I'm sure most of you know that when shooting scenes for a film, the music & audio tracks must be dubbed. This means even if you're PLAYING & WRITING the music yourself, you still must perform to a pre-recorded audio track while shooting the scenes. This is why you'll see things that appear "out-of-sync" with the audio you hear while watching the film.

Even if 'Vai' (shot in a film) knows the parts he recorded note-for-note, it's EXTREMELY difficult to have every little finger motion (at relatively fast playing speeds) match up to the precision your auditory & optic nerves can detect; after the film has been edited. Remember, such movies are produced for the entertainment value of the film, NOT for the precision of "musical instructions" they could offer.

I've heard many discussions regarding the usage of "Paganini's 5th Caprice" in those scenes. A while after transcribing from "the 5th" I had a chance to see [this scene] again. There is VERY LITTLE taken from that caprice. Only one of the introductory passages which includes a bit of an arpeggiated cadence was used in that scene (a few measures or so of the second octave period).

I still think it's cool though!


~JSV