Anyone who has listened to the constructinghorror.com ScoreFeed will be familiar with award-winning composer Kurt Oldman. Born in Switzerland, Kurt Oldman grew up in a house of musicians. His parents attended the world-renowned Conservatory of Music in Fribourg. His grandfather was a pianist, his great grandfather a conductor.
Kurt Oldman has scored an impressive number of films and television projects in a variety of genres, all with strikingly originality. Before moving to California he studied at the Conservatory of Music and the Lucerne Swiss Jazz School. In Los Angeles he continued his studies at the UCLA Film scoring program and with famed film composer Christopher Young, Hellraiser, The Grudge, The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Recently he scored the horror movies Babysitter Wanted and Neighbor, two intense disharmonic and frightening scores. Listen to this rising talent and learn from him as we explore the art of scoring music for films in the horror genre.
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Constructing Horror : What are the initial discussions you have with the director?
Kurt Oldman : Every director communicates differently. Some directors like to reference material, like, “I really liked this score for this film,” or, “I like this kind of music.” Other directors, talk in terms of feeling, like, “Okay, I’d like it to be a very dark score.” So every director really uses a different kind of a language to communicate what it is they want. Sometimes you don’t have the opportunity for an initial discussion and that can be tricky. This happened on The Confidant, the film I’m working on right now. We really didn’t know what the style of the music was going to be. You know, was it going to be an orchestral score? Was it going to be electronic? In one way it is good as I guess that’s a reflection of how much trust the director has in me but its still tricky.
C.H. : And is there anything you particularly need from the director at this stage? Besides the mood and instrumentation?
K.O. : Do I need anything in particular? No. Usually I get to see the film. Once I see the film I immediately get ideas floating around in my head of what we could do for it. That might be different from what the director wants. So we have the initial discussion, what could we do? What does he want? Where am I at? Are we on completely different spectrums with what it is we want to do? I prefer not to read the script as there might be in a completely different tone once it’s put on film. So, in my experience, it can be a waste of time trying to set the musical style and instrumentation from only the script.
C.H. : What do you look for the first time you see the movie at the spotting session?
K.O. : Usually when I first see the movie, it already has temp music in it, which can be a blessing or a curse. But it gives you somewhat of an idea of where the director wants music to start and end. Which I think is helpful and can save a lot of time if the film is temped well. On the other hand there are films that you see the first time around and the music just doesn’t make any sense. So I usually ask the director, “What do you really think about this temp music? Is it something you are leaning toward, or can I completely ignore the it?” It’s important to try to find out what the director was trying to achieve with the temp music. There might be a valid reason as to why he chose something I initially thought did not work or he may say, “Hey, I just threw it in there just because”. But otherwise, when I first see a film, I have to decide, “Is it something I want to do?” or “Is it something that I even could do?” I have to understand a film and connect with it before I can actually score it.
C.H. : In the discussions after the spotting sessions, when you go down to specifics, do you discuss an arc in the movie, the music progressing in one direction or another, or do you go to specific scenes and discuss where to put the music?
K.O. : Yes, that’s really what the spotting session is all about. You start talking to the director about when the music starts, where it ends, how it’s supposed to feel in particular moments of the film. There are directors who, at a spotting session, really talk about every single beat of a particular scene. “Here, I want to go a little bit sadder, and let’s brighten it up a little here, two seconds later.” The discussions can get difficult if there is say a director and producer involved with different points of view. I have had that before and it’s my job to find the common ground and flush out the best ideas. The shortest session I have had was about 2 hours and the longest was probably about 3 days.
C.H. : Do you ever discuss arcs?
K.O. : Not in traditional sense. We tend not to talk about character or story arcs as its usually pretty clear to me. We might talk about a climax of the film or a particular scene or sometimes I might ask, “What is the most important moment in this film?” Also, sometimes you want to score something that is not apparent on the screen, for example the inner turmoil of the character or an underlying tone, so I will discuss that with the director. I the horror genre we tend to talk more about what we should hit or accent and what should be approached in a more subtle way. A lot of the times they want to hit everything but sometimes less is more.
C.H. : Do you do this during the whole process? But I suspect you go from intuition—just feeling and searching creatively for themes and moods and so forth—to techniques?
K.O. : You’re right.
C.H. : What would those techniques be, if you have any in the horror genre?
K.O. : I like to have strong thematic material. I think an audience appreciates themes to a certain degree. There are scores that have no themes and you can certainly get away with that. But with horror especially you can establish the film with a very, very strong theme. Once you have a strong theme you can take it apart and use very small fragments throughout the film. Not so much that the audience says, “Oh, there’s that theme again.” But enough to where they might get the feeling that “Oh, okay, something might be happening soon,” because there’s this little underlying fragment of the theme playing.
C.H. : What are the advantages of using theme? Like the score for Seven, for instance, there is no theme in a traditional sense. More like a soundscape with an orchestra.
K.O. : Depending on the film, themes can immediately bring you back to a specific moment. You can immediately say, okay, this is what’s going to happen. Take something like Final Destination. When the low violas come in, you know we’re going to have the next death. So you can really prepare the audience for something, which is tougher to do in a non-thematic score. I mean, you still have things you can use, like electronics, or an orchestral texture to achieve similar things. But a theme is just straight to the point. The audience will get it immediately.
C.H. : How do you approach the psychological connections between story and music when you compose a score?
K.O. : The psychological stuff might not necessarily be done with thematic material, because it’s not that upfront. It’s more this underlying connection that you’re trying to do psychologically. So you might be doing that more in a textual way, which I love doing very, very much. The psychological stuff, like in Seven, is really more of an ambient kind of a texture, which works really well. You definitely have to discuss the psychological elements with the director because, for you as a composer, it might not always be apparent where the psychological stuff is going on.
C.H. : What happens after the spotting session?
K.O. : Depending on the film, I like to take a week or two, to really fine tune the style of the score. We may have discussed general things such as: What type of score is it? Is it going to be a big orchestral score? Is it going to be ambient electronic score? Are we going to use an accordion and a kazoo, or is it going to be a string quartet? But not necessarily made a final decision. That’s usually my responsibility, to answer the questions musically, in a way that works for the film. I also like to spend a good amount of time coming up with thematic material. A lot of times I’ll just sit down at the piano and start writing ideas down, rather than at the computer, to really try to find the heart and soul of the film. I then take these sketches and sit down on my sequencer, which is Qbase, and really start chipping away. I like to put the thematic material in the context of the film before presenting it to the director. I start by weaving initial thematics into some of the more important—the milestone cues of the film, which is typically somewhere in the middle of the film. I tend not to work sequentially. I think the only film I scored that way was Babysitter Wanted. I started with the opening kill and ended with the last scene.
C.H. : Why do you often start in the middle?
K.O. : For a variety of reasons. Sometimes its because I want to start with the easiest cue or other times it because I want to start with the most important cue. It can be dangerous though, not starting in the beginning of the film, especially for thematic writing. You need to make sure you keep an overview of how often the theme is being used and how it is spaced out throughout the film.
C.H. : Is it the main theme that you’re looking for first?
K.O. : Yes. I really start out with the main theme. Sometimes I come up with four or five or even more themes then it’s a matter of working out which one really is the main theme for the film. Sometimes it’s the first theme that I write where the director says, “Yes, that’s it,” and sometimes it’s number 10, 12, 13. Sometimes we actually combine themes. The director might say, “I like this theme, but I like that one as well” so I combine them. I really haven’t come across too many directors who don’t want to go thematic, especially in the horror genre. I know there are many horror films these days that have a very ambient kind of soundscape score, which works to a certain degree. But my first approach to any horror film is a thematic approach. Even films like Saw have a strong thematic element.
C.H. : So how come you don’t present themes to the director without the context?
K.O. : I think directors have a tough time associating thematic material that is not in a context. More often than not their response is, “That’s a lovely theme, but how does it relate to our film?” It might relate to me as a composer very strongly when I play it on the piano. But a director sometimes doesn’t make that connection. So, as a composer, you really want to take that theme and put in the strings, etc, and present it that way. Directors are visually people so it only makes sense to present your musical ideas in a visual context.
C.H. : What makes a strong theme?
K.O. : A theme has to be easily recognizable. It has to brand the film somehow. The theme for Babysitter Wanted was very specific because it’s played on a music box. It can’t be this complex [plays dissonant melody on the piano]. Even though what I just played was a theme nobody will be able to sing it. If an audience member walks out of the movie theater whistling my theme then I have achieved one of my goals.
C.H. : So do you write themes for characters as well?
K.O. : Yes. That is something I’m more aware of now than when I first started out scoring. On Neighbor, which was a couple months ago, Robert [A. Masciantonio] actually asked for character themes. Robert is a director who loves themes. If he’s got a theme he’s happy.
C.H. : What’s the difference between a main theme and a character theme?
K.O. : Sometimes nothing-they are the same theme. Other times they are very similar or a derivative. On Neighbor, we had an opening theme, which was a very intrusive, high-strain theme, but then we also went into the main character’s theme.
C.H. : What attracts you to the horror genre?
K.O. : I’ve always been a big horror fan. Growing up, I’ve been watching horror films all my life. I just love horror films, including all of the old ones. I’m still studying Psycho, for example. I’ll never get over that film. I think horror films are the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing. I remember seeing Hellraiser II: Hellbound, and thinking jeez, I didn’t know you could do that, write a score for a film like that. The attraction these days is, I’m a big Pinderecki fan myself. I love doing textures, and you can probably hear that in Babysitter Wanted. I can really get my hands dirty on a horror film. I don’t have to be too worried about tiptoeing around and if the director has to pull me back, that’s fine.
C.H. : What’s the most important thing that you ever learned when it comes to composing for movies?
K.O. : I would say it’s to have a strong thematic approach. Have a good theme. That was something Christopher Young taught me. And what is a good theme? There’s this theory behind it, which came from Chris Young, which is, if you play a cue to somebody once, will they be able to sing or whistle it to you? And if they can, then I think it passes the test.
C.H. : What advice would you have for beginning filmmakers when it comes to music for films?
K.O. : Don’t underestimate the score. Any director who knows his genre, understand what the music is going to do for the film. And they don’t try to make the film something it’s not. I don’t think you can save a poorly produced film with good music. You can help, but I don’t think you can save it. I think the best situation— If the horror film works without music, then you can start scoring it.
