Film Scoring Quotes

In the film work, I love to work mainly from the script and from talking to the directors, so a lot of the music, big portions of the scores that I've made, have been composed before the movies were even shot.

Well into the '40s, it wasn't uncommon for big-budget Hollywood movies to contain little or no underscoring, and many of today's directors, following the lead of Martin Scorsese in 'GoodFellas,' accompany their films with pop records, not original music.

Since the big band started I'm just always swamped with movies and things. It certainly pays the bills and it's very satisfying, because I get to write all these big charts and all this crazy music.

I don't think I could make a good film, but I could definitely score a good film.

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.

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.

After 1999, I thought that I needed a break. As a senior composer, I didn't like the trend of three music directors working on a single film. But after a few quiet years, I was back for good.

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.

Ah, 'Pather Panchali' was the most inspiring film that I wrote music for, and it was so spontaneously done. I saw the film, composed on the spot, along with myself and only four other musicians, and everything was done within 4-1/2 hours, I think an all-time record anywhere.

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

It all started back in '69 when I worked with Jack Nitzche on 'Performance.' That was my first experience of doing soundtracks, and I've enjoyed doing them ever since.

I was a schooled musician. When I made 'Blue Velvet', I told everyone what to do. I was an arranger. I learned music in school I told the band to play this. I told the guitar to do that.

When I was composing for 'The Villain,' I looked at it as a fan and came up with tunes accordingly.

I've always wanted to go into film scoring.

I've composed a fair amount in my life, and some of them have made it on to the screen, some compositions that I've done, a few. And I like doing that. I had never really considered doing a full-length thing. I've worked with other people creating full-length pieces.

Let's say music is needed for only 43 seconds of film. You have to score it so it is an entity, so it won't bother anyone when it ends so quickly. Or if a song runs 2 minutes and 45 seconds, but the titles run a minute longer, you have to arrange that song so it doesn't get repetitious.

I don't need the credits for playing the blues and paying the dues. I've already done it. There are some other things to do here - movies and scores and voice-overs.

I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies.

I would like to do more film scoring, period. Whether it is a big film, a small film, or just anything. I feel like I have a lot to learn, and what better way to do it than on the job?

I studied film scoring and orchestration and conducting and arranging in my twenties, and I scored a lot of television shows and other things.

I've been doing a lot of music for films and television for quite a few years.

When I compose for any film, I always work with the story in mind.

There are lots of different parts of movie-making that I participate in, but my favorite part is the making of it. I'm scared, every day. I keep thinking someone's going to throw me the ball and I'm going to go, "Oh, wow. Oh, god. I just messed that up."

When scoring a film, empathy is the key. And it is just as important to use music to express the actors' emotions as it is to move the audience.

I've never been to anywhere in Africa except Egypt. We've never performed there, so I would definitely like to make that trip, probably to South Africa. I'd also like to score a movie from top to bottom. I've had songs in a bunch of films but never done an entire movie. I'd like to do that and have it to be a hit, too!