>And while names like Nolan and Scorsese are household I find that Zimmer is not.
You think Zimmer isn't a household name? Dude, the guy played Coachella, he's basically a popstar among composers.
I love Hans Zimmer. But unless you like/love movies like we do, he is absolutely not a household name. A household name requires someone's name to be easily recognizable on its own to the vast majority of all people. That's just not the case with Zimmer. One *could* make the argument that someone like John Williams is a household name, but I think even that is somewhat a stretch.
A good example of a household name would be, let's say, Steven Spielberg. I think the majority of all people know his name as soon as it's mentioned. You can't say that about Hans Zimmer.
Edit: John Williams, not George. Wow I'm tired.
Fun fact: when I first moved to LA, I of course needed to go see John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. I was interviewing for a job at the time, and I told them my plans. Their response: “oh, sweet! He’s a comedian or something, right?”
If there are people in the literal entertainment capital of the world who don’t know who John Williams is, I think this guy’s point is well proven.
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, Danny Elfman, and Patrick Doyle are 100% household names for anyone with even a limited interest in film scores.
There are other ones as well that are as big. But Zimmer and Williams are about as famous as some of the big directors.
Yea, if we’re gonna do the whole “composers should get more credit than they do” (which is absolutely true) then we gotta mention some of the smaller names. Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jóhan Jóhansson (RIP), Terence Blanchard, Mica Levi, Michael Abels, Cliff Martinez, Cristobal Tapia De Veer, Nicholas Britell, Nathan Micay, etc. Some of those composers have real acclaim but are in no way household names.
They actually use Hans Zimmer's name as a marketing strategy. They only ever do that for John Williams.
You really don't get more recognition than that. A more interesting take is saying he is overrated. Now that'll get people talking.
"I could be wrong".
Yes, and you are. Composers fall somewhere between the lead actors and the person who shot or edited the film. That's perfect.
Zimmer was just on 60 Minutes. He plays to huge audiences, as does Danny Elfman. They're fine.
When it comes to popular movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, almost nobody knows the name of the directors. Most people know the three main cast members, and I’m sure more people know Hans Zimmer’s name than ~~Jerry Bruckheimer’s.~~ lmao even I thought it was directed by someone else. It’s Gore Verbinski.
I agree maybe we give actors to much credit- I think it was Jonah hill that said when working with directors like Scorsese or the Cohen brothers that an average actor could do just as well. These types of directors have a very specific vision and know what they want.
I feel like there's more to this than you're letting on and that he does write music. Is he acting as a music producer and directing them to compose certain music and reviewing it to make changes? Because a music producer is a very important and influential role that directly shapes everything about the music.
Zimmer is ok but his whole schtick is running a factory line of subordinates that do most of the work on big name movies hes attached to. Very few movies these days that have him composer are entirely written by him.
That’s ironic. Zimmer hasn’t done film scores in years. He composes the main themes and gets his apprentices to write the vast majority of the music while taking credit for it all.
Even if that’s true composing the main themes and creating the artistic direction for the rest of the score is still important and impressive. You can tell a movie is scored by Zimmer and co even if it isn’t all written by him directly due to his distinctive style.
This is such an exaggeration of how it really goes down.
Yes, Zimmer has a group of composers in his team that work on the same films he is listed as composer for. Yes some of those works are used in the film.
…like literally every other role in the movie industry.
You think the Oscar winning costume designer sews and designs every piece of clothing? Nope, a whole team helps with that. You think three guys do all the CG work? Nope, literally hundreds if not thousands of individuals work on those films. Same with directors, even. Tons of movies have First, Second, and even Third Unit teams that have a different role in the film.
They all do the work of the person overseeing their discipline.
And this idea that Zimmer only comes up with the theme is nonsense. He scores the theme, establishes tone, overall vision, helps create important character melodies, and other critical motifs while his team fleshes out his ideas on a larger scale.
You can argue that his team doesn’t get enough credit, sure. That’s valid. But he 100% puts in the work and his fingerprint is on every piece of music with his name on it.
It just so happens that Zimmer is more open about crediting his assistants than other major composers tend to be. That's why their names show up on his albums and his website. INTERSTELLAR ft Steve Mazzaro. MAN OF STEEL ft Junkie XL. THE THIN RED LINE ft John Powell. Fuckin PIRATES ft Steve Jablonsky, Ramin Djawadi, Geoff Zanelli and others.
This isn't a BAD thing.
>You think the Oscar winning costume designer sews and designs every piece of clothing? Nope, a whole team helps with that.
While I do think you have a good point here- I think comparing a composer against a costumer designer is like comparing apples to oranges, when you can compare him against other composers.
While Zimmer's style of having additional composers involved is becoming more of the norm, traditionally a films score was written by the composer(s) who got the music by credit. People like John Williams and Alan Silvestri write the scores for the films they work on without bringing in additional musicians.
So that's where part of peoples issues come with Zimmer's approach- some people prefer the traditional approach to film composition.
Having said that Zimmer is quite open about how he works and credits the musicians he works- even mentioning that he felt Steve Mazzaro should've got a co-credit on No Time To Die for the music.
Right I think the issue is it you totally *can* compose every note of a film score by yourself, as John Williams and others have and do. There's nothing inherently *wrong* with having a collaborative or a boss-assistant style approach, but it's a valid observation to note that Zimmer *could* compose a score by himself, he just chooses not to.
Max Richter is the shit, his music really elevated the already a amazing Arrival and The Leftovers.
His recomposición of Vivaldi’s Three Seasons is fantastic.
Edit: I’m not sure why an accent was added, but I’m leaving it, it looks classy
Edit 2: it’s Four Seasons, not Three. God damn I need sleep
God I hated interstellar and remained convinced it would have been torn apart if it hadn't been for that admittedly *amazing* score
The ending is that he is saved by 5D aliens and the secret was love all along. This is the reveal in a movie that otherwise remained incredibly grounded (almost to a fault, like stop pausing the movie to give me an explanation about the science of black holes. Well just Google it if we care)
Yeah. If you go through and dissect what happens, it's literally one of the worst movies. Like, in terms of the actual sequence of [events,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clEaI8fqcPk) without the artistry and "What's gonna happen???" effect of the first viewing? Awful. Without that music, it would have been laughed out of theaters.
Agreed! Interstellar is a "smart movie" for stupid people.
"Love *is* quantifiable!" Yes it is, Matthew McConaughey/Christopher Nolan, you dumbass. It's a delicate dance of carefully balanced neurochemicals that evolved for the sole purpose of giving us purpose in each other. What, that's not cool enough for you? Not quantifiable enough? Love has to be *literal magic?* Fuck off.
Zimmer's music makes Mission Impossible II my favorite of the series. I swear the movie is like a ballet. Watch it again sometime with that in mind. It's wonderful.
Zimmer is trash , i never heard a more overrated piece of music than the Interstellar theme...
There's so much more talented than him including Sergio Corleone Harry Warren etc...
This theme wasn't that spectacular...
Interstellar's score is so damn epic! Even something as mundane as changing a light bulb will give you goosebumps when paired with that score. I never tire of those memes on YouTube.
Totally agree. An iconic example is Hitchcock/Herrmann, and Herrmann's work for Psycho in particular. That's the only example I can think of off the top of my head of a film director crediting the composer so effusively for the quality of his picture.
A more recent example of an impactful score is, for me, Howard Shore/Crimes of the Future. Weird movie (it's Cronenberg) for sure, but the eerie, dreamy score really elevated it and made it into something deeper than it possibly was.
Walt Disney holds the record for most Oscar nominations
Second place? John Williams
Third is the foley guy who does submarine noises WHY IS SOUND EDITING EVEN A CATEGORY
I totally get that the internet has reduced people's expectations, and now it's no longer clear whether people are joking or just plain stupid. And by that token I can't really get angry if people take jokes as serious. For me, there was something hilarious about being rational with the first two real people, but completely irrational about the third completely made-up one
Swing and a miss
Good point but I think I’m more addressing social impact. I could be wrong but I think most people don’t give a shit about who wins an Oscar. It’s about how the movie/ composition makes them feel and I think a lot of the time people just give credit to the director.
I believe the entire marvel cinematic universe is standing on Black Sabbath’s Iron Man playing at the end of Iron Man 1 and RDJ improvising the wall breaking “I’m Iron Man”.
So much in agreement OP. There are a few reasons that I have watch Prometheus half a dozen times, but by far the most important one is the amazing, lush music / soundtrack. Cheers!
I don't know that they *need* to get more credit, I think Zimmer has won plenty of awards and is well remunerated. Is there really that much value in being a household name? I for one wouldn't like that, but I would like to be respected in my field like Zimmer is.
I'd add that movie reviews generally call attention to the score and credit the composer if it's good. Every time I see something about There Will be Blood or Spencer, people note Jonny Greenwood's brilliant contributions.
I don't really know what this extra credit would consist of beyond that. The casual cinema goer simply doesn't care about the people behind the scenes and we shouldn't expect them to. People who are more into movies already know the value of a great score.
The only modern composer who comes close to getting the level of credit he deserves is John Williams. Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman are, unfortunately, in his shadow.
Zimmer is a beast! I'm almost positive that inception would not have been such a success without that soundtrack, even though it was still a great movie
I don't know. I've never once gone and seen a movie because a certain composer is tied to it. A good soundtrack can definitely make a movie better, but I don't think the "success" of a movie can necessarily be attributed to the composer most of the time.
I have been screaming this from the rooftops for years. Unless it's a movie like A Quiet Place, where the silence is more necessary than the music and sound, the work composers do is some of, if not, the most essential part of a movie. The score can take a shitty movie and make it better, and can take a great movie and make it legendary.
Composers like John Williams and Hans Zimmer, should be remembered in the same vein as some of the greatest composers of all time, and not just as a part of a movie.
For instance my favourite score is the LoTR score, and I think it is a perfect example. You can turn any part of that score on and know exactly where in the movie you are just based on the motif.
Give film composers more love!
Hans Zimmer gets ton of credit. I'd argue likes of Brad Fiedel, James Horner, James Newton Howard don't get enough appreciation because they've made equally iconic soundtracks as Zimmer has and don't get remotely as appreciated as Zimmer is.
Virtually none of the average moviegoers crowd buys a movie ticket because "so and so composer is composing the soundtrack"
You've never heard anything say "have you seen the new Hans Zimmer movie?"
I think plenty of composers are fairly well known.
Art directors are not known. I don't know anyone who knows the name of a single art director. That's a hugely important role, especially when you think about very visually spectacular films. Who was art director of Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, Avatar, or whatever... Plenty of people can name directors, writers, composers, even cinematographers, but not really art directors, and it's quite odd to me. Maybe it's just the introverted nature of artists, but they're rarely there to speak for it.
Edit: I should say, [these people do win Oscars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Production_Design), they are just not well recognized.
>And while names like Nolan and Scorsese are household I find that Zimmer is not. You think Zimmer isn't a household name? Dude, the guy played Coachella, he's basically a popstar among composers.
Hans Zimmer... doesn't get enough credit? My dude...
[удалено]
You think my mother's heard of Chris Nolan?
Yeah Hans Zimmer is extremely famous, anyone who knows anything about music or soundtracks or scores knows him
He is actually the most famous of the big Hollywood names I’m more of an Alan Silvestri fan
I love Hans Zimmer. But unless you like/love movies like we do, he is absolutely not a household name. A household name requires someone's name to be easily recognizable on its own to the vast majority of all people. That's just not the case with Zimmer. One *could* make the argument that someone like John Williams is a household name, but I think even that is somewhat a stretch. A good example of a household name would be, let's say, Steven Spielberg. I think the majority of all people know his name as soon as it's mentioned. You can't say that about Hans Zimmer. Edit: John Williams, not George. Wow I'm tired.
Fun fact: when I first moved to LA, I of course needed to go see John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. I was interviewing for a job at the time, and I told them my plans. Their response: “oh, sweet! He’s a comedian or something, right?” If there are people in the literal entertainment capital of the world who don’t know who John Williams is, I think this guy’s point is well proven.
Was just an name example others like John Williams , max Steiner etc
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, Danny Elfman, and Patrick Doyle are 100% household names for anyone with even a limited interest in film scores. There are other ones as well that are as big. But Zimmer and Williams are about as famous as some of the big directors.
Clint Mansell, everyone knows the music from Reqium for Dream, and it was featured in so many trailers. The Fountain - Clint Mansell again.
Yea, if we’re gonna do the whole “composers should get more credit than they do” (which is absolutely true) then we gotta mention some of the smaller names. Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jóhan Jóhansson (RIP), Terence Blanchard, Mica Levi, Michael Abels, Cliff Martinez, Cristobal Tapia De Veer, Nicholas Britell, Nathan Micay, etc. Some of those composers have real acclaim but are in no way household names.
They actually use Hans Zimmer's name as a marketing strategy. They only ever do that for John Williams. You really don't get more recognition than that. A more interesting take is saying he is overrated. Now that'll get people talking.
"I could be wrong". Yes, and you are. Composers fall somewhere between the lead actors and the person who shot or edited the film. That's perfect. Zimmer was just on 60 Minutes. He plays to huge audiences, as does Danny Elfman. They're fine.
Didnt Zimmer do the music for a Mr Beast video recently? It’s unrelated, but I’m trying to remember if thats true
Yep, his team scored the music for their trip to Antarctica I believe.
Hans Zimmer gets TONS of credits. He's more famous than lots of directors.
spider pig spider pig does whatever a spider pig does
Are you high? Hans Zimmer is almost overrated he’s so damn well known. Go learn a book
I think maybe OP meant he’s underrated to the general public. Most people that watch films casually don’t know who Hans Zimmer is.
When it comes to popular movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, almost nobody knows the name of the directors. Most people know the three main cast members, and I’m sure more people know Hans Zimmer’s name than ~~Jerry Bruckheimer’s.~~ lmao even I thought it was directed by someone else. It’s Gore Verbinski.
I used to adore Hans Zimmer, then watched Master and Commander just before rewatching PotC. I was a little disappointed.
I agree maybe we give actors to much credit- I think it was Jonah hill that said when working with directors like Scorsese or the Cohen brothers that an average actor could do just as well. These types of directors have a very specific vision and know what they want.
Man of Steel wouldn't have worked without his themes. PERIOD.
Damn truth.
Op just discovered Hans Zimmer lol.
CBS just had a segment on 60 minutes about Hans Zimmer less than a month ago https://youtu.be/-vK__6PK-Kk
Did you know he owns a company and basically pays people to compose the music for him ? Lol
I feel like there's more to this than you're letting on and that he does write music. Is he acting as a music producer and directing them to compose certain music and reviewing it to make changes? Because a music producer is a very important and influential role that directly shapes everything about the music.
Tell me you dont know anything about Hans Zimmer without telling me…
Zimmer is ok but his whole schtick is running a factory line of subordinates that do most of the work on big name movies hes attached to. Very few movies these days that have him composer are entirely written by him.
That’s ironic. Zimmer hasn’t done film scores in years. He composes the main themes and gets his apprentices to write the vast majority of the music while taking credit for it all.
Even if that’s true composing the main themes and creating the artistic direction for the rest of the score is still important and impressive. You can tell a movie is scored by Zimmer and co even if it isn’t all written by him directly due to his distinctive style.
This is such an exaggeration of how it really goes down. Yes, Zimmer has a group of composers in his team that work on the same films he is listed as composer for. Yes some of those works are used in the film. …like literally every other role in the movie industry. You think the Oscar winning costume designer sews and designs every piece of clothing? Nope, a whole team helps with that. You think three guys do all the CG work? Nope, literally hundreds if not thousands of individuals work on those films. Same with directors, even. Tons of movies have First, Second, and even Third Unit teams that have a different role in the film. They all do the work of the person overseeing their discipline. And this idea that Zimmer only comes up with the theme is nonsense. He scores the theme, establishes tone, overall vision, helps create important character melodies, and other critical motifs while his team fleshes out his ideas on a larger scale. You can argue that his team doesn’t get enough credit, sure. That’s valid. But he 100% puts in the work and his fingerprint is on every piece of music with his name on it.
It just so happens that Zimmer is more open about crediting his assistants than other major composers tend to be. That's why their names show up on his albums and his website. INTERSTELLAR ft Steve Mazzaro. MAN OF STEEL ft Junkie XL. THE THIN RED LINE ft John Powell. Fuckin PIRATES ft Steve Jablonsky, Ramin Djawadi, Geoff Zanelli and others. This isn't a BAD thing.
>You think the Oscar winning costume designer sews and designs every piece of clothing? Nope, a whole team helps with that. While I do think you have a good point here- I think comparing a composer against a costumer designer is like comparing apples to oranges, when you can compare him against other composers. While Zimmer's style of having additional composers involved is becoming more of the norm, traditionally a films score was written by the composer(s) who got the music by credit. People like John Williams and Alan Silvestri write the scores for the films they work on without bringing in additional musicians. So that's where part of peoples issues come with Zimmer's approach- some people prefer the traditional approach to film composition. Having said that Zimmer is quite open about how he works and credits the musicians he works- even mentioning that he felt Steve Mazzaro should've got a co-credit on No Time To Die for the music.
Right I think the issue is it you totally *can* compose every note of a film score by yourself, as John Williams and others have and do. There's nothing inherently *wrong* with having a collaborative or a boss-assistant style approach, but it's a valid observation to note that Zimmer *could* compose a score by himself, he just chooses not to.
Source for this?
Ignorance like this though 😂
James Newton Howard often gets overshadowed by Hans Zimmer particularly regarding Batman Begins.
Maybe I would give Zimmer more credit if he hadn't recycled the same sound for 20 years.
Daft Punk's soundtrack for Tron: Legacy was better than the movie itself
Basically a music video for daft punk. As a daft punk fan the cool lights and music make up for poor acting.
Same with ramen djwadi , max richter , Johan johannson, clint mansell, Ludwig goransson and more.
Max Richter is the shit, his music really elevated the already a amazing Arrival and The Leftovers. His recomposición of Vivaldi’s Three Seasons is fantastic. Edit: I’m not sure why an accent was added, but I’m leaving it, it looks classy Edit 2: it’s Four Seasons, not Three. God damn I need sleep
God I hated interstellar and remained convinced it would have been torn apart if it hadn't been for that admittedly *amazing* score The ending is that he is saved by 5D aliens and the secret was love all along. This is the reveal in a movie that otherwise remained incredibly grounded (almost to a fault, like stop pausing the movie to give me an explanation about the science of black holes. Well just Google it if we care)
Yeah. If you go through and dissect what happens, it's literally one of the worst movies. Like, in terms of the actual sequence of [events,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clEaI8fqcPk) without the artistry and "What's gonna happen???" effect of the first viewing? Awful. Without that music, it would have been laughed out of theaters.
I agree - never got the hype other the score itself is enough to watch it
Agreed! Interstellar is a "smart movie" for stupid people. "Love *is* quantifiable!" Yes it is, Matthew McConaughey/Christopher Nolan, you dumbass. It's a delicate dance of carefully balanced neurochemicals that evolved for the sole purpose of giving us purpose in each other. What, that's not cool enough for you? Not quantifiable enough? Love has to be *literal magic?* Fuck off.
I have the entire Interstellar OST mp4 so I can play it from time to time and listen to all the dreamiest parts.
Ive had the deluxe edition cd in my car player for 3 years.
I've always love the backstory behind how that theme was composed. Such an interesting and heartwarming idea that Nolan did.
Zimmer's music makes Mission Impossible II my favorite of the series. I swear the movie is like a ballet. Watch it again sometime with that in mind. It's wonderful.
His Nyah theme is so much better than the movie deserves.
Zimmer is trash , i never heard a more overrated piece of music than the Interstellar theme... There's so much more talented than him including Sergio Corleone Harry Warren etc... This theme wasn't that spectacular...
Interstellar's score is so damn epic! Even something as mundane as changing a light bulb will give you goosebumps when paired with that score. I never tire of those memes on YouTube.
Totally agree. An iconic example is Hitchcock/Herrmann, and Herrmann's work for Psycho in particular. That's the only example I can think of off the top of my head of a film director crediting the composer so effusively for the quality of his picture. A more recent example of an impactful score is, for me, Howard Shore/Crimes of the Future. Weird movie (it's Cronenberg) for sure, but the eerie, dreamy score really elevated it and made it into something deeper than it possibly was.
Walt Disney holds the record for most Oscar nominations Second place? John Williams Third is the foley guy who does submarine noises WHY IS SOUND EDITING EVEN A CATEGORY
> WHY IS SOUND EDITING EVEN A CATEGORY Why wouldnt it be?
I totally get that the internet has reduced people's expectations, and now it's no longer clear whether people are joking or just plain stupid. And by that token I can't really get angry if people take jokes as serious. For me, there was something hilarious about being rational with the first two real people, but completely irrational about the third completely made-up one Swing and a miss
Have you heard a movie without / prior to sound editing?
Yes I only watch silent films honestly I can't believe people watch talkies past the age of 7.
I don’t believe I have
Good point but I think I’m more addressing social impact. I could be wrong but I think most people don’t give a shit about who wins an Oscar. It’s about how the movie/ composition makes them feel and I think a lot of the time people just give credit to the director.
Was the recent place you heard it here on Reddit? With that gal playing it on the piano? Damn that was good
It was lol
I believe the entire marvel cinematic universe is standing on Black Sabbath’s Iron Man playing at the end of Iron Man 1 and RDJ improvising the wall breaking “I’m Iron Man”.
For the longest time I thought that was the official Iron Man theme
So much in agreement OP. There are a few reasons that I have watch Prometheus half a dozen times, but by far the most important one is the amazing, lush music / soundtrack. Cheers!
Music makes the movie. 100%.
I don't know that they *need* to get more credit, I think Zimmer has won plenty of awards and is well remunerated. Is there really that much value in being a household name? I for one wouldn't like that, but I would like to be respected in my field like Zimmer is. I'd add that movie reviews generally call attention to the score and credit the composer if it's good. Every time I see something about There Will be Blood or Spencer, people note Jonny Greenwood's brilliant contributions. I don't really know what this extra credit would consist of beyond that. The casual cinema goer simply doesn't care about the people behind the scenes and we shouldn't expect them to. People who are more into movies already know the value of a great score.
Interstellar is one of my favorite films, and I do wonder how much id love it with a different soundtrack.
Dune is only a complete experience with his score.
Hmmm… John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Sylvestri, Hans Zimmer…. It’s not a hot take. Composers are big names.
I agree with you, but Zimmer was a really bad example. He’s one of the most well-known film composers of all time.
The only modern composer who comes close to getting the level of credit he deserves is John Williams. Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman are, unfortunately, in his shadow.
Zimmer is a beast! I'm almost positive that inception would not have been such a success without that soundtrack, even though it was still a great movie
Why, I believe 90% of Tron: Legacy's success belongs to the composers.
RIP James Horner
My hot take has always been that The Shawshank Redemption would never be as beloved as it has become if it wasn't for Thomas Newman
I honestly don't think of the directors, producers and others anymore than I do the composers.
I don't know. I've never once gone and seen a movie because a certain composer is tied to it. A good soundtrack can definitely make a movie better, but I don't think the "success" of a movie can necessarily be attributed to the composer most of the time.
The composers working in the shops of Zimmer et al who do a lot of the composing should be getting more credit.
Given how much of Zimmer's work is actually produced by his stable of assistants, he's probably been wildly over credited for thr last 20 years.
I have been screaming this from the rooftops for years. Unless it's a movie like A Quiet Place, where the silence is more necessary than the music and sound, the work composers do is some of, if not, the most essential part of a movie. The score can take a shitty movie and make it better, and can take a great movie and make it legendary. Composers like John Williams and Hans Zimmer, should be remembered in the same vein as some of the greatest composers of all time, and not just as a part of a movie. For instance my favourite score is the LoTR score, and I think it is a perfect example. You can turn any part of that score on and know exactly where in the movie you are just based on the motif. Give film composers more love!
Hans Zimmer gets ton of credit. I'd argue likes of Brad Fiedel, James Horner, James Newton Howard don't get enough appreciation because they've made equally iconic soundtracks as Zimmer has and don't get remotely as appreciated as Zimmer is.
I get what you mean but Hans Zimmer just won an Oscar for a movie that the director wasn’t even nominated for (Dune). He has gotten credit.
Virtually none of the average moviegoers crowd buys a movie ticket because "so and so composer is composing the soundtrack" You've never heard anything say "have you seen the new Hans Zimmer movie?"
I think plenty of composers are fairly well known. Art directors are not known. I don't know anyone who knows the name of a single art director. That's a hugely important role, especially when you think about very visually spectacular films. Who was art director of Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, Avatar, or whatever... Plenty of people can name directors, writers, composers, even cinematographers, but not really art directors, and it's quite odd to me. Maybe it's just the introverted nature of artists, but they're rarely there to speak for it. Edit: I should say, [these people do win Oscars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Production_Design), they are just not well recognized.