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Feature: 'Terminator's' old-fashioned ways

By PAT NASON, UPI Hollywood Reporter
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LOS ANGELES, July 8 (UPI) -- "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is attracting attention for its conventional production values -- an observation that also applies to the musical score.

While movies like "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Hulk" rely on CGI for their spectacular effects, "T3" resorts to a technique that has been a staple in Hollywood since the earliest days of filmmaking -- property damage. Lots and lots of property damage, mainly involving blowing things up and wrecking a bunch of cars.

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Marco Beltrami, who composed the score for "T3," is just as happy that producers preferred orchestral music over the kinds of music that have found favor in so many other big movies -- including industrial, techno, synthesized and the potentially lucrative soundtrack compilation made up of commercial pop tunes.

"Around the time of the past 'Terminator' movies," said Beltrami, "everyone thought that the orchestra would be phased out by the new synthesizers. It hasn't happened. The orchestra is here to stay."

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Beltrami -- whose résumé includes "Blade II," "Resident Evil" and all three "Scream" movies -- said that synths and sampling gear have been used widely "to create counterparts to the orchestra," but some filmmakers seem to have decided the orchestra is still an indispensable element of their work.

"The orchestra is stronger than ever now," he said.

Still, he said the non-orchestral approach to scoring definitely has a place in the process.

"I feel like it will continue to be a balance between orchestral and non-orchestral sounds," said Beltrami. "Unfortunately, it seems to be moving in the direction of smaller and smaller cues, with music overlapping with sound effects."

Beltrami said it has become harder to develop an extended musical idea in a movie. Even in "T3," he said the music is prominently blended with the sound effects during the big action sequences -- which is OK with him, if it works.

"In a case like this where I think it's a good balance between the visual effects, the sound effects and the music, it's a case of everything working together in harmony," he said. "It's a group effort."

Although Beltrami might be best known for the thrill-ride type of music he composed for "Scream" and such action-suspense pictures as "Joy Ride" and "Mimic," he also has worked on quieter projects such as the Emmy-winning 1999 TV movie "Tuesdays with Morrie."

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"My ideas are definitely varied and diverse in terms of style and genre," he said. "At some point, there's still a lot of other areas that I want to cover."

But for now, he's staying in the sci-fi, action field. His next two projects are a werewolf picture and a comic book hero adaptation.

The werewolf project, "Cursed," reunites Beltrami with "Scream" director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson. "Hellboy" stars Ron Perlman ("Beauty and the Beast") as a demon, conjured by the Nazis, who is seized by idealists and raised from infancy to fight against the dark side.

Changing trends in movie music now include no music at all -- according to rules established by a recent school of filmmaking known as Dogma 95 that wants to do away with "bourgeois" filmmaking. Dogma 95's "Rule of Chastity" forbids music in a scene unless it occurs organically -- such as a character turning on a radio.

Beltrami isn't too worried about a rule like that catching on. He recalled the story of Alfred Hitchcock suggesting to composer Hugo Friedhofer that the at-sea scenes in the 1945 movie "Lifeboat" be shot without music.

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"Where is the music coming from?" reasoned Hitchcock.

"You're right," countered Friedhofer. "In fact, let's take that a step further. Where are the cameras coming from?"

Hitchcock went with the music.

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