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Filmmaker Interviews: I read other interviews of you on the net… Don Davis: Oh Yeah? FI: …yeah, and I don’t want to repeat the same thing over and over. Plus it’s probably boring for you as well. DD: Thank God! FI: I want this interview geared towards first-time filmmakers and independent filmmakers who are dying for knowledge. There’s just not enough quality knowledge on the web. DD: So what are you looking at me for? [Laughs] FI: Because you’ve had this incredible career that has spanned over twenty years. What was your first project? Hart to Hart? DD: Actually, my first job was orchestrating on the Incredible Hulk. FI: Wow, that was one of my favorite shows. How did you get that job? DD: I was studying orchestration and composition and conducting from this guy named Albert Harris, who was a friend of the composer on the show and he made the introduction. The composer was Joe Harnell and we kind of hit it off and that’s how that worked.
FI: So that was before Hart to Hart. DD: Oh yeah, quite a while before Hart to Hart. That was ’79 and I got started working on Hart to Hart in ’83. FI: What was your mindset when you were first approached by that? DD: Well, I was ecstatic, of course. I had to pretty quickly acclimate myself to what the situation was - I was orchestrating for another composer, which is not what I was necessarily preparing myself for when I was studying. Because, as an orchestrator you’re serving another composer and making his ideas as clear as possible rather than imposing my personality onto something, which can be a big mistake. It’s not really doing the right job. I guess the first lesson I learned, which is the most important lesson in the music business, which is to figure out what are the parameters of a particular job. That’s probably the hardest part of any job. FI: In what sense? Can you elaborate on that? DD: Even now, when I’m working on a film, I have to figure out who is calling the shots. Usually, it’s the director who is determining the function of the music in the picture, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes the director has been removed from the project, either literally or figuratively. In that case, you have to determine who is really making the choices that are going to stick and what those choices are going to be. So, the important thing is to always figure out what your function is as a composer when you’re working on a film. FI: I just read in another article that you did some prescore for Matrix Reloaded, so they could shoot to it. That just seems really difficult from a director's point of view, because shooting just seems so abstract in terms of time. DD: The reason one does prescores is because the people on-screen are either singing or moving to music. So, in order to do that, the music has to exist prior to the shooting, which is the case in Reloaded. [Spoiler Alert] It takes place in Zion, in a primitive sequence. The people of Zion are playing percussive instruments and dancing to them. They shot that in Alameda with 900 extras doing the dancing. It was a pretty complicated situation, although the music itself was fairly simplistic. It is a dancing, percussive type of music. I’m not sure at this point whether they’re going to use my prescore or whether some sort of dance mix is going to go on there. I’m not exactly sure what the concept is for that and I don’t think I’ll know for sure yet what the concept is until they finish shooting and then I’ll sit down with the directors and decide who it’s going to work with the footage they shot. FI: Speaking of dealing with actors, do you ever care to know what the backstory is for a character? [Backstory is something that is not seen or even written in the script. The actor will usually come up with history for the character before the timeline of the movie begins. This helps the actor become more personal with the character he or she is playing.] DD: No…[laughs], I’ve never been apprised to the backstory of a character. FI: I know that production designers are just as interested in the backstory as are the actors. Of course, they have to be in order to set up the room or what have you… DD: No, usually the director will just tell me what’s going on with this character and that’s enough of a backstory. No, I’m not formally informed of what an actor has prepared over and above what has appeared on the screen. FI: So there’s no need for interaction with the actors. DD: I’ve never had any, but if that would be an interesting addition to my technique base is another question. I hadn’t thought of that.
FI: Do they edit your music for use on the DVD menu page? DD: They didn’t come to me for that. I think that particular piece of music is from the trailer which I think is Enigma, although I’m not sure about that. I’m pretty sure what appears on the menu is not my music, but I don’t quite remember. FI: What do you think about when you’re scoring the music for the production companies’ logos, like Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow? Because that seems like something you don’t even think about in terms of making the movie because it’s not on the script or discussed often. DD: That’s the first decision that’s made in the spotting session is whether the logos have music. Because if you work at Fox, it has that 20th Century Fox music, the Alfred Newman fanfare. That is so good, that nobody wants to step on it. I’m not sure that they can either because sometimes there are legal ramifications as to what needs to be shown on the logo and what doesn’t. I like to score the logos, to be perfectly honest, because that pulls the audience into the movie or at least it does for me. FI: Yeah, for me too. DD: Right. I’m particularly jarred, as an audience member, when there’s no piece of music over the logo. I’m usually sitting there looking around, getting ready to throw a rock at the projection window to tell the projectionist to turn the sound on. The Universal logo has music on it; I believe Jerry Goldsmith wrote it. In the case of Jurassic Park 3, we all wanted to score the Universal logo as part of the underscore, but we needed to make sure that we could legally. So we had to make that determination. Also, at the time you might be spotting a movie, it’s not always determined how many logos there are going to be. We knew in the Matrix that there was going to be a Warner Brothers logo and a Village Roadshow logo, but we weren’t sure if there was going to be a Joel Silver logo or not or things like that. I like to score the logo, because it’s the first image that comes up on the screen, and it pulls you into what is the energy level of the picture. FI: I like it when they play around visually with the logos as well. Like in Raiders of the Lost Arc, where they dissolve the Paramount mountain into the opening shot. DD: Yeah, that was cool. In Matrix, I think they futzed around with the Warner Brothers logo too. They have a couple of them and this was the old-style one and it’s in sepia tones and they did something to it. I think that was one the of the first times that they used that logo at WB. The official music that goes on it is that song from Casablanca, “As time goes by”. I don’t know if that really works for me. Logos are an interesting subject; they go through a lot of changes. Like the Fox logo that we talked about, it is absolutely classic and has become synonymous with the film-going experience.
FI: Continuing on with the timeline of filmmaking, when do you come onboard compared to when the cast is hired, etc. DD: It depends on the project of course. On Matrix, fortunately for myself, I was brought in very early. In fact, literally when they [Directors, The Wachowski Brothers] finished Bound, they started to talk to me about it. They showed me some storyboards and that sort of thing. Essentially what’s done, unless there’s a significant amount of prescoring, usually you might have some conversations with the director about the approach; you might read the script. Every once in a while you might drop by the set. Although, I always feel like a bull in a China shop when I do that because everybody is so busy and they have so much at stake and I’m just standing around and saying, “Hey, how’ya doin’!” [Laughs] FI: At least they let you on the set, unlike some writers. DD: They know that, unlike the writer, the composer is not going to stop the shoot to say, “Wait! I didn’t write that!” In general, there’s not a whole lot to do until something is cut together. Sometimes, composers aren’t even hired until they have a first cut. Once there’s something to look at and there’s an established pace and approach, then there’s something to talk about musically. FI: So, do you think that it’s even harder to be brought in earlier? Or do you just have more time to think? DD: It’s nice to be brought in early so you can begin to knock out ideas. Composers write music to image, they don’t write music to script. I've heard of instances, for example where Jerry Goldsmith was asked to write a score from script and then they would shoot to that or some such thing. At first he was all excited, but when it came down to it, they made him redo it. [Laughs] So, there’s much that passes between the cup and the lips. When you read the script, you’re reading descriptions and then you read dialog. I sure didn’t know what the Matrix was like by reading the script. I had no idea what stylistic nuances the directors were going to bring based on what was written on the page. I had seen some storyboards and they were impressive, but until it’s coming at you, it’s all in the director’s mind. So, I've found that doing a lot of premature workings-out of material is often in vain because it will be tossed out once you see what they’ve really got.
FI: You mentioned that you will be working more closely with Jason Bentley, the music supervisor who will be dealing with all the artists. Would you do any sort of remixes with the artists like Rob Zombie? DD: I wouldn’t specifically be doing that. I would be providing material for someone else to be doing that. There has been some discussion of that, but I don’t know if it will come to fruition or not. I think it would make for an interesting approach to the pop music in the picture. I don’t know if it has been done before where elements of the score ended up in the dance-mix, which has ended up in the picture as well. I think that would be really exciting. FI: Angelo Badalamenti from Twin Peaks co-wrote a song with Anthrax called Black Lodge. The song was based on Laura Palmer. It sounded great because it juxtaposed the deep, tremolo guitar with the heavy sound of the band. It was a great mix. So, it would be great if you could do something with Rob Zombie or whoever would be the equivalent on the next Matrix. DD: The thing is, with Larry, Andy in Sydney shooting, they’re very, very busy. It’s an intense shoot. So, not a whole lot can get done without discussing stuff with them, because they have the final say. They have specific ideas that they don’t necessarily let on about until there’s a need to know. [Laughs] So, Jason and I have been discussing a few things in anticipation of seeing the cut when the brothers return. But until we can really sit down with Larry and Andy and hammer these things out, it’s just kind of preparatory stuff. FI: When you’re doing a sequel where the first one did really well, you’ve proven yourself with these guys and everything worked really well. Is it like starting something new? Do you do the renegotiations for the second picture or does it take off from where the first picture left off? DD: When you say negotiations, do you mean the negotiation for my deal? FI: Yes. DD: That was all done between my agent and the music department of WB. I think the producers had some kind of paradigm as to what they were willing to pay and what they weren’t. I know my negotiations never entered any problems; it was pretty cut and dry. There are some other aspects that weren’t. I think the cast in particular saw a big leap in pay from the first to second Matrix. That created quite a few problems. These pictures are very, very costly, mainly because of the visual effects. So, as the above the line costs became astronomical, it almost jeopardized the whole project. To answer your question, my negotiations were actually straightforward. FI: What about the scoring aspect for the sequel? DD: In terms of approaching the picture, I haven’t really begun work yet, so I can’t answer that question with much real insight. Although any ideas that I have now, or that I’ll be able to escape scot-free by just resting on the laurels of the first picture are going to be dashed rather quickly. These are very ambitious projects and they are going to require some ambitious work on everybody’s part to make it happen. FI: What are your thoughts on the soundtrack for independent films? It seems like it’s lacking compared to mainstream films. DD:
I’m not necessarily sure I agree with that. I think probably
what you’re perceiving is that they don’t have a whole
lot of money. Which means that they’re done with samplers
and electronics or they’re done with a very small ensemble.
I suspect, a lot of times when I see these movies, and I know
that it was a labor of love for the composer and he did it for
nothing, I notice that they tend to be lightly spotted. [Laughs] The independent films that I’ve worked on, not to be self-serving or anything [laughs]… well they certainly didn’t suffer from not having enough music in them. I mean, Bound had seventy minutes in it, The Unsaid had 60 minutes of music and both of them were done with full-sized orchestras, or at least mid-sized orchestras with 50-60 players. So, it depends on the picture. The thing about independent films, in general, is that they have less studio interference. Also, they’re more sparse in general about their approach about everything. So, that would lend itself to a sparse approach musically. The big independent films of last year, Monster’s Ball and In the Bedroom, were both pretty intimate stories. They didn’t require big music. So, I don’t think anyone was looking at those pictures and saying, “Geez, the music just doesn’t cut it here.” I think the sparseness of both those pictures were part of the overall approach that everyone had.
FI:
Were there any films that stood out for you, where you were thinking,
“Man, I wish I could have scored that.” FI: Which ones did you wish you were a part of? DD: Pretty much most of them. [Laughs] FI: That leads me to the next question... who are your biggest influences? DD: That’s a rough question, because every time I hear something that I like or I think works influences me. FI:
That’s important, because artists are always looking for
influences from the past and they think they can’t
use the younger generation as influences. But in reality, the
new kids could influence you just as well. Am I right? FI: I read in an interview with McCartney or Lennon about how the Beatles were listening to the b-sides of obscure singles. They'll then transform it into something of their own. DD: I think a lot of that kind of innovation comes from people who are actually trying to emulate and they do it poorly. [Laughs] What comes out is their attempt at emulation, but it sounds absolutely new because they failed. [Laughs] FI: What other advice do you have for beginning composers? DD:
I don’t think I’ve given you any advice yet. [Laughs] DD: Technically, prescoring is music that will end up in the final picture - it’s the music to which the actors are singing or dancing. So, prescoring is absolutely not a waste of time. It’s a waste of time to not prescore. I’ve seen a lot of instances where [the directors] will say, “Oh, just let the actors sing something or play something on the piano. We’ll fix it later.” It’s very difficult to make that sync. So, it’s creating a big headache when it could be solved rather simply. That’s why it’s pretty impressive that the Wachowski brothers came to us for prescoring in those scenes, because these are directors who’ve only directed Bound and Matrix. That’s not a huge amount of experience, but they come in and somehow know how to do everything right. That really amazes me. I’ve seen people with years of experience say that they don’t need to prescore. So, I would like to publicly acknowledge Larry and Andy for being so professional. So if I gave the impression that prescoring is a waste of time, it is not. I think what you meant to ask me was if it makes any sense to start writing underscore while looking at the script. FI: Yes, that's what I meant. DD: I wouldn’t say that it was a waste of time, but it seems in more instances than not, it will not end up with music that will show up in the picture. Now, to say that’s a waste of time is not necessarily true. I think any energy that’s put toward a project is not wasted energy. But on the other hand, does it make sense to do that in a whole lot of situations? Not really. FI: In terms of energy, when you go into a new project, do you sometimes think, "This is my 40th film; it’s back to work again." Or do you have the same excitement that you had for the Incredible Hulk! DD: [Laughs] Well, in a way every time you start something it’s like starting over. Which is good in a way, but can also sap your energy if you think about it too hard. So, I try not to think about it too hard. [Laughs] Every situation is new and different and has to be approached in its own particular way. That doesn’t make for comfortable leisurely work, but unfortunately, that’s the way it is.
FI: In terms of this business and the stress that it can put on your family life, did you get married before you were established? DD: I was already working when I got married. FI: So, you were somewhat established? DD: Somewhat… but it was before I did Beauty and the Beast, so I hadn’t really made my own name as a composer at that point. And back then, I was doing more orchestrating than composing. FI: When did you feel like, “Wow, I’ve hit it! I’ve made my mark!” DD: It’s interesting how often that question comes up. I don’t know if anybody ever feels that way. FI: Is that because they’re always worried about how well they are going to perform on the next gig? DD: Well, that’s true… the only real mark of a successful career is when you look back on your career and say, “Hey, I’ve worked a lot.” But that’s not what really goes through your mind as it’s happening. Even the composer that everyone would consider is at the top of the heap, like John Williams, it’s obvious when you listen to his work that he doesn’t blow stuff off. So, it leads me to the conclusion that he hasn’t come to any comfort about what his position is. He still works as hard as he did on his first day of his career. So, I don’t know if that really enters into it, “Boy, I’ve arrived now!” And then what? I haven’t come to that conclusion… that could be because I haven’t arrived. [Laughs] Or it could be that that’s not the conclusion that one comes to. FI: That would make one too complacent, right? DD: I think the day of arrival is the day of retirement, I would imagine. You saw Elmer [Bernstein] sitting on that [Newport Beach Film Festival] panel and I didn’t get an indication from him that he was throwing in the towel. He made a few anecdotes about when he offered to do My Left Foot for free. I don’t know about you, but when I think of myself as having arrived, that would mean having to never say, I’ll do it for free. If anybody has arrived, it’s Elmer. To me, it seems that he hasn’t adopted the mindset of, “Oh, I’ve come to this level and don’t have to do this or that anymore.”
Another thing that he said that was very telling was that when you come to a point where you know what you’re going to do on a project, then you’re in trouble. His implication being, that you’re going to repeat yourself, you’re going to be stale, it’s going to be phoned-in. Those aren’t the words of a composer who feels that he’s arrived and doesn’t have to work anymore. He’s been doing it longer than anybody and better than anybody. FI: I thought it was an interesting point when he said that when you don’t know what to do, it’s a better mindset than knowing what to do. DD: That’s true, and it’s a reassuring one when you sit there and you don’t know what to do [laughs]. Because if you knew what to do that would be even worse. FI: I'm sure that's very reassuring to hear for some of the beginning composers who are reading this. Let's say hypothetically that this is the first time I’m about to score a feature film. Let me just give you my mindset and you tell me if I’m way off. I read through the whole script and I’m trying to come up with a different theme for each character and variations for how they feel. DD: Wait. A different theme for each character or a different theme for each feeling? FI: A different theme for each character. DD: hmm FI: Well, I guess it’s feeling, now that I actually think about it, because the female character is feeling sad because the husband is not giving her any attention. And the husband is becoming money hungry, so that will be faster paced. Am I just missing the mark or…? DD: Well, not necessarily, but you should remember that that leitmotif kind of approach is somewhat conventional and it’s somewhat operatic. You have to ask yourself if that’s really going to function in this particular case. Now, I don’t know what the movie you’re working on is about. I don’t know what the approach is or what the director is thinking about. Often a director will tell me that this character should have a theme and that character should have a theme. I find that often they’re talking about what they learned in film school about what music is supposed to do rather than what they need in this picture. I tend to like to score by coming up with thematic material that tells the underlying feeling of the situation rather than something that indicates that a certain character is on the screen. It’s kind of funny on Jurassic Park III…[laughs] there was this one scene (as you know, I was instructed to use John Williams' theme from Jurassic Park I & II) and so generally when Dr. Grant, the Sam Neill character, was on the screen, it seemed appropriate to reiterate the theme from the first picture. Particularly the one that went, [plays the haunting Jurassic Park theme on his piano live over the phone - FI: It was a very surreal moment to hear this melody live]. You know that one? FI: Yeah, absolutely. DD: [Laughs] I did that in a scene where Dr. Grant first meets the kid who was stranded on the island. The kid recognizes him, “You’re Dr. Grant!” and I’m sitting there going, “da dada da” [simultaneously plays the theme again, but at a faster almost comical pace] and the director’s saying, “Yeah, I could tell ‘cause of the music!” FI: Haha [Hysterical laughter] DD: The point being that the audience doesn’t need to be told that the character is on the screen right now. So it’s not really the function of the music to instruct the audience, "Well this character’s here now" [in a goofy tone]. You know when Wagner was doing that, the audience kind of needed to be told that. Because… FI: [still couldn’t contain my laughter] Because the audience was so far away in the seats? DD: Well yeaaah, you have this big set; it was at Bayreuth which was a huge arena, and somebody would come out in a costume and you really wouldn’t know who it is necessarily. You know they didn’t have close-ups in opera. Once they do a movie of the Ring[of the Nibelungen mythology - Das Reingold, Die Walkure, Siegfreid, and Gotterdammerung] cycle, it might be a different thing. Nordic mythology isn’t something normally seen in movies. I find that the conventional approach of the theme for a character and variations on those themes is not necessarily one that you should take as a matter of course. You have to ask yourself, “Does that really function in this movie? How does the music function? What is the responsibility of music to the audience?” In my opinion, it’s usually not, “Oh! This actor’s on the screen!” I think it worked in Jurassic Park III because it tied the three movies together. Sam Neill was only one out of all the characters that came back from the first one (except for Laura Dern, who had a relatively small part). So, it identified the movie as being part of the series and it also fit the demeanor of that character. So, I felt that it worked in that case, in spite of that smart-ass director’s remark. [Laughs] Does that answer your question? FI: Yeah, definitely. Now, when I’m stuck, I’ll ask myself, “What would Don Davis do here?” [Laughs] DD: ha! FI: I’ll make sure I don’t score for an opera without close-ups. DD: Well, it’s funny because I did a movie a while back, I won’t tell you which one it was, but the director was adamant that this music should sound like nothing that has been heard before. If it sounded like something else he heard before, he would want to throw it out and do something new. Then he started talking about themes for every character, “This character should have a theme and that character should have a theme.” And I was thinking, “Now that’s a contradiction.” [continuing in director’s voice], “Now, let’s do something unconventional and by the way, it should be as conventional as you can make it". So, I wrote a little theme for each of these little characters and I played it for him and he said, “Oh, no! no! This is all conventional!” I felt like the guy was jerking my chain. I was prepared to do that in that picture because the director asked me to, but I didn’t feel it was right and ultimately neither did the director. FI: Going back to your early days, I don’t know if I’m hitting the right film or not, but what can you tell me about Hyperspace? DD: [in a country drawl] Hoipa Spoice! Sure! What do you want to know? Have you seen it? FI: No, I saw the trailer, that was about it. Was it a full-length feature? DD: Yeah, but I don’t remember seeing any trailer. FI: It’s on IMDb. DD: Really?!?! FI: Yeah, just go to its page and click on “View trailer”. DD: Ok. It’s quite a funny movie in its own silly way. I mean I thought it was a hoot. FI: Is it along the lines of Hardware Wars? DD: Hardware Wars? Now, I haven’t seen that one. FI: You haven’t seen the original Star Wars spoof?!?! DD: No, when did it come out? FI: ’77 or '78. DD: I guess that was the original. FI: That’s the one where the Millennium Falcon was an iron. DD: I did not see Hardware Wars, no… I’d like to. FI: I think it is one of Lucas’ favorite spoofs. DD: Really? FI: Yeah DD: I doubt he has seen Hyperspace. [Laughs] It probably won’t take over… What do you want to know about Hyperspace? FI: Was that your first feature? DD: It was my first real feature. I’d done some college stuff, but you know, those aren’t real… I’m not sure that Hyperspace is real either. But it was a full-length feature film conceived for the commercial market, so I guess from that standpoint it was real.
FI: I’m just thinking from my viewpoint: you have an hour and a half to two hours of a movie. How do you know where to put music in? How do you know when to leave in silence? DD: In normal situations - and acknowledging that some situations aren’t normal - normally, you’ll sit down with the director and go through the whole movie and discuss where music is needed and where it isn’t. Now, to make those determinations is a matter of taste and intuition. I’m always asking the question, “How does music function?” If I’m looking at something and feel that something is going on that needs to be underlined by some kind of dramatic impetus, I’ll tell the director I think we need music here. FI: So, what’s your mindset right there at that instant? I’m trying to dissect this as much as possible. So when you see a scene where you feel it needs music, what are you thinking? DD: I think quite a few things. I’m thinking tension level. I’m thinking mood. I’m thinking pace, generally. If there’s a chase, if somebody’s being threatened, usually there’s a moment of no threat and that changes by something on the screen. You know, somebody pulls a gun on someone. That’s a motivation for music to begin. For example, two people are talking and they’re having a normal conversation and then suddenly a guy pulls a gun on the other one. Suddenly, it’s not conversation and someone’s being threatened. Now, if you don’t play that, if it’s shot well, I’m sure the audience will notice the threat. But will that be enough for them? It depends on quite a few things. Depends on what the director and the studio want to communicate. It depends on what they want this picture to reveal. Now, it’s very true that when an actor pulls the gun, it doesn’t mean that music has to happen. And what happens then, the first actor runs away and the second one chases him, shooting at him. OK, the audience generally is astute enough to know that somebody is chasing somebody else, but it’s the tone of the entire picture and how much tension that the director wants to inflict on the audience that hopefully will be resolved at some point. Traditionally speaking, gun comes out, music comes in. Guy runs, somebody runs after him and the music gets fast. Because you want the audience to go with the film, you want the audience to be involved with the film. If the actor pulls the gun and there’s no music, I sometimes get confused and I’m also wondering what am I supposed to think here. The gun is pulled and there’s no change in the ambiance of the picture. FI: Do you think that you’re biased more than the average moviegoer? DD: I do feel biased because that’s my business. I’ll go ahead and give you an example of a picture that came out that I was confused when I saw it. I’m not sure that the general audience was, but I was. That picture was In The Bedroom. [Spoiler Alert] There’s a couple who have a grown son and the son has an affair with a woman who’s got children and an ex-husband. However, she’s not quite divorced yet. When the ex-husband first shows up, there’s kind of an idyllic scene. The woman is visiting her boyfriend’s parents. The kid are there playing. It’s New England, very idyllic, and they’re having a nice conversation. Then all of a sudden the ex-husband shows up and you haven’t seen him before. You’ve definitely heard of him, but haven’t seen him and there’s no underscore. So, I wasn’t sure if this is a bad thing. Sissy Spacek, the boyfriend's mother, says to the husband, “Oh, don’t do anything. It’s ok. It’s ok.” Which was pretty tense stuff. Then this guy was playing the with the kids and I think he made a subtly menacing remark and there was no underscore. I didn’t know whether this guy was a threat or not. It’s these two children’s father; maybe he just wants to play with them, so maybe it’s fine or maybe it isn’t. I didn’t know. Presumably, the director wanted that ambiguity; maybe he wanted people to say, “Well, maybe this guy’s ok.” And I suppose when the disaster occurs later, the audience is all that much less prepared for it, therefore more effective. I didn’t feel that way while watching the film. So, when it comes right down to it, filmscoring is a matter of opinion. I, as someone in the audience, felt that I needed more information than I was getting from the actors, the sets, and the camera angle. So, had I scored that picture, I would have made my case with the director. Now the bottom line is that if the director says, “No! No! We shall not have music here. I do not want music and I want this and I want that.” Then there’s no point for discussion. It’s the director’s movie. But I feel as a composer that I should offer my point of view for consideration. And that’s all it is, it’s just a point of view. Clearly, In The Bedroom was a successful movie by any stretch. FI: Continuing on with this dissection of your recognizing cues, what’s your mindset for a love scene? I read another composer who said that music lets the audience know that they shouldn’t laugh inappropriately. DD: That’s true. I think you’re looking at something that isn’t necessarily successful when they shot it. I think the director is usually sensitive to what is successful and what is not. If it’s not successful, then people might laugh at something which might be corny and gooey; and music can fix that. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in comedies and particularly dark comedies, music can give the audience permission to laugh at something which isn’t necessarily funny. Well, something that wouldn’t be funny if it was happening to you, let me put it that way. For example, I’m not sure if this was scored, but in Something About Mary, where Ben Stiller is talking to Cameron Diaz. Then they cut to this guy fishing and he throws the pole back to do a big cast and he gets [laughs] the hook caught in his mouth and he goes flying back. You know, if you’re standing there and you get a hook caught in your mouth and you go flying back, it’s not going to be a funny moment. However, in this context, it was hilarious. If something is kind of on the edge and not many people are laughing, music can help that a lot. If it’s not executed properly and when this scene comes in and people say, [in a disgusting tone] “Oh my god,” instead of laughing, if you have zany and madcap piece of music then people will say, “Oh yeah, that’s funny!” Also,
if you have a situation where an actor and an actress have sexual
tension between them, they’re not quite connecting yet,
but you know they should, music can fix that. There’s a
risk of looking at that and saying that it’s just two people
talking. If they’re saying something like, “Would
you like a cup of coffee?” FI:
So, what are you thinking in terms of writing, note-wise? Are
you thinking certain intervals or are you thinking just whatever
you feel comes out? If there is a love scene or an implied love scene and there’s only a single instrument, the instrument will be implying a harmony in general. Let’s say the melody from Love Story, that implies harmony right there. So, my impetus comes from the harmony when it comes to pinpointing a mood or a focus in a particular dramatic sequence. FI: Do you ever try and stay away from something that’s been so overused? DD: I do, but you know, there are strict limitations on what you can do and what you can’t do. When the guy gets the fishhook stuck in his mouth, you cannot have this [plays Love Story theme]. [Laughs] That won’t work. On the other hand, it maybe a mistake to go to [plays fast, zany music] because that might be the knee-jerk, cliché way of doing it. So, there’s a middle ground there.
If the guy is talking to the girl and asks if she’d like a cup of coffee and she says, “No, I have to see my parents,” you can’t have [plays the Jaws theme]. You know, it’s just not right. [Laughs] However, you don’t need surge of Ravel either. So, you have to keep an open mind to what’s going on to the scene. You’re always walking a tightrope. You don’t want to do what’s already been done, but you have to do something that’s appropriate. If it’s too over the top, they’re going to throw up. If it’s not romantic enough they’re not going to get it. So, you have to work it out. It’s not easy work. Shop for the works of Don Davis in the FI Store.
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