01 October 2007
John Ottman, Just the Best! Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
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John Ottman! Qui répond toujours présent
depuis X-Men 2 jusqu'aux 4
Fantastiques (1 et 2), en passant par
Superman Returns? Toujours John
Ottman. Car c'est le meilleurs allié de nos
Héros "Comics-Marvel". Et ce n'est pas fini
parce qu'il a déjà de nouveaux plans: si
The Avengers reste toutefois à
confirmer, nous devrions très certainement le
retrouver en 2009 avec Superman: Man of
Steel. En attendant, John Ottman nous
parle aussi de Walkyrie et de
The Invasion.
Mister
Ottman, how did you come on Fantastic
Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer?Well I got a call from the director asking if I was interested in doing it, and I responded, “are you #%^&# kidding? Of course I would.” Because we all got along great on the first one, it was assumed I would be doing it. If at all possible, if it’s the same team on a sequel, the same composer comes back – as long as things went well the first time around.
It’s a theme that establishes the Surfer as a conflicted entity with a noble soul. It was meant to tell his story in a nutshell – from a mysterious threat, to a sad torn character to one who ends up becoming the savior of Earth. I wanted it to feel introspective and elegant, yet also tortured. The same theme then becomes triumphant, signaling his new conviction to confront his master. It also contains a pretty “part b” of the theme which conveys his eventual bond with Sue Storm in the film. She reminds him of someone he once knew, and somehow she awakens his conscience just in time to save the Earth – although a little late for all the other planets he’s helped obliterate! Oh well.
How
did you make it evolve from the beginning where
he’s a bad guy, to the end, when he’s nice
(Noren Rad)?
Well it’s all
how about how it’s orchestrated and the
attitude it’s given. The same theme can sound
mysterious, evil or sad depending on how
delicately it is performed, and what
instruments are chosen. There are are also
moving string and woodwind lines that blur to
create a harmonic backdrop to his theme – and
if they are performed in a sort of whispy
ethereal way it totally changes how you feel.
Did you know at the beginning that you would have to write a theme that would encounter these transformations?
I knew there would be an arc to this character based upon the script I had read. And I knew he would sort of dominate the film. It doesn’t happen often, but when I read the script on a plane trip, I ended up humming a rudimentary version of his theme right away. It became this little thing I would catch myself humming all the time, and finally one day I got it out of my head and played it on the keyboard to flesh it out and develop it into a piece to present to the studio. The piece I presented was then later prepared for orchestra and is the first cue on the album.
The Harmony of this theme is very lyrical, with a lot of tension. How would you describe it?
Well that was the challenge in his music – to convey a basically sympathetic character but also have it feel a little disturbing (representing Galactus’ presence.) So I wove in a boomy synth sound I created to offset the lyricism in the music. I also wrote those fast-moving arpeggio-like lines behind his theme which made the harmony feel even more otherwordly in a sort of intelligent way.
Can
you tell me about its orchestrations? The sound
of the strings, the mixing with the horns, and
the big low and loud and brassy notes at the
trombones. Please, may you explain this choice?
Well it’s
basically a traditionally orchestrated theme,
and the specific orchestral flourishes or deep
brass surges are just my way of further
defining him, and making the music become very
masculine and “important.”
Some of the orchestral overtones created a sonic illusion of an organ, but there wasn’t one used :) I think the last time I used one was in House of Wax – and also a short cue in X2.
I usually do not write music to anything on the surface. The music’s job is to bring out inner qualities – the soul of the characters and the film. As with any scene, I look at the objects and/or characters and ask myself what the scene is really about beyond them, what is the challenge or angst of the character. Then I comment on it musically. I thought it would be cheesy to do “shimmering” music just because he was silvery.
How
did you treat Galactus? It’s more about sound
than theme, right?
What sounds did you use?
It seems to be about Chaos, and souls
from all destroyed planet cry out help.
Yeah,
there wasn’t a lot of depth given to “him” in
the film. He’s simply a threat full of dread.
And yes, I wanted there to be an inherent
tragedy felt in the music, as heard in the
first scene of the film when he first appears
destroying a planet. Because he has brief
moments, an instantly recognizable sound had to
define him. This was basically an extremely low
orchestral cluster, characterized by the tuba
playing in its lowest possible register. To
this I added a booming synth sound I created
from a sound I found in a synth effects
library. It really tears apart the sub woofers!
How did you come to the idea of using
synth elements (whereas you don’t seem to be
used to do it often)?
I’m not sure
what made me feel that choice was right. It’s
just something I feel when I see a film. This
one had a more serious tone, and I wanted the
music to feel as if it was evolving from the
first film – and feel just a tad bit more
modern and clever. There was a lot of sensitive
underscoring required that needed a little edge
– and often a little “otherworldliness.” Even
though I like to stretch the orchestra as far
as it can go to convey these things, the pure
orchestra ensemble sometimes lacked the subtle
oddities I needed. So I added synth textures
and dark tones to weave in. If used in an
organic manner, synths can be a legitimate
section of the orchestra. They really are just
another “instrument.” The trick is to use them
wisely, just as you try to do with any part of
the orchestra, and also not to simply use synth
as an easy crutch. I use synths more than
people may think, but usually they are
practically invisible in the orchestra. With
this film, I brought them to the forefront,
often to be featured.
I love this part with jazz pattern played at
the woodblock and the harp. It’s very refined
orchestration.
Orchestrating is my favorite part of the process. I write every part and accompaniment down to the last little triangle ping. As I touched upon earlier, a cue totally changes its character based upon orchestration alone. One slight alteration in orchestration can make a cue fail or succeed. So, for me, it can’t be left to someone else to come up with the orchestrational features of a cue. It’s a very sensitive and important process. I also need to do this so that I can prepare a synthesized mock-up of how the score will sound so that everyone knows what they’re going to get and so they can make notes on cues before we record them. Nothing is left to the imagination except that it will sound a lot better when performed. Damon arranges my string and brass lines, corrects my sloppiness, and he also redoes the time signatures so that the orchestra can better read what I write after he’s transcribed it to paper.
There are definitely light and “comical” moments in the film, as with the first. However, over-all, this was a more serious story because of the Silver Surfer and potential end of the world. The F4 films are lighter fare, so the music has to often confirm this, yet not put it over to the top and be too cliché. An example is when Johnny switches power with Sue, as she floats on fire above the street. I had to make this a little “fun,” but not campy. Serious music on this Sue-on-fire scene would make the sequence feel too horrible – a woman burning to death. By playing both sides, blending tension with playfulness, it allows the audience to enjoy the scene and keep the lighter tone of the franchise cohesive. But no, I didn’t want the music to feel cartoony, which it could have easily lapsed into in the lighter scenes. It’s best to let the comedy play and not comment on every little action as with a cartoon. It’s best, again, to comment on the feel of the scene or realizations of the characters in general. When I initially wrote a cue for Ben changing powers with Johnny, I was hitting every little action, and it felt like a Tom and Jerry episode. So I just put in many rests and chose my musical comments carefully not to step on the “comedy”, but help it work better.
There also seem to be more and deeper emotion. Like at the Wedding. How did you approach this scene?
Well for Sue and Reed, I used their love theme from the first film, but this time I made it richer and more emotional. Just as their relationship has evolved, I wanted their love theme to evolve as well. There’s also less frivolousness between the two of them in this film. They’re serious now – they’re tying the knot. So the music had to reflect this, plus the doubt Sue feels.
Well, sometimes music other than the score can help a scene better than score ever could. In X2, I wanted Magneto to be listening to classical music in his prison cell. There were some long sequences that would be silly to score. Yet the scenes felt a little dead and less ironic without some music echoing throughout the cell. It also comments on his character too - that he listens to classical music. Then when he attacks the guard, the score comes in. If the entire scene had been scored all the way through up to this point, then the initial attack on the guard would not have had nearly the effect it did. It’s good not to “blow your wad”, as it were, until necessary.
Other times, in rare instances, classical music can be blended with the score depending on myriad of situations, such as the white house attack in the opening of X2, where I adapted Mozart’s Requiem to make the action scene less cookie-cutter and more unique – with an added sense of gravity to it.
What are you favorite classical composers? Do you owe them that wonderful complexity of your scores in action scenes?
Well film music is sort of the modern way of being commissioned to write music that’s often orchestral. Concert music in its day was also commissioned, often with rules by which the composer had to adhere. The “rules” with film music are far more confining, far more political, and it’s way more of a science. And with film music, the number one priority is to serve the film. If that means an uninteresting drone somehow just makes the scene happen wonderfully, then anything beyond that could be the composer’s ego getting in the way. It’s hilarious how scores are often judged based upon the CDs. The music may sound great on the CD, but it could have been terrible on the film. The opposite case is that a boring cue on a CD may have worked miracles on the scene in an inspired way. That’s the science, art and obligation of film music. It’s a whole different animal. A film composer is an artist, but in ways one may not expect. Hans Zimmer put it best in an interview recently, saying that a good film composer is a filmmaker first, and a composer second. It’s true. I think sometimes when the inner composer gets too much in the way of the inner filmmaker, the effectiveness and poignancy of a score can suffer. It depends on the film. But it happens. The best scenario occurs when the music is both effective on the film and away from the film. I always endeavor to do that and create good compositions. But it’s not always possible. The film must come first. That’s what we’re hired for.
Well the four main characters in Silver Surfer really didn’t go through any evolutions that the music could comment on except the deeper love theme between Sue and Reed. Doom had the most changes musically. When he reappears he’s sort of in this mischievous and less malevolent state. So much of the film is dialog that I had to keep the underscore going to support these scenes and keep them interesting. It was a challenge because the music needed to provide these dialog scenes with energy, but without feeling too busy and getting in the way. But drony stuff would just make the scenes drag. So I devised a sort of quirky “up-to-no-good” motif for Doom with periodic tremelo string lines, woodwind clusters, electric piano, synth pulses, and a guiro. It was painstaking light orchestrations, but this music also served to convey his suspicious state before he resumes his full-fledged Dr. Doom persona again. When this happens, I pulled out the Dr. Doom theme and pushed it a little further than the first film, yet definitely a reprisal.
Will there be a third opus? Would you like to be part of it?
I have no idea if they’re doing one. Of course, I’d always want to be part of a world that I was involved with from the beginning. You sort of feel an ownership of it, and besides, I hate when there is no congruity between scores of franchises. It just drives me crazy.
Can you tell me a little about The Invasion?
Invasion
would be one of those examples where the
music had to completely serve the film and
actually purposely be less thematic than one
might wish. We found that by being too
lyrical, it made the scenes cheesier. So the
concept was to use the score as a device to
keep the world of the film unsettling and
offbeat. It was a fun score to do because all
the synth design work was a change of pace
for me. That can be very time consuming to
research and construct the textures. There is
also a motif for the mother and son in the
film, but it too is really just a sort of
ambivalent chord. The idea was to imply a
sort of tragedy to their relationship from
the onset, yet it also had to simultaneously
imply Carol's love for her son. Ollie is
immune to the virus and could hold the key to
stopping the snatchers. So Carol knows that
by saving him from them, she may be selfishly
sacrificing the world from being a better
place. The result is a dark repeating
ambivalent chord for the two of them that, in
an odd way, takes on either a sympathetic or
depressing tone depending on the context of
the scene. In the end of "Final Escape" the
chords are played one final time – continuing
the ambivalence as to whether their escape is
good or not. Just a couple days before
recording
the
score, an animated ending title sequence
depicting viruses invading cells was added.
Since there was no main theme to the film per
say, I decided to try something a little
off-the-wall. I began with a strange little
melody on an electric piano and just started
playing with it by adding both synthetic and
orchestral rhythmic accompaniments. In the
end, I wasn't sure what the heck I had
created, but somehow it put a smile on my
face – as if it were a little ditty for the
cells. It's definitely not what you might
expect over such a sequence, so that in
itself, excited me.And what about you others projects (Walkyrie, Logan's Run & The Avengers)
I’m
in Berlin right now in editing jail doing
Valkyrie. Then we go back to LA in mid
October and continue constructing the film.
It’s a complicated film editorially – written
by the screenwriter of Usual Suspects.
We’re all back again doing this film – a sort
of thriller set around the assassination
attempt on Hitler. It’s paying heavy detail
to the actual historical events and people
involved. But it’s also a thriller in a way.
It has to play both sides – being a
historical drama and being suspenseful we
hope at the same time. Everyone knows the
ultimate outcome, so we just have to make it
an interesting film to watch. I will record
the score sometime in March I think. As usual
on these projects where I’m also the editor,
I am never sure how to find the time to write
the score. We’re thinking more an eclectic
approach for the music, but it’s way too
early to tell. I don’t temp with any music as
I cut.
Please may you confirm us you will be part of Superman The Man of Steel?
If and when it goes, I’m sure I’ll be on board, yes. We’ll all be tired after Valkyrie, so it’s ok with me if Bryan takes his time getting to it!
For a new project, if you could choose you a genre, a kind of story and a filmmaker, what would it be?
Something with character redemption – something very emotional and inspiring to people – Like Chariots of Fire was in its day. Or even like a Billy Elliot kind of story – Personal triumph stories I guess I’m trying to say. Any filmmaker who trusts the film composer and lets the creative process happen is the kind I love to work with.
Usually my favorites are tragically ones very few people have heard. It’s well known that my score for Incognito is, for me, one of my best moments. And little personal/quirky things like Pumpkin and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for sure. I had a blast on that film – a great film – and I think you can hear it in the music.
Among the Four Fantastics, who is your favorite and why?
Hmm, that would be Johnny because – well – I mean he’s just the best isn’t he?
1
Silver Surfer Theme
2 Galactus Destroys/Opening
3 Pursuing Doom
4 Wedding Day Jitters
5 Chasing the Surfer
6 Camp Testosterone/Meeting the
7 A Little Persuasion
8 Botched Heroics
9 Someone I Once Knew
10 The Future/Doom’s Deal
11 Sibling Switch
12 Outside Help
13 Springing the Surfer
14 Doom’s Double Cross
15 Mr. Sherman / Under the Radar
16 Four in One
17 Silver Savior/Aftermath
18 Gunshot Wedding
19 Noren Radd
