FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire

http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
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MICHAEL GIACCHINO ON BEING
A COMPOSER
The Star Trek and Up composer talks us through his day
He reduced a good proportion of the audience to tears with his score for Up and in particular its barnstorming Married Life
sequence and geed up the Federation in its fight against rogue Romulans and genetically-engineered warlords in J .J .
Abrams Star Trek films. Now hes hard at work on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, but composer of the moment Michael
Giacchino took a moment to talk us through what he does for a living, and how he does it.
WORDS HELEN O'HARA
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FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
Photo: Art Streiber
THERE'S SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS ABOUT COMPOSING MUSIC. While many of us will have hummed a tuneless
ditty absently in the shower or whistled while we work, few can build a coherent melody and harmony around that, score
the thing for a full orchestra and employ it to bring to life the subtext of a cinema story. For that, you need a film composer
both talented and trained which is where Michael Giacchino comes in for a privileged few directors who have him on
speed dial. But, perhaps surprisingly, the origin of some of his best work, like the Oscar-winning Married Life theme from
Up, comes from the same place as the rest of us.
I remember having this idea literally in the shower, says Giacchino. I had this thing come to me, and I went out to the
piano and played it. Then I thought, OK, I wont write it down. If I remember it tomorrow, then Ill present it to Pete [Docter,
director] and see what happens.
Usually, Giacchino has a more conventional working environment. Like many working parents, his first job each day is
getting the kids to school before heading upstairs to his office-slash-music-room to start work, caffeine-fuelled and ready to
go. I try to keep a regular work schedule, he explains. I dont like working all hours of the night and having an unreliable
working pattern. At 12pm sharp, he breaks for lunch no matter what. By late afternoon, the kids are home and playing
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FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
I always tell J.J. that it's
really fun when we
work together because
it really does feel like
were ten again.
their own instruments. It starts to get a little noisy! admits Giacchino, who finishes up soon after to be with his family and
just do things that have nothing to do with work.
Such a strict schedule is not what we associate with composers who, thanks to biopics like Amadeus and Immortal
Beloved, are often portrayed as fiery iconoclasts only at peace when theyre burning the midnight oil. I have friends who
do what I do and they will work all hours of the night and work constantly, laughs Giacchino, [but] I cannot, cannot do
that. I cant do it cause theres just other things in life I wanna do, I wanna see. Schedules are what they are; occasionally
you have to compromise and you will have to work late, but mostly its pretty steady so I can have somewhat of a normal
life in this crazy business.
Giacchino started making films in his basement as a young teenager, and
quickly found that creating the music for them was his favourite part of the
process. So after he graduated from a course on film and history in New
York, he began studying music at J ulliard, famous from every high-school
movie featuring a would-be musician ever. At the same time, he took day
jobs at Universal and Disney, and began to establish himself in the film
business. He soon moved to LA where he kept up his music studies.
Landing a job as a producer at Disney Interactive, Giacchino hired himself
to write the music for their games and began his official career as a
composer.
His big break would prove prophetic: he created the score for DreamWorks
Interactives The Lost World: J urassic Park PlayStation game, the first such
game to get full orchestral support and a franchise that Giacchino is soon
to revisit on the big screen with J urassic World. More big games followed,
including a stint on Medal Of Honor that would bring him to the attention of
a young up-and-coming director called J .J . Abrams, who was looking for a
composer for his new TV spy show Alias. It was to prove a match made in
heaven.
I always tell J .J . that its really fun when we work together because it really does feel like were ten again, says Giacchino
of their creative chemistry. Were literally saying to each other, Oh my god, wouldnt it be so cool if we did this! in the
same way that when you were a kid youd be like, Wouldnt it be great if we made a robot? And you make a robot out of
trash cans and it doesnt work, he adds, as Empire conjures images of J .J .s earliest bad robot. You made something and
it was fun, and thats what I look for when Im working.
The pair followed Alias with Lost and beyond in Abrams film work on Mission: Impossible and Super 8, but it was
Giacchino who made the move into films first, scoring The Incredibles for Brad Bird. He reteamed with Bird on Ratatouille
and stayed with Pixar for Up, giving him a stable of regular director collaborators that has now expanded to include Apes
Matt Reeves and soon J urassic Worlds Colin Trevorrow.
As the New J erseyan stresses, its always the alchemy of rich material and personal connection that draws him in. I want
them to be first of all projects that I am passionate about, he says, and second of all projects that the people Ill be
spending a lot of time with are people that I actually like spending time with. So much of it is about who the director is. Is it
somebody that I feel I can get along with? Thats important to me when I spend so much time working on these things. If
you look at my credits, most of them are the same directors over and over. Its like your group of friends when you were
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FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
growing up, your core group of friends. The guys I work with all grew up loving movies and listening to film scores, so
youre speaking this crazy geek language, these weird facts that nobody else knows. Theres not a lot of directors who can
name the soundtrack to Airport 77 in the way J .J . will pull that out. Its great because Ill know exactly what hes talking
about.
DESPITE WORKING ON SOME OF THE BIGGEST FILMS of the last few years as we speak, hes hard at work on
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Giacchinos at a remove from the continuous roil of crises managed and disasters
averted that is a film set. I love going to visit when J .J .s filming and theyre in town. But man, is it long, long hours, and
youre not in control of it. Im very lucky in as far as my work goes because I can form this perfect little world where nobody
is bothering me.
When it comes to finding the right sound for the films he scores, like most composers Giacchino relies on an encyclopaedic
knowledge of music. In his case, a childhood romp through his fathers basement full of vinyl gave him a wide-ranging
musical base on which to build. His early childhood favourites included great film composers Max Steiner (I remember
seeing King Kong and being amazed by the music), David Shire, J ohn Williams, J erry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann but
ranged much further.
FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
S P O T I F Y P L A Y L I S T
THE BEST OF
GIACCHINO
1. Kronos Unveiled
Michael Giacchino
Empire's Michael Giacchino Pl
3:17
1. Kronos Unveiled
Michael Giacchino
2:27
2. Road Trip!
Michael Giacchino
0:38
3. Welcome To Gusteau's - Score
Michael Giacchino
2:09
4. Ratatouille Main Theme - Score
Michael Giacchino
5:00
5. Dinner Rush - Score
Michael Giacchino
3:05
6. Schifrin and Variations
Michael Giacchino
4:11
7. Married Life
Michael Giacchino
5:20
8. Seizing The Spirit Of Adventure
Michael Giacchino
I loved (American composer) J ohn Philip Sousa, I loved those marches. My dad had these great Benny Goodman albums
that I was obsessed with, and Louis Primas another guy I loved, and Peter Niro the jazz pianist. I loved international music:
Irish music, Mexican music. I love the different colours that they all have. I was obsessed with whatever was in the
basement record collection. I yanked up everything and really just ate it up. I didnt realise that later on in life it would be a
huge help in my work just to have all those references running through my head.

But when finding the right sound for each film, the composer has to
work closely with his directors. While some approve a rough version
of the themes and then hear the score onstage for the first time,
others review each cue step-by-step and tailor each to a perfect fit
for the material. Thats my favourite thing, he enthuses, when I get
to sit with the director and we listen to what Im writing and we figure
out how we can make it better together. Working with Matt Reeves
on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, he comes over at nine in the
morning and leaves around one in the afternoon, and by the time he
leaves everything is ten times better. Sometimes Ill have questions
about character intent and emotional intent and I can get those
things cleared up very easily when were together. Tomorrows our
final review day actually. You have to meld your minds because he
has a story he wants to tell and my music has to tell the best version
of that story. We get to be fully in tune with each other.
The composer has generally seen a rough cut of the film before
starting work on the score, although in the case of something like
Star Trek Into Darkness, he may already have character themes
prepared. Its really nice when you have a chance to do that without
any picture. You get better ideas and can flesh things out better. For
Apes, I wrote a big sweep and the picture still isnt quite finished yet
so Matt told me, J ust write the piece you wanna hear and well
make it fit.' Sometimes you find yourself struggling to make a certain
phrase fit or add a certain tempo, so thats nice!
When recording the score, and Giacchinos unabashedly in love with
live music. Hes not ruling out a synth score if the film needed it
but clearly lives for the orchestra. I like experimenting, I like doing
new things, but I love working with live musicians. Thats my favourite thing in the world and Im very lucky to be able to do
that on every film that I work on. Im glad that all the directors I work with feel the same way; they love the orchestra. It is
fun to be with people who appreciate that era of Hollywood because now theres a wide variety of film scores.
In recent years, with an increasingly high profile following that Oscar win for Up and the stellar rise of his regular
collaborators, in particular Abrams, Giacchino has faced the challenge of scoring films based on existing material much of
it with its own, already-existing iconic themes. There, his approach is to strike a balance: creating something that supports
new characters without abandoning what made the story popular in the first place. In Star Trek, his solution was an entirely
new score that climaxed with the original theme over the end credits. Meanwhile, in his original sections, he tended to
FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
subvert expectation. Of that barnstorming opening, which sees J ames T. Kirk born amid a desperate space battle,
Giacchino eschewed the obvious bombastic approach in favour of something sotto voce. Loud, dramatic music has a
tendency to push me away, he says of his cue, Labor Of Love, written for the heartbreaking sequence. My approach is
generally to be softer and quieter as opposed to louder and more dramatic. When I can be simple and gentle then I feel like
it draws you in. I love it when I get a chance to do one of those scenes.
For Apes, his approach is equally nuanced. J erry Goldsmith did one of the greatest scores on the planet when he wrote
Planet Of The Apes. I definitely want to tip my hat to what he brought to the table, but at the same time create something
new that is relatable to the characters were now dealing with. You find yourself trapped when youre paying homage to
something and youre not paying attention to what youre supposed to be doing for the characters sometimes; it will create
a disconnect for the audience. Something I learned working with Brad Bird is that director and composer need to be hand-
in-hand every step of the way telling the same story, or else the audience gets to this place where theyre thinking
something we dont want them to think. The best way is writing music that reflects what these characters are feeling or
thinking in every single second of the movie, so its a real tightrope that youre walking all the time.



C A S E S T U D Y
WRITING 'MARRIED
LIFE'



FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]

While Giacchino came up with the theme to Up's 'Married Life' sequence in the shower, it wasn't quite that easy. Here,
he explains how it went.
"I HAD WRITTEN ANOTHER FIRST PIECE that was somewhere near where we ended up but it wasn't quite right.
[Director] Pete Docter had requested a tune that might play if you opened 'a little music box in your grandmother's
dresser'. The next day [after conceiving the melody during his shower] I sat down at the piano and I was like, 'Oh, there
it is! I can still remember it, so that's a good sign'. I played it for Pete and he was like, 'That's the one.' And really, that's
where it starts.
"The first scene that I did in the movie was 'Married Life' and it was
a very complicated theme. You need to follow this very emotional
story. The thing about it is, as we were recording it everyone's crying
each time we did it! You look at a scene like that and you see that
this is something that we're all gonna go through in our lives. It really
gets you thinking beyond just the fact that you're watching a Pixar
movie. That emotion naturally went into the scoring of it, for me,
anyway.
"I remember we recorded it once, and we were happy with most of it,
but we did go back several months later and go 'Okay, this section
could be better'. You pinpoint little errors that could be working a
little better. [The animation team] even went through and adjusted
what they were doing a little bit over the month as well. That's a
thing about animation: you can record some early pieces while
they're still working on the film and realise how they could be better.
With live action you don't always get that chance. Usually, it's all
recorded in the final weeks of making the film and there's a mad
rush to get it finished."
"I must love sad music because even in Lost, in such a crazy show
like that, there's so much sad and melancholy music. I think it's
always something that's attracted me; I'm not exactly sure why. For
me, when I can do that I love doing it, so to work on a film like Up, that had that emotional underpinning, it's a real treat
and gives you a chance to express these feelings that normally people hide. Here's an excuse to put it out there and be
upfront with it.
"I get all kinds of reactions to Up. People say, 'Oh you made me cry!'. I'm like, 'Well, I apologise, but well crying's good
for you, you know?' You're getting something that needs to come out there. So, there you are, it's for your own good."

FilmStudies 101: Michael Giacchino On Being A Composer | Features | Empire
http://www.empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-michael-giacchino-composer[05/06/2014 23:31:37]
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Great article!
Welling up again just reading about 'Married Life'. More
Posted by manufan on Thursday J une 5, 2014, 09:31
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