AI firms warned to calculate threat of super intelligence (theguardian.com)

Maybe my single least favorite thing about modern cinema is that movies across the cost spectrum have stopped giving a shit about original soundtracks. That’s how we can have 30+ damn Marvel movies and nobody remembers anything about the original music except one run of like seven or eight notes. It’s why the ones with the most style and most-effective soundtracks just used existing friggin’ pop rock songs.

It has to do with modern very-flexible digital editing (don’t want to lock in a Final Cut early enough to allow for production of a quality score timed to the edit) and editors/directors extensively using placeholder music, editing to that exactly, then just asking for a clone of whatever lame tune that was, as I understand it. Basically, having a shitty soundtrack just lets them get done with post-production faster, and keeps them more flexible until closer to release

Middling 90s movies like Twister and The Ghost and the Darkness punch way above their weight thanks to the soundtrack. You almost never see that any more.

gibbitz · 14m ago

This is due to the same market pressures faced by TV commercial jingles. It's cheaper to license a pop song for the number of impressions than to pay a composer to make something for your brand. The needle drop wins and even the creator of the pop song loses since often the publishing house and whomever owns the rights make the money. It's no wonder AI is the Belle of the ball these days. Anything business can do to avoid paying a person for their talent they will do. Even if audiences stopped showing up, they won't stop doing it. They aim to reduce the cost enough that they'll make money if only one person shows up. The quality will continue the trend we see here.

SvenL · 35m ago

While the transformer movie might be a little bit Hollywood, Steve Jablonski did a great job - especially Arrival to earth.

Also, not a movie but a TV series, Battlestar Galactica (the new one). Bear McCreary created a space opera (the shape of things to come, Prelude to war…)

WalterBright · 43m ago

I'd have listed Victory At Sea, but it was the score for a TV documentary series, not a movie.

bdangubic · 30m ago

Office Space is #1 - no contest :)

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