How do you go about composing the score for a film like “Constantine?” How long does it take to compose a score?
Well, it depends. Sometimes you see the posters on the buses going by and you haven’t written a note and you start to sweat really bad. That happens a lot. This one was different. I started in the summer. I worked on it a long time. There’s a lot of music in this movie. It required a lot of orchestra. It required a lot of choir. I conducted the score and did the whole thing. It was a whole involved process.
What’s the process like?
You kind of deconstruct what’s in your head. You watch a scene and the music hopefully comes to you. If it doesn’t, then I guess it’s time to get another job (laughing). But I mean, that’s basically what it is. I’m used to watching movies with the sound turned off and thinking of music. That’s just kind of how I’m wired. With this, this was no exception. But since the visuals are always different and this was so different looking, that’s what’s going to make the music different.
"Constantine" deals with Heaven and Hell and good vs. evil. Does the music need to feel more surreal for a film with those elements?
You know what? It’s weird. That was the first thought but what I kind of ended up going for was something like, “This is real.” When there’s the shots in Hell, where he’s walking through LA, I thought that it might be kind of interesting to do it almost sad, like this is a real place and you kind of feel bad for the people there. So it’s a little understated in some ways. Where often you’d think to go big hell’s bells and do the whole bit, you kind of went the opposite way. So some of this was kind of counter and that’s credit to the director, as well.
You said you began working on this last summer. Is that about the normal lead time?
No. Usually it’s about a two month time period. This one I was on for about seven months. This was a lot longer than the normal.
Is that because it’s a longer score than you're usually asked to do?
I don’t know what it is. Certain ones just turn out to be – you really have to take the time and work every note. There was a lot of music. I mean, certainly there was a lot of music in this but certain ones just take longer. I’m doing a movie for Disney now and I can’t take as long, basically because the movie’s finishing.
What movie are you working on?
It’s “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” And Shia LaBeouf is in it as well.
