Customer Reviews

Trailer Project: Coming Soon - Previews of Coming Attractions

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a very unique and special CD set.

This is a fascinating award-winning collection of music from the trailers which sell movies. It was an Amazon top-rated soundtrack gift for the holiday season of 1998, and listed as one of Amazon's top-selling soundtrack cds of summer, fall and winter 1998. It won the Film Music Critics Jury Award, The Golden Score award, Scorelogue Readers' Choice award, Moviescore's Most Entertaining Composer Compilation and many more.

Unfortunately, Daniel A. Pulliam (Acworth, GA United States)is not accurate in his statements.

There is no pretense that it is the film scores. While he does have numerous hit television series and many films to his credit, that is not what John Beal does on this CD. This very impressive 2-CD collection gives an overview of an incredible range of musical styles required to sell movies during the 80's and 90's and the liner notes give additional information and confirmation attesting to his talent.

Contrary to Mr. Pulliam's review, John Beal is indeed the composer of all of these recordings for theatrical film trailers and is one of Hollywood's most famous trailer composers. Every studio in Hollywood calls on him to help sell their biggest films. According to his numerous web sites, he's done over 2,000 movie advertising projects and his works include thirty of the top-grossing films of all time. Go to any other movie music site and you'll see confirmation.

Fact: You will not hear the theme from "Police Academy," or the theme from any other movie score. This is an amazing compilation of music from the trailers, not the film scores. It could not be more clearly stated on the front, back and inside liner notes.

Fact: Where there is an actual film title attached to the track, these are exactly as used in the trailer. Where additional changes were made to the music as the trailer went to final release or if they used a different version, they carefully did not include the film title, only hinting at the movie trailer it was written for. This is quite clear.

We may like or dislike the quality of the compositions or recordings without argument. I liked most of these tracks. Some left me disinterested. My personal rating is 5 stars because no one has ever done such a compilation and because it was packaged and presented so well. Two collector CDs packed with unique film music for the price of one. Excellent notes. Excellent sound quality. Not a bad deal.

But to state that the leading composer of trailer music didn't write the movie trailers he's presenting here is clearly inappropriate. It is disappointing to see such misleading comments are allowed to be posted.

For collectors, this is a must-have. For people looking for the current J-Lo "soundtrack" it's probably not!

I just bought the new album EVERGREEN: MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF BARBRA STREISAND and discovered John Beal, so I searched for some of his other work and found him performing an exquisite suite from X-Files plus a dance mix of La Femme Nikita on THE SNOW FILES and powerful takes on Men In Black and Predator on WATCH THE SKIES, then I discovered him on HEART OF THE OCEAN doing three completely different style tracks and now - FINALLY - I HAVE FOUND HIM PERFORMING HIS OWN COMPOSITIONS. This guy is an amazingly versatile artist. I LOVE THIS 2 CD SET. For the price, you will not find a more interesting collection of film oriented music. I highly recommend this album to anyone who likes the variety and excitement of film previews.

I've heard this guy on other compilation albums, but this album is the the best I've found of his work. Every possible style of music is here, from pretty and heroic orchestra to the most contemporary house, industrial, world beat and electronic. He has the most range of any of the composers whose work I collect. He should be doing full movie scores, not just movie previews. I hope Hollywood wakes up and realizes he is right under their nose, promoting their own films!!

I love this 2 hour set. I've also discovered him on "Watch The Skies" doing a great version of "Men In Black" and "Predator" and "Vibes" and "Commando" on "Heart of the Ocean" and performing a whole lot on the new "Snow Files: The Film Music of Mark Snow"

I found this quite by accident - I have never seen any advertising for it anywhere. What a surprise! It is a fascinating collection of music that is used to sell movies. It's not scores from the movies. It is music written for advertising them. As such, I found it one of the most interesting compilation albums I have ever purchased.

From start to finish I kept wondering why no one thought to do this before. Over 2 hours of incredible music that I've heard in the theaters for so many years and wondered where it came from. Sure, some are not to my favorite tastes, but every cue is completely different and it is like listening to an overview of the last 20 years of film scoring. BRAVO to John Beal BRAVO to the label for putting this great compilation set out.

I bought this CD and have listened to it many times, and each time it gets better. I had never heard of John Beal before until I was referred, by a friend. This CD is great!! My favorite piece is courage march, my other favorites include broken arrow, casualties of war and chaplin. I just wish more music like this was available, I can't get enough, I think Mr. Beal is the "John Williams" of the trailer music business. Bravo!, and continue the outstanding work.

Trailer composing, like the other children of film composition (television music, logo music, etc.), leans toward being forgotten. The two-CD "The John Beal Trailer Project: Coming Soon," presents the listener with a musical collage of this contemporary art, as well as a retrospective of its leading craftsman, John Beal. Hopefully this will cause a few people to overlook it no more.

The selections represented here range from sublimely melodic to gouge-out-me-own-eyes athematic, ornate orchestral to snide synth, from brilliant to average, but are never less than ear-catching. On disc one, the marvels include Beal's "Black Beauty," "Chaplin," "Cool World," "Deadly Blessing," "Eraser," "Ghost," "Hamlet," "Independence Day," "Last Man Standing," and the re-recording of Jerry Goldsmith's "Judge Dredd." On disc two, there is "Strawberry & Chocolate," "Memoirs of an Invisible Man," "Noises Off," "Nothing in Common," "Passed Away," "Quiz Show," "Species II," "Three Wishes," "Titanic," "True Lies," and the re-recording of Goldsmith's "Basic Instinct." With 48 remaining tracks, these are simply the best of the best.

There are a few suspect cues, of course: the by-the-book "Courage Under Fire," the stale "Little Man Tate," the predictable "Medicine Man," and a few tracks where royalties seriously ought to be in question. However, there is no long wait for redemption since the tracks are never more than a few minutes long.

The production is utterly delightful, with a very attractive production design, solidly written and informative liner notes by Randall D. Larson, crisp sound, and, on average, great performances by the musicians involved.

Also deserving of note is the show of personality and class so rare to commercial releases. Mr. Beal's honesty and humor are clear. His job requires him to mimic other composers (as referred to above, sometimes more closely than he should), but, unlike certain other composers, he is straightforward on the issue in the album's acknowledgments. The humor shows in the track titles and comments, which are often in-jokes or word-plays. The best example of both class and humor is the trailer music for "Heathers;" Danny Elfman's "Beetlejuice" served as the most obvious inspiration, and Beal interpolates the song, 'Three Blind Mice.' The name of Beal's piece? 'Three Blind Elfmen.' It takes a lot of guts to get away with something like that.

"In recent years, the difficult art of composing music for trailers has been getting more and more recognition and the master in the field is undoubtedly John Beal, who has written music for more than 500 trailers, which includes campaigns for an amazing amount of big box office successes...This is a truly unique album - a very, very entertaining listening experience. Skillfully produced, the album constantly shifts in mood and genre, action is followed by comedy, followed by horror, followed by epic adventure. It's all done with a twinkle in the eye with a lot of humurously entitled cues... It's amazing to notice John Beal's eclectism, there is virtually no musical genre he doesn't control - there is jazz, synthesizer minimalism, heavy metal, atonal orchestral writing, melodic romanticism - everything! A lot of the cues on this album have an instant originality. I am particularly enthusiastic about the horror trailers included: DEADLY BLESSING, including the kind of frantic choral writing which makes me sweat abundantly, and DISTURBING BEHAVIOUR, with a great, energetic orchestral finale. I can't wait to get the chance to hear John Beal's original scores for horror films THE FUNHOUSE and TERROR IN THE AISLES, soon to be available on two promo CDs. All in all, COMING SOON! THE JOHN BEAL TRAILER PROJECT is a very unusual album with a lot of thoroughly fun listening experiences. Be aware of the fact that this isn't an ordinary film music album and you'll have more than two hours of energetic music entertainment which pushes a lot of buttons."

"Like the trailers it accompanies, this collection of musical tidbits compactly drives its points home and leaves the audience wanting more...an exciting, multi-colored carnival ride, swerving the listener through a number of small, unexpected sights covering every imaginable cinematic base for the past fifteen years...Beal continues to dazzle listeners with a fantastic second disc that is just as diverse as the first and just as fulfilling. Every film music lovers' dream is to revisit their favorite trailers for the music and amazement and that is what Beal delivers here...What John Beal has done is captured the essence of each film represented in his own unique style and his own fantastic interpretations of fellow composers' work. This is a thrilling piece and together with the first disc will leave listeners wanting more even still. We hope to see Beal composing more feature length films in the near future. This is an achievement that deserves kudos from the very core of film music fans and film fans alike. Beal has taken the trailer music to new heights and we look forward to his work in the new century." --