All language subtitles for MasterClass Danny Elfman Teaches Music For Film - 09.Workflow

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The number one law, the
first commandment, is you

must finish on time.

I've learned to get into my
high gear when I need to.

When I'm feeling it, when
there's no time left,

I can work super fast.

I organize my sounds
as best I can.

And I bring out my board
with minutes and cues

to force me to organize
my time, because I

won't do it on my own.

I'll spend forever on each cue.

I need an external
way to force myself

to move at a certain pace.

And that's my spotting notes,
my big board, as I call it,

where I have my number of days.

Every night I finish,
I cross off another day

and I count how many
minutes I have left.

And the board's telling me
I have exactly 27 days left.

And if 27 days-- if I have much
more than 50 minutes and 27

days, that's not good.

I've got to push harder.

You know, I never
want to leave myself

with more than two
minutes a day to write,

because that's about
as much as I can do.

Meaning that I'm going to get
in a really active cue, if it's

an action movie, where
it's going to be slower,

because the big, detailed
action music, minute and a half,

is a good day.

But then there's also going
to be some moments where it's

more ethereal,
it's more ambient,

or it's a romantic
section, and I

might get two and a half
minutes in that day.

But two minutes is the max.

And if I have any time
over two minutes a day--

hopefully, a minute 45--

that's where I could
breathe and I'm comfortable.

But over two minutes, there's
a red light going off,

an alarm, saying, you've
got to move your ass,

or you're going
to be in trouble.

So that's how I
organize my time.

I make these things that
are externally there.

They're easy to follow
and they're pushing me,

they're kicking my ass,
they're moving me along,

because otherwise,
I just won't do it.

The big board.

What does that mean?

[CHUCKLES] It's something I
started with my music editor

Bill Abbott.

And it's literally a big
piece of project board.

And in it is the section at
the top with the number--

however many days from
the spotting session.

And in those numbers
are two numbers--

a countdown and a countup.

So there's one set of
numbers that starts with a 1

and goes to 60.

There's another that starts
at 60 and is going to 1.

[CHUCKLES]

Because I want to go,
okay, I'm on the 11th day,

I've got this many days left.

And then I cross off every day.

So when I come in, when I
start in the morning, I can go,

all right, I have this many
Xs, this many days left.

Woo, look at all those cues.

Because every single cue has
got a box with the number,

the name of the cue, and
I will exit out as I go.

And of course, you know,
I want to walk in here

and see a lot of Xs.

But in that box is also
the length of the cue.

So it could be deceptive.

I'll walk in and go,
I'm doing pretty good,

look at all those Xs.

Then I go, oh, 32 seconds,
15 seconds, 40 seconds,

10 seconds, crap.

And then I look towards
the end of the board,

I got four and a half
minutes, seven minutes,

six and a half minutes.

So I really got to
look at these numbers.

But I have my calculator.

And it's a calculator, and
I'll calculate, exactly,

this is how many days,
this is how many minutes.

Oh, God, I'm not taking
a dinner break tonight.

So it's these
external things that I

have to have there to keep me
on track and push me along.

So the big board is my, "This
is how you're doing today.

This is exactly where you are
at this particular day in time

and space."

My studio basically revolves
around central piece,

as does every composer's studio.

It's going to be, what
do you do your demos?

What do you write into?

What are you recording into?

And everybody's got their own
love of their own software.

I love Mark of the
Unicorns Digital Performer.

We just call it DP.

And my reasons for loving it
is unique to the way I work.

It's because everything you do
is in this files called chunks.

And you could carry 2,
3, 5, 7, 12 chunks right

in there with you all the time.

You never have to
open up another file.

And it's the way I work.

So it-- it's perfect
for the way I work.

It allows me the luxury of
globally copying, and globally

pasting everything,
it's seamless.

So that's the way
I like working.

I'm-- I'm full of,
like, which way do I go?

Which way do I go?

So that's something that a
Digital Performer does really

well, because you're carrying
all these files resident

constantly with what
you're working on.

They're not in another folder
in another file system, where

you have to ever close
something, open something else,

close it, and then open
your first thing again.

It's always there.

And also, what I'll do in DP
is I will load in four or five

audio tracks--

audio onlies that I make,
because everything I work on,

I have my full MIDI recording.

I make a reference.

Before I turn it off,
before I go to sleep,

before I do anything,
I make a recording,

because I really want
to catch everything,

just in case I wake
up in the morning

and something sounds weird.

And so I've got
this huge templates,

and I've got several
MIDI files going.

But I'll call in-- which
is only seconds to load--

three or four audio files
of similar cues in other

places that I can reference.

And that's more just for
me to reference, what did I

do with this melody here?

There was a section
I really liked.

And I may just want to
tap into that every now

and then to hear, what is it?

How did I turn this
phrase in what way

that I liked in this cue?

And do I want to do something
similar where I am right now?

And it also just reminds me of,
like, the themes I'm working

on, some of the variations.

And I may do just that.

I'm working on a theme, and
I'll take three variations of it

into that file that I can hit--

what was that weird alternate
version of the melody?

It allows me to keep, in any
file, several audio references

that are just right there.

But more importantly,
multiple MIDI files.

And it can be as elaborate on
a big piece of music, 7, 8, 9,

10, 12 entire MIDI files,
all the same piece,

but different variations.

And I'll make little comments
like, bars 22 through 37.

A little comment in
the window-- that's

where you want to
look to this one.

Um, good ending.

Um, low strings,
bars 15 to, uh, 33.

And so I'll know, like, what
is it about this early one

that I like?

Oh, yeah it was the low
strings in these bars.

I did something different
than I'm doing now.

In my own studio, I keep a
very, very small crew of people

that I work with.

Um, I like to keep things
as simple as possible,

and I don't like having
a lot of people around.

The most obvious association
with most composers

is orchestrator.

Almost every composer
has an orchestrator

that they work with,
that becomes someone

they turn to fairly regularly.

On a big score, I
need an orchestrator,

because I can only take my
compositions so far before I

can give it no more time.

And so I try to put enough
orchestration in it,

that it's really clear.

The director or the producer,
whoever is listening,

can listen to it and
really hear all the parts.

They can hear the intricacies,
they could hear many things.

But for that-- before
it hits the stage--

it's still got to go through
an orchestrator's fingers.

It's got to get
cleaned up massively,

because what I finish
is still pretty messy.

And there's going
to be little things

to work out, in terms of--

I've written an ostinato
pattern down low,

but we don't have
that many players.

So it's like, you know, if I
put a bassoon playing along

with the cello in this
way, it's going to help.

And it's something that I
may barely even notice later.

I go, oh, that was-- and I
go, I hadn't thought of it

because I didn't think
there was a problem.

The orchestrator is
really going to look

at all the proportions
of the orchestra-- who's

available for what.

I have a tendency to
write a lot of divisi,

so I like taking strings
and dividing them

into multiple parts.

And [CHUCKLES] my orchestrator,
who's Steve Bartek,

he's actually been
working with me

since the mid '70s
in the theater group.

He came with me into
Oingo Boingo, the band.

And when I was looking for
my first orchestrator on "Pee

Wee's Big Adventure," and I
had no idea what to look for,

I asked him--

I said, have you ever
done any orchestration?

And he goes, I took
a course at UCLA.

I said, that's good enough.

So hence, we started a
35-ish-year career together.

That is the most common
and important relationship

that most composers
tend to have in common,

is there's an orchestrator
or some orchestrators

that they like working with.

And every now and
then, you know, I'll--

I'll hear somebody who, like,
did all their orchestration.

It's like, great, they
either had a lot of time,

or it was a relatively
simple score.

Because if it's a big score
and there's not much time,

that's bullshit.

There's no way you
did the orchestration

unless it's really simple.

That takes a long time.

Now you finish that,
and the director says,

yep, we're good to go.

You want to just get that
thing out of your way

and get on to the next cue,
because when you have--

when I look at my big board
with all the cues sitting there

and I have 48 starts and
I've only done 12 of them,

it's like, I don't want to spend
one more second than I have

to in any detail of this piece
that can be worked out either

by my orchestrator-- because
it's small enough that it

doesn't involve me--

or my music editor,
in terms of timing.

And that's the other
strong relationship

that every composer
has, is a music editor.

The music editor is going
to take all the music

and look at what
it is, and they're

going to follow all the
cutting that comes in

as the film is progressing.

And there's going to be
dozens, and dozens, and dozens

of changes in every single cue.

And that music editor is
going to keep track of--

they've got to be obsessive
and fastidious to the extreme,

because they got to keep
track of everything.

And what they're doing is
keeping constant notes--

okay, this
particular, um, cut is

going to involve
taking half a beat out

of this bar, two
beats out of this bar,

and a slight tempo change
because we're three frames off

where we were directly on.

The music editor is going
to work that stuff out.

Very frequently,
the music editor

is discussing this
with the orchestrator.

And they'll go, um, Steve,
we need to lose a beat here,

we need to lose
two beats here, we

need to lose half a beat
here, but we obviously

can't lose a half a
beat, so we're going to--

you know, you decide.

It's like, you either hit this
downbeat or this downbeat,

and then we'll make up the
time on the other side.

And there's a lot of decisions
that Steve and my music editor

will make that doesn't call
me back into the picture.

And then occasionally, there's
like a little bell-- ding,

ding, ding, ding--

Danny, you need to answer this.

I go, god damn it.

And it's like, all right,
here's the new edit.

It's not a matter
of a couple beats,

it's a matter of they
took 12 beats out,

and now we're going
in the middle of one

melody, into, like, the
middle of another phrase.

What do you want to do?

And that's where I've
got to rip it all apart

and put it back together.

And you just got
to bear with it.

You've got to go with it.

All the crying and
whining in the world

isn't going to help you one bit.

You just gotta buck up and do
it if you want to keep your job,

or find another job.

And those are the two choices.