career for more than a decade, I’m thrilled for Giacchino’s success. Every time he snags an award, he creates an opportunity for people to learn about the gaming world. His success brings attention, prestige, and legitimacy to the relatively young business of videogames. I know he’s busy with movies and television, but I hope he still has time to create music for the medium that helped get him to where he is today.
Out of curiosity, do you have a favorite Michael Giacchino soundtrack? I absolutely love the score for The Incredibles. Giacchino’s music is one of the reasons The Incredibles is high on my list of all-time favorite movies. Let me know some of your Giacchino favorites when you have a chance.
Aside from Martin O'Donnell and Nobuo Uematsu, I really don't know anything about game composers. I was actually watching "The Incredibles" last night and I do have to say that the original score is pretty memorable, but no more than your regular Danny Elfman track. Then again, I'm partially deaf… so I'll rely on N8's ears to tell me what's good.
-M
@Iceman I'll be sure to relay your sentiments to Tommy Tallarico and the Game Audio Network Guild at their annual GDC G.A.N.G. Bang. *joke*
Honestly, I don't know very many composers. Martin O’Donnell is the only one I can name in the game industry, but Bungie is good about keeping him in the spotlight so that is probably why. Most of the ones I've heard of are from the land of the rising sun.
My most memorable Danny Elfman songs for films were either (the inescapable) Batman, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, or Weird Science (for those who don't know, Elfman's band in the '80's was called Oingo Boingo and they totally kick ass).
Game composers… the whole genre makes me angry on very personal/selfish reasons. More often than not, I listen to my own music while playing games but I found that my brother's band compliment's many games very, very well. The fact that no devs have called his people to make a deal by now angers me (like I said, personal and selfish).
I can't really say that I know any video game composers. I did always like the Halo soundtrack, and of course the FF series always has impressive soundtracks. The concerts that they perform of symphony's playing FF soundtracks is always something that I have wanted to do someday.
I will say that I am glad to see someone like that get some respect for their work. Whether I really know the names of people or not, and what they do, I do like to hear of people from the video game industry getting recognition, especially on such a large scale as the Oscar's.
I'm surprised there aren't more Uematsu marks here. Is it just me?!?
I’ve never paid attention who did musical scores for video games. I’m glad to see Up won, they should’ve won best sound editing. Maybe they would’ve shown this clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2yt1ooLQGo , they would’ve.
@rpad i’m looking forward to the Monday Night Wars part deux, Did you see chop chop get knocked the F**k out on Friday, that guy is done.