#  M14       Hello, Tommy.   So good to hear from you.

I did manage to trace my MD recording of your Stage & Screen interview with David Rakskin.  Usual voyage of discovery thereafter.   I managed to get the R1 DVD of "Laura" in 2004 and gather that it is scheduled for release in this country but will it include the Special Features: a commentary by Raksin & Wesleyan University Film Professor Jeanine Basinger; a commentary by Film Historian Rudy Behmer; a documentary on Gene Tierney; A Shattered Portrait; as well as the extended movie version, with alternate opening?   R2 buyers are often short-changed in this respect.

The tough persona of Raksin came over loud and clear in your interview and it made me ponder but your comments on his forthright disposition made it clear how he coped with ogres like Otto Preminger or, say, Harry Cohn at Columbia?     Indeed, I did have a brief and surprisingly amiable exchange with Preminger when I used the Films & Filming magazine to protest about the cuts they made in "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959)  for the general release.  I'd seen the full version at the Columbia Cinema (as was!) in Shaftesbury Avenue but the Wardour Street mafia defended their decision to proceed with cuts AND add an interval to peddle their wares.  Preminger took up the cudgel and berated them, mercilessly, at a time when moderation was the norm in our press.

I do hope that your project for a Stage & Screen programme reaches fruition.  And the time is ripe to revisit and examine the history of silver screen composition and scoring but, please, not on Radio 2 where cut and paste is the usual practice.        During the 70's, I acquired a full set of the Charles Gerhardt, National Philharmonic recordings of classic film scores on RCA vinyl, only to be duplicated in the CD era.   Chandos,  Varese Sarabande & Marco Polo continued the quest with Korngold's score for "Anthony Adverse" getting a complete CD to itself, in 1990.   But Steiner, Waxman, Rozsa, Victor Young, Alfred Newman & Tiomkin have been my constant companions for many years and deserve a programme to themselves. 

  A few months ago, I transferred "King's Row" (1941) from video to DVD.    Enjoyable tosh, sure,    "Half masterpiece - half junk"  James Agate's review; but Korngold's rousing theme for the opening credits instantly engage an audience.

It would also be pleasing to see you back on BBC 4 introducing a Prom again.  You complemented Edward Seckerson so well on "S & S" as you did, subsequently, with Verity Sharp at the Proms.

All good wishes,          Stanley   

Great to hear from Tommy Pearson again - one of the good guys.

R3 is much the poorer without him. But he has joined a long and increasingly line of the good who have been badly sacrificed for the ugly.

I also want to send TommyPearson good wishes and support.
Life is a strange thing and one never knows what will happen. You might be surprised and asked again, even stranger things happen. As one who was often out of the saddle  I can tell that sometimes one doesn't fit in the picture that people in charge have or other times something else. I really don't know why things happen, but I know that it is more often for the best.

I hope you continue with your post because your vast knowledge and expertise makes your posts very interesting to read. It gives many people pleasure and keeps general interest going. 
Best wishes,

It was so good to hear from you, TommyPearson. I know now that many composers found a refuge in movie industry. Most of them did not want to write music that was fashionable at a time and as a result their music was not played. Who knows how they would survive if there was no Hollywood. I am trying now to discover composers that wrote for movies. I think it is a good project. It will take many years for me to know more about the subject because I know alsmost nothing about the subject. Thank you for the link. Since we bought computer the world of information opened up for me. It is amazing.
I am now also curious what happens with Radio 3 and Barbican and Proms since I read people talking about it. I am interested in how personalities influence musical world with their choices. Some times nicer people are in charge and some times less. There is power struggle on every level. Even on my insigmificant level there is struggle for power for opportunity to influence who is coming to town, who is playing what. But London (radio 3) is a major  player to shape what is going on in the world.
I learnt now to pursue my own interests and don't look at what other people doing and what kind of characters they are. And I learn a lot from this board in terms of music as well as in terms of the ways of the world.

Sorry for long reply and for mistakes that I can not escape,

Thank you again for posting and site. And may be my posts flattering, but many people agree with them.

# 23.    My thanks, pim-derks, for the additional sites and I've hugely enjoyed the interactivity on this thread.

Fortuitously, I'm poised to make a further posting, today or probably tomorrow, talking about a link I've made between David Raksin's score for "Laura" and Bernard Herrmann's for Hitchcock's "Vertigo"(1956); it simply hadn't occurred to me before.   I watched "Laura" (1944) again, a couple of night's ago, accompanied by Raksin's commentary and it wasn't until it was mentioned that Herrmann was also considered by Otto Preminger, producer, before he also became Director, that I saw the consequences some 12 years later in "Vertigo".      To be continued.......

In the meantime, let me conclude with a well known anecdote attributed to Mr Raksin.         Apparently, Alfred Hitchcock had been discussing his projected film version of "Lifeboat" (1944) with Raksin and positively ruled-out any notion of a film score.    "Just think about it, David.    9 survivors in a lifeboat, adrift in the vast expanse of the North Atlantic.     Nothing but the space between them and the sky.   Where could an orchestra possibly be?"           Raksin pondered before replying,  "Next to your cameras, Hitch".

In due course, Hugo W Friedhofer was commissioned as composer.

Bws,     Stanley

Stanley,
I'm afraid will and cooperation have little to do with it! Expense has EVERYTHING to do with it. I have, on a number of occasions, dealt with production companies and the BBC/C4/C5, and the only thing they think about, when faced with a proposal for a programme that features film clips and music, is 'how much is this going to cost?!'. And you can't blame them.
Many clips, however old or new, cost huge amounts of money - I once worked on a documentary where nearly every archive clip cost $8000 (about £4500) per minute, regardless of whether we used a whole minute. Even assuming you have the money for that (and hardly anyone has) you still have to clear the rights to use it - which sounds easy but can often be incredibly complicated. If dialogue is featured then permission has to be sought from the participants. If it's an american orchestra on the soundtrack, special rules apply and costs are higher (in the UK musicians tend to be 'bought out', ie given a one-off fee for all rights. In LA, musicians are often on percentages which can make paperwork a nightmare). Often, the owner of the copyright won't even give you the rights to use a clip anyway. Fred Astaire's widow is notoriously tight in this regard and will usually charge $10,000 per clip used, if at all. And if, for any reason, you cannot find all the particular participants/copyright holders (because they are, perhaps, unlisted/not on the phone/don't have an agent/abroad/dead) you can't use the clip either. Then there's the issue of international rights. If you are a programme maker and you, rightly, want to exploit your documentary abroad, the rights isues are different in Europe to the USA and a whole new set of rights have to be negotiated. As you can imagine, the cost of all this backroom work can far exceed filming the damn thing.

Music, generally, is a ridiculously expensive thing to put on TV. Music in film doubly so. There are a couple of ways around it - sometimes. For example, if you are making a programme about someone who has a NEW movie coming out, there are ways of using clips that will be seen, by the copyright holders, as part of the publicity machine. This is why most interviews and feature shows about film are bland, sycophantic nonsense (see any ITV programme about a latest film for reference!). The studios supply the clips they want you to use, the people they want you to interview, and expect a decent review into the bargain. But any programme-maker who wants to go deeper, feature a more intelligent interview, show interesting film clips, has a more difficult job ahead. Personally, I think this is great shame. Michael Cockerall is able to make a superb, in-depth documentary about Blair for BBC2 because all the clips are news clips and owned by the BBC (mostly). But no equivalent programme is likely about film any more because the costs would be too huge to contemplate.
I remember Mark Cousins telling me that for his interview programme, Scene By Scene (by far the best and most intelligent film programme the BBC has made, IMHO), where he interviewed big-name guests and showed them scenes from their movies, the clips accounted for about 75% of the budget, at least. That gives you an idea of what broadcasters are up against.
Another example of the expense of music was told to me as I was presenting the Proms for BBC4. Did you know that if a camera lingers on a shot of the music manuscript being played by a musician in the orchestra, and it's a piece that is still in copyright, the BBC has to pay the publisher? I find that extraordinary. I was also shocked to discover (as a percussionist myself) that if a timpanist is required to use more than 4 timps in a piece, he is paid extra! That's like saying that if a clarinettist plays a Bb two octaves above a middle C, they should be paid more. Ridiculous. No wonder music generally, and especially on TV, has become expensive - to the point where most broadcasters don't bother.

There is a flip side to this, of course. There's always money if they want it. I think Jonathan Ross would be better at explaining this. But the BBC has always proved that, if they really want something, they are willing to pay for it. And they don't want regular orchestral concerts on TV. And only film programmes that have in place major bi-media or co-production money attached have a chance of getting a commission.

What I would like to fight for is a more mature treatment of movies on TV, and try and convince the broadcasters that spending the money would be worth it (not an easy task!). There has not been a serious, intelligent, adult treatment of movies on network TV for a LONG time ('Inside the Actors Studio', from Bravo in the USA and shown on various channels here - like Performance and ITV3 - although a little sycophantic, at least has serious intent; an interviewer who listens to his guests and allows them to talk. It's often totally fascinating - Scorsese was on this week, and brilliant).

On the other hand, BBC1 still thinks it's OK to split movies up into two, with the news in the middle (coz we just can't get our news anywhere else these days, can we?!!) so maybe a mature treatment of film is way off. Sky is the only broadcaster that now treats its movie audience like adults - no commercials. Even Film Four, sold on the 'amazing' offer of good movies for 'free', forgot to mention anywhere in the publicity that commercials would run throughout every film. Funny that.
And what does it all come down to? Money, of course. FilmFour can't make access to its films free without commercials. Neither can ITV or C4. The BBC can show films on BBC1 without a break for the news, but won't.

For the serious movie fan, bored of endless fatuous 2 minute 'interviews' and celebrity endorsement, the television landscape is desolate indeed. 

It is so hard to create new programs now with all bureaucratic tape and the costs etc. My heart goes out to you who are trying to do programming and is constantly frustrated. Many good inventions (copyright) turn out to be hindrance. Poor Mozart had to have one fees per commission, now people right one lousy song and they want to rip off the reward for life.
Nevertheless, limitations can sometimes move program in a different direction. One has to do with what is available. It is important not to lose one's heart and continue to do the best possible program in circumstances. It is easy for me to say, but I also has to do the best, play the best if I am dead tired, no good piano available etc.   
I wish you patience and determination to keep going, the wisdom to find out the best solution in bad situation.