1. From Now...

First, let's have a look at the projects you did last years. From commercials, movies to video games you enlarge your range of compositions. Do you think it is a turn in your carreer or is it just the way music business is evolving and make you accept such different projects ?
 
My career has been taking some interesting turns this year. I think that it's part 'the nature of the business' and part 'career evolution.' Most of the work that I do throughout the year relates to personal relationships that I have. For example, most of the commercial work I do is with one good friend, Alexander Paul. We share a lot in terms of how we look at the world, and working together works very naturally. The video game thing came about from a friend of mine that was working on Dead to Rights 2. Socom 3: US Navy SEALs came about as a result of my agent. I had to write for a month or so to get it, so that was a definite turn for me.
 
With short subjects, high or low-budget documentaries, you have different genres to compose with. Does it force you change the way you compose ?
 
This is an interesting question. I have thought a great deal about this one recently. When I first began to write 'The Mars Underground,' I made a decision. This piece is low budget, but it can't be treated that way. I decided to eventually arrange the music in suite form for concert performance. This enabled me to focus on this as if it were a big budget feature film.
The music would eventually have a life on it's own so it needed to be attended to as any other project would. I am taking the opportunity to arrange suites of this for as many projects I can.
 
Commercials gain more respect now composers are hired to score some of the most anticipated ones. Filmed like movies, with big budgets, they need to be put in music by someone but does it makes sense to have a score for that kind of short production ?
 
I think there are people in the commercial world producing highly artistic and imaginative. These can benefit greatly from a great score. One can grow musically through working on these short productions so it is very important to me.
 

2. Ring, Ring the bell!

Let's take a look at the music you composed for The Ring. A lot of people worried about the non edition of the score as it has been considered a great achievement in 2002. Now, three years after, what do you think of your own participation aside Hans Zimmer and Henning Lohner ?
 
Working on The Ring (one) was a wonderful experience for me. I haven't seen Ring 2 yet, and I have not listened to the album.
I get asked about that project a lot as people have greatly enjoyed the music from what I understand. I listen to the bits I worked on from that score occaionally. I still like the music which is a good thing. Sometimes you look back and go 'what the hell was that.'
 
It seems to be so different from what has been done before to a modern thriller-horror movie that it could have been rejected by the audience. Is the minimalist approach the clue to the success of the score?
 
The score has a such a strong theme. It's one of my favorite Zimmer themes. All the music that he wrote for Ring 1, especially ideas that didn't make it into the final score, all came from a very unique place that is intertwined with the very core of the film
 

3. Composing hands-in-hands

If aditional music has been put to light for years, the role of an aditioanl composer still has to be defined. Is there a difference between co-composition and aditionnal composition?
 
I think so. Additional music is a subservient role, whereas co-compostion is not. Working as an additional composer is to extend the vision of the lead composer.
The time constraints on films these days, and the amount of work it takes to write a score necessitates the help of people in getting it done, as a music editor does as well. It's all about getting to the finish line in a meaningful way.
 
On Batman Begins Jim let us know that "(He)was not part of Batman Begins after the temp dub. I went over to give a hand on Madagascar instead. Socom 3 did not allow me to go away to London for that length of time and still take it on.


4. Documentary on the lunch

"Mars Underground", the documentary for which you composed , evoques by its title lot of feelings and images to those who dreamed of going and landing on new planets. But as a composer, what approach did you take to compose this musical journey through space ?
 
This project presented some very interesting musical possibilities. It was temp-ed with a lot of minimalist music. When I began writing the open, I wanted to base it on a simple minor triad and work the rest out as an extension of that idea. This helped give the score some momentum and through line that tightened some of the drama. The documentary was well structured from when I began so I just needed to not screw it up. When writing the score I imagined keeping big archs going over time and keeping the parts that showed the slow change within that idea.
 

5. Start Video Games

It is a fact that after the animated motion picture music gained interest from composers such as Hans Zimmer, Jerry Goldsmith, the Newman Family (Randy, Thomas and David), John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams for exemple, the videogame industry is now looking forward to be more professionals than before. Bruce Broughton and Harry Gregson-Williams were the first to enter this world, now there is Bill Brown, Geoff Zanelli, Michael Giacchino and you working with videogames industry.

Is it different from filmmusic and can you tell us a bit more about SOCOM: US NAVY SEALS 3, project you are planning to record in the june?
 
Yes it is very different from filmmusic. The Socom 3 score is attempting to underscore the game in a meaningful way for different players of different abilities. Film music provides a narrative form that everyone experiences in the same time. Socom has randomness built into the game as everyone plays at a different speeds and makes different choices on what to do next in the story. The score needs to adapt in real time.

Socom is by far the most complicated project I've ever worked on. It has just under two hours of music and over 250 cues. There are some pieces that are triggered randomly and some that are event specific. At this time, we are scheduled to record in London in the first week of june. At the writing of this, I am halfway complete and under a very intense schedule. It's different in film to write one three minute cue in a film and anywhere between 1 and 30 for that amount of time. It just naturally takes more time to write the same amount of music. You have to reset your brain as you go through that many different cues in one day.
 

6. Teaching Filmmusic compositions

Reading your next project list, you are planned to appear at the California State University of Northridge and talk at a workshop about music technology introduced in the music business. In advance, what are your feelings about this question? Is synth music composing gaining more respect time after time?
 
I am very excited to go teach about music technology and music business. The industry is changing and it's important to share these experiences with people.
I will be going in depth into scoring for video games, film, and television. At that point I will have just recently finished the Socom score and I am eager to share the process.

Like two great filmcomposers sadly dead last year - Michael Kamen and Jerry Goldsmith -, talking about filmmusic and its major development seems to be an important thing. You participate a lot to workshop and conference. So do the filmmusic basics need to be teached and if yes, what can be the best way to introduce people to its language?
 
I had the fortunate experience to learn from a lot of very talented composers. The best information comes from people pushing the envelope and working consistently in the industry. The best way to introduce people to the language is to submerse oneself. I think everyone that wants to get involved in this should spend time with a working composer to see what it actually takes. This will help people really see if this is what they want. Loving to cook doesn't mean you should be a professional chef.


7. Next...

You finished aditional music for Madagascar, another animated movie from Dreamworks that seems - from what i have seen- much more funny than their previous one Sharktale. The pinguins looks really "frigthening" ! What will be the ton of the score, ethnic or traditional one?
 
Madagascar has a wonderful score to it. Originally it was going to be a retro rock score and then that changed. It is primarily an orchestral score but has some very interesting turns in it. The penguins are the coolest part of what is a very funny film.


Thanks to Jim Dooley for the time he spent answering those questions.
Interview done via internet by Fabrice Roux
Copyright www.hans-zimmer.com