Those interested in finding their own film syncs should be aware that syncing to The Beatles album Help! is one of the most widely used albums. Interestingly, it is often used for action films which seems (at first blush) a rather odd choice as it has so many love/relationship songs on the album. Filmmakers compensate by making broad use of "Ticket To Ride" and "Help" and then to cast a rather blind eye to gender issues. So, the song "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" could be used tongue in cheek for a lost enemy, lost gem, lost dog, etc. etc.
Another thing to forget about is that one song follows another. Filmmakers don't give a darn about the order of things on an album, they care about using music to inspire them. Period.
I've done a sync of four songs to a segment of the film including:
"Ticket to Ride" "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" "Help!" "I Need You"
Those interested could easily continue the sync to the end of the film if they pay attention to the scenes and little care about needing to repeat songs (hint, hint).
I also posted a sync to the Bond film, Casino Royale references the song.
Building on that, I want to show a pattern of use of the song in the Bond films for the Roger Moore films.
The film, Live and Let Die uses water effectively but with a twist, where instead of there being a gap over land (a la The Bridge on the River Kwai) there is a gap over water. This land span is what Bond skims his boat over (twice) during the scene.
In the film, The Man With The Golden Gun, the theme of using Sheriff Pepper in a "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" sync is repeated with an exciting jump over a broken bridge. The Asian location and broken bridge paying homage to The Bridge on the River Kwai.
The sync works so that the lyrics:
See how they shine
Works to the bright shine coming off of Bond's car as he spins it around.
The question should be: couldn't that just be the natural sun light hitting the car during a complicated stunt? Sure, but filmmakers are very careful about lighting and camera angles - they're pros not likely to make amateurish goofs except when they deliberately want those things to occur. Nor are they stupid enough to get a light man and his large spotlight in the reflection of the car unless they want to do it.
In A View To A Kill, a drawbridge becomes the gap over the river with Bond (in a fire truck) spanning the gap. The song is also used during the climatic scene on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. This sync is a tougher one to get because the filmmakers are syncing the music to the film multiple times. Thus for example, the scene with the fire truck ladder knocking the top off of a pickup truck explosing a couple this works for the lyrics:
When you're down and out, when you're on the street
as well as the double entendre of:
Like a bridge over troubled waterI will lay me down
and the scene with Bond (on the ladder) knocking the hats off of two bald guys works with:
I'll take your part
as well as the two gay guys (we are talking about San Francisco here) to:
When you're down and outWhen you're on the street as well as possibly:
Sail on Silver Girl, Sail on byYour time has come to shine
Bond fans, notice also the deliberate continuity error of the American made car switching from a left-wheel model during the street scene and a right-wheel car in close-up.
Steven Spielberg has commented on how much an impression the Bond films had on him as a filmmaker. When presenting Sean Connery with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award he said:
“well rare is the moment when to honor an actor who has captured lightning in a bottle. And rare is the moment when that actor creates a character for me, for you and for millions of people around the world. People who do not speak the same language but they share this character, one that inhabits our most impossible dreams and influences what we’d like to wear (Turnbull & Asser with Rolex watch) what we’d like to drink (martinis, shaken not stirred) and what we’d like to drive (Aston Martin DB-5). His very name is an example of this, his name is Bond, James Bond.”
It turns out that the Bond film music helped inspired one of the the most memorable scenes in movie history, the opening scene in Spielberg's film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. So here are the main themes to Goldfinger and Thunderball, back-to-back, separated by only a few seconds within the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Admittedly it helps to know some films to be able to figure out sources of inspiration for musicians. But, beyond that, sometimes the music composer makes it pretty easy for anyone to figure these sources out, once they become aware that this is going on (naturally).
A case in point is the Simon and Garfunkel song, "Bridge over Troubled Waters." Not only is the song title a huge clue but with key lyrics like:
Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down
it suggests the question, exactly what is this bridge over troubled waters and what is being laid down?
The source of inspiration I'm referring to is the film, The Bridge On The River Kwai, with a collapsing Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) laying down over the dynamite plunger causing it to explode with the second laying down being the bridge over troubled water being the ... um ... bridge over troubled waters - with the train falling into the water.
Another nice touch is the sign Colonel Nicholson so proudly erected to the unnamed "This Bridge" floating by in the water after the bridge's collapse to the lyrics:
Like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind
In Casino Royale, didn't it seem odd that the water is still churning heavily minutes after the Venetian house sank?
The reason is to play a part in the filmmaker's art. That of incorporating a secret underscore to the film. Part of that score is to the Paul Simon song, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters."
one interesting set of lyrics:
When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all
Has Bond nailing an operative named Gettler (seemingly a doppelgänger of Le Chiffre) through the left eye with a nail gun. This is the same eye that Le Chiffre sheds tears of blood as seen earlier in the film with Bond taking a verbal shot at Le Chiffre saying that he won't consider himself in trouble until he starts "weeping blood."
Certainly, any Bond fan recognizes that the Austin Powers films is a parody based heavily on the James Bond films. However, there are more references to the Bond films than many a Bond fan may realize.
Some things in the first film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery are quite easily identified as based on the film, You Only Live Twice. They include Dr. Evil's appearance based on the Donald Pleasence version of Blofeld. That and his white Persian cat, Dr. Evil's version named Mr. Bigglesworth.
Other things may only occur to the Bond fan if he/she has seen the film recently. For example, Austin Power's extremely hairy chest is based (in parody) on the story element of Tiger Tanaka commenting on Japanese men having beautiful bare skin compared to Connery's hairy chest. An of a smaller detail is the positioning of an (as of yet) unseen Blofeld, where his cat is shown before he is.
YOLT:
Austin Powers:
Or women driving sporty convertibles with small video monitors that show you the face of the person you're talking to.
There are other secrets for the Bond fan to figure out and discover, involving the hidden soundtrack for You Only Live Twice (and other Bond films). In another entry in this blog I show how the Bond filmmakers did a full film sync to the album Help! This is reference by the Austin Powers film.
For example, to the song "Ticket To Ride", we have Bond escaping danger by getting into Aki's white convertible and Austin Powers escaping women by jumping into Mrs. Kensington's Jaguar convertible.
Some things weren't apparent to me on first viewing. For example, we get a look at a sign for the London Underground) to the lyrics "I do appreciate you being round".
And while I caught the reference to the same "I do appreciate you being round" to round also being Austin Powers sticking out his backside, I missed the arrow on the woman's shirt, helping to point out the clue.
We also have Austin Powers running from a group of women, that references The Beatles's films Help! and A Hard Day's Night while also commenting on Aki running away from James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" to the same song. The Underground also references Tiger Tanaka's private underground railroad as well as his assumption that M (in London) may have the same setup.
To the song "Help, some little touches are:
My independence seems to vanish in the haze
To the vapor passing over Dr. Evil as he is locked away in a freeze chamber.
Help me get my feet upon the ground
To Big Boy's big feet in liftoff
Or a more subtle reference of Austin Powers climbing the stairs (thus feet off the ground) plus having the leg of a woman in a airborne swing in the shot.
The filmmakers of the movie, You Only Live Twice decided to do a full film sync to The Beatles' album Help!
It may be hard to imagine at first as it would seem an odd pairing of a lot of love/relationship songs to a James Bond film. However, the filmmakers make strong use of the two most action related songs "Help!" and "Ticket To Ride" and use non-traditional women to go with some other songs. This includes the female flying gadget named Little Nelly and Blofeld's cat. For example, the filmmakers sync "Another Girl" for Bond's introduction to Little Nelly and "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" to Blofeld's losing his white (and disappearing) Persian cat. It also doesn't hurt that Bond has scenes with several women including:
Miss Moneypenny Aki Helga (bad girl) Kissy Ling (Chinese girl in Hong Kong) Japanese Masseuse
Naturally, the song "Help!" with the lyrics "help me get my feet back on the ground" works well with everything from space walks to ninjas repelling into Blofeld's volcano lair. "Ticket To Ride" working well for scenes with Aki's white convertible as well as rockets into space and Blofeld's monorail cars (looking a bit like a Disneyland ride).
With 46 separate song syncs, the film syncer needs to realize that the odds of getting all of those syncs correct as the filmmakers intended is unlikely. Sometimes equally good ideas exist in multiple songs. Further, with songs of approximately the same length, different songs could be used without affecting the rather obvious syncs around them. For example, the songs:
"Another Girl" "I've Just Seen A Face" "Yesterday"
All clock in at 2 minutes, seven seconds.
With that said, there are some common themes that are present in Help! album syncs that certainly help the syncer find his/her way. Over time, that will be made more clear.
Below are the video highlights from the full album sync. If there is interest in the full film sync, I'll consider posting it.
Someone brought up the question about whether songs just occur to me and that made me think of a one-off sync that was nothing more than that.
I was simply watching Goldfinger with the scene where Bond is blinded by the light made me think of ... you guessed it. However, while the "blinded by the light" lyrics work great with the bright lights of the scene this is a tough sync to appreciated as Springsteen obviously has other sources that influenced the lyrics as well as there are so many lyrics (some a bit hard to understand).
Key lyrics
And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
The young Scot being Sean Connery with Tilly Masterson struck to the ground by Oddjob's metal-rimmed bowler.
Yeah he was blinded by the light Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
At gunpoint, Bond gets back into his Aston Martin, the runner in the night was Jill Masterson running for the woods before being struck down. The light is the headlights pointed toward the audience. And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside Safe to go outside is ironic, as Bond looks down toward his ejector button. The weather chart perhaps a reference to the round green screen tracker that is one of the key gadgets in the Aston Martin.
And little Early-Pearly came in by her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride
A whirly birdy is more like it as Bond ejects his unwanted passenger out of the top of the car (thus needing a ride).
Yes and Scotland Yard was trying hard, they sent a dude with a calling card, he said, do what you like, but don't do it here
Another Scot reference with Bond having to change direction as the old lady guard effectively uses a machine gun on him.
He was just blinded by the light Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
The deuce is Bond's two seater Aston Martin, a nighttime car chase afoot with a light blinding Bond as he holds his hand up in front of his face
Blinded by the light
Blinded again, Bond shields his eyes with his hand ultimately crashing.
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
The sun is the distinctively yellow headlight of a chase car. The headlight coming into a close-up.
Continuing with another sync of "Someone To Watch Over Me" to a Bond film we have it syncing to the title credits in the film, You Only Live Twice.
Perhaps most importantly, it shows the coordination that occurs between the Title Credit designer (Maurice Binder) and the other filmmakers (director Lewis Gilbert and editor Peter Hunt etc.) as the sync starts before the title credits and ends after the credits are over.
A nice touch by the filmmakers is that Frank Sinatra version of the song "Someone To Watch Over Me" is the secret underscore to his daughter's title song.
Another fun element is that Binder has a simple door key as part of a woman's jewelry as we hear the words "he carries the key." The key is directly above the woman's right eye. It isn't obvious as he has another piece of metal dangling down by it, but he does give the audience a clue when the camera goes in for a close-up (or at least 'closer up).
To the words "someone to watch over me" has:
A cop looking over Bond's corpse checking his eyes to see whether he's dead A woman spying on the audience A woman turning her head to look at the audience A woman (in silhouette) looking down, thus (presumably) looking over someone
A man looking through binoculars at Bond's funeral as the camera pans in to Bond's obituary
It's always nice when a director does a sync that references another film while doing a sync to the same song. In the film Stargate, the director Roland Emmerich references the Pink Floyd sync to 'stargate' in the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Key references (besides the high speed travel itself) are the explosion of tiny stars hommage to 2001 but to the same set of lyrics.
2001:
Stargate:
Emmerich also references Pink Floyd's sync to Snow White with the Stargate's round portal with reflective 'waters.'
There are many things going on including a syncs to the Meddle album. Here is a sync to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" It was easy to find. It's been years since I saw the film Stargate but the lyrics:
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky
I knew had a darn good chance of syncing to the bad guy's eyes going black before being nuked.
floating by in the water after the bridge's collapse to the lyrics:
Or women driving sporty convertibles with small video monitors that show you the face of the person you're talking to.
There are other secrets for the Bond fan to figure out and discover, involving the hidden soundtrack for You Only Live Twice (and other Bond films). In another entry in this blog I show how the Bond filmmakers did a full film sync to the album Help! This is reference by the Austin Powers film.
Some things weren't apparent to me on first viewing. For example, we get a look at a sign for the London Underground) to the lyrics "I do appreciate you being round".
And while I caught the reference to the same "I do appreciate you being round" to round also being Austin Powers sticking out his backside, I missed the arrow on the woman's shirt, helping to point out the clue.
We also have Austin Powers running from a group of women, that references The Beatles's films Help! and A Hard Day's Night while also commenting on Aki running away from James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" to the same song. The Underground also references Tiger Tanaka's private underground railroad as well as his assumption that M (in London) may have the same setup.
Help me get my feet upon the ground
Or a more subtle reference of Austin Powers climbing the stairs (thus feet off the ground) plus having the leg of a woman in a airborne swing in the shot.
A man looking through binoculars at Bond's funeral as the camera pans in to Bond's obituary
The video:
Emmerich also references Pink Floyd's sync to Snow White with the Stargate's round portal with reflective 'waters.'
