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The drummer for the film composer is the

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editor. So you need to know your editor

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and you need to know how your editor

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feels tempo etc. I I remember in Crimson

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Tide cutting a re figuring out this

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really long scene um that Chris Levenson

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had cut and I was thinking he must have

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cut this to a piece of music. It's

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rhythmically so accurate and I finally

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worked out the BPM which just was

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unwavering. I can't remember what the

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actual BPM was, you know, and that it's

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a 7-minute piece. Um, and I never I

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never did a tempo change. It was quite a

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slow tempo. And I saw Chris, I said,

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"So, what piece of music did you cut

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this to?" And he goes, "No, I didn't cut

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this to a piece of music." You know, you

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just want to, you know, part of who you

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want closest to you is uh you want to

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know the metabolism rate of your editor

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because they're they're your drummer.

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Here's

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how I start the day. I go, "The click is

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your friend. It's reliable. It's the

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only thing I can rely on." You know, the

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notes are lying to me. I am lying to me

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going, "Yes, today you're going to write

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a great tune." Well, that's [ __ ]

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So, the only thing I can rely on, the

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only thing that's my friend is the

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metronome because it's just there. It's

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steady. it's reliable. Um,

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so I like being in a grid and um, it

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gives me an enormous amount of freedom

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to lie um, and to invent and to, you

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know, if a great idea happens, you know,

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you're playing something and there's a

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great idea in there somewhere, but it's

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it's just a free form floating around in

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the air, it's really hard to capture and

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make something out of it. If it's in the

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grid, you're already a step ahead. You

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know, you're already, you know, just put

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up a click and look at the listen to the

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click and look at the picture. And it's

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just a click and it's just a metronome

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and holes.

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But if you listen carefully, something,

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you know, in your head, not maybe a

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tune, but a texture or a feeling or

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something. Something will come about.

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the picture will speak to you in a

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different way when you impose a grid

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onto it that isn't the same grid as the

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editor has. And so if your if your

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question is do you like single space or

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double spaced in your emails or your

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type or your script or whatever that's

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the click for me. That's you know it's

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it feels a certain way.

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We were talking earlier about how do I

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start and part of it is and I can sit

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there forever trying to figure out what

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my tempo is. What what is what's what's

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the pace of the drama for me in this

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one, you know, am I going to go against

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it? Am I going to go with it? And if I

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go with it, what is what's,

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you know, how many cups of coffee did

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the editor have before he cut the scene?

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Um, you know, how are the actors moving?

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You know, h what's their speech pattern?

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Um, and it's not like I consciously work

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it out. It's just I I try to take it in.

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And I've take, you know, I've done a 100

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movies or so. And you just you you don't

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consciously look for you just sort of

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feel it and then just put it in that

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okay hang on I know what that is. I used

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to play this game of watching a scene

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once

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figuring out what I wanted to hit and

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then switching the picture off and just

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writing and then putting it back up. And

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I can hit anything you want. I mean,

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uh, there was a there's a thing on

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Interstellar.

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Um, Chris was shooting in Iceland and he

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we were talking on the phone and he was

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describing the scene and how it hit, you

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know, it had to hit this and it had to

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hit something else, it had to hit

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something else and then it had to do a

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stop

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and

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I was saying I I finally said to him,

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you know, I was writing all this down

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and I said, "Look, I think this is too

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complicated. I think you need to send me

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the scene. I think I actually need to

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write this to picture. And he paused for

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for a second. He said, you know, look,

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we've done pretty well at feeling temper

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the same way. I mean, um, Inception is

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all about time, you know, and

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so we've been pretty good at feeling

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time. So, why don't you just write it

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and if it doesn't work,

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I'll send you the scene, you know, cuz

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it's Iceland. I was in, you know,

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whatever. Um, so I wrote the thing and

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uh sent it over and I phoned him up and

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said, "So, how did it work?" He goes,

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"Uh, it was it was frame accurate, you

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know. So, even though we're working

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independently, we we know,

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you know, tempo is important,

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you know, it's part of the drama."

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Chris and I really get into it on on

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BPMs. It's just because it's a language

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we're comfortable with, you know. Um,

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with Guy, it's much more about

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it's, you know, it's it's like a

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three-way dance between James Herbert,

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him, and myself. And um

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I very very very quickly figure out

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literally just with James and and Guy,

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you know, literally when they walk into

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a room what pace the movie is going to

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be at, you know, and oh yeah, I think

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we're I don't think we're in 80 BPM. I

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think we're more than 96 BPM or And then

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there are certain tempos which just hit

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things in an interesting way. You know,

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what's my frame that I want to paint in?

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Is it a big frame or a small frame? A

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big frame is a 60 BPM slow

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to certain emotion that automatically

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comes forth. It's a more it's a more you

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can instantly get more profound. Try to

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get profound at 140 BPM. It's a bit

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tricky because it's just, you know, it's

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a little bit up and douncy. Dark Knight.

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We actually talked about,

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wouldn't it be cool

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if Chris shot the movie with a BPM in

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mind?

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And we and so the first four reels of

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that movie are at 96 BPM.

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And then when we switched, you really,

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you know, you don't notice that we

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switched. But you know, it it's the the

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trick is we just give you a jolt

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suddenly because in one way or the

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other, even though there's a lot a lot

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of stuff been happening. There have been

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bank robberies and dialogue scenes and

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chases and all sorts of stuff. They were

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all in one tempo and and in a peculiar

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way, you've now gotten used to this. So

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suddenly I'm pulling the rug out from

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under you, you know, and the whole, you

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know, the the whole

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excitement sh it it wasn't even that

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radical. It just was wrong. Do you mean

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slightly wrong? Slightly wrong is great.

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You know, slightly unc, you know, just

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uncomfortable.

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80 BPM 80 BPM is just a good tempo. is

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of a good because you can go any way.

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160 is going to be close to cardiac

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arrest and sometimes you want to go up

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there, but 80 BPM can be quite

175
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subtractive as well. And and it just so

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happens that

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the math is easy.

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You know, sometimes you got to go and do

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you have to remember that one 44 bar at

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80 BPM happens to be 3 seconds. So you

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sort of can orient yourself or 96 is 2

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and 1/2 seconds.

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You know, it's just it's just weird

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baggage you carry with you. You just

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instinctively know. 140 usually means I

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didn't have I didn't have the courage to

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make your heart burst out of your chest.

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Um

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actually I'm pretty sure I didn't use

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140. it would have been 142 or something

191
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like that because there are certain

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things which are divisible by frames and

193
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certain things which aren't divisible by

194
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frames and if you're not divis divisible

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by frames

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it lands badly you know like it doesn't

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matter that we're all in this non

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nonlinear digital medium these days

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editors still think in frames you know

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and and we we still think about you know

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bit of film about this long you know or

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something like out. Um

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so maybe the next generation will use

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completely different tempo you know

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because for them time is just linear.

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For us time is divided into rhythms.