PT The Arena - Unused Music From Attack of the Clones

If there's a standout track in the Attack of the Clones soundtrack, it's "Love Pledge and the Arena" the delicate beauty of the first segment is only equalled by the ferocity of the army march in the second. Unfortunately, the second part ("The Arena") is almost completely excised from the film. I was glad to see the track find a home in Revenge of the Sith during the march on the Jedi Temple, but where was it supposed to be in the original film?

According to deleted scenes, the music was associated with the deleted scene, Raid on the Droid Control Ship. If you've seen the deleted scene on the Blu Ray, it's feels right at home. But in the scene before during the execution in the arena, the music is notably absent. We go from the Love Pledge theme and then it cuts out; only to have a short segment from The Arena as Anakin mounts the Reek. So I filled in the missing bits with music, and with minimal editing, it really came together. A lot of the action really syncs up well with the music.

I believe this is where the missing music may have originally fit in, though you be the judge. The scene is tense enough to that the silence and added tribal drums enhance the scene. Though this is a classic John Williams theme that we were missing out on.

 

The video's been blocked in my country (UK), so you might want to look into that.

Don't forget that the track was also used during the battle scenes on Kashyyyk.

 

I can't see the video either.
Anyway, the music was meant for the fight with the monsters in the Arena, as the title says. Basically, it would've played, right after the "Love Pledge" scene. A great track, although the lack of music is certainly effective.
Williams never scored any of the Battle of Geonosis scenes, they were in a very rough form when he was recording the music, and they decided they would use tracked music (none of the deleted scenes had original music composed to them: the DVD just uses tracks that seem appropriate to accompany them).

 

The whole third act score was butchered by Ben Burtt so he could showcase his sound effects. His double duty of Sound and Editing was too much for him and AOTC suffered as a result.

I preferred the editing of TPM where Paul Martin Smith at least took the edge off of Burtt's slash and burn technique.

AOTC's soundtrack is one of the best and the film deserved as much of it as possible.

 

Didn't know about the deal with Ben Burtt. It's definitely noticeable where music is missing for a stretch of time.

Anyways, it sucks that the video got flagged. I'll try uploading it on a different site later.

 

I wish I could give it a listen. =(

 

Probably someone here who went and ratted you out.

But yeah, Burtt talks about it and brags how great it was they let the arena noises carry much of the emotion in that scene. Uhh, no it flattens it. The whole AOTC editing and doppelgängers in the Senate and JC was just a mess. One of a long list of problems with AOTC.

 

I'm not the one to defent Ben Burtt (who is rightfully obsessed by his sound effects, indeed), but aren't you exaggerating? The only sequence in which music was droped was the "Fight with the Monsters" scene (The Arena). And as a huge John Williams fan, I have to agree with the decission, I think it works better without music.

And as for the rest of the scenes of the third act, the tracked or edited music has nothing to do with Ben Burtt giving priority to sound effects. The battle sequence wasn't ready to be scored, so Williams didn't score it. Shame.

 

Other than the first part of the asteroid chase scene and the Arena scene, there are barely any spots without music in the whole movie. (and every SW movie has at least one action sequence without music, which offers a nice contrast).
ANH (and Empire to a lesser dregree) have much less music than the rest of the movies.

 

The battle sequence wasn't ready to be scored because they hadn't locked the edit. That's the editor's fault!

 

It's a bit more complex than that. The editing is done under the supervision of George Lucas, who likes to be with the editor himself. So, he supervises the whole editing process personally.
The Geonosis battle wasn't ready mainly because it was full of SFX shots that weren't ready, or hadn't even been started yet. It was a very rough animatic sequence in a very temporary edit, but the editing couldn't be done until ILM delivered the shots.

 

That's not how the editing is done on these films in conjunction with the scoring.
Williams doesn't score with finished vfx for SW films. They worked on the film's vfx until a few weeks prior to release. The film was scored weeks prior. They've done that on just about all the SW films. He scores these films with vfx placeholders and temp shots.

 

Of course, I know that, but as the CGI progressed, the animatics they use to edit the scenes before the final effects are done have become more and more flexible, and as a result, the temporary edit has become less and less reliable. That's why, with the Geonosis battle being in a very primitive stage when the music was recorded, they decided not to score it (however, different cuts of the film had already been made).

For example, when ANH was made, Williams had to score the battle without any of the effects being done, but because of the complexities of making those shots, the edit was firmly locked using placeholders and temp shots, and as a result, what Williams wrote matches exactly the final film.
On the contrary, in the prequels, Lucas (and the editors) were able to keep changing the edit as they were getting the shots from ILM. They were not forced to the temporary edit because it was very easy to change a CGI shot.


In any case, (and I think we're getting off-topic) Ben Burtt can't be blamed as the only responsable for the tracked music in the Battle of Geonosis.

 

So weird that this theme is most well-known as part of ROTS, and yet it was composed for the film that preceded it.

 

Yes, and that is why you don't go back after the fact and change your edit after it has been scored. That's why all of that wonderful music Williams composed for AOTC is absent. They were shuffling pieces around until the very end. It was a mess. The droid factory scene was also a very late addition.

 

Here's the vimeo link. I don't expect this to stay up very long, but oh well.


Also, I wouldn't say that Attack of the Clones is immediately reflective of its rushed production, but something was definitely... different. Despite how quickly the droid factory scene was pieced together, that sequence was scored excellently.

The deleted sequence really shows how far its come. While such changes are to be expected, the rate changes were being made in AOTC was just madness


Attack of the Clones probably takes the cake for the most changed film after camera were rolling.

 

Again, you are exaggerating. What exactly is "all" of that music that wasn't used? Only the music for the Arena.That's a single unused cue, which had nothing to do with the late editing. The cue was composed but it was decided that silence would work better. That's the same as the Dianoga music not being used in ANH.

Other than that, the decission NOT to score the Geonosis battle was made before any music was composed, because they felt they couldn't lock a proper edit until they had all the effects. Shame, but that's how modern filmscoring works often.

And you're very wrong about the droid factory scene, which is NOT a "very late addition" (in fact, it is one of the earliers pick-up scenes ever shot!). Williams composed the music for the scene (the whole version of it has never been released, btw), and the reason it went mostly unused has nothing to do with sound effects being preferred, or with the edit being not locked. I think the filmmakers just decided they wanted a different score for the scene, which was more thematic and dramatic (the love theme, the force theme...) instead of the wacky cue Williams composed. That's why a big part of it was unused.

I know most WIlliams' fans aren't happy with Ben Burtt (I partly agree) and with the editing choices in Clones (I partly agree),but let's not generalize or exaggerate. A single cue was dropped because the scene worked better without music, which has happened in every SW movie. And another cue (droid factory) was partly replaced with more dramatic music. And a big part of the climax was never scored because of the fluid editing CGI allows.
And all those choices were made or approved by Lucas.