All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 15Character Theme Batman

Heat. Heat.

Part of the problem is when you use

something, you know, as simplistic as a

twootee device is you you don't quite

believe in it. you think you're supposed

to do more. You're supposed to write a

big heroic theme. But anything we tried

in there always led us back to this. Um,

and so that's when we finally figured

out, yes, those two notes will work. I

mean, we we we had all sorts of other

things playing over the scene. We tried.

This is when we found our movie. I think

I think it very much defined

not just the style of this movie, but it

defined the style of how we move

forward. I mean, had it not been for

this scene that you know the the Joker

stuff would never have been done that

way. It's it's just it's it's we learned

we can get away with the barest minimum

of harmonic and um

you know, tune. We didn't need a tune to

go and play this.

I had written a more heroic and more

developed Batman theme and a more to me

obvious one and and Chris actually

really liked it and he kept saying,

"Can't we use that tune? Can't can't we

put that tune in somewhere?" And I kept

saying to him,

I don't I don't think the character is

I don't think the character is sort of

ready for that tune in a funny way. And

I was hoping um that maybe he'll never

be ready for for for the obvious uh

heroic tune. And Chris kept coming back

to this and finally I said to him just

just it's just not in his eyes. Um,

and it was just, you know, it was just

that communication. I mean, figuring out

how to I had a feeling about something.

My director had a feeling about

something and um, you know, it wasn't

that like he acquiesced. It was just,

you know, oh, he saw what I was going

for and I just couldn't figure it out in

words. And it's but I think in the long

run it it was worth both of our wild

that we kept coming back to that

conversation. You know, how much had the

character developed and how much had he

not developed

the French horns for Batman

is four French horns on the right, four

French horns on the left, and they're up

in a gallery up way above the orchestra

in this church. So that's a whole bunch

of microphones. Um because part of what

you want is I want the ge the geography

of where they are. So they have to be

low microphones and they have to be high

microphones that catch some of this.

Then you have the orchestra which is

basically playing tunes, long notes,

whatever they're playing. um but not

rhythmic parts because the rhythmic

parts I wanted to have really really

really super precise. So all that t

these oenato patterns they were all done

separately which

seemed like a really good idea at the

time and it was painful and I thought

hey wouldn't it be interesting to have

something that was above the orchestra

so that rather than just doing

3D or you know not just do surround like

this but truly try to try to impose some

idea of height into this thing you know

at least have a go at it. You know,

sometimes it doesn't actually matter if

the audience really hears it, but it

just helps me to think through

the architecture of what I'm trying to

do by going, well, you know, okay, so

the Batman signal is going to be above

and the little motor is down there and

the orchestra, you know, and the um

percussion is really up in your face

just just to to, you know, create a sort

of a sonic stage. Um and you know in a

in a f actually no but what what does

happen as well by having the French for

French horns

um you know the whole width of a church

apart from each other and just just the

way they play up into the dome um

there's a there's a great thing that

happens to the rever it starts chorusing

and the notes literally fly over to the

other team and you know when they play

the other note something in the middle

it it it becomes a really sort a

gorgeous cord. So yeah, it's the the

height thing was the conceit but the the

way the cord is formed by using the

building is not a conceit. I mean that

really happens.

The microphones are angled down. The

orchestra sitting down. The microphones

are slightly above them. And you get a

sense of place. You get a sense of

perspective.

When I Howard started working on Batman,

there was a endless heroic theme. And it

just went on and on and on and on and

and I kept

thinking that's not that's not the

character. The character is right at the

beginning of the movie.

The child Bruce Wayne as a child sort of

is, you know, responsible. Not he's not

responsible, but he but part of what

sets his story and his fate into motion

is that he wants to leave the opera and

his parents get killed. At that moment,

he freezes in time. It's like arrested

development because partly what what I'm

concerned with is how do I get an

audience to suspend this belief that a

man will dress up in a Batman outfit.

Right? So, I think that's part of the

job. Part of the job is to um

legitimately I have to legitimately buy

into this. And to legitimately buy into

this, I have to make up some outlandish

theories that I believe. I have to

believe in the character. Um, and and

one of the things which which I kept

thinking is is that

he he I mean the reason I ended up with

just two notes was really that

it's like what is the next phrase? He

he's stuck his his his life, you know,

he can never become

he can never become that heroic. He's

not he's

he's stuck in that one moment in his

childhood and and everything just

circles around that, you know. He can't

have a proper grownup relationship. He

can't he can't become truly heroic.

That that's that's you know

that that's Danny Elfman's Batman. Mine

isn't that mine mine mine keeps get

getting stuck

and there this this little nagging motif

that goes all the way through and this

it's like this little clock is just

driving him forward. It's like the, you

know, we Germans are good with guilt,

you know. So, I don't know, you know,

um, so, so

the, you know, the whole to to try to

contain the whole character literally

within one phrase is, you know, it's

very efficient because I can,

especially if you do a movie about

original which the Batman begins

obviously is and you don't see the

Batman character,

you know, he's not wearing the outfit

until real four or something like this.

So, so, so to to have a very efficient

way of saying, "Oh, this is the Batman

movie. This is it." So, you know, when

you hear

it's it's nothing nothing special. I

mean, like like

10 million composers have used this, but

it's sort of I'm quite purposeful. I'm

quite deliberate about it. And and I

think when you hear it, you know that

it's Batman.