Tomorrowland (2015) -- [Brad Bird Dir.]

Specialty Other Disney
#1

There didn’t seem to be a “Tomorrowland” thread here yet, so I thought I’d start one.

For those who don’t know, “Tomorrowland” (previous title: “1952”) is Brad Bird’s (Simpsons, Iron Giant, Incredibles, Ratatouille) 2nd live-action film after Pixar (the first being the excellent Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol from a few years ago). It’s for Disney.

This can be the general, all-purpose area for “Tomorrowland” posts, but I’ll start it out simply by pointing you to Brad Bird’s and/or Michael Giacchino’s Twitter page:

twitter.com/BradBirdA113
twitter.com/m_giacchino
Or the specific post itself:
twitter.com/m_giacchino/status/ … 7388695552

where they both posted a picture Brad Bird took of us on the first real, initial scoring session for “Tomorrowland”, which we did yesterday on the Newman Scoring Stage at Fox. This was just an early, initial session, but as Michael says in his post, “More to Come!”

Though it was only one session, we got to see a little bit of the movie (sorry, I keep a strict, absolute NO spoilers policy)… but for those of you living in the New York area that are interested in Tomorrowland, you might want to have a look at these recent news articles/press releases:
awn.com/news/disney-showcase … -comic-con
ecumenicalnews.com/article/n … dule-26446
joblo.com/movie-news/disney- … ber-169-02

And here is what appears to be the official, just-released synopsis from Disney (from the above awn.com page):
[i]
From Disney comes two-time Oscar winner Brad Bird’s riveting, mystery adventure Tomorrowland, starring Academy Award winner George Clooney. Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as “Tomorrowland.” What they must do there changes the world – and them – forever.

Featuring a screenplay by “Lost” writer and co-creator Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird, from a story by Lindelof & Bird & Jeff Jensen, Tomorrowland promises to take audiences on a thrill ride of nonstop adventures through new dimensions that have only been dreamed of. It will debut in theaters on May 22, 2015.

This year’s New York Comic Con begins Thursday, October 9, and runs through Sunday, October 12.

Source: The Walt Disney Studios[/i]

The official website (such as it is – not much there yet) is here: movies.disney.com/tomorrowland
The movie’s release date (in the US) is May 22, 2015.

#2

Well, the music for Tomorrowland has now been recorded!

Though there was one early session a few months back (to record just a snippet of the movie), we spent this whole last week (Mon-Fri) recording the music for the rest of the film. The sessions last week took place at Sony (the old MGM lot in Culver City), where many Pixar films (including the original Toy Story) were scored – and where more than a few of John Lasseter’s Hawaiian shirts still hang from the rafters. No spoilers as always, but once again a great score, and the movie looks great (with some really neat, cool-looking shots).

This is Michael Giacchino’s 4th film for Brad Bird (after The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).

A nice treat: on Tuesday, Richard Sherman came by the scoring stage (there was actually a reason why he’d want to come); along with his brother, he wrote the music & songs to Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Winnie The Pooh, and a ton of other Disney (and non-Disney) music. 86 years old now, he’s still sharp as anything, and stood up to talk to us for a bit (if you want to see what he looks like, both Michael and Brad put up a picture of him on their twitter feeds).

One little interesting thing: after recording all the music cues for the movie normally all week, at the very end of the final day, we returned to just a few of the cues (just a handful), and with revised, newly-printed parts, recorded them in retrograde (reverse), with everything printed backwards (notes, dynamics, tempo changes… everything). In other words, if the original version was “A, B, C#, D, E getting louder”, then this time we played “E, D, C#, B, A getting softer.” Then they will digitally “reverse the reverse” (reverse the retrograde version), which will make it sound kind of like the original version of the cue – except with the attacks and ringouts reversed, to kind of give it an interesting effect when mixed with the original version recorded earlier in the week. Neat idea (if they use it), for just a tiny handful of the cues!

Surprised that there’s not any discussion of this movie yet (this is supposed to be a general discussion thread), but I guess that’s because it’s still early, and there’s not much info or advertising about it yet.

Anyway, the scoring for Tomorrowland has now finished.

#3

Yesterday Disney released both a new trailer for Inside Out, as well as a new trailer for Tomorrowland. The new Tomorrowland one now shows a lot more from the movie.
youtube.com/watch?v=0sH0__SpV88

#4

Wait… I’m a bit confused. Does the recording it backwards help or something? I’m just trying to picture that with, say, Jupiter (what we’re playing) or something. is that common… ?

But that’s really cool that Richard Sherman came to see you guys!

#5

This is the only live-action film this year I want to see. The rest are animated films.

#6

Sorry for the delay in replying, have been busy with Jurassic World and other stuff.
The few music cues we recorded “backwards” for Tomorrowland (if they decide to use the effect) won’t be heard backwards… they’ll be heard forwards, but with a different kind of sound to it.

If you record something while playing it backwards, then digitally reverse the backwards recording, the notes will come out in normal (forward) order, but the attacks and sustains will be different, giving it a kind of eery or strange effect to it. I see your icon is a trumpet, so let’s use that as an example. Say you pick up your trumpet and record yourself playing just a b-flat. If you were to digitally reverse that recording, you’d still hear the same b-flat – but the attack would now be at the end instead of the beginning, and a (reverse) fade/decay would now be at the beginning instead of the end. Now imagine if you were to mix that version with a “normal” version of you playing a b-flat. It might sound kind of neat. So that’s what they tried. If they want to use that effect in the movie (they weren’t sure at the time if they would or not, but wanted to give it a try to see what it sounds like for only just a few cues), they will layer that slightly-weird version on top of the normally-recorded versions we did a few days beforehand and mix the two togeter to give it an interesting sound.

Since I last posted, we actually had one more short Tomorrowland session at the end of March to make just a few minor tweaks. And when it was over, Brad Bird talked to us for a bit once again. He said it’s going to have a great atmos mix – to look forward to hearing it in the theatre, then mentioned something sadly true: he talked about how in today’s movie business, it’s almost impossible to be able to make a big-budget ORIGINAL movie. You can make a low-budget original movie, or a big-budget sequel, or big-budget movie based on an already-existing property (comic book, tv show, book, etc) – but almost never are you able to make a big-budget completely original movie anymore. He said this was one rare case, and was grateful for being able to get it made.

#7

One of this summers movies I’m most hyped for.

#8

Just watched this today and it’s an excellent movie! I like that I didn’t know what to expect going into it. The acting was really good, the concept was thought provoking, and it had some nice action. Definitely recommend it!

#9

Saw it yesterday. My first film from 2015.

#10

Anyone curious to see shots of us (the orchestra) recording the music to “Tomorrowland” with Michael Giacchino, scoringsessions.com just put up pictures of the sessions
Here: scoringsessions.com/news/290/
And the complete bunch of pictures is here: scoringsessions.com/sessions/26415

#11

I wanted to go see it, but my brother went to an advanced screening with one of his friends and went again with another one of his friends. I am intrigued with it, especially since he said it has lots of references to sci-fi films which is one of my favorite film genres.

#12

I love Sci-Fi!

#13

Glad I’m not the only one ;-p

#14

I was curious to see this, but it seems like it’s been getting an evenly bad and good rep? So I’m not too sure what to do. But I might rent it.

#15

Have any of you seen a recent Oh My Disney blog post about Tomorrowland figures visiting the actual Tomorrowland attraction down at the Disney parks? 8D

#16

I watched Tomorrowland with my brother today. I really liked it and how Tomorrowland (the place, not the movie) shows us that the future could be utopia if people would just stop being so negative. Oj, and I would really like to visit the store Casey visited during the course of the movie =)

#17

Does not look so bad.

#18

I got this for Christmas. Another add to my ever growing DVD collection.

#19

I wish I could check this movie out sometime…I haven’t really seen it yet. :blush:

#20

I actually really liked this movie. I think it’s under rated.