I Had 5 Composers Rescore the SAME Scene...

I asked composers to re-score a climactic scene from How to Train Your Dragon. How do they compare to John Powell's epic music?

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00:00 Intro
00:27 Vincenzo Santonicola
03:59 Riccardo Marchesini
8:03 Florian Piewald
12:04 Brian Evans
16:56 Eric Galluzzo
20:51 John Powell
24:41 Go deeper!

[PeterLewysPreston]

This John Powell guy has potential. He might have a career in film music.

[CalebHebertComposer]

John Powell’s was pretty solid, he’s got some potential

[jimrogers]

For me (I'm writing this after the first three), it feels like the composers have lost sight of the fact that they're meant to be scoring individual scenes to tell a story as opposed to writing a composition overall... very different styles and approaches.

[found_it]

This is why i have mad respect for people who write and compose music, whether for a movie or otherwise. I could never achieve such a masterpiece, again mad respect.

[whatdoiputhere]

Stumbled upon this on accident. So happy I watched this. I would definitely watch more. I’m curious how people would compose the “Test drive” scene. (Arguably the best piece in the entire series)

[vinzsaint]

Wow, amazed and terrified to hear my name!😅 Thanks for the advices, It's important to me to have any feedback and improve my skills. Thank you Ryan and Josh.

[White.Rabbit.Productions]

What stands out to me the most as the pro vs the amateurs, is time signature changes. John, the pro, knows how to use different time signatures and irregular beats to his advantage. All of the amateurs sound like they're just using 4/4 and trying to fit their very "regular" music with the completely irregular action sequence. Eric Galluzo's one was the most interesting to me because he had time signature changes and so his music really slots up with key action moments.

[crispyjokingtuna]

This video really shows how important the director and creators are in the scoring process. Without active input from others involved in a scoring project it becomes to miss a beat here and there and I think that we see that with the rescores as I imagine they did it mostly by thenselves

[FilmScoreandMore]

This was a fun project! It was really interesting to see all the different approaches to the scene, whose techniques were similar, and how they compared to John Powell's cue. Thanks again for letting me join.

[Crazy_Diamond_]

Having not watched the final analysis yet, one thing I noticed is that in the heights of the action, JP's score is MUCH more dynamic. And I don't mean that just in terms of going from forte to piano a bunch, which he does, but more that, he is FAR less afraid to jump between entirely different textures with each cut--different tempos, different moods, different melodies, different time signatures.... It makes the whole thing feel a lot more chaotic, because just when your ear has figured out the current "groove, " BAM! the next one starts.

[riccardomarchesini]

As i did on Discord, thanks again for considering my track in the quintet.
It was an exciting experience where one can only learn, and I hope there will be more of them.

[RensStoryteller]

I do say that eric's blending of that soaring heroic music allowed Toothless and Stoic to both have the epic and heroic running to stop the chaos and that was quite an impressive for the scene and how the others used it. Not bad.

[valuerie]

Crazy how big of a difference Midi/Real instruments can make, John's has so much power behind it and especially compared to the 4th submission I think at least part of that HAS to be credited to the real instruments and real performers bringing their energy to it. Midi instruments, especially MuseScore or Sibelius instruments, are really really really hard to make sound natural, it's a real art

[TheDaringPastry]

The way John Powell incorporated a few bars of his original main theme in there as Toothless is running is very nice. 21:43

[NekoAKAJeff]

Awesome video idea! That must have been quite the challenge for the composers. You should do more of these. Thanks!

[maxsmith]

Composing is hard, and I have the utmost respect for all of these composers. It takes a lot to create anything like this. Thanks for showcasing this.

[Heldproductions]

Thanks Ryan and Josh for the invaluable feedback. I see what you mean about the Astrid and Toothless transition, I can see that so clearly now!!! Re the production and beefing up of horns etc. I did try to add more horns having seen your video about how John Powell uses horns but I'm afraid my sound system isn't up to the job and I don't think I'm getting an accurate representation of how it would sound on a decent system, or even in a theatre proper. (excuses, excuses) Having said that even with a decent system it wouldn't sound like John Powell I'm sure but it's time to upgrade I think. I'm just very happy to get some feedback and acknowlegement of geting the 'hits' right to punctuate the action. You have given me some hope I'm kind of getting some things right :) Thanks for the advice about maybe modulating up too. Thank you both so much and thanks for the opportunity!

[fantasyspirit]

I got goosebumps after listening to John Powell’s score… I’m so thankful for him making httyd’s music, it just wouldn’t be the same movie otherwise…

[narnia_eclipse]

you know you've done something right when you get goosebumps just from the music
all 5 submissions sounded too safe and muted meanwhile the moment you hear that change in pace after the dragon first snaps in Powell's original composition I got goosebumps - it happens each time i watch this movie, it never fails to support each action and build tension

[beckapowell]

This is such a cool video. As a filmmaker, it's fascinating to see how the composer has to understand story beats as well as the writer does, and write a piece of music that actually tells the story, translating those beats into music.