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 In
1992 I'd been in the Banking and lending industry for 23 years.
Banks were shutting down, kind of like today, and where I was working
I met the Axe. In the summer of 1992 I decided to pursue a career in
music. I could not read music. I didn't know much about music other than
I liked it a lot. Especially film music. I took an educational course in
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). I went to work for Opcode (a MIDI company)
on October 1st 1992 and stayed there for 7 years until they sold out to
Gibson Guitars. My last day was, oddly enough, October 1st 1999.
MIDI was a computer based music program that everybody was using in live
performances and composition. Guess who used a lot of MIDI programs? Film composers! When I went to work for Opcode I found myself
talking daily to the likes of Bill Conti, Harry Connick Jr and Tom Scott who was Saxophonist on lots
of Goldsmith scores and credited as co-composer on the film The
Culpepper Cattle Company which re-used Jerry's music to The Flim
Flam Man. I asked Tom about this directly and he actually giggled. I
also ended up back stage at
Jimmy Buffett concerts which was a perk typical of this job.
Also on the client list were Jerry and his son Joel. Jerry didn't use
the Opcode program much although he owned it but Joel was a major user.
I helped him quite a bit when it came to obtaining technical help and
became pretty good phone buddies. He knew of my admiration for his dad
and my prior contact with Jerry because of the Night Crossing
album. In the late spring or early summer of 1998 Joel said I ought to come
down to L.A. for the upcoming Small Soldiers recording sessions.
When he said that I said "could you please repeat that and are you
serious?". He was serious. I hope you enjoy the pictures taken at
the sessions. As those who have attended sessions and tried to
photograph know the inability to use flash means exposure times are slow
and end results are not as good as one would have hoped. On top of that
this was before the days of digital cameras so you never really knew
what was going to come out.
The sessions were scheduled for 4 days through early June on Sound Stage
1 AKA the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th
Century Fox. My wife and I attended Friday June 5th and Saturday June
6th. An additional day was necessary due to last minute changes
in the film including one at the behest of Steven Spielberg. As it turns
out CNN came in for the Saturday sessions for a feature on the
score and film. Tom Scott came in that day for his solos as well. Joe
Dante showed up for both day's sessions and Ken Hall, Jerry's long time
editor was there. My wife and I sat on the visitors couch in
front of the recording booth and just behind the conductor. Although we
were told NO PICTURES I found that rule easily bent. The pictures
include both inside the sound booth and throughout the orchestra where I
was able to walk around freely. I even talked one of the equipment men
working for the Studio into climbing up a ladder and taking an
extraordinary picture of Jerry conducting with just me and the better
half on the couch watching.
After each take Jerry, Joe Dante and Ken Hall would go back into the control room for the
playback (see picture below). If they like it they move on, if not they go back for another
take. While the score was being mixed and tracked a Varese Sarabande
engineer was off to the side doing his mix down at the same time as the
original recording. This allowed the score to be released more in line
with the film. I went in and out of the mixing room to watch JG at work.
He was very moved by many of the scenes especially the finale which brought him to tears. I
think he was affected by his music as the rest of us are and it goes
back to my point in the Night Crossing piece that he spoke of his scores often in the 3rd person,
surprised as any of us are on how powerful the on screen images can be when
matched up with music.
Also on tap Saturday was a little horseplay where
Jerry stepped down from the podium and was replaced by orchestra
musicians while Jerry played first Violin, Cello, as well as Harp
pictured below. While they do pretty well at the Podium Jerry shows no
aptitude for these instruments. The clowning around continued and a good
time was had by all with the session still finishing by 2pm.
Below is a picture of Goldsmith's long time Pianist
Ralph Grierson.
As well as a picture of director Joe Dante.
Regarding Spielberg's last minute scene change, the film was suppose to end
with a line by Archer or one of his fellow travellers saying "Are we
there yet?" which was cute but got changed to "We aren't going to hit an
ice berg are we?" ...... an obvious reference to the movie Titanic
which had just won several Oscars. This caused a lot of consternation as
the music had to be re-scored virtually on site, then re-printed and
recorded to fit the last minute change. Joel said he would stop by but
had several excuses and it wasn't looking promising until Jerry got on
the phone and well.......I got to meet Joel in person for the first
time. Below is a picture of
one of the musicians conducting while Jerry was performing.
My apologies to Fox if I committed a faux pas but over the
years I have paid to see a lot of bad movies made by the studio and no
apology was ever offered. This story ends with me saying that Small
Soldiers was a big Experience. Wish you could have been there.
I've been writing weekly movie and "other" reviews for The Santa
Clara Weekly since early 1998.
Here is my original review of the movie
Small
Soldiers and the original article I wrote on the
recording sessions.
Very special thanks to Karl
for sharing his memories and photos from the Small Soldiers
Recording Sessions.
Karl Scott writes movie reviews for the
Santa Clara Weekly
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Small
Soldiers Recording Sessions 
