L'ETRANGE NOEL DE Mr JACK - 3D - Entretien avec Michel CACHUELA par Jérémie NOYER

C'est avec un enthousiasme non dissimulé que nous célébrons en France le treizième anniversaire de la sortie de l'Oeuvre la plus monstrueusement géniale: L'Etrange Noël de Mr Jack. Et nous ne pouvions pas espérer de cadeau plus original qu'un retour de cette merveille du stop motion sur grand écran, transformé par le procédé Disney Digital 3D™. Alors à vos lunettes, et rendez vous dans une des cinq salles française où il est projeté, en cette période d'Halloween 2007. Et en attendant, vous êtes invités à rencontrer un story boarder qui a aussi participé à la création de l'histoire: Michel CACHUELA.

Pouvez-vous nous tracer les grandes lignes de votre parcours ?

Michel Cachuela - J’ai toujours aimé dessiner et quand j’ai grandi, j’ai été très marqué par les films de Star Wars. Cela m’a donné envie de faire le même métier de Joe Johnston : être le gars qui conçoit tous les véhicules, les costumes, etc. Auparavant, la séquence préhistorique de Fantasia au également eu beaucoup d'impact sur moi. J'ai été littéralement captivé par ces images de la formation de la Terre présentées de façon dramatique, violente et en même temps sublime. J'ai été ébloui par le fait que des cinéastes pouvaient vous emmener vers un monde aussi loin de nous. Les artistes Disney ont fait de leur mieux pour représenter des événements se déroulant en un temps et en des lieux que personne n'avait jamais vu et ce de façon impressionnante et émotionnelle. C'était vraiment quelque chose! Ensuite, je me suis tourné vers USC et UCLA pour passer une maîtrise de cinéma en prises de vue réelles. Mais au cours de mon parcours, j’ai rencontré certains animateurs de Disney qui ont vu mes dessins et qui m’ont conseillé de postuler à Cal Arts, ce que j’ai fait. J’ai beaucoup aimé cette école car on y travaille sur toutes sortes de media et on y étudie une grande variété de disciplines. On y trouve notamment un fabuleux département d’animation. Là mon désir de participer à des films à travers mes dessins devenait réalité.

Dans votre travail, il ne s’agit pas tant de faire du cinéma que de raconter des histoires à travers l’illustration et le storyboard.

Joe Johnston a fait du storyboard plusieurs Star Wars également, mais c’était plutôt technique. Ceci dit, c’est ce qui m’a poussé à m’y intéresser. Au lycée, le hasard a voulu que je soie dans la même classe que Rob Gibbs, qui est lui-même storyboard artist chez Pixar. Nous nous installions l’un à côté de l’autre au fond de la classe et nous essayions de nous faire réagir l’un l’autre à travers des dessins que nous nous faisions passer. Nous ne pouvions pas parler… mais nous pouvions dessiner des histoires drôles! Ce fut quelque part la meilleure formation : avoir à raconter des histoires visuellement sans le secours du moindre mot. Une autre étape fut bien entendu Cal Arts. Quand vous arrivez là, vous entrez tout de suite dans le métier et vous êtes très vite amené à faire votre propre film. Ce qui veut dire que l’une des premières choses que vous devez faire, c’est un storyboard. Si cela vous intéresse, vous pouvez le présenter devant la classe et faire des ajustements en fonction des réactions. Et j’ai remarqué que les étudiants qui faisaient cela avaient de meilleurs films.


Qui avez-vous eu comme professeur ?

Dans ce cadre, j’ai eu la grande chance d’avoir Joe Ranft, l’un des gourous du storyboard moderne. C’est lui, par exemple, qui a eu l’idée de créer le poste de directeur de l’histoire (head of story) sur les projets Disney pour faire le lien entre les artistes de storyboard et les réalisateurs. Il faisait passer une vraie sagesse dans ses cours. Je me souviens d’un exercice qu’il nous faisait faire. Il nous demandait d’inventer une histoire et de la raconter devant la classe pendant 10 minutes. C’était terrifiant car les animateurs sont des gens timides en général. Mais en même temps, c’était un test excellent pour les gens doués pour les histoires car il fallait en 10 mn proposer une histoire divertissante, qui attire l’attention d’un bout à l’autre, donne envie d’aller plus loin à chaque étape, qui vous émeuve et qui vous marque. Qu’importe si ensuite cette histoire est racontée à l’écrit ou par le biais de dessin, il faut avant tout proposer une chaîne d’événements qui donne envie de la suivre.

Quelles sont selon vous les qualités d’un bon storyboard ?

Du point de vue du dessin, je pense que c’est la capacité de conduire l’œil à l’intérieur d’une image simplement à travers le jeu sur les ombres et les lumières et la composition. Il s’agit aussi de comprendre et de représenter les besoins émotionnels d’une scène, de donner une représentation clair du parcours émotionnel des personnages dans une scène. C’est un aspect très important de ce travail. On doit comprendre comment le monde dans lequel on les plonge les affecte et interagit avec eux. En ce sens, il me semble que le storyboard artist tient un peu du réalisateur. Bien sûr, nous sommes au service du réalisateur, mais les questions que nous nous posons en termes d’émotions et de leur représentations sont les mêmes.

Vous débutez très vite sur des projets importants, à commencer par l’Etrange Noël de Mr. Jack. Comment cela est-il arrivé ?

Par l’entremise de Joe Ranft. A Cal Arts, nous discutions souvent entre amis sur les projets les plus cools sur lesquels nous aurions aimé travaillé après nos études. Nous connaissions le court métrage en stop motion Vincent et plusieurs d’entre nous ont alors dit que ce serait bien qu’il y ait un long-métrage de Tim Burton en stop motion. C’est alors que j’ai appris que cela allait se réaliser à San Francisco. Un réalisateur de grand talent, Henry Selick, devait le diriger et Joe Ranft était directeur de l’histoire. J’ai donc appelé, parce que le projet me plaisait et parce que je n’étais pas très bien à Los Angeles, j’étais un peu fatigué de ce qui ce passait alors dans le monde de l’animation. Je m’étais déjà rapproché de Pixar un peu avant, à l’époque où eux-aussi se trouvaient à San Francisco. Ceci dit, j’ai donc appelé Joe Ranft et il se trouve qu’il cherchait des artistes de storyboard pour son projet. Mon intention était donc de travailler quelques temps sur l’Etrange Noël puis d’aller cher Pixar, qui commençaient à envisager leur premier long-métrage en images de synthèse. Or, ce qui n’était envisagé que comme un boulot à temps partiel est devenu le film sur lequel j’ai le plus passé de temps de ma carrière soit un an et demi !

Dans quelles conditions avez-vous travaillé sur l’Etrange Noël ?

Cela se passait dans un ancien studio de télévision qui était prévu pour être démoli et faire un parc. Henry Selick aime beaucoup créer une ambiance créative dans les lieux où il travaille. De fait, des artistes un peu fous ont fait des graffitis sur les murs et avaient réalisé des sculptures un peu partout à partir de carcasses de motos. Cet environnement a d’ailleurs beaucoup influencé l’esprit du film !Quelles sont les scènes sur lesquelles vous avez eu le plus de plaisir à travailler ?Je dirai la séquence de Am, Stram et Gram. Il y a aussi celle dans laquelle Jack distribue les cadeaux de Noël et le combat final avec Oogie Boogie.

Comment travailliez-vous ?

La façon de travailler de Joe Ranft est la suivante : il sélectionne un artiste de storyboard pour telle ou telle scène et les fait travailler en groupe tant qu’ils ne se lassent pas. Si tel est le cas (car on peut se lasser de faire et refaire encore une même scène), il remplace l’artistes. Ce qui a pour effet qu’il peut y avoir plusieurs artistes qui ont travaillé sur une même scène, à des époques différentes. A partir de là, la manière de travaille dépend des séquences. Sur L’Etrange Noël, nous avions à notre disposition les paroles des chansons de Danny Elfman, que nous avons utilisées comme guide. Parfois vous vous occupez seul de votre propre séquence, parfois vous êtes par deux, dans une sorte de brainstorming. A la fin d’un travail, je présentais ce résultat à Henry, et quand il n’était pas disponible, je le présentais à Joe et tous deux me faisaient part de leurs commentaires et des modifications à apporter. C’était un travail très collaboratif. J’ai aussi fait de l’animation d’effets, fantômes et ombres diverses. Je travaillais dans une sorte d’atrium sans mur. Nous avions installé là nos bureaux ce qui fait qu’à chaque instant nous pouvions voir ce que faisaient les autres. De la même façon, le département artistique se trouvait tout à côté, ce qui fait qu’il était facile de passer d’un lieu à un autre, de faire des allers-retours, discuter avec le directeur artistique, le designer, etc. et voir avec eux comment les environnements qu’ils étaient en train de créer pouvaient affecter une scène. Henry encourageait beaucoup cet échange et cette collaboration entre les différents départements. Il avait une vision très forte de ce qu’il voulait faire sur ce film, mais en même temps, il aimait encourager de nouvelles idées nées de l’interaction entre tous ses artistes.

Il est très inhabituel d’avoir à composer une histoire à partir de paroles de chansons.

C’est vrai. Il y avait d’une part ces paroles de Danny Elfman et d’autre part une ébauche de scénario, très flou, en fait différentes idées liées entre elles par une vague histoire. Cela n’aidait pas beaucoup et l’histoire s’est vraiment construite à partir d’essais successifs de notre part, en essayant de combler les vides entre les chansons avec les meilleures transitions possibles.

Pouvez-vous nous donner un exemple de transition que vous avez imaginée ?

J’ai travaillé sur le parallèle entre les habitants d’Halloween Town qui préparent leurs paquets et les Elfes qui font de même au Pôle Nord, au milieu de la chanson Making Christmas. Je suis aussi particulièrement fier du moment où Sally saute par la fenêtre, tombe sur le sol en plusieurs morceaux et se recoud elle-même. Ce fut un passage assez délicat car les exécutifs de Disney n’étaient pas très à l’aise avec cette idée. Henry est donc venu avec l’idée qu’il n’y avait pas de sang puisqu’il s’agissait d’une poupée de chiffon et j’ai quant à moi eu à coller tous ces morceaux d’histoire et en faire quelque chose qui ne soit pas grotesque. Ensuite, j’ai imaginé le serpent d’Halloween avalant le sapin de Noël.

Avez-vous été en contact avec Tim Burton ?

Pas vraiment. C’était plutôt Henry car Tim était pris par une autre production dans le même temps. Il n’est venu au studio que trois ou quatre fois durant la production, ce qui fait que nous ne l’avons vu que très rarement. Ceci dit, ses dessins et ses idées ont été cruciaux dans le développement du film. C’est vraiment à lui que l’on doit le design des personnages, et en particulier de Jack. Nous sommes partis de ses dessins pour faire nos storyboards. Il avait des idées très arrêtées quant à la façon dont cette histoire devait évoluer…jusqu’à les défendre bec et ongle. La salle de montage en a fait les frais ainsi qu’un des murs du studio, qu’il a frappé avec sa chaussure à coque métallique, tellement il était en colère ! C’était tellement impressionnant que j’ai suggéré à Henry de découper la section du mur qu’il avait enfoncée et de l’encadrer !

Qu’est-ce qui l’avait mis autant en colère ?

Le fait qu’Henry et moi avions storyboardé une fin différente de celle que Tim avait prévue. Nous avions imaginé que Jack et le Père Noël pouvaient avoir gardé le contact avec les années et l’on apprenait que c’était le Dr. Finkelstein qui, en fait, était le créateur d’Oogie Boogie. C’était une fin plus heureuse que ce qui était envisagé par Tim Burton et il a fait valoir sa prérogative sur le sujet…avec un coup de pied !

Quels outils utilisez-vous pour storyboarder aujourd’hui? Faites-vous toujours cela à la main comme au temps de L’Etrange Noël ?

Non. Aujourd’hui, aujourd’hui nous utilisons beaucoup le Cintiq de Wacom. C'est un écran d'ordinateur sur lequel vous pouvez dessiner avec un crayon spécial. Je l'utilise en tandem avec Photoshop. Je pense qu’Enrico Casarosa et moi avons été parmi les premiers à l’utiliser, sur Ratatouille (nous partagions le même bureau au début de la production !). Nous avons fait office de cobayes ! Je dois avouer que j’aime toujours travailler sur papier. Cela permet d’aller très vite, de corriger et d’afficher directement son travail. Mais l’ordinateur permet d’autres avancées, notamment la réutilisation de décors. Cela permet de gagner du temps en n’ayant pas à refaire sans cesse le même décor, quand les personnages restent au même endroit. Un autre avantage du numérique tient au passage d’une image à l’autre. Quand vous affichez vos dessins, vous voyez comment évolue la scène, mais on ne visualise pas totalement comme se passe l’enchaînement. Grâce à ce système, les choses sont plus simples et plus proche d’un film. Cela permet de résoudre toutes sortes de problèmes qui n’apparaissaient auparavant que lorsque l’animation avait commencé.

Après L'Etrange Noël, vous avez poursuivi dans l'animation avec Henry Selick (James et la Pêche Géante, La Vie Aquatique) et avec Pixar (storyboards de Toy Story, des Indestructibles et de Ratatouille). Aujourd’hui, vous co-réalisez Coraline avec Henry Selick. La mise en scène est elle votre prochaine étape ?

Oui. Je travaille actuellement au développement de différents projets dans ce sens. Cela m’aide beaucoup d’avoir cette expérience du storyboard. Cela m’a permis de travailler avec de grands réalisateurs comme Brad Bird, John Lasseter et Henry Selick, qui savent la fois vous diriger et vous laisser une certaine liberté pour vous exprimer. Pour moi, c’est une progression naturelle, rendue possible par ces artistes qui ont su déceler ce désir en moi. Après avoir fait du storyboard, du design et de la co-réalisation, je pense avoir fait le tour de la question et j’ai envie de me frotter à d’autres défis, selon mes propres orientations artistiques.

DISTURBIA/PARANOIAK - Geoff ZANELLI: from Pirates of the Caribbean to Hitman, interview Part 1 by Christine Blanc

C'est une personnalité toujours aussi passionnée, investie et généreuse que nous avons retrouvée lors de ce nouvel entretien avec Geoff Zanelli. Le talentueux compositeur qui a grandi dans les studios Mediaventures a aujourd'hui un emploi du temps bien rempli. Il a toutefois accepté de nous parler longuement de son actualité. Jugez par vous-mêmes! Des jeux vidéo comme Shrek à des musiques de films telles que Pirates des Caraïbes: La Trilogie, Hitman ou encore Disturbia (Paranoïak), vous découvrirez dans les prochains jours toute une série d'interviews tant à propos de ses réalisations les plus récentes que de celles à venir...

Can you tell me about you, training, background...?
Geoff Zanelli: I began as a guitarist, but I got a late start really. I didn’t play until I was around 16 or so, which is much later than most people, but once I started playing guitar it was all-consuming. And so only 2 years later I had progressed to a point where Berklee College Of Music in Boston offered me a scholarship, and that’s where I was educated scholastically. While I was in between semesters, I started interning at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions. This was in 1994 or so, during The Lion King. That was also a big part of my training, just being around film music, people who were working at such a high level. Eventually I became John Powell’s assistant, and then in 1999 I was offered a room here at Remote Control, which of course I took.

How and why did you come to film music?
Well, I realize in retrospect that at a very young age I was responding to music in films, the original Willy Wonka being one that I remember in particular, so it was a natural progression for me. Plus, I was keen on the idea that film composers get to work in so many styles, and that each project takes you in a new direction musically. I think it’s very hard to do that in the record business, for instance.

Do you have any mentor? Are you inspired by a composer in particular?
Well Hans for one, I’d consider a mentor as well as a friend. Then there’s John Powell, I find him inspiring as well as James Newton-Howard, and outside the film music world there’s a wealth of inspiration for me, from John Adams to Tool.

Do you consider yourself as being part of a “school” of composition?
Not really.

How would you describe or characterize your own musical style?
I haven’t really thought about that. I think I’d rather just write it and leave the characterization to other people, but I tend to rely on my instinct when writing a film score, so I suppose that has some bearing on my work stylistically.

How do you choose a project to work on?
For the most part, they choose me.

I guess you compose on computer. Don’t you miss pencil and paper? Why?
I don’t really miss that, because for me the production side of film music is very important, so I like to have a hand in that. In some ways it becomes a part of the writing process for me actually, in particular when the score calls for some electronic elements.

How do you compose? Do you have a method of working? How do you proceed?
It’s really different on each film, but going back to what I said earlier, the easiest way to describe it is I rely on my instincts. So I watch the film, I respond to it in some way, and maybe I hear something, a sound or a chord or an instrument, and I start exploring from there. I’m not really interested in deriving a formula for how I write my scores, so I try to approach things with some freshness each time.

When you're watching a film, do you feel emotions that lead you rather to orchestra or rather to electronics? How do you use either medium?
I’m not sure that I’d call it an emotional response, but some projects, like House Of D or Into The West, they dictate a more acoustic approach so I use that. But with a film like Hitman, it practically demands a more contemporary, electronic feel. I use either medium exactly the same though, to support the storytelling in the film in a manner that’s appropriate to the material.

What do you feel when you’re composing and what do you like in this process?
I feel all sorts of things. I can usually respond to something in the film, so there’s an emotional response, whatever the scene’s emotional content is. I suspect that’s common to any film composer though. Another common feeling is exhaustion, since I work very intensely.

You said us that you “didn’t really work on the Shrek movies, just the latest video game and a tiny little bit on the amusement park ride”. Can you tell us a little about that?
There’s really not much to say. I did a few song-like tracks for the video game. That’s about it.

DISTURBIA/PARANOIAK

How did you come on Disturbia?
After Into The West, the folks Dreamworks were very keen on me and I was asked to submit a CD for the director of Disturbia to listen to. From there, we sat down and talked about the project and it was clear from the start that we would work well together.

May you tell us about the story and the kind of film? What the subject represents for you?
It’s first a comedy with a little bit of teen romance. Then it gradually shifts into thriller territory, so there was great appeal to me, to try to find a way to handle the two sides of the story in a musical fashion.

May you tell me about your approach for this film?
Well I wanted the music to feel honest, genuine, so that’s where I started, especially with the love theme. And to me, if you’re thinking about what it’s like to have your first crush, what teen romance is, you’re taken back to that time in your own life. The music of that time in my life wasn’t actually orchestral as much as it was song-based, so I approached the love theme as if I were writing a song. And in fact it did become a song which plays over the character’s first kiss, when a band called This World Fair wrote the lyrics to my theme. So then I approached the thriller side of the score which I felt needed to be larger than life, and that’s where the orchestra comes in, to give it that mass, that size that you need to tell that side of the story.

Did you use some themes or ambient score? Which? How and why?
Most of it is thematic. There’s the love theme, there’s a theme for the bad guy, Turner, and a theme for Kale, our hero. There’s also a theme for Kale’s father, which is really more about his relationship with him, and what it’s like to have a wholesome life, but you only get that sense of security at the beginning of the film, while his father is still alive.

How much time did you have to compose the score?
I think it was 12 weeks, much longer than I’m used to.

What orchestra and what size did you choose? Did you use some electronic sounds in your score or was it all live?
We recorded here in Los Angeles. 60 pieces, so it was 52 strings, 7 brass, and a harp. Then there was Josh Freese, who is a fantastic drummer as well as George Doering, a fantastic guitarist. There were also lots of electronic sounds in the score.

To you, what is the most interesting, the most successful or the most complex scene you had to score for this film?
That’s hard to say. I think the film is very well directed and so all the scenes feel successful to me. I enjoyed though playing the Turner scenes, like when he harasses Ashley in her own car, or once he captures Kale near the end of the film, I loved doing his twisted music.

What did the experience bring to you, personnally and as a composer ?
It was the perfect film for me at the time. I’m not sure how to put it into words, but I just mean from day one, once I met with DJ Caruso, I knew it was up my alley, and so I think this film for me affirmed a lot of my ideas about film music and how it should be symbiotic and supportive of the storytelling.

Do you have any anecdote ?
I loved that the score lends itself to a song. I don’t get to work with bands very often so that was a highlight for me.

To be continued...

Resident Evil: Extinction, interview with Charlie CLOUSER by Christine BLANC

Le virus expérimental mis au point par la toute-puissante Umbrella Corporation a détruit l'humanité, transformant la population du monde en zombies avides de chair humaine. Fuyant les villes, Carlos, L.J., Claire, K-Mart, Nurse Betty et quelques survivants ont pris la route dans un convoi armé, espérant retrouver d'autres humains non infectés et gagner l'Alaska, leur dernier espoir d'une terre préservée. Ils sont accompagnés dans l'ombre par Alice, une jeune femme sur laquelle Umbrella a mené autrefois de terribles expériences biogéniques qui, en modifiant son ADN, lui ont apporté des capacités surhumaines. Depuis le laboratoire d'Umbrella, le Dr. Isaacs les surveille. Il est prêt à tout pour retrouver celle qui représente l'accomplissement ultime des recherches de la firme, la seule personne qui rende possible la mise au point d'un remède : Alice. S'ils veulent avoir une chance, les survivants doivent échapper à la fois aux morts-vivants qui infestent le pays et à Umbrella Corporation. Pour Alice et ses compagnons d'infortune, le combat ne fait que commencer...

Dans ce troisième opus de la saga Resident Evil, l'humanité est en voie d' "Extinction", c'est bien le contraire qui se passe pour le talent de Charlie CLOUSER. Le compositeur de la trilogie SAW explose littéralement tant il accumule projets et succès! Pour preuve cette partition pour le moins percusive de Resident Evil: Extinction, dans laquelle on retrouve avec plaisir la patte de l'ancien musicien des Nine Inch Nails, atteignant aujourd'hui de nouveaux horizons.

How and why did you come to film music?

In the eighties, before my years in Nine Inch Nails, I had worked with a composer named Cameron Allan, doing programming and such on his scores for the final season of the CBS series "The Equalizer", as well as on a few TV movie-of-the-week projects. Since the music was totally electronic, instrumental, and fairly ambient and experimental, I felt it was a good fit for my talents and interests. I started doing films with SAW, and James Wan and I hooked up partly because he had used a bit of nine inch nails in his temp track, and when he found out that an ex-nail was getting into scoring, we found each other pretty quickly.

Do you have any mentor? Are you inspired by a composer in particular?

Well, I certainly learned a lot about this from Cameron Allan when we were doing TV, who has a pretty unusual take on things, and my interests are pretty scattershot when it comes to music. I tend to like certain scores more than certain composers... what floors me is when the combination of the music, story, acting, editing, and all of that stuff just CLICKS into place and puts the viewer somewhere they'd never go just by listening to the music or watching the picture alone. So I tend to like specific moments in composer's resumes... Daniel Lanois' score for "Sling Blade", Brad Fidel's "T2" score... but recently I have heard a lot of things I like.... John Powell seems to have a cool mix of programming and orchestral stuff, Marco Beltrami's "I, Robot" and "T3" scores were simple, direct, and very effective, and of course Harry Gregson-Williams sprays interesting things around all of the films he does.

How do you choose a project to work on?

I tend to gravitate towards things that will give me a balance between things I know how to do, and things that are going to be a challenge. For instance, James Wan's last film, Death Sentence, had a lot of cues that I pretty much knew what to do, like the drum-solo beat-downs or electronic chase grooves, but it also had a bunch of emotional cues, which were actually temped with songs, and so that was a bit more of a mountain to climb to get right. In the end, those cues were some of the best ones in the film, and although they had very few elements, they were a pain to get right because they were so delicate and fiddly. These are the cues that felt like I was learning something by getting them right... if it was all just super-violent beat-downs and electronic dirge grooves, I think I'd start to get bored.

ABOUT RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION FILM MUSIC

How did you come on Resident Evil Extinction?

With only five weeks until the final dub, I came on kind of later than I would have liked to, and I had to hit the ground running!

What direction were you given from the producers and director?

Well, at the first spotting session, everyone was saying, "Disregard this temp track, we don't really like this..." and "We really don't like the big, melodic themes, but we DO want a big, slamming, Hollywood sound...", so I had to come up with a game plan right on the spot, which we hashed out in conversation right then and there.

Can you explain your stylistic and thematic choices?

As much as I loved the Beltrami and Manson score to the first film in the series, I thought that their synth-and-drum-machine industrial darkness really sounded like it worked best when the action was underground, in the tunnels of Raccoon City, and there are not many scenes like that in this film; most of it takes place in broad daylight in the desert. So, I thought that we'd need more "outdoorsy" sounds, acoustic instead of electronic, and so I assembled a percussion kit of metal junk, rototoms, and other "brash" sounding drums, and used that for all the drum attacks, instead of more programmed, electronic sounds. In those few scenes where we do travel underground, the sound of the all the instruments change to more of an electronic, dark, and claustrophobic sound. It's a little hard to hear but in those scenes where we take the elevator down into the tunnels, a sort of electronic curtain descends on the sound and follows us around Raccoon City.

LAS VEGAS & NUMB3RS

What are the similarities and the differences between the composing from TV and composing for film?

With a show like "NUMB3RS", I actually treat it just as I would a short, action-packed feature, but I do take advantage of the repetitive, episodic nature of the series as time goes by, by reusing certain signature sounds from week to week. When I scored the pilot, I did a full-strength production, with the full complement of massive drum beat-downs and scary sounds made just for that project. As the series went on, we'd add more and more of these full-strength cues to the pile, and certain ones then became signature methods of identifying a given place, such as the FBI headquarters or the main character's homes, and we could then refine and reuse these cues, making each week's version a little different and a little better. We developed favorite ways of exiting to a commercial, or ending the show on a warm, homey note, and these became templates that the editors could cut picture against. On a film project, aside from a main theme that may appear two or three times in various forms, it's very rare if I can use something more than once in a project. In the film "Death Sentence" I was able to base five or six cues on the same piece of music, but that was fairly unusual for me.

How much time did you have to compose an episode, and how would you describe your music for NUMB3ERS and LAS VEGAS ?

We usually have the luxury of an entire week to come up with 30-40 minutes of score for each show. "Las Vegas" averages about 30 minutes of score per episode, and "NUMB3RS" is basically wallpapered with music, so for me it's usually 40 minutes of score per episode, for a grand total of at least an hour of score a week. The score for "Las Vegas" is like a japanese-texmex-scandinavian-luau, just completely all over the map. One minute it's splashy, fun casino jams with crazy horns and turntable fx, the next it's legit-sounding slinky pink-panther jazz, the next it's full-darkness suspense and action cues, and then there's just a ton of goofball comedy moments, little bumper cues, and of course someone's heart gets broken in every episode, so there's always a solo piano tearjerker or two. It's been great experience though, sort of a musical bootcamp, attacking all of these different problems every week. The score for "NUMB3RS" has a much more unified sound, but we've developed stylistic flavors that are each associated with a particular place, activity, or mode the show goes through each week. There's still a pretty wide range of styles, from awkward doofus comedy to hostage-drama takedowns, but I try to make the sounds, tones, and keys much more unified than in a wacko smorgasbord like "Las Vegas".

What would you really like to do next?

I don't want to get stuck doing ultra-violence, even though it's good clean fun, so I'm becoming more attracted to projects that I might not know what to do right off the bat, things that are a little outside my background. I mentioned "Sling Blade" before, that's a perfect example of the type of film that I am itching to do, something that would take a bit of figuring out, something that needs a bit of a lighter touch.
1. Main Title
2. Stupid Crazy
3. I'm So Sick [T-Virus Remix]
4. My World
5. Duality [Project Alice String Remix]
6. Losing
7. One Love [Extinction Remix]
8. Deathcar
9. I, Suicide
10. White Rabbit [SPC Eco Mix]
11. Paralyzed
12. Laser Tunnel
13. Asleep on the Frontlines [Appliantz Remix]
14. Catch Me
15. Contagious
16. Scenotaph [Dja Infected Remix]
17. Sixth of June
18. Wrecking Itself Taking You with Me
19. Convoy

Special Thanks to Jane LAMB ;-)

John Ottman, Just the Best! Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Interview par Christine BLANC

Besoin d'un Super-Héro? Contactez John Ottman! Qui répond toujours présent depuis X-Men 2 jusqu'aux 4 Fantastiques (1 et 2), en passant par Superman Returns? Toujours John Ottman. Car c'est le meilleurs allié de nos Héros "Comics-Marvel". Et ce n'est pas fini parce qu'il a déjà de nouveaux plans: si The Avengers reste toutefois à confirmer, nous devrions très certainement le retrouver en 2009 avec Superman: Man of Steel. En attendant, John Ottman nous parle aussi de Walkyrie et de The Invasion.

Mister Ottman, how did you come on Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer?
Well I got a call from the director asking if I was interested in doing it, and I responded, “are you #%^&# kidding? Of course I would.” Because we all got along great on the first one, it was assumed I would be doing it. If at all possible, if it’s the same team on a sequel, the same composer comes back – as long as things went well the first time around.

How would you describe the Surfer’s theme ?
It’s a theme that establishes the Surfer as a conflicted entity with a noble soul. It was meant to tell his story in a nutshell – from a mysterious threat, to a sad torn character to one who ends up becoming the savior of Earth. I wanted it to feel introspective and elegant, yet also tortured. The same theme then becomes triumphant, signaling his new conviction to confront his master. It also contains a pretty “part b” of the theme which conveys his eventual bond with Sue Storm in the film. She reminds him of someone he once knew, and somehow she awakens his conscience just in time to save the Earth – although a little late for all the other planets he’s helped obliterate! Oh well.

How did you make it evolve from the beginning where he’s a bad guy, to the end, when he’s nice (Noren Rad)?
Well it’s all how about how it’s orchestrated and the attitude it’s given. The same theme can sound mysterious, evil or sad depending on how delicately it is performed, and what instruments are chosen. There are are also moving string and woodwind lines that blur to create a harmonic backdrop to his theme – and if they are performed in a sort of whispy ethereal way it totally changes how you feel.

Did you know at the beginning that you would have to write a theme that would encounter these transformations?
I knew there would be an arc to this character based upon the script I had read. And I knew he would sort of dominate the film. It doesn’t happen often, but when I read the script on a plane trip, I ended up humming a rudimentary version of his theme right away. It became this little thing I would catch myself humming all the time, and finally one day I got it out of my head and played it on the keyboard to flesh it out and develop it into a piece to present to the studio. The piece I presented was then later prepared for orchestra and is the first cue on the album.

The Harmony of this theme is very lyrical, with a lot of tension. How would you describe it?
Well that was the challenge in his music – to convey a basically sympathetic character but also have it feel a little disturbing (representing Galactus’ presence.) So I wove in a boomy synth sound I created to offset the lyricism in the music. I also wrote those fast-moving arpeggio-like lines behind his theme which made the harmony feel even more otherwordly in a sort of intelligent way.

Can you tell me about its orchestrations? The sound of the strings, the mixing with the horns, and the big low and loud and brassy notes at the trombones. Please, may you explain this choice?
Well it’s basically a traditionally orchestrated theme, and the specific orchestral flourishes or deep brass surges are just my way of further defining him, and making the music become very masculine and “important.”

Can you tell me about the appealing to the organ?
Some of the orchestral overtones created a sonic illusion of an organ, but there wasn’t one used :) I think the last time I used one was in House of Wax – and also a short cue in X2.

Were you inspired by the silvery aspect of the Surfer? The reflections?... or weren’t the SFX ready when you composed?
I usually do not write music to anything on the surface. The music’s job is to bring out inner qualities – the soul of the characters and the film. As with any scene, I look at the objects and/or characters and ask myself what the scene is really about beyond them, what is the challenge or angst of the character. Then I comment on it musically. I thought it would be cheesy to do “shimmering” music just because he was silvery.

How did you treat Galactus? It’s more about sound than theme, right?
What sounds did you use? It seems to be about Chaos, and souls from all destroyed planet cry out help.
Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of depth given to “him” in the film. He’s simply a threat full of dread. And yes, I wanted there to be an inherent tragedy felt in the music, as heard in the first scene of the film when he first appears destroying a planet. Because he has brief moments, an instantly recognizable sound had to define him. This was basically an extremely low orchestral cluster, characterized by the tuba playing in its lowest possible register. To this I added a booming synth sound I created from a sound I found in a synth effects library. It really tears apart the sub woofers!

How did you come to the idea of using synth elements (whereas you don’t seem to be used to do it often)?
I’m not sure what made me feel that choice was right. It’s just something I feel when I see a film. This one had a more serious tone, and I wanted the music to feel as if it was evolving from the first film – and feel just a tad bit more modern and clever. There was a lot of sensitive underscoring required that needed a little edge – and often a little “otherworldliness.” Even though I like to stretch the orchestra as far as it can go to convey these things, the pure orchestra ensemble sometimes lacked the subtle oddities I needed. So I added synth textures and dark tones to weave in. If used in an organic manner, synths can be a legitimate section of the orchestra. They really are just another “instrument.” The trick is to use them wisely, just as you try to do with any part of the orchestra, and also not to simply use synth as an easy crutch. I use synths more than people may think, but usually they are practically invisible in the orchestra. With this film, I brought them to the forefront, often to be featured.
I love this part with jazz pattern played at the woodblock and the harp. It’s very refined orchestration.

Was it your idea or the result of your collaboration with Damon Intrabartolo?
Orchestrating is my favorite part of the process. I write every part and accompaniment down to the last little triangle ping. As I touched upon earlier, a cue totally changes its character based upon orchestration alone. One slight alteration in orchestration can make a cue fail or succeed. So, for me, it can’t be left to someone else to come up with the orchestrational features of a cue. It’s a very sensitive and important process. I also need to do this so that I can prepare a synthesized mock-up of how the score will sound so that everyone knows what they’re going to get and so they can make notes on cues before we record them. Nothing is left to the imagination except that it will sound a lot better when performed. Damon arranges my string and brass lines, corrects my sloppiness, and he also redoes the time signatures so that the orchestra can better read what I write after he’s transcribed it to paper.

Can you tell me about the humorous aspect of your score? Is it funnier than the first opus, to you? Did you appeal to “cartoon” patterns?
There are definitely light and “comical” moments in the film, as with the first. However, over-all, this was a more serious story because of the Silver Surfer and potential end of the world. The F4 films are lighter fare, so the music has to often confirm this, yet not put it over to the top and be too cliché. An example is when Johnny switches power with Sue, as she floats on fire above the street. I had to make this a little “fun,” but not campy. Serious music on this Sue-on-fire scene would make the sequence feel too horrible – a woman burning to death. By playing both sides, blending tension with playfulness, it allows the audience to enjoy the scene and keep the lighter tone of the franchise cohesive. But no, I didn’t want the music to feel cartoony, which it could have easily lapsed into in the lighter scenes. It’s best to let the comedy play and not comment on every little action as with a cartoon. It’s best, again, to comment on the feel of the scene or realizations of the characters in general. When I initially wrote a cue for Ben changing powers with Johnny, I was hitting every little action, and it felt like a Tom and Jerry episode. So I just put in many rests and chose my musical comments carefully not to step on the “comedy”, but help it work better.

There also seem to be more and deeper emotion. Like at the Wedding. How did you approach this scene?
Well for Sue and Reed, I used their love theme from the first film, but this time I made it richer and more emotional. Just as their relationship has evolved, I wanted their love theme to evolve as well. There’s also less frivolousness between the two of them in this film. They’re serious now – they’re tying the knot. So the music had to reflect this, plus the doubt Sue feels.

In X Men 2, you appeal to Beethoven. Here, for the wedding it’s Albinoni, I guess. How did you come to the idea of weaving classical musical into a film score?
Well, sometimes music other than the score can help a scene better than score ever could. In X2, I wanted Magneto to be listening to classical music in his prison cell. There were some long sequences that would be silly to score. Yet the scenes felt a little dead and less ironic without some music echoing throughout the cell. It also comments on his character too - that he listens to classical music. Then when he attacks the guard, the score comes in. If the entire scene had been scored all the way through up to this point, then the initial attack on the guard would not have had nearly the effect it did. It’s good not to “blow your wad”, as it were, until necessary.
Other times, in rare instances, classical music can be blended with the score depending on myriad of situations, such as the white house attack in the opening of X2, where I adapted Mozart’s Requiem to make the action scene less cookie-cutter and more unique – with an added sense of gravity to it.

What do you think about the relation between concert music and film score?
What are you favorite classical composers? Do you owe them that wonderful complexity of your scores in action scenes?
Well film music is sort of the modern way of being commissioned to write music that’s often orchestral. Concert music in its day was also commissioned, often with rules by which the composer had to adhere. The “rules” with film music are far more confining, far more political, and it’s way more of a science. And with film music, the number one priority is to serve the film. If that means an uninteresting drone somehow just makes the scene happen wonderfully, then anything beyond that could be the composer’s ego getting in the way. It’s hilarious how scores are often judged based upon the CDs. The music may sound great on the CD, but it could have been terrible on the film. The opposite case is that a boring cue on a CD may have worked miracles on the scene in an inspired way. That’s the science, art and obligation of film music. It’s a whole different animal. A film composer is an artist, but in ways one may not expect. Hans Zimmer put it best in an interview recently, saying that a good film composer is a filmmaker first, and a composer second. It’s true. I think sometimes when the inner composer gets too much in the way of the inner filmmaker, the effectiveness and poignancy of a score can suffer. It depends on the film. But it happens. The best scenario occurs when the music is both effective on the film and away from the film. I always endeavor to do that and create good compositions. But it’s not always possible. The film must come first. That’s what we’re hired for.

How did you treat the evolution of the four main characters? Take you distance or enhancing their emotions?
Well the four main characters in Silver Surfer really didn’t go through any evolutions that the music could comment on except the deeper love theme between Sue and Reed. Doom had the most changes musically. When he reappears he’s sort of in this mischievous and less malevolent state. So much of the film is dialog that I had to keep the underscore going to support these scenes and keep them interesting. It was a challenge because the music needed to provide these dialog scenes with energy, but without feeling too busy and getting in the way. But drony stuff would just make the scenes drag. So I devised a sort of quirky “up-to-no-good” motif for Doom with periodic tremelo string lines, woodwind clusters, electric piano, synth pulses, and a guiro. It was painstaking light orchestrations, but this music also served to convey his suspicious state before he resumes his full-fledged Dr. Doom persona again. When this happens, I pulled out the Dr. Doom theme and pushed it a little further than the first film, yet definitely a reprisal.

Will there be a third opus? Would you like to be part of it?
I have no idea if they’re doing one. Of course, I’d always want to be part of a world that I was involved with from the beginning. You sort of feel an ownership of it, and besides, I hate when there is no congruity between scores of franchises. It just drives me crazy.

PROJECTS

Can you tell me a little about The Invasion?

Invasion would be one of those examples where the music had to completely serve the film and actually purposely be less thematic than one might wish. We found that by being too lyrical, it made the scenes cheesier. So the concept was to use the score as a device to keep the world of the film unsettling and offbeat. It was a fun score to do because all the synth design work was a change of pace for me. That can be very time consuming to research and construct the textures. There is also a motif for the mother and son in the film, but it too is really just a sort of ambivalent chord. The idea was to imply a sort of tragedy to their relationship from the onset, yet it also had to simultaneously imply Carol's love for her son. Ollie is immune to the virus and could hold the key to stopping the snatchers. So Carol knows that by saving him from them, she may be selfishly sacrificing the world from being a better place. The result is a dark repeating ambivalent chord for the two of them that, in an odd way, takes on either a sympathetic or depressing tone depending on the context of the scene. In the end of "Final Escape" the chords are played one final time – continuing the ambivalence as to whether their escape is good or not. Just a couple days before recording the score, an animated ending title sequence depicting viruses invading cells was added. Since there was no main theme to the film per say, I decided to try something a little off-the-wall. I began with a strange little melody on an electric piano and just started playing with it by adding both synthetic and orchestral rhythmic accompaniments. In the end, I wasn't sure what the heck I had created, but somehow it put a smile on my face – as if it were a little ditty for the cells. It's definitely not what you might expect over such a sequence, so that in itself, excited me.

And what about you others projects (Walkyrie, Logan's Run & The Avengers)
I’m in Berlin right now in editing jail doing Valkyrie. Then we go back to LA in mid October and continue constructing the film. It’s a complicated film editorially – written by the screenwriter of Usual Suspects. We’re all back again doing this film – a sort of thriller set around the assassination attempt on Hitler. It’s paying heavy detail to the actual historical events and people involved. But it’s also a thriller in a way. It has to play both sides – being a historical drama and being suspenseful we hope at the same time. Everyone knows the ultimate outcome, so we just have to make it an interesting film to watch. I will record the score sometime in March I think. As usual on these projects where I’m also the editor, I am never sure how to find the time to write the score. We’re thinking more an eclectic approach for the music, but it’s way too early to tell. I don’t temp with any music as I cut.

Avengers sounds like a lot of fun. I’d love to do it. Who knows? But the listing is an error on IMDB. Was a surprise to me!

And Logan’s Run has been on hold for some time now. No one knows if it will ever go or not.

Please may you confirm us you will be part of Superman The Man of Steel?
If and when it goes, I’m sure I’ll be on board, yes. We’ll all be tired after Valkyrie, so it’s ok with me if Bryan takes his time getting to it!

For a new project, if you could choose you a genre, a kind of story and a filmmaker, what would it be?
Something with character redemption – something very emotional and inspiring to people – Like Chariots of Fire was in its day. Or even like a Billy Elliot kind of story – Personal triumph stories I guess I’m trying to say. Any filmmaker who trusts the film composer and lets the creative process happen is the kind I love to work with.

Among all your scores what are the ones you like the most?
Usually my favorites are tragically ones very few people have heard. It’s well known that my score for Incognito is, for me, one of my best moments. And little personal/quirky things like Pumpkin and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for sure. I had a blast on that film – a great film – and I think you can hear it in the music.

Among the Four Fantastics, who is your favorite and why?
Hmm, that would be Johnny because – well – I mean he’s just the best isn’t he?

TRACK LIST

1 Silver Surfer Theme
2 Galactus Destroys/Opening
3 Pursuing Doom
4 Wedding Day Jitters
5 Chasing the Surfer
6 Camp Testosterone/Meeting the
7 A Little Persuasion
8 Botched Heroics
9 Someone I Once Knew
10 The Future/Doom’s Deal
11 Sibling Switch
12 Outside Help
13 Springing the Surfer
14 Doom’s Double Cross
15 Mr. Sherman / Under the Radar
16 Four in One
17 Silver Savior/Aftermath
18 Gunshot Wedding
19 Noren Radd