Score: A Film Music Documentary Page #2

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And you're flattered that they're

even considering you.

"Whoa, me," you know. "I

get to go on this ride."

And then they leave the room and then

you have a moment of reflection.

You go, "I have no

idea how to do this."

Oh, my god."

And then after a while you think

should you be phoning

them and saying,

you know, "Hey, I think you

better phone John Williams."

I have no idea how to do this."

You know, the blank page

is always the blank page.

Plus, I have no idea

where music comes from.

So there's always the fear

that somebody's going to switch off the tap.

[PIANO PLAYING]

[RACHEL PORTMAN] This

is a film called "Race."

I've been working on it for a week,

so I'm just beginning.

I'm just sort of getting

into my process with it.

Where I'm thinking it should start is

is just coming up.

And I'm going to start with it

coming in really, really quietly.

[MAN IN FILM #1]

No.

- [MAN IN FILM #2] Well, why not?

- [QUIET PIANO MUSIC]

[MAN #1] You want

to win a gold medal?

- [MAN #2] Sure.

- [MAN #1] You want to do it in Berlin?

[QUIET PIANO MUSIC]

Well, I mean, unless you

were planning on waiting

[PORTMAN] There's a change

of direction in the scene.

And that's often a prompt

for where music will come in.

[MAN #1] Well, they don't

care for 'em much

here in Columbus, either.

Is that gonna be problem?

[MAN #2] No sir.

I just came here to run.

[MAN #1] Well then,

for the next 28 months,

you're either in a classroom,

or you're on that track,

every hour, every day.

[ORCHESTRA MUSIC SWELLS]

[CHRISTOPHE BECK] As a composer,

when you're sitting

there watching a film,

it's not like watching

a play or real life.

There's camera

positions, there's cuts.

It's an incredibly

artificial medium in a way,

and it's really nothing

like real life.

We have to find clever ways

to introduce something familiar.

["CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF

THE THIRD KIND" MOTIF PLAYS]

[DEBNEY] A motif

is a group of notes

that might highlight

what a film score is.

A good example would be

"Close Encounters."

[SHIP PLAYS MOTIF]

[SINGS MOTIF]

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun

["CLOSE ENCOUNTERS" MUSIC PLAYS]

Beethoven was one the first

composers

to really take a theme or motif

and spin it out in a huge way.

[BEETHOVEN'S

"FIFTH SYMPHONY" PLAYS]

Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony,"

[MOTIF CONTINUES]

The entire piece is based

on that ya-ta-ta-ta rhythm.

Simple hooks, just

like a pop song.

But you're then casting

them in different lights.

["LORD OF THE RINGS"

SHIRE THEME PLAYS]

[HOWARD SHORE] By using motifs,

it helps you to understand

the relationships in the story.

- [SHIRE THEME CONTINUES]

- Dear Bilbo.

[SHORE] When you hear a certain

motif, you connect it.

[SHIRE THEME CONTINUES]

And it actually helped you

follow the story.

- ["LORD OF THE RINGS" FELLOWSHIP THEME]

- Nine companions.

[BECK] By the time you get

to the end of the film,

when you play that music

in its full glory,

it's already familiar

to the audience.

[FELLOWSHIP THEME CONTINUES]

We're kind of building things

up to that main course.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

[BELTRAMI] The director

is not a huge fan

of strictly orchestral elements,

so we're exploring.

In here, this is Buck.

He's working on a movie

now called "The Gunman"

that we're working on together.

We're a little bit

under the gun,

and that's nerve-racking.

One of the things

we were working at was

processing these kalimbas.

[PLAYS KALIMBA]

It's a simple

African instrument.

The next week we'll be

here quite a bit.

I'm pretty relaxed about it.

[LAUGHS] Buck's not.

There's a lot of work to do.

["THE GUNMAN" MUSIC PLAYS]

That's the kalimba you hear.

He's following a mystery

to find out what's happened.

The music needs to have

a bit of intrigue.

["GUNMAN" THEME MUSIC]

I think we cracked the puzzle

on this pretty quick.

[BURLINGAME] As film grew

up, in terms of the subject

that they were tackling

and what the filmmakers

themselves were seeking,

film music itself changed.

It became more modern in style.

It embraced jazz.

["A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE"

THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

was Alex North's first film score.

And he comes in with a history

of having written ballets

and concert works in New York

and tackles his first

film assignment,

and writes the most revolutionary

score of all time.

["A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE"

THEME MUSIC CONTINUES]

[TOWNSON] The first film

score incorporating jazz

in the writing structure.

Jerry Goldsmith said when he heard

the score for the first time,

he knew that film

music had changed

and would never be the same.

["PINK PANTHER"

THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

Bond. James Bond.

[RICHARD KRAFT] John Barry

came from his own band,

performing music that sounded

like early James Bond music.

[THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN, "HI AND MISS" MUSIC PLAYS]

[KRAFT] By the time

he wrote James Bond music,

he was bringing a band

sensibility to movies.

[JAMES BOND THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

Thing about big band

music, it was cool.

And it swung.

[DAVID ARNOLD] Felt like this

was a guy who could do anything.

You will not hear any film, which is to do

with spying or secret services

without a reference to Bond.

I mean, it's become

the thing to go to,

in the same way that Morricone

was for spaghetti westerns.

["THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY"

THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

[BECK] Ennio Morricone.

He's not going to hit

you with music

that makes you go, "Whoa,

what is that instrument?

Whoa, how did he make

that sound?"

But what he will do is just

kill you with a melody.

[THEME MUSIC CONTINUES]

[DOREEN RINGER ROSS]

"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

is such an iconic

piece of music.

You know, he just took

that sound of the guitar

and just put it

into that western environment.

[THEME MUSIC CONTINUES]

[HOLKENBORG] That is the sound of,

you know, spaghetti westerns,

still, 50, 60 years

after the fact.

And I think that's quite

an achievement.

By the 1960s, you had

this great period,

where you had incredibly

well-trained musicians.

[BURLINGAME] Bernard Herrmann

had come out of dramatic radio.

And his ability to take a sound,

and create a specific

kind of unique orchestra

that was specific to each film

was groundbreaking.

(["VERTIGO" THEME MUSIC)

[YOUNG] The main

title from Vertigo,

that is the textbook

perfect example

of the score that says "Mystery,

something's not right here."

Stay away, but please come.

Come running."

[KRAFT] That was different

than other writers at the time.

These are not melodic ideas.

These are little phrases

that had circular

madness to them,

that worked really well

in Alfred Hitchcock movies.

It felt like everything's driving

forward in a sick,

inevitably disastrous way.

Bernard Herrmann, he had balls.

So just to do what he did

with "Psycho" in the shower scene.

[PSYCHO "SHOWER SCENE"

THEME MUSIC]

[SCREAMS]

Without the music,

it's not that scary.

You notice the cuts, you

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