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Slow West 2015

Do you think that taking a spare “lo fi” approach to “Slow West” makes it more realistic?

“I think it just gives it an honesty and intimacy that the film really responds to. It’s also the way I like to hear strings. I don’t like to add too much to the production, I avoided overdubs and editing and tried to get a true reflection of the musicians in a room playing together. I love the rawness and honesty of smaller sections when it comes to strings and I think that has a lot to do with coming from Australia.”

Jed Kurzel

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Wind River 2017

The stark and remote setting was where Cave and Ellis found most of the inspiration for their score. “The soundtrack to the beautiful Wind River was first and foremost the incessant wind or the grieving silence of the snow,” the pair said in a press release. “Amid those elemental forces, we made a kind of ghost score where voices whisper and choirs rise up and die away and electronics throb and pulse.”

"Wind river is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at their absolute haunting and meditative best. This is not just music, it’s also poetry and even if I am not one to care much about awards, I think it’s time this pair was considered for an Academy Award for this score that brings both the swaying of trees under the winter wind and the wind itself; it has the best choral and vocal work they have done yet and it makes me feel both the frozen beauty, the still sadness and every danger that lurks in the wilderness of the story. It also has one of the best voices ever to grace our ears whisper poems that to me talk about never letting go of the one you truly love. “Wind river” is dark and beautiful, a flawless musical story and I couldn’t help but get misty eyed by the time “Memory time” came. It’s the perfect conclusion to a perfect score." Mihnea Manduteanu

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The Truman Show 1998

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13 Reasons Why 2017

Dylan Minnette (Clay) had a dialogue with producer Brian Yorkey from the get-go about what songs should be on the soundtrack. "I love that he was so open and it was very much a collaboration. There are so many artists on the soundtrack that I'm so proud of. And Clay's room is filled with posters of my favorite bands. There are other artists that I would love to have in there, but they aren't artists that I feel Clay would listen to."

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The Rover 2014

“For his post-economic-collapse picture, David Michôd decided to only employ post-apocalyptic modes through mood, atmosphere, and music. While there’s some score by Antony Partos utilized, the bulk of the movie’s simmering, sinister musical tendencies are discordant and cacophonous source music by experimental and ambient composers the director chose. There’s seminal avant-garde musician William Basinski, Chicago post-rockers Tortoise, and Montreal-based saxophonist and multireedist Colin Stetson—a touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre, and Bon Iver.”

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Hud 1963

“In searching out recordings featuring the drummer Earl Palmer, I came across Bernstein's score for Hud. I saw comments about how easy it must have been for him to just record his 6 minutes of score and be done. In actuality Bernstein recorded his score twice: once with a 12-piece ensemble, and then re-orchestrated by Bob Bain for three guitars. Presumably the revision was at director Ritt’s request for a smaller and even more intimate sound. Let's also not forget that there’s some source music in the film – car radios, the jukebox at the diner where Hud sucker-punches the guy, records playing in the background and music at the rodeo.”

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The Thin Red Line 1998

Hans Zimmer, the composer on the film along with John Powell (who provided additional music) composed over four hours of music on this film, presumably for the original director's cut of the film. However, when director Terrence Malick re-cut the film down to its current running time of 170 minutes, he chose only a few select pieces of music from Zimmer's and Powell's musical contributions, along with original source music, which ended up in the theatrical edition of the film.

Hans Zimmer's score would influence the direction his style would take for the rest of his career. Many directors (especially Christopher Nolan) would employ him based on their love for the film and the desire for its similar ambiance, specifically based on the track "Journey to the Line". Ironically, with the exception of "Journey to the Line", most of Zimmer's score did not make the final cut. What was used was often sampled with various other music chosen by Terrence Malick to create an intricate work that is very often mistakenly credited to Zimmer.

Music Editor Lee Scott and Francesco Lupica, the creator and performer of the Cosmic Beam, provided the haunting "metalic" sound to the films score. What sounds like a large distant bell is actually the Cosmic Beam. Malick would later use variations of the Cosmic Beam in his films, The New World (2005) The Tree of Life (2011) To the Wonder (2013) and Knight of Cups (2015).

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Akira 1988

The music for the film was completed before any of the composers saw a frame of film or read the script. The music did have to be edited to fit some scenes though.

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Macbeth 2015

“I think it is subtle. It’s a strange one, as some people seem to think that it’s bigger and more bombastic than it actually is, and then others are more in line with what you’re saying… I suppose that that’s what I wanted really, as the language is so dense and so lyrical that there’s no need to get in there and start undercutting it with the music.

My response to it was more to do with the landscape, and so I used that as a stepping-off point, and so I suppose that there is a certain horror within that. It is a dark score and there are elements in it that are a bit of a tip of the hat to horror films, but I think that the landscape was a bigger influence.“

Jed Kurzel

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Manchester by the Sea 2016

“The film is set in a small Massachusetts setting and when we meet Lee he has returned to this small town. It seems like he’s trying to start over or he’s trying to reconnect with the town and reconnect with himself, and also come to terms with his past. When I read the script, I just had this idea of Massachusetts as a place of new colonisation and started thinking about pilgrims who came to this part of the world to start over again, and looked at old seventeenth century hymns and how they sung a cappella. I started to develop pieces that still sounded modern but had a sense of this very old, originating material. That was where that idea came from and it just seemed right, and when Kenny and I started working with the music in conjunction to the themes, it started a new perspective and worked really well.

A lot of the score is an intuitive process and some of it is created more by design. Once I see the film and how it has been cut and see what the director’s looking for, then we start a collaborative dialogue and look at what’s working and what’s not, and build a score that way. With this film I wrote some of the scenes before we started working. I wrote the vocal scenes and a piece that later became orchestral, that in its beginnings was an improvisation on piano – variations on specific scenes developed from improvisations.

There’s a couple of places where we used the a cappella pieces that really brings a new perspective to the scenes and there’s something unifying about these in the way they accumulate meaning as the film goes on. Those pieces for me work well when Lee is looking for work, or when Patrick’s on his way to his father’s funeral, or Lee driving alone in his car. I think I most enjoy the way the meaning of the pieces strengthened with the film and with the gathering meaning of the film.

When I was working on the film I felt like Lee was in the room everyday. You do build an incredible emotional attachment to the characters that you’re writing for. There are always those times in our lives when we’re going through really tough stuff, nothing like what Lee’s going through, which is unimaginable, but the sun is still shining and life is still going on and you’re sort of just putting one foot in front of the other. There’s also an incredible amount of humour in the film; it’s a wonderful meeting place of darkness and light and grief and humour. So it was a complicated, beautiful world to be a part of."

Lesley Barber

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All is Lost 2013

“The main theme, “Excelsior,” was the first thing I wrote for the movie, as I recall. The first scene I scored to was the ending, and that sort of set the tone for me. It was and is so very beautiful, the death of it so overwhelmingly liberating, that nothing short of something that felt sacred would do. This applied as well to the drones, which were largely Tibetan bowls and giant crystal bowls, which give the most sonorous hum.

I wanted to create the fourth wall, so to speak—the chorus calling Redford to surrender. To me that alto flute is the truth—of the wild, solipsistic union with the elements and of the strange and cold beauty of surrender. At first it is imperceptible as the wind and he pays no heed, or perhaps is even challenged onwards by it. Finally though, in my favorite moment of the story, Redford has had enough, and the flute comes in once again to accompany him while he writes his last letter—and we never hear the theme again. He has surrendered.

I basically planned on not writing a song for the movie at all, as I knew that forcing something would be a disaster. But then, one day, something came, and I felt it had the potential to speak to this story. The refrain that kept coming was “Amen.” The character’s name in the script is “Our Man,” which is phonetically very close to “Amen.” As for the rest of the lyrics, I decided to write them precisely about the dying of the wildly inspired generation of which Redford is an archetype. I used some direct references to Redford himself, but on the whole the song is a conversation between the woeful young, who do not want to be reminded of death, and the defiant old, who now face it head-on.”

Alexander Ebert

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Into the Wild 2007

When Sean Penn asked Eddie Vedder to do the soundtrack, he agreed on the spot, before he knew anything about the film.

After viewing a rough cut of Into the Wild, Vedder quickly went to work writing songs for the film. The following day after watching the film, Vedder began working on material. After three days, Vedder gave Penn a range of material to work with. Penn placed into the film what Vedder had given him, and Vedder then went on to work on more material that Penn could add to the film. Vedder said that Penn "gave [him] a lot of freedom," and added that "the biggest thing was trust, which was just kind of unspoken." Vedder also said that having to write songs based on a narrative "simplified things." He said, "There were fewer choices. The story was there and the scenes were there." Vedder said that the songwriting process "grew" as Penn would ask him for more material.

Vedder described the recording process as a "factory." He said, "I'd just sit in the chair, and they'd hand me a fretless bass, and they'd hand me a mandolin, and they'd take a second to do the rough mix, and then I'd write the vocal, and it was just quick." On the recording sessions as a whole, Vedder stated, "It was like I kinda went into some weird space for a week or two, and then I woke up out of this daze, and it was done. I don't really remember it."

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower 2012

The soundtrack was selected by music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas and the score was composed Michael Brook. Screenwriter and director Stephen Chbosky writes in the album’s liner notes. “I’ve shared them with friends. And they have shared their favourites with me. Some of the songs are popular. Some of them are not known by a whole lot of people. But they are all great in their own way. And since these songs have meant a lot to me, I just wanted you to have them as a soundtrack for whatever you need them to be for your life.”

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Fight Club 1999

“David Fincher was concerned that bands experienced in writing film scores would be unable to tie the movie's themes together, so he sought a band which had never recorded for film. David Fincher initially pursued Radiohead to provide the music for the film, but ultimately chose the breakbeat producing duo Dust Brothers to score the film. The duo created a post-modern score that included drum loops, electronic scratches, and computerized samples. Dust Brothers performer Michael Simpson explained the setup: "Fincher wanted to break new ground with everything about the movie, and a nontraditional score helped achieve that." The film's climax and end credits feature the song "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies.

The release comes in a yellow cardboard package with an IKEA-themed jacket (with touches like “Mondö” and pull-out assembly instructions), a nod to Edward Norton’s character’s obsession with keeping the appearance of being a normal, successful adult. It also features his spirit animal, the penguin. To open the sleeve, a strip of paper with the penguin needs to be removed and the "sacrifice" arrow torn apart, thus separating it in two pieces and destroying it for good, whilst revealing the interior of the sleeve to be printed with ground meat. The package contains printed inner sleeves, an IKEA-like instructions poster, and splattered "pink soap" vinyl.

Outer sleeve can be opened in another way: when separating the flap with the sacrifice arrow, the message "STOP TRYING TO CONTROL EVERYTHING AND JUST LET GO" is revealed.

Timing is not given on sleeve nor label for D4.

When the song titles are read top to bottom, left to right, "un-bolded" letters spell out the "WHere iS My Mind".”

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The Last of Us 2013

“The music for the 2013 action-adventure survival horror video game The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, was composed by musician Gustavo Santaolalla. Supplementary music for the game's downloadable content The Last of Us: Left Behind was composed by Santaolalla, Andrew Buresh, Anthony Caruso and Jonathan Mayer. Both soundtracks were produced by Santaolalla, Mayer, and Aníbal Kerpel, with separate segments recorded in both Los Angeles and Nashville. Santaolalla, known for his minimalist approach to composing, was excited to work on the soundtrack due to the game's focus on the characters and story. He began composing the music early in the game's development, with few instructions from the development team on the tone that they intended. In collaboration with each other, the team and Santaolalla aimed to make the soundtrack emotional, as opposed to scary. Santaolalla used various instruments to compose the score, including some that were unfamiliar to him.For some tracks, he used a detuned guitar, producing deep noise. To produce unique sounds, Santaolalla recorded in various rooms, including a bathroom and kitchen. The title track was composed on a variety of charango called a ronroco. The team wanted the game's AI to affect the music. They also tried to make the music evoke a reaction from the player, as their familiarization with the sounds would trigger a previous emotion that they felt. Music manager Jonathan Mayer felt that the game's action music was atypical for video game action music, stating that it is "relatively low-key", and that taking it out of context changes the immediate reaction to it. The game's theme, "The Last of Us", was the first piece of music that the team received, and they were very impressed. With the music, the team aimed to "get emotion", as opposed to "horror". Inspired by the sparing use of music in the film No Country for Old Men (2007), the team used music judiciously and tried to find other ways to "make your palms sweaty". The orchestral portions of the score were recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville by the Nashville Scoring Orchestra.”

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Drive 2011

“Nicolas Winding Refn chose Johnny Jewel of Desire and the Chromatics to score the film. He wanted electronic music and to have it be abstract, on occasion, so viewers can see things from the Driver's perspective. As Refn was going through mixer Jewel's catalog, he picked out "Under Your Spell" and "Tick of the Clock" because he thought of Drive being a fairy tale. During Drive's climax, "A Real Hero"'s keynote melody, about becoming "a real human being, and a real hero", refrains because that is when the Driver displays both those characteristics. At first, Jewel worried that "Under Your Spell" might be too literal, but soon realized it is used in Drive "in the exact same way that I was feeling it when I wrote it. He definitely got the nuance of the song, and understood what it was supposed to mean, and he wanted to give that emotion to the viewer, that same feeling."

Thinking of music in terms of basic elements, Jewel would tell the director that for certain scenes, it should not have bass since, as an earth tone, it is usually used for a more emotional or ominous part. Jewel thought the music should be in the upper register and relaxing for the "dreamlike" scene. To help himself with the music composition process, and to conjure up melodies, the producer would highlight many phrases from the novel, then print those words in large font, and hung them on his walls or draw pictures during viewings of Drive.

Although Jewel's music was used in the score, at the last minute the studio hired composer Cliff Martinez to imitate the style and feel of Jewel's bands Chromatics and Glass Candy. Refn gave him a sampling of songs he liked and asked Martinez to emulate the sound, resulting in "a kind of retro, 80ish, synthesizer europop". Editor Mat Newman suggested Drive's opening credits song: "Nightcall" by French electronic musician Kavinsky. Most of its ethereal electronic-pop score was composed by Martinez. Refn was a particular fan of his ambient music on the Sex, Lies, and Videotape soundtrack. The score contains tracks with vintage keyboards and bluntly descriptive titles.

Jewel reworked his unused soundtrack for the film into Themes for an Imaginary Film, the debut album by his side-project Symmetry.

A re-scored soundtrack for the film was produced for the BBC by Zane Lowe for its television broadcast in October 2014. The soundtrack included original music from Chvrches, Banks, Bastille, Eric Prydz, SBTRKT, Bring Me the Horizon, The 1975 and Laura Mvula.”

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Dirty Dancing 1987

“The film's soundtrack started an oldies music revival, and demand for the album caught RCA Records by surprise. According to Franke Previte, before a single had even been released, there were a million albums on back-order. The Dirty Dancing album spent eighteen weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 album sales chart, and went platinum eleven times, selling more than thirty-two million copies worldwide. It spawned a follow-up multi-platinum album in February 1988, titled 'More Dirty Dancing’.“