Score: A Film Music Documentary Page #9

---

running down the highway,

that line better

be mixed up loud,

otherwise, you're

not gonna hear it.

You want your intention

to be clear.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The horns just give it kind

of more of an emotional weight.

That's a part of mixing, is just

making sure the elements

that you want to grab

hold of the audience

are loud enough to make

a statement.

And you can't really

be wishy washy.

You have to make

bold statements.

I think, you know,

with "Furious 7,"

people really reacted

to that film

on an emotional level.

Paul and his character

say goodbye.

That's probably one of the most powerful

theater experiences

I've had watching a film

that I had worked on.

And it kind of crossed

over his real life.

You can feel when a cue

is working the audience.

That's what I love

about film music,

if it's all emotion.

I think seeing audience reaction

to films that you've worked on

is really helpful.

It doesn't help you

for the film that you just did,

because it's already

out in the theater.

But it certainly will help

you for the next film.

Seeing literally the reaction

of how people respond

to your music,

that's really cool.

Now often, I'll cruise

up to the front,

and creepily turn back

and look at the audience

watching the movie.

Very rarely am

I spotted doing that.

Every once in a while I will look

through the audience,

I'm enjoying everyone

watching it,

and then there's one head

like at the tennis match

with the one person like looking

right at you looking at them

and that's uncomfortable,

and then I leave.

["AVENGERS" THEME MUSIC PLAYS]

You want to get a sense

of how did this work?

[THEME MUSIC CONTINUES]

Especially in the scenes

that are really musical.

Did they move people?

And then I do something

that's slightly embarrassing.

I will run

into a bathroom stall,

um, and see if they're humming

or whistling the theme,

and it is amazing how many times

that's actually happened.

It's like the ultimate

pat on the back.

To me, I feel like I affected

them on a level

that they're unaware of.

It's cool to be able

to witness people

experiencing what I experienced

when I was watching

films growing up.

And to think that it lives

on beyond you is a crazy thing.

I mean, it's definitely

gonna outlive me.

You know, these movies will be

continued to be watched

and that's really cool.

One of the responsibilities

we have as film composers,

is we're the last people

on earth who on a daily basis

commission orchestral music.

Without us, the orchestras

might just disappear,

and I think

that will create a rift

in, you know, human culture.

I think it will be such

a loss to humanity.

We all have this fragility.

We can chat for hours

and in a funny way,

I'm very secure about this.

I because I hide

behind the work.

You'll never really

figure me out.

But when I play you

a piece of music,

I completely expose myself.

And that's the really

scary moment.

I love, I love,

I love what I do.

Even when I sit there

driven by paranoia, fear,

neurosis, you know,

pulling my hair out.

I still wouldn't trade

it for anything else.

Very few people can

be inspired every day

to write something brilliant.

Whether or not

you're aware of it,

music plays such

an important role

in how you respond to a film.

All your other work on a film

can come to nothing

if you don't get

the music right.

You constantly have

to reinvent yourself

and you have to adapt to very,

very difficult psyches.

It's quite a lot of weight

to carry on your shoulders,

if you're just struggling

and you have self doubts,

and sometimes, yeah, sometimes

you crash into a wall.

The satisfaction of succeeding,

yeah, it's really something.

Film music is one of the great

art forms

of the 20th and 21st century.

[TAN] There is something

about what the film composer

brings in by their intuition.

That unique ecology,

that unique combination

is what makes film music so

powerful, so mysterious,

and probably uncaptureable

to us as scientists.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When we were cutting "Titanic,"

James was sending over music

as he was 'cause

what he would do is sketch out

on synthesizer,

with his synthesist,

what he intended to do

with the orchestra.

So I was used to getting

sort of new ideas coming in.

So I was sitting there

cutting one day

and a disc came

in that said, "Sketch."

I thought, "Oh, okay, this

goes for the sketching scene."

I just kinda slid it

around until I found a place

where it seemed to sync

with the scene nicely.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So serious.

There's a kind of piano downbeat

that I just put

on Leonardo's eyes coming up

and looking directly

at the camera.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

A critical moment of eye contact

between the two of them

while he's drawing her,

and then, boy, it

just really flowed.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So, I was so excited

about it, I called him up,

I said, "Listen, this

is working so well."

I put it

up to the sketching scene

and it's working fantastically.

And he said, "Oh, no, no, no,

no, that's just a sketch."

It's just a piano

sketch of a melody.

We can drop it in anywhere." And I said,

"But it works beautifully on this scene.

He said, "Really?" I said,

"Yeah, get your ass over here."

So, he came over, he said,

"Oh, that works pretty well."

He said, "All right, well,

I'll orchestrate it."

I said, "No, no, no, no.

Just the piano."

[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]

He said, "All right, I know

the best pianist in the world.

I know He's out of London."

I said, "No, it's you,

buddy, it's you."

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes