All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 24Audience Feedback

The first and selfish truth is I write

for myself because the seconds of my

life are ticking by and I want to have a

good life and I want to write music that

I like or that I'm interested in. But

when this goes back

40 odd years, you know, when I was in a

band and I was touring in the 80s in

England and it was just, you know, times

were tough. It was, you know, Margaret

Thatcher was in power and if you went

outside London, you went to the working

class, you know, you went up into the

north and you saw people working hard

and

trying to make ends meet. And so

weirdly,

every night playing in these pubs, you

know, you just you you you knew you were

creating an escape from for people. And

so somehow I over the years in my mind,

I have this fictitious character. She's

called Doris.

She lives in Bradford.

She's of a certain age. She's got two

boys.

Um doesn't have a husband. She works

really hard every week. Those boys are

impossible, by the way. I mean, they are

real pain. Um, she works really hard to

try to make ends meet. Um, and at the

weekend, she's got a choice, you know,

she can either watch the television or

she can go to the cinema. And she plunks

down her hard-earned money. And it

really is hard-earned money. It life is

tough.

and she wants to have an experience just

for two hours. She wants to have an

experience that she wouldn't have in her

normal life and I am part of the

responsibility of giving her that

experience and not for changing her on

her hard-earned money. So yeah, most of

it's written for Doris who

doesn't really exist but completely and

utterly exists.

I like to do a temp up and I like to

preview the movie. I like to put the

music in front of an an audience, you

know, and it's it's got to be a sizable

audience because if it's just

it's just 15 of your best friends,

you're never going to learn anything.

Um, they're just coming for the free

drinks. But if you have 600 people in a

room, you know pretty quickly if you

overstep the mark. I mean, Gladiator is

a good example where when we started out

and and and and I had Lisa Gerard and

her voice, I mean, the studio really

didn't like the idea about of the voice

just thought, you know, what what is a

female voice doing in a gladiator movie?

And Ridley and I had a very specific

point of view about about it. Um so we

would literally go and we had we had

many screenings where we would test see

because the audience really liked it the

you know an audience is they just feel

things differently they're there for

an experience that this you know

I noticed it of course most on inception

you know that idea of shared dreaming

that you get in a cinema. Um,

so we would preview it and to just to

see how far we could push it, how you

know and then and and there came a point

as well where even I went hang on a

second. Okay, we got to go and pull back

a bit. you feel them getting a bit

restless and a bit sort of you know they

don't you know it's not like you just

sit there amongst them and and and

you know you've broken some sort of

agreement you had with them you know to

stay within the reality of you know

whatever world you created and you just

you're just doing a misstep you're just

stepping outside the world or you're

pushing the emotion too hard. It it took

a while to get that ending for Gladiator

right, you know. Um it wasn't so much

that they didn't like it, it just didn't

land. And we just knew we could get more

out of it. So I think we tested it three

or four times at least, you know, until

until you suddenly felt yes, we were

taking them on this journey

of

the Russell Crow character dying in a

good way and at the same time that there

was something noble and uplifting at the

end without it being sort of,

you know, clawing, you know. Um,

you try never to tell people what to

think. You just try to make it possible

for them to feel something and you don't

try to tell them what to feel. And, you

know, you should just get shot if you're

becoming sentimental, you know, and and

and and so it's it's this really fine

bouncing act, you know, to see how far

you can push it. You're supposed to push

it. Um, and and I don't know, it's just

you just you just sit there and you just

don't like it yourself anymore, you

know, and you go, ah, stitch this bit,

let's stitch this bit, and you know,

this this is a bit of a fix up

opportunity here. And um, you you just

carry on doing that till the very last

moment because it's flexible. You know,

there is time. Whatever they tell you,

there is time.

Here's part of the process that people

don't quite comprehend unless until

they're really in the room. Um, this

music, which is quite provocative and it

was very different. It's not what

anybody on the outside world other than

Guy and me imagined could possibly work

for a Sherlock Holmes Christmas movie.

Um, there were some questions asked by

maybe the studio. Um, and and and here's

the thing, I don't play that game where

I go, "Oh, the executives, what do they

know?" You know, I I want to know what

their questions are. The last thing we

want to do is go and make a big mess of

it, you know, and if somebody's got a

good question, I want to hear it. So,

you know, I want to be questioned. Um,

but I realized what was happening was

because of the, you know, the pressure

that

I'm always conscious of, even though I

try to sort of suppress it is, you know,

that the weight of

a lot of money is on your shoulders. You

know, a a lot of people's careers, a lot

of people's work, this movie's got to

come out and it needs to do well. So, so

you can't be trivial about this and you

do feel it. So, you know, so with within

this pressure, you're trying to navigate

some sort of artistic freedom. And so

when a bunch of executives says to you,

well, we're not sure about this mo uh

this music. In fact, I think you're

ruining the movie. Um you realize that

the question is legitimate, but the

question is the wrong question to ask

because what happens is they're

experiencing it with their preconceived

ideas of what this movie is going to be.

and they're and all they've ever done is

see this movie in a little room, the

three or four or five of them. Uh, and

that's not how an audience experiences

it. It's, you know, once you're once

you're in a cinema surrounded by people

who actually paid money for for it, you

know, who have some different investment

in it, it's it's a whole different

experience. So I said to them, tell you

what, I'll change anything you want, but

first of all, let's put it in front of

an audience. So we got on a plane to go

to Phoenix. I don't know why we had to

go to Phoenix. Maybe they know more more

about Sherlock Holmes in Phoenix than

anywhere else in the world.

Um, I'm sitting opposite

maybe an executive, you know, and on the

luckily it's not the longest flight in

the world, but you know, the whole

flight I'm basically being berated about

how I'm ruining the movie, how I'm

ruining the future of Sherlock Holmes,

how I'm how this music is completely

destroying any possibility of this movie

ever uh being a success. This is not a

comfortable flight. Um, we start

screening the movie until the audience

is liking it. They're into it. And then

comes the scene that is ruining the

movie where it's uh, you know, it's it's

a big climactic actiony thing.

Everything's exploding and I'm playing a

solo violin

and there's a woman sitting next to me.

I have no idea who she is. And she just

sort of taps me on the arm. She has no

idea who I am and she goes, "That's

brilliant." And all I wanted to say to

her was well tell them because in you

know with an audience it it worked

because because

an audience will look at things

differently. They will feel things

differently. I'm not interested in the

focus group where they all dissect it

afterwards. But you know you got to go

and sit in the audience and feel what

they're feeling and it's different just

like when u you're sitting there and

you're playing something to the

director. the first time it sounds

completely different. Um, you know, I

was having a conversation with Tom

Newman who said whenever he plays

something to a director, you know, it

sounded just fine before the director

walks in. As soon as the director walks

in, it all goes to mono somehow. Why is

that? You know, um, it's just we are

influenced by the people that are around

us. And I I think I think it's really

important that you that you have the

courage to put it in front of the

audience. Um so anyway, we got through

the screening. Um you know, they take

numbers, you know, excellent blah blah

blah. It scored through the roof. Um and

of course the plane ride back. I got to

go and reverse the game and say, "So,

do you want me to change? I'm happy.

I'll change the music. Whatever. What do

you want? What do you want me to What do

you want me to do?" And you know, and it

was literally don't change a note. Um,

you know, and I'm not saying this

because I'm I'm clever and smart, etc.

or or whatever. Um, but you know, part

of the process of being a film composer

is is you have to understand that

everybody's cheering you on. Nobody's

your enemy. Everybody's on your side.

Everybody wants you to succeed. But

sometimes people get a bit worried, you

know, and I get a bit worried too, you

know, I get a bit wobbly about, you

know, is, you know, was this really such

a good idea to drop the piano off a roof

and uh is that really the sound we were

after or whatever, you know, it's it's

um you have to come at it with a certain

recklessness, but at the same time, you

have to come at it with a certain

sense of responsibility. And that's you

know look this is where it comes back to

the basic thing which is are you on

story because if you're on story you can

do whatever you want to