All language subtitles for MasterClass Danny Elfman Teaches Music For Film - 15.The Devil s in the Detail

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I love the detail.

I loved listening to the
great scores that I grew up on

and hearing the detail.

And to me, the detail is
what brings it to life,

makes it exciting.

There's an quality of--

the intricacy of the structure,
as you're building it,

and the details
of that intricacy

is what makes orchestral
music so beautiful to me.

Unfortunately, in
the real world,

those details are usually
steamrolled over in the dub,

and one of the first
things I had to learn

was, often, when I'm doing
a certain level of detailing

in a piece of music that
gets me very excited,

I realize the audience
will never hear this

in the film because
of the moment,

because there's stuff
happening on the screen.

And there's a propensity
most of the time,

that if there's stuff
happening on the screen--

and I'm not talking about
Gatling guns and machine robots

in an army coming towards you.

I'm talking about
just stuff, which

shouldn't, on the
surface, conflict

with hearing the detail.

But most of the time, it
does because the people that

are putting together
the sound for the film,

they like their own details,
and their own details

means all the
detail of the stuff

that you see and might
hear in the background.

And there's a
conceptual problem here

because I still believe in
the purity of music and image,

and there are moments where
the music can do something

that sound effects can never do.

And there's moments that the
sound effects can do something

that the music can
never do, and they

should both have their place.

But in contemporary film
scoring and film dubbing,

frequently, we're both asked
to do everything all the time.

"Lawrence of Arabia"
has an incredible score

by Maurice Jarre.

One of the beautiful moments
that I noticed when I first

saw it was that, we're getting
ready for a giant battle,

and in the preparation
for this battle,

you hear nothing
but horse hooves,

rattling metal sound effects.

And you feel like you're in
the middle of this charge,

and it's perfect.

They're not using music.

[RUMBLING OF THE HORSES' HOOVES]

They want you to
feel in the middle

of the chaos of this moment
that the sound effects are

doing perfectly.

It doesn't need anything else.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Then the moment-- there it is.

That's the city.

We're going to take it.

The score comes
in, and it's huge.

And the director, David Lean,
let the score take over.

Now, you don't notice,
when you're listening,

that the sound effects
almost completely disappear

and the score takes over
because it's seamless.

And it feels perfect because
the score can deliver

an emotional element
for what's happening

right there, as the great
conflict is coming to fruition,

that the sound effects
can't possibly do.

And he gave both of
them their moment.

Unfortunately, if
"Lawrence of Arabia"

were redone and scored
today, rather than, I'm

going to guess, a 50 minute
score, less than 60 minutes

probably, would be a two
and a half hour score,

or [INAUDIBLE].

If the movie's two
and a half hours long,

it would be a two
hour, 20 minute score.

There'd be about 10
minutes with no music,

and everything would be
fighting for every moment.

And unfortunately,
you wouldn't come away

with the sense of hurting--
hearing a great score having

just played and the beauty
that comes from feeling that.

So I love it when,
occasionally, today, a director

allows both things to
happen, and the detailing

in that piece of music can
actually be felt and heard,

and it's a wonderful experience.

But this is just me talking
as a purist, as a film purist.

I love the separation of
sound effects and music

put to their best
ability, both together.

There's very few scores I've
worked on that I probably

wouldn't suggest that
they be 25% to 40% less

music in the score
today, but it's simply

not how it's done these days.

It's like, give these
moments to the sound effects.

Let them bring you
into their own detail

of the incremental things that
are happening around them--

the sound of crickets, the
sound of this, all the things

that they could do.

When the music starts,
let me do that, but let

me do it in an
emotional way that'll

bring us into that moment.

And then the detail
does actually

happen in just the right way.

But detailing is something that
I think of as wishful thinking,

but that doesn't stop me from
wanting to do the job right,

because I know it's
the right way to do it.