Gus Van Sant Quotes

When I was working on the music for this I didn't want to just use pop songs as the score - most movies do it and I've done it before.

When the movie's done, you talk about either the score or source music over a particular scene, what might work. You just throw a piece of music over the scene, and we both listen to it.

Whenever I make a movie, I always try to figure out what kind of music it would be.

I think that most films have too much music in them; it overwhelms an audience.

In rare cases, I've had music before I shot the movie. I think that for 'Good Will Hunting' I had an Elliot Smith record or a couple of them and I just somehow felt like the sound had something to it that reminded me of the story. So in that case there was music beforehand.

So film music is something I absolutely wanna get involved in.

I think that... the age of just slapping songs into movies, that's done.

When you're working on film music, you're only working on 20, 30-minute sections at a time.

You can have music and it will stand alone by itself, but you can't have a movie without it.

I always choose music based on whatever the scene calls for, or whatever my mood is supposed to be.

When you're editing the film, you use a temp track. So you're putting music in there for a rough cut to keep track of what's going on. It can be a hindrance if wrong, it can be an enormous asset if you get it right.

When I was doing 'The Sopranos', I liked putting music together with the film; that was my favorite part of it.

Normally, when people compose for film, you give them the film, and they look at it, and they compose it.

I've done some music for films and I really enjoy doing it.

Music is the subliminal connecting adhesive in film, or at least in narrative feature films.

Music in this film is a very important part.

To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I'm going to play for the opening sequence.

In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel.

There's a lot of money in doing score music. You can get a chance to get nominated for an Oscar; I would love to get nominated again.

The music for 'The Departed' could have been played by an orchestra, but you make a decision about orchestration based on the context of the film. You want the music to broaden the scope of a film, not just repeat what you're seeing.

I don't know - music in film, for me, is not another part of a soundtrack; it is something that also helps to approach a character, to foresee the type of image - you see what I mean - it's like a part of the process.

I'm a big collector of vinyl - I have a record room in my house - and I've always had a huge soundtrack album collection. So what I do, as I'm writing a movie, is go through all those songs, trying to find good songs for fights, or good pieces of music to layer into the film.

It's a deliberate choice. I am a fervent supporter of the idea that you don't have to have wall-to-wall music in good films.

I start with the music before I start writing the movie. It's such an important part for me, emotionally, to set up the tone for the movie.

Whenever I'm writing a script, I'm scoring myself by playing the right kind of music.