All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 13Music Diary Sherlock Holmes

This is my presence. It's the room I

spend 98% of my life in. Um,

cuz that's all I really do. I go home, I

come here. I love writing music. So,

what have I got in front of me? It's my

computer. And it makes all sorts of I I

think you know the the novelty that

people don't realize that that you know

a computer can play any type of

instrument. I think that's sort of gone

by now you know. So

so in front of me is my virtual

orchestra basically because that's how I

work. So the way I work is after a lot

of procrastination I have to sit down

and eventually I have to start somewhere

and this usually means I have to put the

glasses on because I can't see the

screen anymore.

And after having a conversation with the

director and sort of knowing where this

film is going, I just work I I just

start writing my ideas down in a sort of

a diary type fashion where every day I

just move forward in this piece. And

it's just it starts somewhere and it's

trying to find a theme or trying to find

a vibe or trying to find a mood or

something like this. But every day I

just add to it. I don't go back and

revise things. So because sometimes

things that you discarded weeks earlier,

you suddenly remember and go, "Hang on a

second. It it was a terrible idea at the

time, but actually turns out it's quite

cool."

So way that that I work is I sort of

know the movie pretty well or I know it

as well as you can at this point where a

movie doesn't really exist other than

the head of the director scenes are

being shot etc. But

I do need to go and start fishing around

for some material.

You come from the conversation with the

director and you're all enthusiastic

because it's all new possibilities,

opportunities, great ideas, etc. And

then you get into this room and you sit

in front of this and it's all gone and

you just go, "Oh my god, I have no idea

what to do."

But you need to, you know, the the the

courage of starting somewhere. So, the

first marker says intro because it needs

to start somewhere, you know. And I'm

pretty sure I I I I sort of remember

what I did. I think the first thing I

literally did was um just put put this

line in because I thought

I just I I just knew that

I sort of heard it in my head and the

the the thing about this piece is, you

know, it's not a piece. It's it

literally is a diary. You you can see

how my ideas slowly sort of firm up, you

know, and I was going, "Oh, okay. Hang

on a second. This would be cool if I did

on a clarinet." The next marker is

called clarinet

since this is literally my process here.

So, I mean, you know, with Sherlock, um,

it starts

fairly hesitantly

as I'm trying to figure this all out.

So I knew I had to go and find something

dark. I need I I knew I had to go and

find something

remarkable or something good enough for

um

um you know our villain

And

really this this this whole whole thing

is just sort of it literally presents my

thought process, you know, where you

know up here you see little markers

floating around, you know, just which is

are my memory helpers.

They're no poetic markers. I mean, you

get to things like loud bit, you know,

because eventually you need to get to a

loud bit. It's very pragmatic all this,

you know. So, here's loud bit.

And all you're trying to do is you're

playing with things and you're trying to

see how far you can take them or if they

go anywhere or if you should just chuck

the whole thing in, phone the director,

give him a phone number of a decent

composer and say, "I quit.

So I start somewhere you know I had this

phrase

which is um you know in this case it was

very much related to um Schubert's the

trout because I thought it'd be fun to

play with that and make that into

Moriati's theme. Th this piece is

literally about

one character you know this is your

antagonist. this is, you know,

Sherlock's nemesis and and really how

since he sort of drives the story in one

way or the other um the you know the bad

guy makes things happen and that's why

you know our hero needs to do whatever

he does. So this is, you know, this

thing really in its entirety is

everything that the um you know that the

bad guy sets into motion. Um

and

god down to these hang on, let me just

have a look. Yeah.

So some of it is mysterious, some of it

is just crazy stuff. It's like these

chords became

important. It's just these

occasionally you have to go and have

like a stupid brass band moment. I don't

did it make it into the movie. I have no

idea. Not everything that's there made

into the movie. And remember, this is

not none of this is supposed to be a

coherent piece of music. This is just

fragments, but I do try to link the

fragments up because the transitions are

important, you know, and and as you're

writing the main material, you're

actually forever thinking of how can it

transition from one thing to another,

you know, and it's it's actually okay,

we can we can just do lucky dip here.

Hang on. So if this is bar 224 and

we want to go to somewhere completely

different um

let's say we go to left 365. So what I

just just for trial and error I can sort

of edit this by hand and just see what

happens when you jump from one to the

another and I picked two completely

random phrases. So

uh

so will it transition?

Okay. Yeah, in this case it transitions

pretty easily. Um, then I mean here I'm

noticing that one of the things I

realized at about bar 400, I realized if

I give my antagonist

so much weight and so much power, I

better find out how to turn the uh my

tiny Hang on. Where is the piano? Um,

here we go. Um,

I I better give Mr. homes some balls as

well. So this is

So it's I mean it's absolutely

maintaining his theme, but it's just a

it's just a much more aggressive

version,

you know, back to the Timberlom.

So,

so, so partly as I develop this, I'm I'm

developing

sort of both sides of the coin as well.

I mean, I have to I have to figure out

how big I want this movie to get, how

symphonic I want this movie to get, um,

how agile I want it to be. Plus, the

other thing is by writing in this diary

form and and I'm really sticking it to

one tempo, I can figure out

if there's, you know, if if within the

music there's a there's enough forward

momentum and enough drive to sort of see

as get me through this movie.

Um, and enough storytelling in it, you

know. So, so each phrase isn't about,

oh, is it a pretty phrase or did I like

the phrase it each phrase, God knows

what this is. Oh, it says mystery. Well,

let's go and find out what mystery is.

Uh,

inevitably there are going to be some

mysterious moments.

And I thought

basically heavy metal riff on a

clarinet,

but the sort of creepy stuff becomes

really useful.

I mean trying to work with the least

amount of forces as well you know so

but slowly you know

it's

if you don't give up ideas start coming

there. No nice transitions here. It was

literally like, okay, bored with that

idea. I know how to make something work

out of this. Next thing is called clock.

And then there's a marker called tune.

So

thinking back all these years, I thought

the idea of these clock texts was

interesting time which could become that

chess thing

and I knew so that little clarinet thing

which actually had a lot of notes at the

beginning

wherever it is, you know, and now I'm

just stripping it away now because it

sort of takes confidence and starting to

know the material to start stripping

away all the all the stuff you don't

need. So the whole thing is suddenly

much simpler and it's actually it's got

much more vibe and it's got a which then

goes into some

and I'm starting to develop this whole

clock idea.

And I'm sneaking up on the tune. That's

all I'm doing. You know, I you know,

this might be like day five or day 10 or

something. I have no idea.

But you just have to doggedly move

forward. I think that's the secret to

getting it getting it written.

Oh, look. There's a nearly a B part.

And then you can tell pretty quickly

when I'm sort of going, "Okay, I know

what what this could become.

Now I remember this. This was like, "Oh,

hang on a second. This could be cool.

This could become a riff. This could

become an actiony thing." So now from

those shabby little from those shabby

little notes at the beginning, suddenly

it's starting to take off and a bit of

inspiration is actually hitting.

And then inspiration obviously stopped.

Uh oh. Then there's a big if it's a red

marker, it means for the moment I felt

secure enough to go this bit might

become something and it says tune.

So all right. Okay. You sort it's just

the same de it's just developed on from

be the beginning.

So hang on just to recapitulate as they

say in classical music. So we went from

so if that's the seed of the idea just

this one phrase

I think it comes again.

So over a few days it's now become this

This is like guy and James Herbert are

in the cutting room cutting away while

I'm,

you know, sort of working parallel to

them, you know, and all I'm hoping is

well, all I'm hoping is that that

somehow we're not in perfect sync, but

at least we're

metaphorically in sync.

So, partly what I'm doing is I'm not

just writing the notes into this diary,

but I'm trying to figure out the style.

I try to figure out stylistically where

this is going to go. um harmonically,

sonically, um is this a straight

orchestra, is this a sin score, is this

some amalgamation of different things?

Um

and and you know, when whenever the

cutting room sends over fragments of

movie or bit of picture, you know, just

just just shove it up against the scene

and see what happens. I mean, um, if you

have a really good music editor, um,

like I do, uh, all sorts of discoveries

are going to be made. Um, pieces of

music you thought you were writing for

something completely different suddenly

illuminate a certain scene in a way that

you never expected. And so slowly as I

start developing through these pieces, I

hand them

Sorry, I knew I knew I was going to get

to a loud bit right there. Um, I was I

just start handing them over to the

cutting room and I start handing them

over to my trusted music editor, Bob

Baramy, and we just try them up against

picture. I mean, we just lay them up,

see what works, see how to adjust the

tone. I mean, the great thing about

working in this virtual world is I don't

have to get an orchestra in to just try

things. Sometimes I get musicians in um

and I mean

computers make it so so incredibly

flexible these days that you know if the

scene

let's just try this. Um I mean if the

scene plays slower you know then 142 BPM

I mean if this all looks a bit wrong you

know there's no reason I can't just go

change tempo or whatever. So after a

while I have all these flexible bits,

all these different ideas. So you know,

weirdly

this piece is about 23 minutes written

like a diary. Every day I write a few

more things and I think very little in

here didn't end up becoming part of the

score. Um, you know, I mean it so you

know, it sort of goes on and it's, you

know, like there's a lot of the weird

you know, it's the little weird sounding

stuff.

So, you know, because this is all just

virtually hanging around. I don't Why is

this

So I mean that's literally you know the

sort of taking it apart into

one of the sort of

crazy things about the way I work is

because I work in this computer which

means I can make all these noises. Um,

you know,

it means at one point or the other I've

played every note in the score. And

that's a lot slower than writing on

paper. You know, it's it's in in a funny

way I perform my whole script at one

point or the other. um before I sort of

unleash it onto other musicians who can

contribute. But weirdly I have to go

through this sort of it's my process. I

have to go through this diary process so

that I've answered all the questions

that I've had for myself. There are

certain things I had to fulfill. I had

to go and f you know um do things which

were because Moriati to me felt much

more of a classicist you know than than

Sherlock. So, you know, you know, part

of it was just, oh, how can I write

a chasey bit in a

more classical way without, you know,

like still

you know, it's just for my own sake and

and the the question that's going to be

asked, which is, are you getting too

dark? Are you fun enough? Or is it dark

enough? all those things, you know, I'm

just trying to hone in on the tone of

the whole thing and I'm I'm just trying

to see where those that one little

phrase at the beginning will take me.

There was, you know, the the you know,

if at the top of this is, you know, bog

standard, we're going to have a string

section type of, you know, it's it's

I mean

there are certain givens you know with

and the horns and um so that's there and

then below that it suddenly starts

getting a little bit more

eclectic you know those

so

while this process was going on I was

torturing violinists bass players

players, timberlong players, you know.

No, no, no. Can we go and sample your

instrument and I want you to do this and

I think it'll become something cool. I

let me see if I I can even find any of

that stuff. Um, so so below this is it

starts just becoming a collection of

um

weird

it just it just becomes the collection

of you know the the weird sort of

colors. I hear I mean part of it is you

write the notes and part of it is what

colors are you going to have and what's

the unusual stuff. So once once the once

you leave the orchestra which is at the

top and is a given you know

what interesting spices can we shove

into this thing. So it's it's a fairly

ridiculous amount of music. Yes. I I

don't know. Uh it's hard to even see the

end. Oh yeah. It's 8 and one bar

of

well obviously I was I I was trying I

didn't have to develop the Sherlock

material anymore because I knew what

that was from the first move. this was

literally trying to develop this idea of

the adversary

you know and and where this was taking

us and the I you know I mean that that's

why it becomes very Germanic in in

places and very and I I allowed myself

to be on the one hand far more symphonic

and on the other hand far more quirky

because we got away with quirky the

first time around. So it seemed like a,

you know, a sequel should be all about

pushing the boundaries as opposed to,

you know, narrowing it.