All language subtitles for MasterClass Danny Elfman Teaches Music For Film - 06.Real Time Listening_ A Simple Plan

DANNY ELFMAN: In
"A Simple Plan,"

I wanted to take something that
was kind of sweet and simple

but mess it up.

This is a story where
everything goes wrong,

where everything seems like good
luck turns into bad luck, where

somebody is going to
find a bunch of money

in a suitcase from a
plane crash and it's

going to turn into
the worst thing that

ever happened to him.

And that was, like, the first
time I got to mess something

up, which I realized then
over the course of my career

that was really the most fun
I had was messing things up.

And in "A Simple Plan" I had a
very simple melody. (HUMMING)

"Ba da da da.

Ba da da da."

And I wanted to find a way
to make that unsettling.

And so I started just twanging,
banging around in instruments,

and the first thing I found
was a banjo, an old banjo.

And literally it's like,
OK, I have an old banjo.

I'm going to use this thing.

I love this old,
out-of-tune banjo.

But the second thing
that interested me more

was taking a piano,
playing three chords,

but as it went up, part
of the tuning went down

and part of the tuning
went up so that they

were microtonally tuned.

Now it may sound to your ears--
and perhaps I failed dismally

and it just sounds like an
out-of-tune piano playing

"bum, bum, bum," and
that's OK because that's

unsettling in its own way.

But in fact I put a lot of
work into the microtuning

to do something very
specific that as it raises,

it both raises and
lowers simultaneously.

So why don't we listen to
that cue for the opening

to "A Simple Plan"?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's the piano.

There's the banjo.

More out-of-tune banjo.

And now the first leitmotif.
(HUMMING) "Da da dum.

Da da da da."

And here's my melody.

That kind of melody that
on its own should be sweet,

but the idea is that
it's a sweet tune,

but nothing feels
sweet about this piece.

Now we're going
into a minor key,

very slowly shifting
the harmonics.

(HUMMING) "Ba da ba.

Da da da da da."

So I've also got a
background to this motif

playing against time.

(HUMMING) "Da da dum dum.

Da da da da."

Now chord changes that are
rather traditional in a film

sense.

Now I'm thinking
of my connection

to Jerry Goldsmith
with these chords.

OK, so just looking at
that much, the two things

that I was having fun with was--

well, more than two things.

There was the use of the banjo.

There was the out-of-tune
piano that was unsettling

and then the introduction of a
pattern of (HUMMING) "ba ba da

da da dun.

Dun da da da dun.

Dun dun, dum, ba ga da ga gung."

So it's kind of playing against
the melody, which starts almost

at the same time.

So when the sweet tune
comes in, the idea

is that this feels wrong.

There's something about it.

It feels wrong.

So I love this premise,
and I had great fun with it

because there's nothing more
delightful as a composer

than writing for a
great downward spiral.