The
Other Half of the Experience
An
Interview with David Helpling
by
Anup Sugunan
David Helpling is an up and coming composer who
mixes electronica with human emotion to bring out the best
feeling for a visual scene.
In
addition to that, he has released two CDs, which have garnered
him critical notoriety, composed music for many television
shows and commercials and he is doing quite well for himself.
I had a chance to chat with David about the side of filmmaking
that too many people don't even give a second thought -
the music. |
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Filmmaker
Interviews: How would you classify your musical style? New Age?
David
Helpling: New Age is a bad term, as we all know. Words like ambient,
atmospheric, cinematic, apply much better.
FI:
Is there a category at Tower Records for this genre?
DH:
You go into the New Age bin and it's separated into ambient/atmospheric
versus all the flutes-in-the-forest new age stuff, (which is what
I'm way not into). So, yeah, there's a place.
FI:
Maybe you can help me clarify the difference between: techno,
deep house, electronica, ambient, etc…
DH:
Well, the term ambient in music describes two different schools:
ambient in my world has nothing to with dance music; it's just
ambient. It's like taking a pop song and removing most of the
drums, vocals and foreground elements leaving all the other really
cool other stuff exposed, that's sort of the contrast of ambient.
It's a place, it's atmospheric - there's music throughout, but
it's not so percussive, so hitting, and a lot of the sounds are
really legato. It's really deep.
But
when you go into electronica, there are thirty genres: there's
goa, then there's drum 'n bass, then there's the NY drum 'n bass,
underground London drum 'n bass, hip-hop, deep house, ambient
dub (which is not really ambient) it's just another small little
slice of the electronica pie. There's a ton of different labels
and sub genres, which come and go all the time. All those categories
are really there for the artists themselves to have fun with it.
'Cause when you go into the electronica section, you don't see
all that. You go into electronica and Fatboy Slim right next to
Crystal Method and Orbital.
FI:
How did you transition from writing individual songs and commercial
spots over into scoring films?
DH:
It was an accident. In my work, my day-job, which was designing
recording studios and selling music gear, one of my clients worked
at a big production company and I set up their post-production
suite for them. He had my CD and knew my sound and all that. He
was hired to score this cheesy B movie, straight to video, HBO
type of thing. He was feeling overwhelmed and asked me how I'd
feel about co-scoring it with him. Boom! That's it. That's all
I've ever wanted to do, is score films. Being an artist and putting
out ambient CDs or whatever is fulfilling but doesn't pay the
rent. It's more of personal expression thing that happened to
take off and do really well. Most of the discs are still doing
really well; I'm still amazed that there are people out there
freakin' about it. Anyway, I just got dropped into that score.
That was my first official, paid, scoring gig.
FI:
How many have you done in total?
DH:
If you count all forms of media, I don't know? gazillions. As
far as films, I've only done four or five of these indie films.
I started scoring shorts, television commercials and corporate
projects, (which were really art-driven). I've been doing it full
time for five years. I write a lot for media in general. CD-ROMs,
web-stuff, and really spacey intro phrases and stuff like that,
but I don't even consider myself a film-composer.
It's like calling yourself a "filmmaker"; you just can't call
yourself a filmmaker!
Filmmaker is big
term. You can be a director, you can be a DP [Director
of Photography], but a filmmakers, that's a director, writer,
producer, DP, everything. So, I suppose if you make your own short
in your house, you're the filmmaker, right? Because you didn't
have a crew. [Laughs] It's pretty scary.
FI: Now, how do you get into the mindset? There's a big composer
in India named A.R. Rahman, have you heard of him? Well, he's
really good, but some of the directors are apprehensive to work
with him, because he has to go into a meditative phase and changes
his whole mindset in preparation for a movie. So, how do you prepare
to get ready to score a film?
DH:
No, I haven't heard of him, but I think what he does is really
great. On how I prepare, it depends. On some films you're really
inside and you're really deeply involved in what the characters
do and you're hired to not only score the film, but to do a lot
of storytelling with the music. In that case, you spend a lot
of time with the director and you really get behind each of the
characters. You can look at the script and you can watch the film.
What's going on with this person? What's happening in his mind?
There are a lot of transformations taking place. There are a lot
of emotional issues that are being discovered, a lot of spiritual
things taking place.
When
there's storytelling like, you need to be just like an actor,
director, or writer, and get inside the character. I want to know
what's really happening. What does the music need to do? What
story does it need to tell? We have this girl at a bus stop, sitting
on the bench all by herself. The camera pans down and she clutching
onto this backpack full of cash and she's looking down at it.
Then she loosens her grip and pushes it away on the bench. What's
happening? Is she happy? Is there a big transformation coming
over her where she's making a decision to do the right thing?
Is there fear? Is she cocky, full of power and ready to take off?
There's a lot of storytelling there and the only person who truly
knows what's going on is the director. You sit down with him and
he says OK, this is what's happening inside the character; this
is what she's thinking about; this is what she's feeling; these
are all of her external pressures. That's what's happening in
the scene and at that point, instead of looking at it from the
outside with the typical things: there's the girl on the bench.
Now, she's putting the money down. If you score that, what's the
point? Why have the music tell people what they are already seeing?
There's
a lot of music like that and there's nothing wrong with it, but
it's sort of overdone. You're just scoring the obvious. Instead,
tell me something more. Tell me something deeper. If you're reading
a book, you get a lot more, right? So, the music has to help the
film hold up to that experience. You have to score from inside
the character looking out. So, now you are the girl sitting on
the bench. As you're sitting there, as the car drives by, and
the sun hitting your face, what are you thinking? What are you
feeling? What's moving you to make that decision? Then, you can
write appropriate music.
FI: I just read an article about another film composer who
gets called in at the end, in post-production. At what stage of
the filmmaking process does the director get involved with you?
DH:
It varies. The standard Hollywood thing is: the music is the last
thing. Unless, there's somewhat of a free-score, which almost
never happens, the film has to be cut. The reels have to be cut
in order for the composer to start working; maybe they haven't
done all the ADR
[Automatic Dialogue Replacement] yet. Maybe the foley is not done. But, all the scenes are edited
and they're locked together in a timeline and at that time, you
may have three weeks to score a film. You may have two months
to score a film. A lot of times, you get certain directors, especially
the big ones who have their own budgets and schedules, and they
may bring the composer in at the onset of production. Which is
really cool. James Newton Howard (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable)
works that way.
FI: So you get a chance to workout to relive the stress?
DH:
No time for working out with all of this and a family. Your priority
completely changes.
FI: Since you work from your home, does your daughter come
into the studio and keep you company?
DH:
No, she's not really allowed in the studio while I'm working,
because she's always pressing buttons, she's in that state of
"what's that? What's that?" If she's in there I can't work. I
pay attention to her, cause I just love her. If I'm working, I
need to focus on work. She'll come to the door [makes knocking
sound on table], "Daaaaaad!" Then I'll open the door, she looks
at me, and she wants a hug or whatever. You can't resist. It's
hard. I really want to get my studio out of the house. You're
always at home; it's so easy to just hang out. My daughter and
wife are there. I would love to go nine-to-five somewhere where
I can focus and be that guy. Then come home and be dad, hang out,
go to the movies, but it's hard with rent and everything. Especially
living in San Diego. You'd want to have a house with some decent
space… someday…
FI: Going back to working with the director. Many directors
are not musicians, so they have no idea about music whatsoever.
They'll say things like, "I want it to sound kind of green or
I want it to sound blue" or something crazy like that. What do
you do?
DH: Luckily, every
one I've worked with so far has been really detailed and direct
about the raw emotion they're trying to express. Every once in
a while, you get a director or somebody who really knows music
and that's almost a problem, because the music doesn't even exist
yet. It's much easier when the director says; "This is the emotion
I'm looking for. This is the story that we have to tell. This
is the feel that I want." Sometimes you'll get a director who
says, "I want something like this." Then he'll start talking about
instrumentation and all that. That's cool, yeah, I can use a mandolin
if that's what you want, but what's the story? Usually, if the
director can really express the emotions that he's trying to get
across, and if you're a good composer, (I'm getting there), you
can really nail it.
FI: You're pretty much self-taught, right? I read on your website
that you just learned by playing around with digital signal processing
gadgets and…
DH:
Yeah, I tried. I took five semesters of basic music and music
theory. Basically it's totally the opposite of how I think about
music. I aced all the courses and everything and I still can't
read a note of sheet music to save my life. It's like math; like
turning something I've known all my life into this thing that's
black and white with boxes and lines… I can't do it. It would
probably take me five or six years to change my thinking. Then
I don't think my music would be as genuine or spontaneous. Yeah,
it was pretty evil!
FI: How do you start your writing process?
DH:
You do a lot of stuff in your head. I'll be looking at a scene
and I'll have my notes and I'll know what I'm supposed to be seeing.
I'll get ideas in my head or a sound or space. Then I'll get a
palette of sounds that I'll think would work. Then I lay my hands
on the keyboard and start playing chords or a melody. Sometimes
I sit at the piano in the studio. I might just sit there for three
hours and just go through ideas that suck until I find something
that I feel might work. Then you take it back and put it in the
picture. Maybe it doesn't work. Maybe it works by itself as a
beautiful piece of music, but when you put it against the picture
and it makes no sense or is inappropriate.
FI: So, you do this in your head? That's the ultimate dream
of a musician: getting exactly what you hear in your head to out
there.
DH:
Yeah, and that's really hard. I sit down and start playing this
sequence of chords that's incredible, but I can't repeat it. I
forget them as I play them.
FI: So why don't you sequence it in?
DH:
I have a MiniDisk sitting on top of the grand piano while I'm
playing ideas, which records everything. Then I'll say, "Oh! That's
it!" Then I'll remember part of it, or I might not capture the
feel or there might be one note or inversion that would be really
cool. You go back and capture that. You figure it out. You channel
the theme, and then it come right out of you and then you learn
it. Because when you played it, it was subconscious. Then you
learn it and now it's a tangible thing; you mold it; you work
with instrumentation; or you're playing parts. Then that's it!
Without getting into all the details, that's pretty much how it's
done for me.
FI: Who are some of your favorite composers and why?
DH:
Oh man. James Newton Howard is a classic favorite. He pulls
so much emotion out of everything he has done. He also works a
lot; he's done some films that aren't his best work. When you
get a guy that does that much work, probably about eighty percent
of his stuff is going to be OK. Twenty percent is going to be
really cool.
FI: What are some of your favorite soundtracks right now?
DH: Grand Canyon
probably takes the cake. Recently, a movie that a lot of people
didn't see, but had a great score was Dinosaur - the Disney
animated CGI movie. It's killer! Both of the Shyamalan scores
(Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) are really cool because
they're super ambient; really purposeful; not over the top; really
emotional and simple. He's sort of a minimalist. I've listened
to his stuff for so long, he'll do certain things that are isms.
Oh that's a James Newton Howard thing.
I
love Danny
Elfman. He is in a world all his own. He does the gothic/romantic
thing extremely well. He is also working a lot. He's not just
working with Tim Burton. He did Men in Black, which was
pretty bad, but he's the man. You got to love him, he's great.
Marco
Beltrami is incredible. He is mostly a suspense, a dark guy.
He did Mimic, all the Scream movies. Mark Isham:
he sort of hangs out with Patrick O'Hearn and the other ambient
artist circle; David Torn, David Sylvian. He's got a jazz trumpet
background, but he has scored anything from Blade to A
River Runs Through It. James Horner
is the man, but he's sort of pop - did Abyss and Titanic.
He's good, but he's really pop. I don't think he goes as deep
as I'd like some composers to do.
FI: Did you see The Firm? It was basically just piano
in the score and it was done so well. Have you thought about getting
away from the whole electronica and just doing it with the grand
piano?
DH:
Even with electronica, with the film I'm scoring now, there are
two main themes for two of the characters. One piece is solo electric
guitar and the other thing is solo piano. So, I already do a lot
of minimalist, simple themes. It's not really popular unless it's
a big-budgeted film to do big, produced, orchestrated, half-electronic,
half-orchestral stuff. It isn't cool. When you listen to what's
going on, you have piano, strings, and oboe and that's it. The
more music you can state with less instruments, the more impact
it has on people. For certain things it's not going to work like
action movies like X-men or whatever. [Laughs.]
FI: So, what's your background as far as how you got started
in music?
DH:
I had a piano in the house while I was growing up. I was fascinated
with intervals and plucking stuff out. I think in 1980, when U2's
first album came out, is when it grabbed my attention. That's
when I started becoming self-aware as a human being and realized
I had choices to do what I want... to listen to music. I was on
the quest for that droning guitar sound. So that took about five
years.
FI: Are your parents musicians?
DH:
No, not at all. There was piano in the house. I guess you were
supposed to have a piano if you had a family so kids could take
piano lessons. My sister got lessons, but I didn't. I was the
one who wanted lessons, of course I never told them that. Then
they had my sister take lessons and she hated it, so they said,
"Forget it! No lessons for the kids." It was probably better off.
I was in sixth grade in 1980 when U2's album first came out. I
went out and bought the record then I had about fifty bucks saved
up and I bought my first electric guitar. Then I started buying
[the equipment] in little pieces. I got into delay big time and
sort of built up from there. I was making ambient guitar music
before I did anything else. I was doing that very early on. I
made cassettes of midnight tweaks.
FI: Are you happy with the Macintosh system for your work environment?
What's your software for the process?
DH:
Yeah, I'm 100 percent Mac. I won't go back to PC even they paid
me. I find Digital Performer more music-oriented than ProTools,
which is more for post [production] for film. Digital Performer is very
art-oriented. It's really cool.
FI: What's the difference? They both have tracks for recording
both audio and midi.
DH:
Digital Performer is midi centric with really, really high end
recording capabilities. The layout, the approach, the tools and
are all about manipulating the audio and the music. Also, synchronizing
picture to music super quick. For $1500, you can get into an entire
recording and midi system. Whereas, Pro Tools would be about $20,000
and it does the same stuff. Now that the G4s are out, you have
enough processing power to express yourself. Macs are the artists'
computer; that's what they're made for… but whatever, it's just
flavors. If you feel comfortable in a PC and it all works, stay
there. You have to embrace what you're using and love it and be
the master of it.
FI: Which software system do you recommend for the PC platform?
DH:
I don't know. I don't like Cubase or Cakewalk. I've had issues
with all of them. Maybe that's why I'm Mac.
A lot of filmmakers put aside only a small portion of the budget
for scoring.
Music
ten percent of the budget, but it's half the experience.
FI: Do you find that with a lot of the filmmakers with whom
you work? Is it more prevalent in indie projects?
DH:
Most of the corporate projects are like that. "Oh we need music
and sound effects?" Oh, we have $2000 left, let's just find someone
and have them to do it. With indie films, usually you're dealing
with people that understand film. A big part of the film and a
big part of post is sound. I think it's half the deal. If a guy
is walking down an alley and there are no footsteps, sirens in
the background, and wind blowing pieces of paper around - all
those sounds have to be there for you to believe that it's real.
I think every filmmaker knows that. I've been fortunate enough
to deal with people that realize that you're the composer and
understand the craft. So, that's kind of nice.
The
film I'm scoring was shot and cut then they hired someone to score
it. The director wasn't happy with his work so he had an audition
between seven or eight different composers score one scene. So,
they sent me a VHS dub went with temp sound and they explained
to me on one piece of paper what was happening and what they were
looking for. I scored it. I sent it to him. They all watched it
at Sony with the different music cues and out of the seven or
eight composers, I got the gig! I got lucky. I don't know how
that happened, most of the other composers were better and probably
had more experience. I think it was mainly a matter of connecting
with the director's desires.
FI: Do you have any desire to work in the mainstream, big-budget
studio houses?
DH:
No, I'm scared to death of doing a big film. Especially because
I don't read, so I'm already one those guys… one of those guys
with a computer and a sampler. "Anyone can score a film with a
computer!"…that whole mindset. There's a lot of fear for me there.
I think when it comes down to it, an artist is an artist. So,
if this artist has a connection with the director all other things
are secondary. I know I can score any big film if I applied myself
and had the time to really do it. So, if it happened, I could
do it, but I'm so afraid if it were to happen. It's scary. If
you score a film and the music gets thrown out, it's probably
hard to get work again. I think it's just my own issues. We'll
see what happens.
FI: What about the composers who have made it, but still go
back to Indies because they have more control? They don't have
some studio exec, not even the director, breathing over their
necks.
DH:
I don't think it is control as much as it is freedom that attracts
a composer to indie films. You don't really have control, but
you do have freedom with an independent film.
FI: How was it making the trailer music for our website?
DH:
Doing that little, thirty-second trailer for your film festival
was so difficult. A trailer for a film is two, three minutes.
I came up with some cool stuff that never made it, because there
was no way I could extract that idea in thirty seconds. It takes
thirty seconds to get to the point, or to get a sexy intro and
to really grab people. It ended up being bam bam bam beats all
the way through. I got to sneak in one actual chord progression
in the middle and that was it. It was kind of a bummer.
FI: Have you done any scoring for the web?
DH:
Yes, I just did the music for the new Four
Square website, then I did the San Diego Chargers new interactive
theme and DW-40's latest. It's cool, I like it. However, it's
a bummer how lo-fi the music gets on the web. No matter what you
do, it's not going to sound like real music - it's just a compressed
little thing.
FI: So, do you plan for that by not using certain sounds?
DH:
No, not really. You just write it so that if you use it for something
else, it still sounds cool. Once it's done, you just have to be
ready to hear a restrained, tiny version… It's like shooting your
documentary in DV and it's going to the web as a QuickTime video
with pixilated blocks on everything. It's pretty difficult.
Hopefully soon, broadband will get broader.
It's
going to happen. In Final Fantasy, the whole virtual idea...
I think that movie has crossed the line, which no one has been
able to cross. I mean, it's not perfect but it's pretty close.
The movie was extremely artful, the idea, the story, the visuals,
the way things are happening. It was really deep. It was like
an ambient film - the washed out landscape.
FI: Did you like the storyline?
DH:
I thought it was great. If you're Christian, you're going to have
issues with it... The whole Gaia thing.
Also,
my number two favorite composer, Elliot Goldenthal scored that film. That score was
awesome. The whole score is up there with any of the Star Wars
films. When you listen to it, it almost distracts you because
it was too cool for an animated film.
The
score was incredible. Elliot is incredible. He also scored the
third Alien film, which was also directed by [David
Fincher], who also directed some of Madonna's videos. It was
his first film, which was my favorite. Most people hated it because
it was art. He also did Interview with a Vampire at about
the same time. They had similar sounds.
FI: How do you like the John Williams soundtracks?
DH:
Mr. Theme! Yeah, those scores are cool. You can't resist the Emperor's
Theme from Star Wars! That's not where I want to go though. It's
not what I'm about. I'm more on the [James Newton] Howard-side
where I'm not into big and bold expressions as I am into really
sensual and personal themes that are more on the romantic side
of things. Hopefully, I'll get to the point where I get hired
for my sound, not just because I was friends with the director
or whatever and they want me to score circus music.
A
lot of times I just get hired because I'm the composer and they
expect me to do everything. I do the music for DirecTV Sports;
the Production Company called me up and said they wanted a big
college fight song - a marching band theme thing. They wanted
me to record it like a real marching band with horns. Oh my goodness,
it was my worst nightmare, it didn't appeal to me at all. Most
people wouldn't sit down and listen to marching band music and
get stoked about it.
FI: What? Like a Rocky kind of thing?
DH:
Sort of, but almost like a military fight songs and all that Popeye
stuff.
FI: So did you do it?
DH:
Oh yeah! I gotta pay the rent. That's how I make my living, unfortunately.
I hated it the whole time and it was really difficult. On the
technical side, when I'm not a composer, I'm an engineer, sound-designer,
and a sample-ist. However, I made it sound real and it sounded
great, but I don't want to hear it again. Be gone! [Laughs]
FI: Have you ever done a live recording with an orchestra,
choir, or a band?
DH:
Yeah, but not orchestra. I've worked with a lot of artists after
I've done the main parts on piano and guitar. I work with vocalists,
violinists, harpists etc. where I'll record one thing at a time.
I'll do the best job I can on a really good midi score and then
bring a soloist to play violin or something on top of the theme.
That's where I am right now.
I
do a lot of things with phrases; it has sort of becomes a style
and a standard approach for my ambient stuff. On guitar, I'll
come up with a really cool phrase and record it and then sample
it. Now with that, I can slide it around, drop it down an octave,
turn it backwards, I can repeat it, and I can process it differently.
That's a really fun way to work for me. I have this vocalist I
work with who had this beautiful little phrase. I wrote [melodies]
around it with the keyboard; I had the same phrase repeated with
different chords around it. I'm into that. That sort of slides
into the techno style of writing. That's really fun. I can do
that stuff all day long.
I've
been doing some sound design too on the side for extra money.
I'm recording voice talent and narration at my place, taking that
with my music score and doing a final mix to video for corporate
clients. It's fun to do those gigs because there's no pressure.
Record a voice-over, edit it, and make it sound like a million
bucks. There's no art; it's black and white. Here's what you do,
you do it and get paid. It's not like music where there's a blank
canvas and you have to do something that will blow people away.
There's a lot of pressure there.
FI: What kind of advice would you give a beginning film composer?
Scoring a film is totally different from writing a song. A song
is five minutes and then it's over. Whereas, scoring takes on
a whole different approach.
DH:
Scoring a film is totally different from writing a song. A song
is five minutes and then it's over. Whereas, scoring takes on
a whole different approach. Sometimes you do a cue that's ten
seconds long. My only advice would be to watch a lot of movies
and understand the art form. Understand what works and understand
what doesn't. Also, [figure out] why it doesn't work. Then practice.
Take movies or TV stuff and write your own score for it.
To
me, being a composer is a natural thing that happens. Certain
musicians are born to be composers - their music is already extremely
emotional, thematic and trying to express ideas by itself. That
kind of composition really lends itself to film cause you're really
expressing emotion through a mostly misunderstood phenomenon…music.
It's pretty unbelievable. Things you can't describe with any words
or adjectives or pictures, music can do, especially about human
conditions.
FI: George Lucas says that sound is fifty percent of the movie-going
experience.
DH:
It is!
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