Interview with DISTRICT 9' composer, Clinton SHORTER

HUMAN COMPOSER SETS TONE FOR ANTICIPATED SCI-FI DRAMA

DISTRICT 9

                       

 

 

(Earth - Los Angeles, CA) Film Composer Clinton Shorter scores DISTRICT 9  produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp. The film, based on Blomkamp’s short film, Alive in Joburg, centers on the fallout caused by a group of alien refugees stranded on Earth (in Johannesburg) and forced into a segregation camp (the title comes from District 6, a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town infamous for the forced removal of 60,000 residents in the 70s by the Apartheid regime). The film blends documentary style with traditional shooting techniques. Shorter, recently named by Hollywood Reporter “Next Generation of Film Composers to Watch,” has worked with the director on several projects, “I had worked with Neill [Blomkamp] over the years on his commercials and short films. When he called in late 2008 and asked me if I'd score his first feature I was all over it.”

For “District 9,” Shorter collaborated closely with Blomkamp, “I spent the first several weeks experimenting with every African instrument I could think of. Neill was really pushing me to give the score an African sound; it was quite a task to maintain an African feel but give the film the darkness and edge it required. We incorporated African male vocals with some percussion from the region combined with other elements. With “District 9,” I knew from the beginning that I was going to go with more of a hybrid score of live and synthesized instruments. Without giving too much away there's a "mutation" of sorts in the film and I wanted to have that mirrored in the music” Shorter also scored the short film which was the impedus of the feature but, as the composer said, “For the short, we hired a singer and used various orchestral libraries. The sound for the feature is quite different.” 

"I had known Neill for a few years leading up to that short. A friend of mine worked at the same CG house that he was working at, Neill was only 22 at the time but everyone at the office could see the talent and felt one day he would be a super star."

 

 

Dear Mister SHORTER, may you tell us more about you? Your background, your training and how you came to work in film music for example. Does composing for television differ from film?

I took up guitar when I was 15 years old. My high school had a recording studio so I spent a lot of time in there writing and recording for my rock band. After high school I went to college to study music but dropped out after a year and a half. One weekend while jamming with my rock trio a friend put on the score to Mark Isham's Never Cry Wolf. It was primarily a synth based score and I was completely blown away. I had never connected with film music like I did with that score. I went back to school, albeit a different one, and studied synthesis, sampling, composition and studio operations. I landed a gig assistant a Film/TV composer for about five years. We worked on over 300 TV episodes during that time, the main difference between TV and film is the acts, as there are many more because of commercials. The other difference is the time you have, you must be able to turn around a lot of music in a very short time in TV. 

 

What composers, be it classical or in the arena of film music, have inspired you the most?

I would say Mark Isham and Thomas Newman.

 

How did you start on "District 9"?

I was called by Neill in November of 2008 and he asked me if I was interested. Of course I was as everything Neill does is incredible.

  

May you tell us more about your relationship with Neill Blomkamp?  And could you tell us how productive it was to work with director and producer Peter Jackson?

I met Neill at a CG facility here in Vancouver about eight years ago. My friend was working there and introduced me to him. Peter Jackson's involvement appeared to be quite limited from my perspective. After Neill would approve a cue we would have it forwarded on to Peter for his approval. We never received a single note back so it was either that Peter let Neill decide on the score or that he loved it. I'm hoping it was the latter ;)

Could you describe your process of writing and explain your approach for “District 9” score? How would you describe it? Did you create themes, and did you use electronic sounds?

The first thing I do is have general discussions with the director. Most times films have temporary or temp as we call it mixed in with the dialogue and SFX so I try to find out how he or she feels about it. I'll usually watch it the first time straight through just to get a feel for it then another time and make a list of cues and notes. Next up is more discussions with the director about the general tone of the film then its writing time. I add up how many minutes of score there is then divide it by the number of days I have to complete it to figure out how many minutes of music I have to write in a day. You don't go to bed until you've hit your minutes so some days are long, others are not. 

With "District 9" we spent the first few weeks experimenting with instrumentation and then once we had that where we wanted it I was writing all day. One of the interesting challenges was scoring the first act of the film. Because it's shot as a documentary it took a bit to get the write feel for the scenes, Neill didn't want any of what was on camera to be accented dialogue wise so it's basically just blanketed score. After the "black fluid" scene we get more and more thematic. I would describe the score as a hybrid of synths sound design and orchestra that evolves as the film does. It grows and becomes more and more dramatic and thematic as the film progresses.

 

There are many schools of thought about musical scores; some would suggest that a score should have as much of a presence as any other part of the production; others prefer scores that you don't notice, that heighten the film almost subliminally. Where do you stand with "District 9"? What’s the role of your score?

I think every film is different in this regard. To think there is only one way for a score to film is naive. Some films require the score to stand out more in order to accent and help draw out the emotions of the viewer, others are better if they go completely unnoticed. For "D9" my role was to go unnoticed in the first act and become more noticed as the drama unfolded. By noticed I don't mean the viewer specifically hears the score but that it plays a larger role. In the end, the whole point of score is just to help the viewer feel, and connect more to what they are seeing on screen.

 

You choose African and vocals and instruments for your score. May you tell us more about that?

We decided to go with African vocals as our lead because it was really the only instrument that could maintain the edge and darkness that Neill was after. 

 

Would you be interested working again on a Peter Jackson Movie (“Tintin”,“Halo”,“The Hobbit” saga, …)?

 Who wouldn't be interested in working with Peter Jackson? :)

 

 And what  about “Cole”? How and why did you come on this project? May you describe your work for this film?

 I scored “Cole” in November 08 for a couple friends of mine, Carl Bessai and Jason James. I have worked with them quite a few times. It's always a great working relationship and very rewarding artistically. The score for Cole is very minimal both time-wise and instrumentation-wise. There's only about eight  minutes of score and it's mostly guitar and some ambiences. It's at the Toronto Film Festival this year.

 

Anything else, new and exciting coming up?

There have been some nibbles but nothing I can mention just yet ;)

 

Thank you for your time, Clinton.

My pleasure Christine. Cheers