All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 06Directors Part 3

If you just look at the Ridley Scott

movies, you know, Thermal Ruiz is a very

different aesthetic musically from

Gladiators, a very different aesthetic

from Black Rain is a very different

style from uh from Mstig Men. What else

they do with Red? Blackhawk Down, you

know, it's Hannibal. I mean, they're all

they're completely

stylistically they're very very

different and and it's and he's very

very different as well in them. Um

because because that's the whole thing.

I mean, you know, it's, you know, one of

the reasons I think he's such a great

director is is because he's interested

in so many things and he can get

passionate about so many things, you

know, and there's a underlying aesthetic

and and and and a huge amount of

knowledge and craftsmanship that goes

with being able to, you know, oh, we're

going to go and tell the story of

Hannibal Lecter. Oh, we're going to tell

the story of a battle in Mogadishu. or

we're going to tell the story of some

con man in the valley. Um, so

or a gladiator, you know, so so

and the and you know and and really I

know I just know this about him. I feel

this. I never talked about this, but you

know, if I had to sum it all up is he's

genuinely interested in people and he's

genuinely interested in stories.

And everybody looks at the amazing way

he shoots things and the amazing

compositions and the amazing eye he has

and the amazing artistry. But underneath

underneath underneath all that the the

the foundation for all all of that is he

wants to go and tell a good story.

I think at the end of the day the

director composer relationship comes

down to something. It has to come down

to trust because the director is sort of

in charge of everything during the

shooting of the movie. He can look

through your camera and he can probably

adjust a few things here. He can

probably do a line reading for an actor

if he really has to. But when it comes

to composer, you know, you he has to

trust me because if he says to me, you

know what, a nice C major chord here

would be the perfect thing, it it's

meaningless. I see it so often that that

that filmmakers

find it hard to

take the step off the cliff because

that's really what it is, you know. Now,

you know, they've been involved in the

script, they've been involved in the

casting, they've been involved in

everything. And by being involved, I

mean, they had language

and eyes and whatever, you know, uh,

words to control the situation, to

control their movie.

And

then they suddenly get to that bit of we

need music and whatever words they use

and whatever whatever it is, however

articulate they are, it's still not

going to get the music written. So they

have to go and hand over literally the

baton to to to the composer. And

oh god, the second movie I did over here

for Ridley Scott, Black Rain, you know,

and I had heard that Ridley had a bit of

a reputation of uh

not sticking with the composer sometimes

beyond the first session. Um so I just

said to him, Ridley, what what what

it'll take for me not to get fired. He

said, simple. Don't write me a symphony.

And I knew exactly what he meant. He

said, "Write,

you know, surf the movie, enhance the

movie, elevate the movie, be about the

movie. Don't be about, oh, but isn't my

music fabulous or something like that,

you know? Um, yeah, you have to have you

have to have a strong ego, but it's it

it can't be a destructive one. The ego

has to be the ego of the process, the

ego of the film making, you know, and

at the end of the day, you realize we're

all alone in this together.

I remember um Chris being very worried

about

about a certain scene in Dark Knight. He

kept he kept bringing it up saying,

"This has to play like an action scene.

Has to be fast. It's got to be really

fast music." And and I looked at it and

I went I thought, "No, it's got to be

the slowest music I've ever written."

Um, so I wrote this piece at, you know,

I don't know, 25 beats per minute or

something ridiculous. Um, and everybody

came, you know, I got everybody into the

room and I said, "Chris, you know, I I

tried something completely different. If

you don't like it, you know, it's easy

enough, you know, suspin it and we'll

we'll we'll try the other thing, but I

I'm not sure. I think this could be

interesting,

you know, and everybody was knew that

he'd been saying going on about this has

to be a fast piece." And um you know I

played it to him of a silence afterwards

and he's looking at the screen and he

looks at me he goes yeah that works too

and that was the end of the of that

conversation you know um because it's

just exploring. All we're doing is we're

exploring things. It's not about this

has to be a finished piece of music. I

mean so I tried the slow thing. If that

hadn't worked, you know, it would have

gotten us to the next sentence where I

would have gone, so tell me why the fast

piece or why does the slow thing not

work, you know, and it would have become

a conversation. And somewhere in that

conversation, we jointly would have

found an answer. Terry Malik and I um I

mean, he he you know, we we felt like

cats and dogs at at different points

during the process. You know, at one

point he said, you know, the way we

speak to us, only brothers can speak to

each other that way. um because we got

passionate, we got into the ideas and

you know I I think the it's not really

working type of scenario is is where

nobody cares where people don't get

passionate you know and as long as you

remember at the back of your mind

everybody is just trying to do their

best everybody's trying to support

everybody else. Everybody is trying to

work at the top of their game and um

invent