John McClane est de retour. Bruce Willis
reprend le célèbre rôle du policier New Yorkais qui
se trouve toujours au mauvais endroit au mauvais
moment, pour un nouveau volet de la franchise Die
Hard (Piège de Cristal, 58 Minutes pour Vivre, Une
Journée en Enfer), intitulé DIE HARD 4 – RETOUR EN
ENFER (Live Free or Die Hard).
C'est avec un plaisir non dissimulé
que nous retrouvons Marco Beltrami en pleine forme,
et en pleine activité. En effet il nous a accordé
un peu de son précieux temps, tout en bouclant le
mixage de “3:10 to Yuma” a Abbey Road.
On the July 4th holiday, an attack
on the vulnerable United States infrastructure
begins to shut down the entire nation. The
mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out
every modern angle--but he never figured on an
old-analog fly, John McClane, in the digital
ointment. No mask. No cape. No problem.
Please
Mister Beltrami, for the readers of
inter-activities, how would you personally
introduce yourself?
I come from a family man (3 boys ages 9,7,1). I
Enjoy camping and dirt bike riding with my wife and
the 2 older ones as well as surfing and most
outdoor activities. My work keeps me long hours
inside dark rooms so i need the contrast.
When and how did you come to work on
film- video and TV music?
I rec’d my master’s degree in compostition from
Yale University under Jacob Druckman in 1991 and
then moved out to LA to do an internship program at
USC under Jerry Goldsmith. I knew little about film
music—my main interest was concert music but i
learned little by little there could be great
innovation within the film music field.
My first project was a tv show called “Land’s End”
then i did some tv movies of the week and then in
1996 scored “Scream” for Wes Craven.
What are your sources of
inspiration?
I enjoy and take inspiration from all styles
of music and sound. Musical integrity is independent
of style
Are you inspired by a composer in particular?
I suppose my main influences were Herrmann, Rota and
Morricone
Do you consider yourself as being part of a
“school” of composition?
No. although i’m not real good with
computers and electronics
How would you describe or characterize your
own musical style?
I’ll leave that to others. I suppose simply put i
like to combine manipulated accoustical sounds with
traditional orchestral ones.
How do you choose a project to
work on?
If i feel that i could
contribute to it.
Did your way of working change along the
years or according to each film?
More or less its always been the same,
though i have more equipment now and Buck Sanders,
who has been working with me since 1997.
Do you have a method of working?
Usually watch the movie and work from the most
general ideas about size, color, rhythm to more
specific thematic content which i work at away from
the picture. Only after i find my direction do i
start addressing specific scenes.
What do you feel when you’re composing and
what do you like in this process?
Each film is sort of like cracking a puzzle.
I like solving the puzzle and discovering the unique
emotional, dramatic aspect of the characters and
cinematic landscape. After that, much of the
individual scene writing is sort of like busy work.
When you're watching a film, do you feel
emotions that lead you rather to orchestra or rather
to electronics? How do you use either medium?
Well the original scores were orchestral so
that’s pretty much what we did. The difficult thing
was that due to the very tight schedule they wee
editing the picture even after we recorded so much of
the music in the first 3 reels is really chopped up
and doesn’t sound that fluid.
Live Free or Die Hard
How did you come on Live Free or Die Hard?
I worked with the director Len Wiseman
before on Underworld 2.
The three first opus of the Die Hard
franchise were scored by Michael Kamen. Did you
listen to them before scoring the fourth? Were you
inspired by them? Did you happen to meet Michael
Kamen?*
Never met him but Len liked the feel of the original
scores and asked me to incorporate some of that feel
into my score.
May you tell me about your
approach for this film?
It’s pretty much an action ride. I used Kamen’s
motive for John McClaine.
How much time did you have to compose your
score?
We had about 6 weeks once we got a picture
we could work to.
What orchestra and what size did you choose?
Did you use some electronic sounds in your score or
was it all live?
The orchestra was 65 players. We recorded about 120
min of music over 5 days at fox. We had some
electronics, but mainly it was orchestral.
To you, what is the most interesting, the
most successful or the most complex scene you had to
score for this film?
Probably my favorite moment is the scene when
McClaine drives his car through an elevator shaft.
The music and sound seem to work really well together
there.
It's now ten years since you made your first
success at Hollywood with Scream. How do you
see these ten years of working in the field of
cinema?*
I’ve learned a lot about the process, and while quite
enjoyable and fulfilling at times the politics and
non-musical aspects of the job can become quite
tedious and upsetting. It’s difficult to find the
balance between putting everything into your work and
at the same time not being too precious about it.
You composed several symphonic
pieces apart from cinema ("Scenes From Kingdom of
the Dinamiten"). Can we hope for a cd recording
someday?*
We’ll see. Many of my ideas are non film oriented and
I work on little bits from time to time. Perhaps one
day I’ll organize them for a cd.
It was announced that you may not do the
sequel of Hellboy, The Golden Army, directed by
Guillermo Del Toro. Your score for Hellboy is maybe
one of your most impressive and accomplished ones.
May you confirm, and tell us why? What do you think
about that? What was your reaction to this bad news
(hoping it will change!)? *
Although I really liked working on Hellboy and like
working with Guillermo, I understand directors
wanting to take different musical directions for
different movies. Yes, I was disappointed. Hopefully
it will work out well.
Some composers (Howard Shore,
Graeme Revell, Joel Goldsmith, Michael Giacchino,
Christopher Lennertz...) seem to be interested in
videogame music, which is produced these days with a
great amount of money and allows to appeal to big
live orchestras and choirs. It also seems to allow
more freedom regarding the relation image/music.Have
you ever though of working in that field? Why?*
I haven’t been offered any and haven’t really pursued
any.
Will there be some references to Michael
Kamen's work? (style, themes)?* (*Questions
by Milio, Marco’s Fan)
Yes, see above .
Have you finished the score
for 3:10 to Yuma?
We’re mixing now.
Are you working on another project? If yes,
may you tell me about it?
My next project is “In the Electric Mist” for
Bertrand Tavanier. I’m really looking forward to
it—takes place in the swamps of Louisiana and has a
lot of Cajun influence.
For a new project, if you could choose you a
genre, a kind of story and a filmmaker, what would
they be?
Well I used to say a western but I’m doing that now.
Among all your scores what are the ones you
like the most?
Tough to say. I like different ones for different
reasons.
Is there is going to have a Live Free or Die
Hard 5?
No idea.
Do you have specific message to add
for our readers? Thanks and all my congratulations.
Thank you for the interest. It’s nice to know there
are people who appreciate your work.
ACCUEIL
