PANELISTs

Volker Bertelmann

Composer

“I had the feeling there are creatures somehow under the Earth who are moaning in a way, crying silently about what’s happening on Earth. I was trying to figure out how I could achieve that with woodwinds.”

PANELISTs

Simon Franglen

Composer

“I designed the instruments for the Windtraders to play. I sketched out instruments, gave them to Dylan Cole, the production designer. He then made them into something useful. Then the prop master 3D-printed them. So we have real instruments that are played.”

PANELISTs

Laura Karpman

Composer

“All the beautiful snare work in the foreground with the percussion, that was all worked out with Second Line because of course [Anthony Mackie’s] Sam is from New Orleans. I wanted that to be in the DNA of the music even if it’s not explicitly obvious.”

PANELISTs

Sara Bareilles

Singer/Songwriter

“You hear poetry and cancer and you’re like, that sounds like a ‘must miss’ … [but] it is the most life-affirming, hilarious, beautiful, poignant, brilliant film. I was blown away the first time I watched it. I have never felt more, excited to be alive than watching this film.”

PANELISTs

Michael Giacchino

Composer

“I think anyone who’s making movies should hire the composer first and then have them write their suite because then they can all get on the same page on day 1.”

PANELISTs

Alexandre Desplat

Composer

“At times I wanted to do something very restrained and very French. [Guillermo del Toro] said, ‘More Mexican, more Mexican, more Mexican!’ On the other hand, I know when I’ve laid the tune or the moment, the picture that really is spot on because he cries. Because he’s Mexican. French don’t cry.”

PANELISTs

Aiyana-Lee

Singer/Songwriter

“[Spike Lee] really wanted a climactic moment that encapsulated the feeling of the film, kind of also touching on my own personal struggles. He really wanted it to be a raw, real thing, and right from the heart … I had a lot to pull from.”

PANELISTs

Mark Sonnenblick

Songwriter

EJAE

Singing voice of Rumi/Songwriter

“The song in general, if you just hear it as a pop song and you haven’t seen the film, it’s a great pop song, But if you watch the film, it has a completely different meaning. In the bridge … you see the depth of the song and the lyric and what the song really means when you watch the film.”

PANELISTs

Ludwig Göransson

Composer

“I bought [his guitar] in L.A. right before we shot the film, because the movie takes place in 1932 and this amazing Dobro is from 1932. It’s a beautiful guitar, and also Sammie’s playing this in the movie, so why wouldn’t I write the score with this as well, right?”

PANELISTs

Jeremiah Fraites

Composer

“I had expressed a great deal of interest in scoring this film. I had written some demos, and I thought a lot about how I want to attack the score. I think I thought more about what I wanted not to do versus what I wanted to do, and I wanted to stay away from an overly polished sound.”

PANELISTs

Nathan Johnson

Composer

“Rian really wanted me to push into a bit more of this underlying dread. The very first thing you hear … is all the strings just scratch tone. Then they resolve from that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound into just a single pure tone. That represents this jewel through the movie.”