“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” Composer Rob Simonsen on Expanding the Supernatural Sonic Palette
The Ghostbusters are back, but they’ve gotten a lot younger. In Jason Reitman’s follow-up, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (in theaters now), to his father Ivan’s generation-defining classic, Egon Spengler’s (the late Harold Ramis) grandkids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) get into the family trade after moving to the dirt farm, a dilapidated Oklahoma property where we learn that Spengler rode out his final years alone, warding off an unusually problematic ghost based in a nearby abandoned mine.
How Composer Alexandre Desplat Put a “Dada-istic” Spin on “The French Dispatch”
Wes Anderson’s dollhouse-perfect motion pictures radiate an unmistakable sensibility brought to life by a remarkably consistent team of below-the-line talent. His last four movies featured contributions from the same production designer (Adam Stockhausen), the same cinematographer (Robert Yeoman), the same music supervisor (Randall Poster), the same costume designer (Milena Canonero ), and, crucially, the same composer: Alexandre Desplat. An eleven-time Oscar nominee and winner of two Academy Awards, Desplat teamed with Anderson on Fantastic Mr.
How “Candyman” Composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe Manipulated Madness Into Music
It’s hard to believe that someone as soft-spoken as Brooklyn musician Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe could be responsible for the dread-inducing soundscape that underscores the return of cinema’s most horrific throat-slashing boogeyman. And yet, that’s exactly what Lowe has achieved in his score for Candyman (opening Aug. 27). The film, from co-writer/director Nia DaCosta and co-writer/producer Jordan Peele, updates the original 1992 horror movie by tracking artist Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as he tries to wrap his bee-stung arms around the mysterious re-emergence of the murderous Candyman in Chicago’s newly gentrified Cabrini Green neighborhood.
Emmy-Nominated Composer Virginia Kilbertus on “Endings,” “The Lighthouse” & More
Composer Virginia Kilbertus was not entirely prepared for her Emmy nomination for outstanding music direction and composition for a daytime program. Although she’d submitted her work on Hulu’s Endings, a sci-fi adventure set in a near-future where four foster kids discover they’re not alone after the disappearance of the last elephant on Earth, she hadn’t been tracking the nominations since. “I hadn’t been anticipating when they were announcing it,” Kilbertus said by way of phone from Toronto.
“A Quiet Place Part II” Composer Marco Beltrami on Making a Menacing Score
The first box office hit of this summer’s return to in-person theater-going, A Quiet Place Part II picks up a few moments after its predecessor left off. Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) is now on her own with her three children, her husband, Lee (John Krasinski, the film’s director and writer) having been killed by the monsters with hypersensitive hearing that now stalk the Earth. With the baby packed into a box, she and her two older kids,
“Jupiter’s Legacy” Composer Stephanie Economou on Scoring Netflix’s Epic New Superhero Series
Based on the 2013 graphic novel created by writer Mark Millar and artist Frank Quitely, the new Netflix original series Jupiter’s Legacy tells the story of both the first generation of superheroes, that have worked to keep the world safe for nearly a century, and their children, who are expected to pick up the torch. Some may not quite ready to handle the burden, and some actively reject their legacies. Josh Duhamel stars as Sheldon Sampson,
Oscar-Nominee Emile Mosseri on Scoring for Family Dynamics in “Minari”
This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on January 19. Emile Mosseri is nominated for Original Score.
Dream-like piano notes accompany the Yee family as they gaze out the windows of their beat-up station wagon, on their way to a new home in rural Arkansas. Hoping to make it as a farmer, patriarch Jacob (Steven Yeun) is in the process of uprooting his wife, Monica (Yeri Han),
Oscar-Nominee Terence Blanchard on Scoring Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods”
This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on June 12, 2020. Terrence Blanchard is nominated for Original Score.
Spike Lee’s films’ timeliness speaks to his prescience, and to his fearless, decades-long willingness to examine the continued and persistent injustice experienced by Black Americans. His new film Da 5 Bloods lands in the midst of a pandemic disproportionately affecting Black,
Scoring a Serial Killer’s Many Transformations in “The Serpent”
In the 1970s, young travelers flocked to Asia for exotic adventures and a liberating nomadic lifestyle, but an evil force slithered beneath the surface to prey on them. Netflix’s The Serpent dives into the underbelly world of real-life serial killer, Charles Sobhraj. Tahar Rahim stars as the convicted murderer who targeted westerners and hippies traveling through Bangkok to steal their identities and funds. Composer Dominik Scherrer scored the hypnotic soundtrack that draws from the era and geographic setting,
Composer Keefus Ciancia Releases Two-Volume Soundtrack for HBO Max’s “Made For Love”
Composer Keefus Ciancia is no stranger to dark material. In 2019 Ciancia won a BAFTA for Best Television Soundtrack for his work on Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s deliciously diabolical Killing Eve and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on season three of HBO’s True Detective. Now, Ciancia is the composer behind another twisty HBO Max series, Made For Love, based on Alissa Nutting’s novel (she executive produces and writes on the series).
“Cherry” Composer Henry Jackman Lets Loose on the Russo Brother’s New Film
Composer Henry Jackman began composing his first symphony at the age of six. He has since risen to become one of film’s top composers, by leveraging both his classical training and his experience as a record industry producer. His diverse credits include working with Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight, as well as many scores of his own, including Wreck-It Ralph, Kong: Skull Island, and Captain Phillips.
Filmmaker Noah Hutton on his Slyly Scorching Feature Debut “Lapsis”
Writer/director Noah Hutton was due to make his narrative feature debut with his sci-fi film Lapsis at SXSW in March of 2020. You know how that turned out. Nearly a year later, Hutton’s slyly lacerating debut is now available on Virtual Cinema, VOD, and Digital. His low-budget feature debut is an impressive feat of world-building, cinematic wit, and a darkly funny critique of late-stage capitalism, specifically corporate greed and the exploitation of workers.
Composer Jongnic Bontemps on Scoring America’s Past, Present, and Future
Jongnic “JB” Bontemps knows how to turn emotions into a musical composition, whether it’s for a character in a narrative or a historical figure in a documentary. Composing on narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and video games, Bontemps can speak to his collaborators in whatever narrative language they need. For Creed II, he provided director Steven Caple Jr. with additional music worthy of the film’s fighting spirit. For the doc United Skates, Bontemps threaded hip-hop through the story of America’s underground roller rink subculture as it was on the verge of being erased.
Sundance 2021: Composer Kathryn Bostic on Scoring Two Docs About Trailblazing Women
As we near the close of the first week of Black History Month, it’s important to recognize those who are making history now. Given the overall lack of working female composers of any race, as a Black female composer, Kathryn Bostic has been carving out a road few have traveled, and she’s been doing it for decades. She arrived at this year’s Sundance with not one but two films for which she has supplied the score,
Composer Emile Mosseri on Scoring for Family Dynamics in “Minari”
Dream-like piano notes accompany the Yee family as they gaze out the windows of their beat-up station wagon, on their way to a new home in rural Arkansas. Hoping to make it as a farmer, patriarch Jacob (Steven Yeun) is in the process of uprooting his wife, Monica (Yeri Han), and American-born children, Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim), from California to this sparsely populated corner of the rural South.
Branford Marsalis Gets the Blues For “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
“Uh one. Uh two. Uh you know what to do.” That’s how the band leader cues his musicians in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In fact, the actors portraying sidemen to Viola Davis’ title character did not really know what to do, musically. But thanks to Branford Marsalis, the actors in director George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of the August Wilson play manage to mimic the moves of veteran blues musicians with persuasive panache.
Hans Zimmer Protégé Guillaume Roussel on Composing the “Black Beauty” Score Remotely
The good news for Guillaume Roussel: this spring he fulfilled a lifelong dream by working with the London Symphony Orchestra. The bad news: he had to supervise the Black Beauty recording sessions from his garage in Los Angeles due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. “It was just after lockdown, so the big frustration came because I was not able to fly to London for the sessions,” says Roussel. “Fortunately, my good friend Gavin Greenaway conducted and did a great job.”
Composer Steven Price on Scoring David Attenborough’s Plea to Humanity & Glen Keane’s “Over the Moon”
Those who work in the arts have an innate ability to invoke emotions through their work— to cause an audience to connect with a certain theme or issue. But what if that issue is the inevitable destruction of the planet told through the life story of one famed historian and world traveler? That was the daunting task presented to Oscar-winning composer Steven Price (Gravity, Suicide Squad, Baby Driver).
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet serves dual purposes as both Attenborough’s witness statement — his plea to humanity to save the Earth — and an autobiography of sorts.
Composer Jay Wadley on Scoring Charlie Kaufman’s Bittersweet New Film
When you think of a Charlie Kaufman film, you start with his scripts. Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) made Kaufman that rare thing; the star screenwriter. Each of these films was fearlessly weird, often unsettling, and always bittersweet. They were funny, too. Then we started to get to know Kaufman the writer/director, beginning with Synecdoche, New York (2008),
“Becoming” Composer Kamasi Washington on Scoring Michelle Obama’s Life
As one of the most famous women in the world, we’re familiar with the broad strokes of Michelle Obama’s life, from her rarefied resume and progressive values to her playfully chic sense of fashion. Thanks to her critically-acclaimed memoir, “Becoming,” the former First Lady’s legions of fans have also gotten to know more about her early life, marriage to Barack Obama, and their eight years in the White House.
