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Mr. Keeto Lam is a local film critic and scriptwriter.
“If you make 10 the highest mark, music scores about 6 while a script scores 9 in a movie,” said Mr. Lam.
“In the movie Batman Returns, you can hardly feel the passion and the excitement without the music,” he said.
Mr. Peter Kam is a winner of the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards.
“People buy soundtracks to ‘taste’ the movies,” said Mr. Kam.
Two kinds of soundtracks are sold in the market.
The first one is the original soundtrack.
The other includes songs which were not played in the movies.
Whether to produce soundtracks is decided by the director or the disc company in the pre-production period.
“Foreign countries like the USA usually hire an orchestra for the music.
“However, we use computers instead,” Mr. Kam said.
Mr. Kam said that musical instruments are preferred because the sound is natural.
“People tend to buy more Hollywood soundtracks,” Mr. Kam said.
Scriptwriters or directors may ask music producers to make the music before the movie is produced.
“I feel lucky to be trusted to make all the music beforehand,” Mr. Kam said.
Meanwhile, people criticise the current standard of soundtracks.
“The standard is not really low. There are many good music producers.
“One good example is the Wong-Fai-Hung movie series. James Wong has done a great job.
“Other producers like Richard Yuen and Law Tai Yau have also made good soundtracks,” Mr. Lam said.
Compared to Hollywood’s, the standard of soundtracks in Hong Kong does lag behind.
“In Hollywood or Japan, film companies pay great attention to associated products like soundtracks and toys.
“They strive for perfect quality to capture the hearts of audience,” said he.
However, this is not the case in Hong Kong.
Mr. Kam said that the use of instruments gives Hollywood soundtracks a higher quality.
A famous local music commentator, Mr. Fung Lai Chi, said he was amazed by the soundtracks for the movies Gladiator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
“The latter is a mixture of Chinese music and Western music with a fantastic melody.
“It matches well with the story,” he said.
Mr. Kam pointed out several constraints in local soundtrack production.
“First is the time limit.
“Few directors give music producers sufficient time in production because the movie is supposed to be finished within a few weeks,” said Mr. Kam.
Mr. Kam thinks that the workload for local music producers is too heavy.
One has to deal with all the processes like mixing and balancing.
“A lack of support from disc companies is also a problem.
“Local soundtracks have low commercial value,” said Mr. Kam.
Mr. Keeto Lam is pessimistic towards the development of the soundtrack industry.
“The local film market is too weak to support directors and filmmakers. Most of them have turned their eyes to the international market,” said Mr. Lam.
Mr. Peter Kam, on the contrary, is optimistic. “Hong Kong still has a number of soundtrack supporters,” he said.
The two men strongly recommend the insertion of local colour.
“Sam Hui’s music is successful as it is full of local elements,”
Mr. Lam said.
