Sheridan sat down with composer Marc Jackson to discuss film, music, composing, and the importance of the written word.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be a composer.
A: I didn’t actually set out to be a composer but began as a recording artist, first in a band and later as a solo artist. The band I was in landed a deal with MCA records and had a release in Europe. The release was associated with a film project and four of the songs went into the film. Later as a solo artist I recorded my only CD while I was on tour as a musician for another artist. I recorded each song in various cities across the U.S. When it was done, one of the songs was place in an indie film called Get Your Stuff. Two more songs were placed in a couple of TV shows.
After working as a musician touring with Roger Daltrey, I decided to get off the road and begin exploring a variety of styles. I wasn’t satisfied with the confines of a single artist identity and I created aliases like the band “My Rich Friends,” a groove based industrial/rock project and another band called “Velvet Monkey,” an experimental project, which I worked into a live theater performance.
Meanwhile, I sort of stumbled into several production jobs working on television shows and DVD special features at a company called New Wave Entertainment.
I moved from there into the music department and began not only music supervising shows for A&E, E! Television and HBO, I also began writing custom songs and score for the shows. That’s when I realized that writing to picture and specifically scoring film is what I wanted to do.
Q: What is it about film that made you want to become a composer?
A: It is my opinion that film is a nearly perfect storytelling medium. It brings into play the visual, dramatic and musical arts. Music in film heightens the experience of the story and as viewers we love it, which is sort of strange when you think about it. We live our own life stories every day without a soundtrack but in film for some reason we completely buy into it. In fact, a film would feel pretty odd without at least some music in it.
Also, I’m a film fanatic. I’ve studied and collected films since you could first buy them off the shelf and I watch many of my favorites hundreds of times. I think that is probably what drew me to TV production. Some of my favorite films like the Hitchcock stuff REALLY sparked my interest in how music informs the emotion of a scene. Bernie Hermann was so distinctive in his compositions and followed the action so well. His work on North by Northwest had it all. It was big and created a signature for the whole feel of the story.
I’ve studied nearly every style of music since I was old enough to turn on the “hi-fidelity” console my parents had when I was 2 years old. I didn’t just listen to music; I listened to the drums and how they interacted with the bass. What the guitars and pianos were doing. I would listen to classical music and could see the parts in my head. I loved how musical themes were repeated and interpreted by the different instrumentation.
I’m a composer who is lucky enough to be alive when technology allows me to actually perform so many styles with some proficiency. It’s a great time creatively to work in this field. My fledgling years composing to picture really tested my musical prolificacy. The creative requests could get pretty wild. My work in TV was sort of my boot camp for film.
The great thing about film is that when I work with a director we first discuss the tone of the story and once it is established I get to write within that tone for the whole film. I really enjoy it.
On a sort of spiritual level, I feel like I’ve been on a path and when I look back, I can see specific things that have both informed and guided me to scoring film. There is nothing like loving what you do for a living.
Q: So having scored for television and film, what would you say the key differences are when composing for those mediums?
A: Well, there are so many different aspects to television. You have dramatic television series, mini series, made for TV film…all of which are very similar to scoring a feature. The differences are when you get into reality TV where you might be supplementing a library of existing music. Or you are writing the theme song, and bumpers. The pace is very fast and the requests could be anything from needing a track that sounds similar to Elvis Presley to a cue that sounds like whimsical Danny Elfman score. And creatively you have to turn on a dime. It can be a lot of problem solving and less delving your own sense of things. The trick to being good in television scoring is to be able to not only problem solve but to somehow bring inspiration to what that music is. Otherwise what you have are sterile “knock-offs” (a hollow shell of the original song’s former self). And nobody wants that.
Q: What are the similarities?
A: When composing for dramatic television, there really isn’t much creative difference to creating film score at all. Many of the early conversations are the same. The director (and oftentimes, the producers are very involved) describes the palate of the show, or they may even have temp music score in the pilot for presentation. With that information you begin to construct your own signature for the show. With film it all depends on when you are brought into the process. One feature I scored Counting Backwards had already been scored by a really talented guy Kieran MacManus, and for Elvis Costello fans you might recognize his last name. He’s Elvis’ brother. He had done some beautiful piano score for the film earlier on in the process, but as the film started to change in tone during editing they realized that they needed the score to shift so the director, Aprill Winney, called me. I had very little time but because of my TV experience, was able to score much of the film in about a week. (Obviously there was no orchestra for this one.)
With a 30 minute short film I scored called Slice, I was brought in halfway through filming and even went to the set. Here the director, Carmen Milito, had a really clear idea of what she wanted. She and the editor, Barrie Wise, were so much on the same page that there was little question in terms of direction. This was decidedly an “Italian” themed movie co-starring Vincent Pastore and Katherine Narducci both from The Sopranos, and the film needed some authentic folk instrumentation. Even though it was a short, it was shot on 35mm and looks like a fully-funded feature. The score had to have that sort of polish on an extremely small budget. I got a chance to write an original Italian folk song for an actor, Bruce Kirby, to sing in the film. So, the overall experience as a composer was a real pleasure all around.
Q: As a composer when is the ideal time to become involved with a project?
A: Well I’ve earned sort of a reputation for being able to work with tight timelines, which is great, but now I’m starting to get scripts for the films and I’m able to present my own artistry to the projects. This year I’m working with two directors who I’m talking to creatively before the first frame has been shot, so I would say that is ideal for obvious reasons. But I do enjoy the problem solving aspect. It really sharpens your skills and forces you to dig for that emotion right away. So as to not sound contradictory I have to say that really, anytime is a good time to be called into a film project.
Q: When you are able to be involved from the outset, how much does a script or screenplay inform or influence your compositions?
A: It informs the process hugely. I am a very visual person so when I read a script, the curtains literally open in my head and I see the whole thing on a screen. I don’t start getting ideas on score until the second or third read though because I focus on the story and the characters first. Then the score starts to form when I apply that to what I feel about the story. I need to go to sleep thinking about the characters and seeing the story as if I had just watched the film in its completed form before I write a note of music. Once I do, then I talk to the director and ask a lot of questions. Then with what I know about the director’s vision and with my own feelings about the story, the ideas start coming.
Once I start writing I make a point to remind myself “this piece may not be in the film.” That takes the pressure off and frees me up to just write. If the first cue isn’t part of the score, it is a valuable gateway into finding the emotion. It all comes back to the story and the character’s inner life. That may sound pretentious or whatever, but it really is the only way I know to get it right.
Q: When you read a script what do you or are you looking for specifically?
A: Knowing the script and submitting ideas to the director is just a great way to start some creative communication and if you are REALLY lucky, they might even take your first cues on set for inspiration. It doesn’t get much better than that.
So I tend to look for the arc of the characters and where the story might shift and at what that shift might be emotionally. I think about pace and tone whether it be comedic, sardonic, mental or horrific. By looking at the piece as a whole you can hear themes and when you have those themes they can be broken down into scenes and acts.
BUT the “magic” of score to picture comes at that moment when you see that scene with the music under it. You only really know how your music is working when you see that in post production.
Q: When you’re able to begin writing music at the script stage, how much changes from script to screen to final cut?
A: That is completely dependent on the quality of the communication with the director prior to filming coupled with how clear of a vision the director has over his or her own work. If communication is strong and they ultimately come back with what their vision was, you can simply continue on with what you had established with the director. But sometimes the film becomes its own thing and can change quite a bit depending on what happens in editorial.
Each director is different. Some are great with music and others aren’t. For example Federico Fellini supposedly didn’t like music, but Nino Rota created some wonderful score for his films and some would argue that the films would have suffered without it. So there are really a lot of variables determining what the approach will be once the film is in post production, much of which is determined by how the director understands and values music throughout the project. I try to stay prepared for a variety of possible scenarios.
Q: Do you consider the viewer/audience when writing a score?
A: In terms of stylistic choices, no, I do not. Meaning if this year you have a hit film like Little Miss Sunshine which has a decidedly modern score, I wouldn’t write a score like that just because it went over well before. But I do think about the audience in terms of asking myself “is the score distracting or pulling focus from a scene or a moment?” “Is this supporting the action?” If the audience notices the score the first or second time they watch the film, you probably blew it. If you can stay out of the way of the story while it is happening and enhance it, but write a brilliant theme or melody in the process you have really done a great job. The Bourne series is a great example of that. Powell did a fantastic job there.
Working from the outside-in rarely works in any artform. And for film score, it all has to go back to the story and the world you are creating for the characters.
Q: Who are your favorite composers or musicians?
A: There are so many and for all different reasons. As composers go I like Mychael Danna and Thomas Newman, who I think really goes for the feel of a film well. Loved his score in The Good German. Authentic 40s feel and, of course, what he did in American Beauty and the Six Feet Under theme inspired a string of emulators of that style (guilty as charged). Danny Elfman, the definition of dark and whimsical. I love John Powell’s score and listen to the Bourne series in my car. Another great inspiration is David Holmes, particularly on a little-known film called Code 46. He scored that under his band’s name the Free Association and it’s really evocative. Also Tomandandy, Jon Brion, and one that has gone unsung until recently, Hoyt Curtin who scored the animated TV series The Adventures of Jonny Quest back in the 60s. Brilliant. And last, but never least, is John Williams.
Q: What are some of your favorite scores and why?
A: If anyone remembers a film from the 80s called Paris, Texas. Ry Cooder created this sort of desperate, lonely, introspective environment and did it within a bluesy context. It felt dusty and set the opening scenes up particularly well. I thought he really did something of note there. I mentioned Code 46. With the film being set in the future, Holmes created emotional music of the future using sparse guitars and lots of ambient sounds. The whole film depicted a uniquely realistic version of the the future, setting up a love story and the music made you feel that you were living in that time period and feeling what the characters did. I’ll go main stream here a second and say that the score to Star Wars is one of the best in film history. If Lucas would have chosen to speculate what music might have been like “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” he would have ruined his own film. (See the alien band in the famous bar scene, episode one…awful). John Williams made the film timeless and grand with strong melodic themes every bit as big as the Death Star.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a couple of artists who are not regarded as film composers: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is a huge influence on my composition and I look for opportunities to apply what I’ve studied from him. Also Massive Attack are a band that are really special when it comes to creating moods in their songs. In fact, I could list about 30 “pop” artists over the years that have influenced me in composition, all of which create moods and environments in their songs, probably the main reason I’m a composer today.
Q: What composers, scores, or films have you studied the most for your own work?
A: I try to be well-versed in as many as I can because you just need to be. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned Clint Mansell’s work on Requiem for a Dream or Daniel Licht and his TV work on Dexter. I look at these two for the signature sounds they created. I have looked pretty closely at The Mothman Prophecies to see how Tomandandy made that very creepy and otherworldly environment. And all of the composers and films I have mentioned up to now have really informed my work and provided a pretty wide melange of styles to draw from.
Q: What projects are you currently working on and what do you have planned for 2009?
A: Working again with the brilliant director Aprill Winney (Counting Backwards) I’ll be scoring the feature film version of The David Dance, a screen adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage play of the same name written by Don Scime.
The other is a little indie film called A Diamond in the Sky, which I’m already submitting cues for.
Q: Any final thoughts for our readers?
A: Yeah, I want to thank mypdfscripts for this window into my career so far. I’ll have a lot more to tell you in a couple more years.
Check out more:
Marc Jackson’s official site @ marc-jackson.com
Marc Jackson’s music company @ moonlabmusic.com
Marc Jackson @ IMDb