1
00:00:06,256 --> 00:00:08,425
This is the only bit of masterclass

2
00:00:08,425 --> 00:00:11,428
that's going to be important
coming out of my mouth.

3
00:00:12,345 --> 00:00:15,223
When you start on a project,

4
00:00:15,223 --> 00:00:18,226
you are working with the director.

5
00:00:18,518 --> 00:00:21,021
Everybody else is secondary. Nice.

6
00:00:21,021 --> 00:00:24,315
You and the director
make a pact that you're going

7
00:00:24,315 --> 00:00:27,485
to do this movie together,
and you're going to do your utmost

8
00:00:27,485 --> 00:00:30,655
and your best to go
and make his film great.

9
00:00:30,947 --> 00:00:33,950
Even if it means
you have to kill him sometimes. But

10
00:00:35,452 --> 00:00:38,455
you're a lot of allegiance,

11
00:00:38,496 --> 00:00:44,461
as with the director and yes, what
the producers say and what the studio says

12
00:00:44,461 --> 00:00:48,131
and and they're great comments,
the amazing comments usually.

13
00:00:48,757 --> 00:00:51,885
And you have to take them on board
and you want to take them on board,

14
00:00:51,885 --> 00:00:57,015
but you have to filter them
and transform them into, is this

15
00:00:58,558 --> 00:01:00,018
helpful to the film?

16
00:01:00,018 --> 00:01:02,270
The director is trying to make?

17
00:01:02,270 --> 00:01:04,272
Because

18
00:01:04,272 --> 00:01:05,982
I don't know how else to do it.

19
00:01:05,982 --> 00:01:08,985
It's a film sound made by committee.

20
00:01:09,402 --> 00:01:13,531
it seems like it sometimes, but.

21
00:01:15,700 --> 00:01:18,703
Not really.

22
00:01:23,124 --> 00:01:26,377
If you take Ron Howard,
Ridley Scott, Chris Nolan

23
00:01:26,711 --> 00:01:31,508
and Terry Malick, I mean, the directors
are working very different styles.

24
00:01:31,508 --> 00:01:35,303
But really at the end,
at the end of the day, we've all come

25
00:01:35,678 --> 00:01:37,305
together at the same sort of place.

26
00:01:37,305 --> 00:01:40,266
I have to get into his head and,

27
00:01:41,017 --> 00:01:43,394
you know, and that's part of the process,
because what I want to do is

28
00:01:43,394 --> 00:01:45,396
I want to make the movie
that he wants to make.

29
00:01:45,396 --> 00:01:47,357
That's what I signed on for.

30
00:01:47,357 --> 00:01:49,734
You know,
I want to have a bit of his vision.

31
00:01:49,734 --> 00:01:54,531
So I worked I worked really very hard
at trying to understand and

32
00:01:54,656 --> 00:01:55,949
have conversations about

33
00:01:56,991 --> 00:01:58,409
what this movie is about.

34
00:01:58,409 --> 00:02:01,538
And of course, the weird thing is that
we don't really talk about the movie.

35
00:02:01,538 --> 00:02:03,581
We talk about everything else.

36
00:02:03,581 --> 00:02:07,544
We're trying to sneak up on the subject
because ultimately

37
00:02:07,794 --> 00:02:11,381
he has to hand over the job
of directing in a funny way.

38
00:02:11,381 --> 00:02:12,966
To me.

39
00:02:12,966 --> 00:02:17,303
and the best directors and,

40
00:02:17,345 --> 00:02:20,473
you know, the people I work
with time and time again,

41
00:02:20,807 --> 00:02:23,810
I mean, they do it with,

42
00:02:23,977 --> 00:02:26,771
the they sort of
hand it over with great joy, you know,

43
00:02:26,771 --> 00:02:29,691
they get excited about something
new coming, you know, somebody

44
00:02:29,691 --> 00:02:33,236
new coming into the party,
you know, with Tariq Malik.

45
00:02:33,236 --> 00:02:36,906
I mean, I spent a year before
Terry went off to shoot thin Red line.

46
00:02:37,323 --> 00:02:39,242
We were we're just talking about art.

47
00:02:39,242 --> 00:02:42,245
We were talking about philosophy,
and we're talking about paintings.

48
00:02:42,245 --> 00:02:45,748
the thing we sort of agreed on
really early on.

49
00:02:45,748 --> 00:02:47,333
I had read the script and it was

50
00:02:48,793 --> 00:02:49,002
there was

51
00:02:49,002 --> 00:02:52,672
198 pages, which is a lot of script sucks.

52
00:02:52,839 --> 00:02:56,092
So I said to him, Terry,
you know, might not be a really good idea

53
00:02:56,467 --> 00:02:58,303
if we never talked about the script
any more.

54
00:02:58,303 --> 00:03:01,764
We just talked about
what we want to do with this script.

55
00:03:01,764 --> 00:03:03,641
Well, you know, what's the subtext?

56
00:03:03,641 --> 00:03:05,226
What are the other things we want to do?

57
00:03:05,226 --> 00:03:10,940
And we oh, God, we talked about,
you know, it was a year long conversation.

58
00:03:10,940 --> 00:03:13,943
We talked a lot about,

59
00:03:15,153 --> 00:03:18,781
such paintings, you know, the way,
the light, you know, in baroque painting,

60
00:03:19,032 --> 00:03:24,162
you know, hit through the clouds, you know
that, you know, that ray of light.

61
00:03:24,162 --> 00:03:27,707
I mean, I think I think that's really
what those conversations are.

62
00:03:27,790 --> 00:03:30,418
That's
what all those directors have in common,

63
00:03:30,418 --> 00:03:32,962
that the the conversation is one
where we are trying

64
00:03:32,962 --> 00:03:36,132
to learn from each other
and we're trying to learn from the movie.

65
00:03:36,132 --> 00:03:38,468
We're trying to get the movie to tell us

66
00:03:39,719 --> 00:03:42,722
how to make it.

67
00:03:47,018 --> 00:03:50,897
There's certain questions you don't ask
the director and you ask the producer.

68
00:03:50,897 --> 00:03:55,693
Like, so, we just had this conversation
which involved the largest

69
00:03:55,693 --> 00:04:00,406
symphony orchestra and three choirs
working for, you know, seven weeks.

70
00:04:00,406 --> 00:04:01,991
what's our budget on this?

71
00:04:01,991 --> 00:04:04,661
Oh, it's only one day of a string quartet.

72
00:04:04,661 --> 00:04:05,828
Okay, fine.

73
00:04:05,828 --> 00:04:09,499
Good that I know that now,
because you don't want to go and narrow

74
00:04:09,499 --> 00:04:14,337
the director's dreams by asking
some of those hard core questions.

75
00:04:14,712 --> 00:04:18,549
Just like he doesn't want to go
and stop me by going, you know something?

76
00:04:19,300 --> 00:04:21,886
We are basically some miserable little low

77
00:04:21,886 --> 00:04:25,139
budget production
with with a lack of imagination.

78
00:04:25,139 --> 00:04:26,891
Our producer is terrible.

79
00:04:26,891 --> 00:04:29,018
The studio doesn't care about us.

80
00:04:29,018 --> 00:04:31,729
But, you know,
can you just crank something out?

81
00:04:31,729 --> 00:04:34,274
so that's not the conversation to have.

82
00:04:34,274 --> 00:04:39,153
So reality is, reality is the enemy of,

83
00:04:39,737 --> 00:04:42,740
you know, of imagination of,

84
00:04:42,907 --> 00:04:45,910
you know, the dream we have.

85
00:04:46,035 --> 00:04:48,705
I mean, here's the thing.

86
00:04:48,705 --> 00:04:50,999
Nobody sets out to make a bad movie.

87
00:04:50,999 --> 00:04:54,168
You know, some movies,
it doesn't matter how much talent

88
00:04:54,168 --> 00:04:57,171
and how many talented
people are involved in it.

89
00:04:57,255 --> 00:05:00,258
you know,
they just derailed themselves a bit

90
00:05:00,341 --> 00:05:03,219
because once, once you're
working, once the movie is,

91
00:05:04,178 --> 00:05:05,179
you know what?

92
00:05:05,179 --> 00:05:09,809
Once you on that first day of shooting,
it just propels itself forward

93
00:05:09,809 --> 00:05:12,812
and you just hang on for dear life
most of the time.

94
00:05:18,609 --> 00:05:19,485
Everybody still has

95
00:05:19,485 --> 00:05:22,989
this image of the film composer
who's waiting for the film

96
00:05:22,989 --> 00:05:26,617
to be shot, and then the director
invites them into a screening room

97
00:05:26,617 --> 00:05:29,620
and shows them his masterpiece,
and they discuss music.

98
00:05:30,872 --> 00:05:33,916
That was before we got all digital

99
00:05:33,916 --> 00:05:37,920
and all fancy, and everybody can go
and cut a movie basically on an iPhone.

100
00:05:38,212 --> 00:05:44,385
so the idea that you have
a finished picture that you can work with

101
00:05:44,594 --> 00:05:51,392
has gone, and the whole mechanisms
of how we work has been turned around.

102
00:05:51,434 --> 00:05:54,437
And actually, I think to, to an advantage

103
00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:58,941
where suddenly you get to collaborate
before the movie's even made

104
00:05:59,108 --> 00:06:03,446
for instance, on on both Russian
Frost Nixon with Ron Howard.

105
00:06:03,446 --> 00:06:03,696
I mean,

106
00:06:04,781 --> 00:06:07,992
it originally started
we were supposed to be talking about songs

107
00:06:07,992 --> 00:06:10,995
that we might have in the movie
before he went to shoot the movie,

108
00:06:11,746 --> 00:06:14,707
and it turned into two weeks of us
actually talking about

109
00:06:16,709 --> 00:06:20,254
what the music can do
with some of these songs,

110
00:06:21,005 --> 00:06:24,008
and that was actually really exciting,

111
00:06:25,009 --> 00:06:27,345
seeing shots come in on dailies

112
00:06:27,345 --> 00:06:30,306
that actually were informed
by this conversation about the music.

113
00:06:30,306 --> 00:06:32,767
It was, on the one hand and exciting,
and on the other hand

114
00:06:32,767 --> 00:06:35,770
it was terrifying because now
I had to actually deliver on this,

115
00:06:36,187 --> 00:06:38,856
you know, the grand idea, you know, oh,

116
00:06:38,856 --> 00:06:41,859
I can do this with this shot, you know,

117
00:06:42,318 --> 00:06:47,031
so the whole mechanism of filmmaking

118
00:06:47,031 --> 00:06:51,577
and film composing has shifted
because of the way we edit things.

119
00:06:51,577 --> 00:06:55,456
And that the idea of a locked picture
and the 12 months you have at the end

120
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:56,833
has changed.

121
00:06:56,833 --> 00:07:00,253
I mean, we we work hand in hand in tandem.

122
00:07:00,253 --> 00:07:03,131
They're cutting picked, I'm writing music.

123
00:07:03,131 --> 00:07:05,341
I get to head in in that direction

124
00:07:06,926 --> 00:07:09,554
autonomously with an autonomous voice

125
00:07:09,554 --> 00:07:12,223
because otherwise they would be doing
it themselves, you know?

126
00:07:12,223 --> 00:07:13,766
So that's the thing.

127
00:07:13,766 --> 00:07:16,185
That's that's the thing
you're always hoping for.

128
00:07:16,185 --> 00:07:18,104
That's the thing that you're aiming for.

129
00:07:18,104 --> 00:07:22,442
that you're adding something
to the conversation

130
00:07:22,442 --> 00:07:25,445
that wasn't there before.

131
00:07:29,615 --> 00:07:29,907
You know,

132
00:07:29,907 --> 00:07:33,494
I know a couple of directors who go,
you know, sometimes it's quite nice.

133
00:07:33,494 --> 00:07:36,038
You know, after
everybody's asked me a thousand questions,

134
00:07:36,038 --> 00:07:38,708
I just put the headphones on
and I get a bit of Zima.

135
00:07:38,708 --> 00:07:40,126
You know, it's like I'm not.

136
00:07:40,126 --> 00:07:44,338
It's not like I'm answering a question,
but I reset the mood

137
00:07:44,422 --> 00:07:46,340
because there's a mood in the piece.

138
00:07:46,340 --> 00:07:49,343
All this a mood and the writing that

139
00:07:49,594 --> 00:07:53,055
just informs the way things can happen.

140
00:07:53,347 --> 00:07:55,391
You know, I'm not I'm not trying to

141
00:07:56,976 --> 00:07:59,854
make more off the contribution
than just it's just,

142
00:07:59,854 --> 00:08:03,733
a reflection of just a shadow
falling across the light.

143
00:08:03,733 --> 00:08:06,736
Sometimes that informs things
in a certain way.

144
00:08:07,153 --> 00:08:13,701
I work away from picture, but
at the same time, I've seen the drawings.

145
00:08:13,701 --> 00:08:16,704
I've spoken to the DP.

146
00:08:17,246 --> 00:08:19,290
You know, I before I read the script,

147
00:08:19,290 --> 00:08:23,961
I sort of know where we are heading,
but the timeline has shifted off.

148
00:08:23,961 --> 00:08:30,134
How we make movies, how the music becomes
part of it, and,

149
00:08:31,636 --> 00:08:33,930
you know, more than one director
I work with, you know,

150
00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:38,059
I mean, I really like from Peter Weir,
who told me that he used to

151
00:08:38,059 --> 00:08:42,313
always play music on the set
and always play music to his actors.

152
00:08:42,605 --> 00:08:46,025
It sets the mood until a certain tempo.

153
00:08:46,567 --> 00:08:49,570
Peter sort of got me into this idea
that it's actually quite

154
00:08:49,570 --> 00:08:52,949
nice to have music early
so that he can play it on the set.

155
00:08:53,616 --> 00:08:56,827
And for instance,
the way I work with Ron Howard as we,

156
00:08:58,829 --> 00:09:00,081
you know, Frost Nixon, for instance,

157
00:09:00,081 --> 00:09:05,086
we met for two weeks
before he even shot a single frame.

158
00:09:06,337 --> 00:09:07,547
we're just talking about the music.

159
00:09:07,547 --> 00:09:11,384
And we were coming up with things,
and it sort of informs the

160
00:09:11,676 --> 00:09:15,304
the way he gets to make a picture,
even though he's the director

161
00:09:15,304 --> 00:09:16,556
and he knows what he wants to do.

162
00:09:16,556 --> 00:09:22,061
And it's quite nice sometimes to be able
to just put a set of headphones

163
00:09:22,061 --> 00:09:25,606
on and go, oh,
what was that crazy little thing

164
00:09:25,606 --> 00:09:28,568
Hans was trying to work on?

165
00:09:29,402 --> 00:09:31,571
it's nice if a little of that

166
00:09:31,571 --> 00:09:34,615
turns up on the set
and it influences things a little bit.