CLARE BOWDITCH - APRA

Richard Tognetti. Photo by Paul Henderson-Kelly
courtesy of ABC Classics
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S C R E E N C O M P O S E R S A N D T H E I R A R T
Compiled by Kirti Jacobs and Anthea Sarris, APRA Communications
According to the Australian Film Commission* twenty-five Australian
features started production in 2005/06. This is the most since the turn
of the decade and more than the five-year average. The budgets of these
films increased from $66 million to $98 million. More films mean more
work for Australia’s screen composers and hopefully are a sign of a
more prosperous period for Australia’s film and film music creators.
We spoke to five writers who have
arrived at composing for the screen
in quite different ways. Their screen
credits reflect not only their breadth and
depth of talent, but also the diversity of
musical styles employed on Australian
film and TV productions. Aprap turns the
spotlight on the art, the craft and the
challenges of composing for the screen.
*National survey of feature film and TV drama
production 2005/06.
Cape of Storms smooth
sailing for composers
“Art for art’s sake is a rare and
wonderful thing. This film was art
for art’s sake.”
Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director and
Lead Violin for the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, is talking about Horrorscopes:
Cape of Storms, a Quiksilver documentary
about surfing the world’s biggest waves
off South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Directed by Justin McMillan and Chris
Nelius, it features a team of crazy bigwave
surfers including Australians Tom
Carroll (who got Tognetti into the film)
and Ross Clarke-Jones, taking on the
fearsome, shark and kelp infested waters
off the Cape. The soundtrack is an original
score by Tognetti, co-composer with Iva
Davies and Chris Gordon for Peter Weir’s
Master and Commander, and Michael
Yezerski, composer Newcastle, Kenny,
No Surrender, Thursday’s Fictions.
A score for
a time and place
Featuring vocals by Afro Moses (credited
as a co-composer), the Cape of Storms
score captures the mythic and legendary
character of the setting and the surfing
adventure.
The sense of journey and place were
important inspirations for both Yezerski
and Tognetti.
“With Cape of Storms, we wanted this
feeling of awe and incredible journey; of
being very alone and human and pitted
against the almighty force of the ocean.”
says Tognetti.
It helped that surfing imagery lends
itself very well to music. As Yezerski
says, “It is a graceful and beautiful
activity, with movements not dissimilar
to dance. We were able to take our
cues from the rhythms and tempi of the
surfers and the waves.”
Screen composing:
a collaborative labour
of love
Tognetti counts himself lucky to have
been involved in two films thus far: “The
best way to make art is without ambition.
Ambition often gets in the way. Screen
composing is applied music. You have to
be incredibly fleet of foot. You have to
be able to change course and direction,
really quickly.”
Yezerski adds, “Screen composers must
be able to engage socially – and enjoy
it! In my experience, producers and
directors don’t tend to want to work with
‘artistes’ who simply dispense music from
their ivory towers. Screen composers are
always part of a team and cannot create
their music in a vacuum.”
That said, it’s important to hold on to
your ideas. Tognetti: “David Lynch once
said if you give up on an idea because
some executive says it’s not going to
work, you lose the kernel that created
the seed, the gestation that created
the whole life force. Watching Peter
Weir work with his inspiration within
this maelstrom of business distraction
[for Master & Commander] – that
emboldened me. The idea is the most
important thing. Never ever give up
on it, even though you might have to
change the way it comes across.”
Amanda Brown:
the Go Between who
Looked Both Ways
Renowned as the violinist with
The Go Betweens during their
classic era, Amanda Brown is also
a sought after session musician
and screen composer. Her screen
credits include Look Both Ways,
Preservation, Floodhouse.
How does your Go Betweens experience
inform your work with film?
Playing in bands taught me to improvise,
and composing is like controlled
improvising. I have also built up a
wonderful stable of musicians and friends
that I call on for various projects.
How does one build a sustainable career
out of screen composition?
You don’t work in the arts in Australia
for monetary gain! What works for me
has been versatility. There are bound
to be lean times so it helps to be multi
skilled. I do a number of part time
jobs, including session work for other
bands, studio engineering and teaching.
Because they’re all music related, I’m
always learning and being inspired by
these ancillary jobs.
What are some of the challenges of
composing for film?
Film music in one part of a collective
whole art form and has to support the
storytelling of the film. There will be
times when the music will be drowned
out by sound effects or relegated to the
cutting room floor so you have to check
your ego at the door. Technically the
look and narrative of the film suggest
certain parameters in regards to tempo,
arrangement and style.
How do you “read” a film before you
begin to compose?
Usually the director has a definite idea
of where the music cues should fall and
sometimes of musical style as well. I
try to find the right instrumentation
first, depending on the period of the
film and what suits the characters and
storyline. Then I find the tempo for the
scene, and think about whether leitmotif
or underscore is appropriate and then
I make my first painstaking tentative
forays onto the blank canvas.
How does music function as a part of
the drama of story telling?
Music can work in all kinds of ways,
supporting the drama, reinforcing
themes, even going completely against
convention to create parody or the
complete opposite of what is happening
visually. The way music can change a
scene constantly amazes me.
How do you know when you’ve been
successful?
When the scene I’m working on is
improved by the presence of music.
There is this intangible moment when
the visual and the aural combine to
create something I can only describe as
magical, almost like being suspended in
time, spellbound.
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