All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 02Themes

Nothing means anything until you have a

tune. And

a tune

that's the job. You sit there in front

of the piano

and

there are 88 notes on that keyboard of

which only 11

mean something before they repeat in the

octave. And you know everybody else has

played those notes before and somehow

you have to figure out how to write

something original with it but at the

same time not too original because it

has to be appropriate to the story. I

mean it's not I'm not doing concert

music. I am trying to be telling the

parallel story that the filmmakers are

taking. So there's a there's there

restrictions

yet you're supposed to be completely

free. So they're contradictions in

everything I do. Um a great example of

all of that is actually Beethovven's

fifth. Not that I'm comparing myself to

Beethovven, but

every kid walked up to the piano and

gone da da da da.

But he knew somehow that out of those

notes, you could go and build castles in

the sky that you could invent something.

You could tell a story with those notes.

They're so simple. And that's what you

you you need to figure out how to how to

find the simplest thing to set the thing

in motion. But you have to at the same

time and this is this is why I sit there

day in day out you know uh driving

myself crazy. You have to know, you have

to make a decision that whatever those

opening notes are, whatever the first

thing is that you have to say is

actually going to hold water, is

actually going to somehow take you

through this vast arc of a story. And

not halfway through the movie, you

suddenly go, you know something?

I can't I can't make these notes become

mournful, happy, exciting, you know, all

the different personalities they need to

car uh take on, you know, and sometimes

you just have to kill your favorite

babies.

Even though you're trying to write from

inspiration, you're trying to be uh

relatively practical that um

you know, one one of the things I don't

do is I don't use a lot of

exuberant key changes in my music or

even if I do, I try to always come back

to my home key. Part of that is

practical. Um I like writing in

I like writing in D

and everybody thinks it's because I'm

lazy, which is true, but it's not the

reason I write in D. I write in D

because

in this modern day and age,

the bases can go down to C, which is

their open string, but they can't do

vibratto on the open string. So D is

actually a good note where they can

still do a little bit of FB and it's

nice that if you go from

it's satisfying you know so if I have to

give you an answer if I have to complete

a phrase and I have to give you an

answer I like when it when it when it

ends on a note that bases and telly and

violas us

gay violence is a different matter

can land on in a satisfying way. You

know, at at least I set myself up to

have that possibility. The whole score

might never do this and it might just

be, you know, up here.

But I don't know that at the beginning.

So, so if I pick something that gives me

the gives me the most freedom, the most

possibilities,

I'm,

you know, I'm at least

starting on solid ground.

I think of everything.

I mean look

you know let you know wherever my hand

falls you know

is a question

is an answer I mean it's just how I you

know I can make the question longer.

It's just I I I think there's a there's

a natural

way in music where you where you're

basically having a conversation. Um or

you want to have a conversation.

Sometimes you leave it um

leave it as a question

with another question

and then if you really want to

you know and I mean it's just you know

I'm I'm not writing anything. I'm just,

you know, it's just it's

and I stopped speaking because I feel

I'm having the conversation right now

with you.

Ooh, there's a bit of a dodgy question

here.

I'm being a bit confrontational.

Then I can take the tension out,

get happier about it

and kill you.

So it's a language, you know. So, so

I don't know. I I just get I just

always, you know, I love thin red line

because um working with Tik Tok,

one of the things

he kept saying is is that the question

is more interesting than the answer. And

the whole movie just ask questions. We

never answer anything, you know. It's

like it's sort of a bit it's a it's a

bit boring, you know. Usually the answer

is a bit mundane. So So to maintain the

tension,

see if you can just raise the stake in

the questions.

um

you know if if it's a love story you

know once she say you know once she says

yes

you know I'll marry you

we're done you know and and and and you

know yes some movies start at that point

but you know it's it's but but very

often the journey in this case is more

interesting the question is more

interesting so yes I do think these

tunes now I don't think them through. I

just naturally gravitate towards things

which um ask questions. I think because

I think that's more interesting.

You know, all music is made up out of

little fragments of ideas that you're

trying to make into a cohesive sentence.

I mean, so I had my first two words, as

it were.

And I knew it would work down there. And

you have to sort of you have to test the

DNA very quickly. You know, you know, is

it adaptable? Can it become

what can it become? You know, and and

and it's it's this thing. I mean, it is

actually sort of storytelling. I mean,

if you look at it as the

That's the question. And then the

uh what is it? Uh

there's a half an answer which again

ends on a question. And so part of what

you want to do, of course, in in all

movies is you it's it's it's like, you

know, when you when you work on a love

story um or romantic movie, the the last

thing you want to hear is them saying I

love you to each other. You know, that's

the part you want to postpone until the

very very last frame. Going back to the

I mean this you can't get any more

benile than

Okay. So, I changed it a bit. I I made

it more

just on purpose because it it felt felt

mean, you know? I wanted a bit of

meanness in it.

The [ __ ] sort of a question is that, you

know?

So, so you know and there's a little

twinkle in it and the obstacles we can

put in its way um are more interesting

and the you know the the crookedness we

can you know I mean so part of part of

what the what the tunes are trying to do

what the tunes automatically are trying

to do is set up questions which are half

answered with another question at the

end so that they can drive forward does

that make sense so just have a

little answer.

There's a little flick of a question

again at the end.

That's quite a strong answer.

This is just me seeing what happens if

you have it down an octave so it's a bit

more spooky or or that it sits under

dialogue

and it's just I mean it's it's not even

much of a tune. It's just it's a it's a

very efficient motif because it's short

and succinct and says a lot in four

bars.

Chris was being very specific about he

was being very unspecific in his

specificity by saying, "Hey, look, I'm

just going to give you this page, but

I'm not going to tell you what the movie

is about." Um and he gave me

this fable about what it means to be a

father and you know um and

he cleverly

steered it in a way that I thought you

know that automatically made me think

about my relationship with my son. Um,

so I wrote him this tiny

very personal

theme and then you know he told me you

know the this is a movie about the

vastness of everything you know the

expanse of the universe you know space

and science fiction etc and it's epic

and it's all these things but what he

had was

just a very simple,

you know, just it's warm and it's small

and it's intimate and it meant

however it's easy to go big. It's easy

to throw the kitchen sink in. It's easy

to It's easy to go and get a big church

or and make a hell of a racket. But but

we knew we could always return to the

heart of the story. You know, the heart

of the story was I mean this tune

couldn't be any simpler.

And the the great thing is if you start

with something which is so simple and so

small and so

you know just just a few notes in the

right order. I mean,

I don't think there's this I think there

may be one or two tunes I've written

that you can't actually just play with

one finger,

you know, the

the simplicity of the material lets you

then go and expand outwards, you know.

But if if the if the heart of it, if the

kernel of it is is intellectually tied,

it's emotionally tied, you got

something, you know, it's like um I mean

I keep go I keep going to this, but you

know,

Beethoven's fifth,

it's all in those two notes. It's all he

needed, you know, to go and then create

a firework of amazing emotions,

orchestration, excitement, you know,

paos, whatever you whatever you want.

But, you know, know what you're talking

about in in your theme. Know what you

want to say. You got to be clear about

that. It's very hard to to to write an

instruction manual in music, you know,

or a dentistry course in music. It's the

It's not the appropriate language, but

it's an appropriate language to express

um emotion. And I think that's all

that's happened over the centuries that

we are compelled to tell stories. We're

compelled to make up stories. That's

what film is about. That's, you know,

we're we're compelled to tell the fable

of our existence, of, you know, our

human journey or whatever. And I think

when we run out of words and when we run

out of beautiful pictures,

we have to resort to this other language

called music. And I'm I'm not trying to

be profound and I'm not trying to do

anything significant. But

you when you spend a little bit of time

thinking about it, you can actually

express

some fairly good things about the human

condition in notes that you might not be

able to express quite as brilliantly in

words.