All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 09Scoring to Picture

First of all, you go and look at the

whole, you know, what is the whole

movie? What are we trying to say here?

What and and what is the style that

seems appropriate to tell this story?

And what are the instruments that are

appropriate to tell this story? Okay,

now we got this big arc. Okay, now we're

starting to move in, you know, is there

something between act one, two, and

three. Is there something we want to do

different in act three? I mean, I I have

this habit of setting up all these

themes that you think are going to pay

off in act three. And then I always

think there's a moment that triggers act

three, but where where the thing happens

that um you know, gladiator um Cometus

finds out that his sister has been

betraying him, you know. Um, so rather

than going and now all these themes are

going to pay off nicely, I just go and

whack in something a completely new

theme because it's like,

you know, all bets are off. Everything

has shifted. The relationship between

the characters have shifted. So I just

go

out of nearly nowhere, you know, unleash

something completely completely new and

completely fresh. But it's you start you

start and you start going down, you

know, into the scene, into the dialogue,

into the uh into the color

that you want to use you, you know,

because here's the thing.

If you suddenly stop forward momentum

because there's a dialogue scene, how

does it affect the rhythm of the whole

movie? If you're doing these, you know,

it's like being a bad driver who's

forever like on the gas and then coming

off the gas. I'm sure you've driven with

people like this. You want to smack

them, right? Um, so don't be that

driver. Figure out how to how to keep

the forward momentum going.

Making a movie is a

complicated human exercise because

basically what you're dealing with is

you're dealing

with only insecure people at their most

insecure.

Um,

everybody's

worried that what they're doing isn't

the greatest thing in the world. And

quite honestly, it never is. you know,

otherwise we wouldn't need to make

another movie if the perfect movie had

already been made. So, in this

environment of total insecurity,

sometimes it's really hard to say, you

know something, we don't need music

here. This scene is perfectly fine. You

know, the dialogue is sparkling because

the this the writer is going to think,

well, if I could have only had another

seven years, I could have written this

line better. The director is thinking,

"If I had had a better actor, it could

have been delivered better." And the

actor, of course, is thinking, "If I had

had a decent director, you know, I could

have done a better performance." And

then the, you know, and everybody is

blaming the cameraman and the sound

recorders because it's too dark. Um, and

because they're feeling insecure about

the scene, they're turning to the last

man standing, that's the composer, and

they're going, "You know, this scene

needs a bit of help. Can we can you go

and put some music underneath it to make

it at least entertaining or something or

the other or we need more attention or

we didn't quite get the we didn't get

the passion or we didn't get the

whatever it is that they feel they

didn't get. And part of your job is to

say, you know something, it's all there.

It's right there on the screen. It's

beautifully shot, beautifully acted, and

I've never heard sound recorded in this

way and as as beautiful and and make

everybody feel secure enough to say,

"Okay, good idea. No music."

One of the first things I learned is

just because you can hit the cut doesn't

mean you should. Um,

for instance, the

the the ear sort of ahead of the eye in

a funny way, especially if you're on a

big screen and you're looking, it takes

your eye a long time to travel across a

screen to see everything and take

everything in. So, it's quite nice

usually to be a little after the cut or

after the event or then depending on how

much you want to give the audience an

emotional breathing room, you know, you

can be later and later and and make a

reaction. But what's fun in when I get

naughty and I do really hardcore action

stuff, I actually make the event happen

one frame ahead of you seeing it. And it

really you don't you don't quite know

what I'm doing but it certainly scares

the be Jesus out of you. I mean

Blackhawk Down is all done like that

where you know because I come from a

super pacifist family so I had no

experience of what soldiers go through.

So to figure out whenever I got lost

because I could I got the real rangers,

the real soldiers from this battle in

Madishu to come in and start talking to

me about what their experiences were

like. And this whole idea that a bullet

just comes out of no, an event comes out

of nowhere and there's nothing that

prepares you for it. Um, so rather than

me knowing it's going to happen and

notating it on paper and therefore the

musicians looking ahead and knowing, oh,

at this point they're going to go and

make a big bang. I would constantly

write these scenes which would sort of

be an overlap into the next thing and

then I would make the event a separate

recording and just cut it hard because I

think we are so the the ear is so

sensitive that you can you can tell the

shift in attitude of the musicians of

just getting ready that they have to

play a loud note and by taking that out

of the composition literally

um things come as a surprise. eyes to

you.

This is at least how I see it. And

maybe I'm completely wrong, but I keep

thinking

the purpose of film music

is very simple.

You invite the audience in and you say

to them, I give you the opportunity to

feel something. I'm not going to tell

you what to feel. That would be

patronizing and horrible. But just the

simple fact that there's a single note

going on

should just open a little door that lets

you in and you get to complete the tune

in a funny way. You as the audience get

to complete the emotion. You get to go

and complete the journey. And so yeah,

it's about, you know, very often it's

about getting rid of things. It's it's

um that idea of Mickey mousing of of

imitating action which happens easily.

You know, sometimes it's a good thing to

do, but knowing when not to do it. Um

knowing how to react to something.

Sometimes it takes the audience a moment

or two to catch up with what's going on.

You know, give them that moment. Let

them figure it out. You know, don't dot

all the eyes and cross all the tees.

Leave some of it

open.

Treat your audience as intelligent human

beings that have their autonomous

emotions and just for a moment provide

the opportunity to feel something.

Inception was a sort of a a a different

problem whereby

it was potentially a complicated story

and it was potentially a story where the

audience would go, "Go, I don't get

this. I'm I'm out of here." You know?

Um, and I thought if we just set this up

right from the beginning that the music

is interesting and a little provocative

and a little different, but it's like a

it's like, you know, I kept saying to

Chris, it's it's it's just going to be

like a river. I'm not going to hit all

those cuts and everything like this. Uh,

and I'm not going to be quiet under

dialogue either, but it's like if right

away we say to the audience, this is

going to be different, but come along on

this journey, you know, and pretend the

music is this river and you guys are in

this boat, little boat, and you're

boopping down the river. And sometimes

it's going to get a little quiet, and

maybe it's going to get even a little

boring, and then sometimes it's going to

get a little exciting, but just trust

the river is going to take you to the

end of it, and it's going to be an

interesting journey. You know, the the

the most I can promise you is that it's

going to be an interesting journey. I'm

not going to go and promise you anything

else, but I'm going to carry you along.

And if you don't understand everything,

that's okay, too. At least it was an

interesting journey. You don't have to,

you know, um, you know, when when you go

to foreign places where you don't speak

the language, it's all right if you

don't understand the words. It can still

be interesting and entertaining and an

experience.