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[Music]

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the very best

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composers um

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are they're like another

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screenwriter they key in on Little

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Things camera moves

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um an actor's um you know flickering eye

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uh um um a glance down that suggests uh

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an emotional state of mind that may not

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have anything to do with the dialogue or

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the plot and they often pick up on those

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things and and begin to build cues

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around that emotion in in very

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surprising ways um but

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music is such a challenge for me oh I

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could play the guitar a little bit but I

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can't read music I'm not a

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musician um and yet I understand how

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powerful it is

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and I learned early on to talk to

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composers the way I would talk to an

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actor or a screenwriter just talk about

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the ideas talk about the feelings talk

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about the reason that I shot or staged a

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scene in a particular way what I love

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about a performance what I hope it

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conveys and very very often they're able

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to really reinforce

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[Music]

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that music is written to be what

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listened to um you know

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experienced um now sometimes a piece of

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music um Always written with themes and

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ideas that the composer has that you

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know aren't specifically articulated but

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you're meant to feel on some Primal

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level some int intuitive level sometimes

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it works great for a movie

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but there in my opinion there's nothing

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like score score is music that is

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written specifically for a scene for a

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movie themes

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that represent something of a

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character um sometimes movies have two

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or three different uh themes uh

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representing two or three different

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feelings or characters characters who

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fall into the category of a certain kind

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of feeling

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um maybe representing you know

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oppositional sides in a conflict uh

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sometimes there are no themes sometimes

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there are only feelings uh a sort of

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sound beds uh um beats Tempo uh and

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sometimes there's sometimes there there

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are both so again in the world of

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working with composers or making

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decisions on your own um it's uh it's so

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much about asking yourself the question

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what should the music be and you'll have

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probably um you know an instinctive

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answer and that may be right but it's

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always worth

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saying what

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else the development of the musical

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score for frost

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Nixon was one of the most surprising uh

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creative EXP experiences that I've ever

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had because I was so certain I wanted I

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wanted a a rock and roll score this took

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place in

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77 I I I wanted to evoke that eror I

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thought here this is I love those I love

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those movies that do that this is a

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chance to do one of

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those and we kept trying songs I had

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lengthy meetings with Han Zimmer who was

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going to you know do some some some

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score but I told him I thought Hans it's

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probably only going to be seven or eight

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minutes of score I really want a of

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songs Peter Morgan the writer and and

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and and and one of the producers on the

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movie he was okay with it I think he was

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a little suspicious of that idea but

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when we started putting songs

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in audiences said they kind of liked it

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because they lik those songs but both

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Peter and Hans said I think you're

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selling the movie

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short because those songs remind us of

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the period

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and they may reflect the characters but

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when they do reflect the characters it's

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a little bit reductive it's almost like

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irony uh or it's

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heavy-handed um and the performances and

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the camera work are so much more

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sophisticated than that Ron and they

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really had to talk me out of that and

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into a score that was much more a

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suspense score it was much closer to the

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heartbeat of those characters and it

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invited the audience to to Really lean

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in and and feel a sense of of um

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pressure and it became a a really very

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contemporary um minimalistic in some

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places and then sort of full and

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emotional in other places but a very

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modern uh psychological score and it was

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H maybe not 180° but a solid 90° away

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from anything that I ever expected for

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the movie and I'm very very happy that I

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uh was coerced um you know out of that

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first that first choice that I was so

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certain

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[Music]

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of there were a number of challenges

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with beautiful mind uh musically and uh

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um James Horner did a bril Brant job

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tackling it but it it he thought about

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it for a long a long time he was

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inspired to some extent by Philip Glass

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uh very modern

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contemporary um and uh in a lot of

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Philip glass's work there's a sense of

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um of a of a kind of an ongoing search a

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kind of yearning for something and an

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inevitability it's kind of nature

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meeting man's need to go forward and

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understand something somehow it's it's

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pretty magical um but it it's very

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evocative and so he didn't want to

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borrow that

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orchestrally um and but he uh but he

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took some inspiration from it and he

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wrote some um piano pieces that were you

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know amazing and sort of

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celebrated that drive that John Nash as

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a genius uh

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felt and then he had to

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write counter

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themes that were oppressive that

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represented the kind of the evil the

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danger of the mental illness and at

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first um because that movie has plays a

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trick with the audience that that music

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was meant to sound sort of like Movie

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music kind of like um you know bad guy

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music from you know the the the 40s or

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the 50s but with this undercurrent of

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John Nash's

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particular um need to be able to express

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himself in the beginning you just feel

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like it's a genius wanting to get his

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ideas out there by the end you begin to

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understand that he was hampered by the

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mental illness and that that that

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feeling of being trapped and that need

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to try to be able to work through

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something that that that James's music

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sort of uh seems to suggest I think uh

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suggest something on on a on a more sort

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of metaphorical level uh later and and

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and that same dark music that we thought

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was about uh Cloak and Dagger stuff and

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spies winds up being the the sound of

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the

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[Music]

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disease there are two exciting ways to

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use Music um one is um you know you you

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you stage your your scenes you shoot the

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shots that you want you piece them

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together you you share them with a

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composer composer is inspired by it um

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you begin a conversation and begin to

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experiment with what the music could be

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and you come to a you know an

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understanding that is satisfying there's

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another very um interesting approach

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which is you can take a piece of music

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and in the way that you might use temp

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score uh while you're editing as a as a

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way of sort of um understanding what you

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know the kind of music that might work

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in in a in a in a in a scene the pace

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the the nature of the of the piece of

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music there are a lot of interesting

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directors that do all of that before

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they begin shooting and they often shoot

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and edit with a Tempo and a rhythm uh

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already in their minds now again I'm not

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that musical I've never actually um you

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know tried that strategy but I hear

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about it all the time and I sometimes

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hear about it from actors who really

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love it because when a when a director

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has chosen a piece of music or a song

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that's meant to inspire it might not

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even be used in the final movie but it

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suggests something and it is also an

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acknowledgement that we're you know yes

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we're creating a kind of reality the

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reality of this story but we are using

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the tools of the medium including music

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and you the actor are going to be

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reinforced and supported in this way and

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sometimes actors are really inspired by

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that