Depuis la nuit des
temps, l'homme a toujours régné sur la forêt, mais
cette fois, les choses pourraient bien
changer...Dans la petite ville de Timberline, Boog,
un ours apprivoisé et heureux de l'être, va voir sa
paisible existence bouleversée par sa rencontre
avec Elliot, un cerf sauvage aussi maigrichon que
bavard.Elliot arrive à convaincre Boog de quitter
sa vie de rêve auprès de Beth, la ranger qui l'a
élevé depuis qu'il est ourson, pour aller "vivre en
liberté dans la nature"... Mais Boog ignore tout de
la vie sauvage, et les choses vont vite déraper.
Avec l'ouverture de la chasse et les chasseurs à
leurs trousses, Elliot doit absolument aider Boog à
réveiller ses instincts pour qu'avec l'aide des
autres animaux de la forêt, ils aient une chance de
contre-attaquer tous ensemble...
How did you come on the Open Season
project?
Amazing
singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg had been working
on songs for the movie for quite some time. When it
came to scoring the movie, I was offered to join
the team. It was a great collaboration. Paul had
already written a lot of beautiful themes that were
very useful for the score.
May you describe your score for Open
Season?
It probably has the most variety of solo
instruments that I have done so far. The overdub
process alone of recording mandolins, fiddle,
pipes, etc. took more than a solid three weeks. It
was a blast as there seemed to be no boundaries in
terms what instruments would work. We kept having
more and more ideas.
Director Roger Allers directed the
Lion King. How was it to work with such an artist.
Did his experience and relation to animation
nourrish your own approach to the film?
It was wonderful to
get his view of the movie and his input on the
music. This also is a good example from the earlier
question regarding my relationship with Hans. As
Roger and Hans had already worked together, I
talked with Hans before I even met Roger. During
the first music meeting Hans came in and it was
nice to see the two chat about the Lion King. It
was a really nice experience to work with Roger.
How much time did you have to compose your
score?
At first I only had about a month and a
half, which would have been really tight.
Fortunatley, the schedule extended a little bit and I
had a couple more weeks. It still ended up being a
very tight schedule as I had to do all the overdubs
before we flew to London for the orchestra scoring.
How did you work, and with what
request from the crew?
There were some cues
that Paul had already that worked really well. I
would take those and orchestrated them. Most of
them we’d sit down together and he would play
guitar and I would play piano on the computer and
map out cues. Then there were also some that I just
did by myself. It was a fun collaboration as Paul
had such a different approach about film scoring.
The idea about the score was to create a great
mixture between orchestra and other instruments.
The fact that I had a strong band background made
the collaboration with Paul very comfortable.
What orchestra and what size did you
choose? Did you use some electronic sounds in your
score or was it all live?
We had a full size orchestra of about 70 people and
recorded the score in London at Air Studios. There
is some choir in the score that stayed electronic.
99% is all live.
How did you use electronics on it ?
We used electronics to create demos. 99% of that
was replaced by live instruments. I have done a lot
of projects where I use a lot of electronics. We
wanted this score to be as live as possible.
Did you choose special instruments
for the score?
We used Kazoos and
recorded them ourselves. It was quite funny. Paul
was able to reach some low octaves that were
amazing. We also have some kids slide whistle in
places and a thumbpiano for the porcupine.
Do you work differently for
animation than for live action ?
Not really. I treat the comedy or serious
action quite the same.
Are you at ease with Mickey Mousing?
It’s a great style of writing, but I try not to
write my scores that way. I try to avoid it as much
as possible and experiment with other possiblities.
I think there is plenty of other ways to underscore
a scene and hitting all the important sync points
without doing Mickey Mousing. Sometimes you are
still asked to give it that feel though.
Can you tell me about your themes for the
films?
We had themes for characters and actions and I
tried to use whenever appropriate.
Boog’s
theme was played mostly on the upright bass and
Elliot’s was mostly on the banjo.
Then there was also a home theme which was derived
out of one of Paul’s songs. Shaw
had his rock theme, because he kept playing air
guitar on his rifle. Then we also had plenty of
little themes and motifs here and there for other
animals that we would see along the journey. Paul
had created a great theme for the
beavers that he played on the
saxophone.
The
squirls had pipes as they were
scottish.
The ducks theme was
played on kazoos. We had so much fun picking all
these different solo instruments. The final battle is
a great example of all of these elements coming
together.
ACCUEIL
