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The first and selfish truth is I write

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for myself because the seconds of my

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life are ticking by and I want to have a

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good life and I want to write music that

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I like or that I'm interested in. But

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when this goes back

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40 odd years, you know, when I was in a

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band and I was touring in the 80s in

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England and it was just, you know, times

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were tough. It was, you know, Margaret

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Thatcher was in power and if you went

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outside London, you went to the working

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class, you know, you went up into the

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north and you saw people working hard

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and

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trying to make ends meet. And so

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weirdly,

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every night playing in these pubs, you

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know, you just you you you knew you were

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creating an escape from for people. And

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so somehow I over the years in my mind,

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I have this fictitious character. She's

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called Doris.

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She lives in Bradford.

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She's of a certain age. She's got two

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boys.

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Um doesn't have a husband. She works

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really hard every week. Those boys are

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impossible, by the way. I mean, they are

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real pain. Um, she works really hard to

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try to make ends meet. Um, and at the

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weekend, she's got a choice, you know,

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she can either watch the television or

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she can go to the cinema. And she plunks

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down her hard-earned money. And it

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really is hard-earned money. It life is

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tough.

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and she wants to have an experience just

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for two hours. She wants to have an

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experience that she wouldn't have in her

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normal life and I am part of the

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responsibility of giving her that

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experience and not for changing her on

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her hard-earned money. So yeah, most of

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it's written for Doris who

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doesn't really exist but completely and

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utterly exists.

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I like to do a temp up and I like to

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preview the movie. I like to put the

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music in front of an an audience, you

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know, and it's it's got to be a sizable

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audience because if it's just

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it's just 15 of your best friends,

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you're never going to learn anything.

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Um, they're just coming for the free

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drinks. But if you have 600 people in a

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room, you know pretty quickly if you

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overstep the mark. I mean, Gladiator is

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a good example where when we started out

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and and and and I had Lisa Gerard and

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her voice, I mean, the studio really

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didn't like the idea about of the voice

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just thought, you know, what what is a

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female voice doing in a gladiator movie?

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And Ridley and I had a very specific

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point of view about about it. Um so we

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would literally go and we had we had

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many screenings where we would test see

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because the audience really liked it the

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you know an audience is they just feel

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things differently they're there for

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an experience that this you know

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I noticed it of course most on inception

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you know that idea of shared dreaming

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that you get in a cinema. Um,

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so we would preview it and to just to

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see how far we could push it, how you

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know and then and and there came a point

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as well where even I went hang on a

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second. Okay, we got to go and pull back

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a bit. you feel them getting a bit

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restless and a bit sort of you know they

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don't you know it's not like you just

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sit there amongst them and and and

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you know you've broken some sort of

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agreement you had with them you know to

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stay within the reality of you know

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whatever world you created and you just

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you're just doing a misstep you're just

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stepping outside the world or you're

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pushing the emotion too hard. It it took

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a while to get that ending for Gladiator

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right, you know. Um it wasn't so much

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that they didn't like it, it just didn't

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land. And we just knew we could get more

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out of it. So I think we tested it three

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or four times at least, you know, until

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until you suddenly felt yes, we were

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taking them on this journey

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of

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the Russell Crow character dying in a

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good way and at the same time that there

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was something noble and uplifting at the

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end without it being sort of,

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you know, clawing, you know. Um,

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you try never to tell people what to

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think. You just try to make it possible

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for them to feel something and you don't

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try to tell them what to feel. And, you

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know, you should just get shot if you're

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becoming sentimental, you know, and and

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and and so it's it's this really fine

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bouncing act, you know, to see how far

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you can push it. You're supposed to push

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it. Um, and and I don't know, it's just

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you just you just sit there and you just

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don't like it yourself anymore, you

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know, and you go, ah, stitch this bit,

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let's stitch this bit, and you know,

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this this is a bit of a fix up

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opportunity here. And um, you you just

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carry on doing that till the very last

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moment because it's flexible. You know,

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there is time. Whatever they tell you,

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there is time.

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Here's part of the process that people

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don't quite comprehend unless until

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they're really in the room. Um, this

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music, which is quite provocative and it

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was very different. It's not what

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anybody on the outside world other than

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Guy and me imagined could possibly work

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for a Sherlock Holmes Christmas movie.

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Um, there were some questions asked by

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maybe the studio. Um, and and and here's

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the thing, I don't play that game where

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I go, "Oh, the executives, what do they

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know?" You know, I I want to know what

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their questions are. The last thing we

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want to do is go and make a big mess of

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it, you know, and if somebody's got a

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good question, I want to hear it. So,

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you know, I want to be questioned. Um,

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but I realized what was happening was

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because of the, you know, the pressure

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that

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I'm always conscious of, even though I

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try to sort of suppress it is, you know,

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that the weight of

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a lot of money is on your shoulders. You

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know, a a lot of people's careers, a lot

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of people's work, this movie's got to

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come out and it needs to do well. So, so

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you can't be trivial about this and you

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do feel it. So, you know, so with within

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this pressure, you're trying to navigate

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some sort of artistic freedom. And so

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when a bunch of executives says to you,

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well, we're not sure about this mo uh

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this music. In fact, I think you're

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ruining the movie. Um you realize that

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the question is legitimate, but the

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question is the wrong question to ask

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because what happens is they're

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experiencing it with their preconceived

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ideas of what this movie is going to be.

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and they're and all they've ever done is

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see this movie in a little room, the

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three or four or five of them. Uh, and

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that's not how an audience experiences

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it. It's, you know, once you're once

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you're in a cinema surrounded by people

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who actually paid money for for it, you

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know, who have some different investment

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in it, it's it's a whole different

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experience. So I said to them, tell you

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what, I'll change anything you want, but

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first of all, let's put it in front of

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an audience. So we got on a plane to go

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to Phoenix. I don't know why we had to

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go to Phoenix. Maybe they know more more

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about Sherlock Holmes in Phoenix than

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anywhere else in the world.

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Um, I'm sitting opposite

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maybe an executive, you know, and on the

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luckily it's not the longest flight in

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the world, but you know, the whole

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flight I'm basically being berated about

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how I'm ruining the movie, how I'm

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ruining the future of Sherlock Holmes,

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how I'm how this music is completely

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destroying any possibility of this movie

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ever uh being a success. This is not a

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comfortable flight. Um, we start

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screening the movie until the audience

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is liking it. They're into it. And then

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comes the scene that is ruining the

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movie where it's uh, you know, it's it's

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a big climactic actiony thing.

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Everything's exploding and I'm playing a

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solo violin

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and there's a woman sitting next to me.

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I have no idea who she is. And she just

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sort of taps me on the arm. She has no

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idea who I am and she goes, "That's

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brilliant." And all I wanted to say to

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her was well tell them because in you

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know with an audience it it worked

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because because

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an audience will look at things

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differently. They will feel things

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differently. I'm not interested in the

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focus group where they all dissect it

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afterwards. But you know you got to go

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and sit in the audience and feel what

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they're feeling and it's different just

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like when u you're sitting there and

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you're playing something to the

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director. the first time it sounds

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completely different. Um, you know, I

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was having a conversation with Tom

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Newman who said whenever he plays

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something to a director, you know, it

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sounded just fine before the director

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walks in. As soon as the director walks

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in, it all goes to mono somehow. Why is

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that? You know, um, it's just we are

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influenced by the people that are around

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us. And I I think I think it's really

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important that you that you have the

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courage to put it in front of the

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audience. Um so anyway, we got through

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the screening. Um you know, they take

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numbers, you know, excellent blah blah

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blah. It scored through the roof. Um and

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of course the plane ride back. I got to

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go and reverse the game and say, "So,

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do you want me to change? I'm happy.

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I'll change the music. Whatever. What do

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you want? What do you want me to What do

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you want me to do?" And you know, and it

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was literally don't change a note. Um,

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you know, and I'm not saying this

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because I'm I'm clever and smart, etc.

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or or whatever. Um, but you know, part

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of the process of being a film composer

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is is you have to understand that

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everybody's cheering you on. Nobody's

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your enemy. Everybody's on your side.

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Everybody wants you to succeed. But

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sometimes people get a bit worried, you

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know, and I get a bit worried too, you

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know, I get a bit wobbly about, you

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know, is, you know, was this really such

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a good idea to drop the piano off a roof

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and uh is that really the sound we were

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after or whatever, you know, it's it's

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um you have to come at it with a certain

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recklessness, but at the same time, you

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have to come at it with a certain

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sense of responsibility. And that's you

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know look this is where it comes back to

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the basic thing which is are you on

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story because if you're on story you can

265
00:11:36,399 --> 00:11:39,519
do whatever you want to