Personne ne croit plus le professeur Trevor Anderson lorsqu'il affirme être sur le point de faire une extraordinaire découverte. Ses hypothèses révolutionnaires l'ont mis au ban de la communauté scientifique. Pourtant, au cours d'une expédition en Islande, Trevor et son neveu, le jeune Sean, sous la conduite de leur guide islandaise Hannah, vont se retrouver plongés dans l'inconnu.
Dans leur périple vers les profondeurs de la Terre, ils rencontreront des mondes inexplorés, des merveilles extraordinaires, des dangers mortels et des créatures fabuleuses... Une seule chose est certaine : à 6 km sous la surface, tout peut arriver. C'est une jeune papa de 3 fillettes qui a composé une partie du score à Gordes en Provence, Andrew LOCKINGTON. Il vous expliquera dans quel état d'esprit il a composé cette musique riche en reliefs, pour ce film 3D.

 

Please Mr. Andrew Lockington, for the readers of Inter-Activities, how would you personally introduce yourself?

I live in Toronto, Canada, not far from where I was born. I love all the arts. I listen to every kind of music. I love to be emotionally moved by things, whether that be adventure, sadness, romance, humour etc. I am the father of three little girls and I think I often see the world through their eyes these days. That's one of the things I loved about working on Journey to the Centre of the Earth, is it reminded me of the films I grew up watching, and I was able to score it as if I was a little kid again.

 Can you tell me about your training and background

 I started playing piano at a very young age, and immediately began writing my own music. In my teenage years I joined a band and would often spend my evenings playing gigs and my daytime going to classes. After high school, I went on to study music composition and orchestration at Wilfrid Laurier University. In was during that time that I became interested in composing music for film.

 What are your sources of inspiration when you compose: styles of music, composers? Do you have any mentor? Are you inspired by a composer in particular? 

I've been fortunate to work on many different types of films. From art films to thrillers to romantic comedies to family adventure. Thus I'm always working in a different style of music. I find that to be half the fun to be honest. I like approaching each project in a new way, and that's much easier to do when you're scoring a genre you have scored for a while. I wouldn't say I'm inspired by any composer in particular, though I did spend many years working with Mychael Danna, and I think that experience definitely rubbed off on me in a very positive way.

 

What do you feel when you're composing and what do you like in this process?

I love using composing as an emotional outlet. Often it's some combination of your own emotions and that of the characters and story you are scoring for. I've always enjoyed creating things and music is definitely an outlet for that. I find it such a rewarding process to create something from nothing, and music all stems from the basic building blocks of sound.

Journey into the Center of the Earth

 How did you come on board Journey into the Center of the Earth?

Journey was first mentioned to me by the VP of music at Newline, Bob Bowen. I had been considered for a few earlier Newline films and he invited me to put together a demo for Journey. He liked what he heard and put me in touch with music supervisor Lindsay Fellows, who in turn put me in touch with the director and producer, and I was fortunate to get the position.

 

 Did you see or listen to the films/scores of the 2 older Journey into the Center of the Earth? Were you inspired by them? Why? 

I made a conscious decision to avoid listening to those scores or re watching those films. Had this been a basic remake of those films then perhaps I would have felt differently. This film is really a modern take on the story and is set in our present day. I wanted to have use a clean slate to approach the score.

What was your approach to the score? Thematic, atmospheric?

 Themes were the most important part of this score, and I spent a lot of time working with the director on creating the perfect themes that would evolve the way we needed them to through the course of the film's 90 minutes. I really wanted the main theme to sound like an adventure theme. The final theme was a theme I wrote while vacationing in France. My wife and I had rented a villa in Gordes, Provence. There was a piano in the living room and I spent a lot of time writing themes at that piano. I can still remember the day this theme came to me, sitting in that old villa surrounded by the most beautiful countryside. I wish I could write all my scores there!

I use it in the score whenever the main characters are in control of their own adventure. It almost has a heroic element to it that helps identify the heroic nature of each character's persona. The second theme is our "peril" theme. This scores all of the moments where the characters are not in control of their own destiny, in free falling, the dinosaur chase etc. The 3rd and less used theme is a theme to score all of the family moments. We first hear this theme when we're introduced to the loss of Max. Later this theme evolves to score the emotional connection between each of our three characters as they grow closer during the course of the adventure.

Who chose this Japanese orchestra? Why? 

The score was recorded at Air Studios in London. The orchestra was a traditional orchestra though there were greater numbers in the cellos and basses than I would normally use. the Japanese element was only used in the percussion, which was recorded in Toronto the week prior to traveling to London.

 

 Kiyoshi Nagata uses gongs, bells, wooden clappers, shakers and bamboo flutes resulting in thunderous drumbeats with subtle, intricate rhythms. Can you explain to us those choices? 

Yes I can. I love Kiyoshi's ensemble and all the musical elements they employ, however for this film I chose to only use the large Daiko or Taiko drums. These large hollowed out log drums produce a sound to me that sounds like the thunderous centre of the earth depicted in this film and in Jules Verne's novel.

 

Did you use other specific instruments, what kind, and what for?

The 3rd music element to the score is the use of some old analog synthesizers to produce interesting and unique sounds. When people think of synthesizers these days they think about computers. These old synths are far from computers. These are old units with patch cables and knobs and noisy pots. I had an excellent synth programmer who built some amazing organic but unusual sounds and rhythms. They are often nestled within the low end of the orchestra rhythms but they're not easily identifiable, until you take them out.

 

Can you tell me about your projects? What else are you working on now?

I'm just finishing a film called "City of Ember", directed by Gil Kenan and produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. It's a fantastic film that's cue for release later this fall. Between “Journey and City of Earth” I did another film with Michael McGowan called “One Week.” Michael and I met when I scored his film “Saint Ralph” in 2004. He's managed to create yet another amazing film with "One Week" which is getting it's World Premiere as a Gala Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival in a few days. It was a very minimalist score written for small eclectic group of instruments.

Thanks and all my congratulations.