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Film Music at Tribeca 2016, Part 2
The Film Festival celebrates its 15th Anniversary, April 13-24. By Kyle Renick
Continued from Part 1… The subject of many Tribeca Film Festival offerings, both features and documentaries, can be characterized as institutional lunacy. For sheer jawdropping disbelief, it is impossible to top the international premiere of John Dower’s U.K. documentary My Scientology Movie, in which BBC documentarian and journalist Louis Theroux effectively plays “straight man” to deranged Scientology practitioners—lapsed and current, robotically passive or pathologically aggressive, recreating scenes with actors where necessary, as every single claim for demented behavior made in the film is dismissed by the self-identified religion as fiction. The brilliant score is the work of composer Dan Jones, whose extensive credits for film, theatre, television, and art installations include Max, Shadow of the Vampire and Any Human Heart. As the story of My Scientology Movie seems to flow on an hour-by-hour basis, I asked Jones about the music’s evolution. “Editor Paul Carlin, whom I’ve worked with since the late 1990s, invited me to look at the film in London,” he said. “At early stages, it’s as much about helping your editor find the film’s language, and worth pointing out that being a documentary, we really had no idea what was going to come in from the shoot. My strategy, as is often the case when involved pre-lock, is to create an eclectic library of ideas, so we can make comparisons about which styles and approaches are going to work best. That can free things up for the editor to cut in a certain rhythm or style, more so in a documentary where you might not want music in the edit at all. I have quite a ‘high shooting ratio,’ so I really don’t mind that lots of it ends up on the floor. What I was less prepared for, although http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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given the subject I should have been, is the amount of legal review that would be required after we had reached a locked picture. Since some of that occurred after the orchestral recording, it was a bit trickier to deal with.” At the beginning I noticed hints of older sci-fi and fantasy film scores, such as those by Bernard Herrmann, and an occasional hint of Thomas Newman, and I wondered how he approached the sonic palette for this score. “Louis Theroux has a certain style that enables us to keep our minds open to a very eclectic score,” Jones explained. “It’s in a sense a film about making a film, which means it’s giving a few nods to the movie business. We felt the film was so centered around Hollywood and Scientology’s close links thereto, that the score should riff on or even gently parody different genres. This gave us license to be playful as long as were tapping into filmic mythology. The danger with this approach is to keep the thing unified and not to sound like we’re swapping records at will. “One film reference that sprang to mind was Robert Altman’s The Player. That was the first time I heard a Thomas Newman score, and I was completely blown away by its fantastically dark sense of mischief and the brilliance of its realization. Newman showed early on how to use music to shine light right into the souls of characters. Most of my favorite composers seem so in command of their writing that it becomes inseparable from audience understanding of the characters. But we were also playing with layers of parody, and I was keen to reference B-movie sci-fi soundtracks that are so evocative. I think they form a parallel to the pulp fiction written copiously by L. Ron Hubbard before he created Scientology, so the end title track is a kind of tribute to his—let’s say—wildly vivid imagination.”
The orchestral playing by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is outstanding, particularly its soloists. I inquired as to the details of Jones’ instrumentation. “The orchestra was booked for one session full with 14 first violins, 12 second violins, 10 violas, eight cellos, and five basses, with double woodwinds (two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon and contrabassoon), and three horns, two trumpets, and four trombones, and one session with just harp, vibes, flute and clarinet. We were done in one day. For the overdubs I recorded emerging Bristol University graduate and percussionist Rupert Cole with an array of Balinese pitched gongs, which http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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underpin the unearthly twilight encounter between Louis and a Sea Org member. We also had crotales, vibes played with brushes, and brush drums for the jazzinflected cues. Some tracks are purely sample-driven, such as ‘Crocodile,’ a journey cue which follows Louis and Marty to Scientology ex-Sea Org member Tom De Vocht. And I think quite naturally with percussion, where you need to edit tracks post-recording, that various samples come into their own to add light and shade. I’ve been especially impressed with the World Impact Library for the variety of colors and their clarity. “The BBC National Orchestra of Wales are a great orchestra and a delight to work with; they achieve a beautiful sound. What’s more, they have their own recording space at Cardiff Millennium Centre, which I believe rivals the qualities of Abbey Road and Air Studios. I think an orchestra working in the same room consistently, day in and day out, knows what instrument it’s playing. It makes for a very natural mix. That said, I was doing some very unnatural balances with the mix, due to electro-acoustic and overdub components I brought in. Dan Moore made some fantastic contributions on keyboards and Theremin, so vital for the B-movie science fiction palette. Stewart Jackson laid down most of the guitar tracks in the film. He co-wrote the ‘easy listening’ title track that recurs in miniature a few times in the film. Stewart generously lent his ears to the mixes on quite a few tracks.” Finally, I must ask about your use of an extensive quotation from Tannhäuser by the “Spiritual Godfather of Movie Music” Richard Wagner. Some listeners will agree with me that the use of Wagner invariably suggests reference to National Socialism, which the uniform and behavior of Scientology honcho David Miscavige conjure, along with his striking resemblance to Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. “The Wagner emerged in the edit and had originally held sway over the pre-title introduction to the film as well,” explained Jones. “I feel like I enter a minefield when I say anything political about Wagner, but I think it can be understood as musical evocation of men and gods, and considerable confusion in the former regarding which is which. I arranged the opening of the piece for a funeral parlor Wurlitzer-style organ for the film’s end, and gradually segued into a full-fledged version of the orchestral score. I must admit that conducting the piece was one of the highlights of my year.” The craziness of those who do not know the difference between gods and men, and the consequences of rampant authoritarianism, are explored by other TFF documentaries. With the imprimatur of executive producers Wim Wenders and Errol Morris, National Bird chronicles the story of three American veterans whose grief and guilt about pressing buttons and watching on a monitor as human beings are blown to pieces during America’s drone warfare compel them to become whistleblowers. Director Sonia Kennebeck said they invested a great deal of time in the music and sound design/sound mix, which pays off in a score filled with dread. “Insa [Rudolph, the composer] records all natural sounds, so nothing comes out of http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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a computer; and we developed a complete sound concept for the film, working very closely with our sound designer and sound mixer. For example, Insa included real sound recordings of drones, and even the Afghanistan National Anthem into her score, and there are also some recurring themes, like the ventilator sound. She builds her own instruments, which is why her film music is unique.” Rudolph added, “My fascination with sounds and noises is often the starting point in a creative process. I generate them with unconventional use of instruments, or I borrow sounds from daily life and re-imagine them musically. Given the film’s subject, it was clear that use of music needed to be handled delicately but precisely. I wanted to find sounds that reach out to the audience in a subtle manner, and are not only audible but also physically perceptible without telling the audience what to expect or feel. I hope the ‘soundsphere’ opens the viewer up to new levels of association.” I asked her about instrumentation, to which she responded, “The most common instruments are strings and piano, both ‘prepared’ or manipulated with materials like kitchen foil or soft rubber gum. I also use a zither and banjo played with an electric bow. Under most of the drone pictures, you hear the innards of a toy piano, and metal rods attached to a resonator played with one single hair of a violin bow. And I must not forget various tools from one of my favorite sound playgrounds—the kitchen.” In the world premiere of Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, homophobic prejudice is used to destroy the lives of four lesbians with cynical manipulation of two small girls’ testimony, fears about child abuse and Satanism in the South, and lengthy prison terms. Twenty years later, one of the two witnesses recants, bringing into sharp focus how little truth and justice have to do with the American legal system. Composer Samuel Lipman came late into the creative process, although the final edit had not been completed, and he reports a very hectic two and a half months during which the notoriety of the case brought in more and more executive producers, from starting with two to ending with six, each with their own agenda. “Deb [Deborah Esquenazi, the director] has a couple of sounds she loves, something simple but still with a sense of solemn narrative. After much trial and rejection, I had to completely avoid narrative qualities in the music like melodies or gestures, on grounds of being ‘too suggestive.’ Instead I had to develop a bunch of more ethereal, contextual stuff. I had to think and feel completely out of the box, break a lot of rules, and create a lot of hybrid sound/music structures. Like field recordings stretched and morphed with recordings of instruments being played in very new strange ways. For example, a string quartet morphed with interstate traffic, or a wall of vocal tracks with an electric clothes dryer spinning, or the whine of wind under a window sash morphed with the scraping of a piano string. These were particularly effective in the more disturbing, devastating parts of the film.”
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Mistaking his accent for British, I learned that Lipman grew up in Sydney, played violin and sang in a choir. With one parent a jazz musician and the other orchestral, he played saxophone upon moving to New York, deciding finally to move to Austin, increasingly attracted to progressive metal bands. “I experienced the golden era of loud obnoxious rock clubs in Austin. It felt more authentic here than anywhere else in the world. The scene was booming in 2005 with legendary bands like Sound Team, Trail of Dead, and Those Peabodies. I loved Austin’s rock scene, which included death metal, grunge, punk, girl bands, Latino jazz.” Hearing a decided influence of minimalism in his score, I learned that examples of inspiration for Lipman include Philip Glass’ score for The Thin Blue Line and Michael Nyman’s String Quartet No. 3, with its seven-note ostinato creating notable repetitive momentum. “A lot has changed with the demise of CDs and record stores; many musicians now move to Nashville and Las Vegas. I have a close friend who went to L.A. and had the chance to work for Hans Zimmer. He finally quit and moved back to Austin: He said if you want a relationship with your wife and kids, the industry doesn’t allow it.” I recalled composer Keegan DeWitt in my FSMO interview last December saying he preferred living in Nashville because it was important for him to make pancakes in the morning for his two girls.
Amidst the generally gloomy viewpoint of humanity portrayed in TFF
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documentaries, the world premiere of Norway’s Magnus offered a dollop of pure joy. The story of international chess champion Magnus Carlsen from childhood to manhood, the film creates immense suspense even as we suspect what the outcome will be. Carlsen’s appellation “Mozart of Chess” becomes a key to the accomplished musical score by composer Uno Helmersson. I was especially impressed by his engaging use of the piano, which is deployed for a series of variations on evolution of Magnus’ character, as well as suggestions of the dual nature of the mind and game playing. And is Helmersson the pianist? “Benjamin [Ree, the director] and I talked a lot about the piano, as Magnus is called the Mozart of Chess. We both thought the piano should illustrate the world of chess and the character of Magnus. One of my ideas was that the music should mirror Magnus from child to grownup: In the beginning the music is naïve and quite small, with few musicians playing, and as Magnus grows, the music develops with him, so when we have the time lapse of him becoming a grownup chess champion, we have the full string orchestra together with him. And yes, it is me who is playing the piano.” What was the instrumental sound that interested you? “It was quite obvious that this should be an orchestral score. But there was also a wish to find the computer intensive aspects of the sonic palette, as well as the drive and strategy of playing chess in a sonic perspective. I like to think of music sonically, and one of my methods is to try to be disrespectful to my composing, so that I can completely turn it backwards. I try to compose more modular than linear since my graduation from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. I see myself as a minimalist but also somewhat a romanticist, and grab influences from a lot of genres and composers.” The work of the Slovak National Orchestra is excellent, and it was a pleasure to read the extensive acknowledgment of the various sections of the orchestra. I asked how he came to work with them: “I have been working with this orchestra since my early days as a composer’s assistant for Johan Söderqvist [composer of the vampire classic Let the Right One In, Public Enemies, Kon-Tiki and Serena among others]. The Orchestra can really interpret my music beautifully, and Vladimir Martinka, the orchestrator and conductor, is a fantastic person to work with.” In again referencing less being more, I came to Joel P. West’s score for the world premiere of Joel David Moore’s Youth in Oregon, with Frank Langella, Billy Crudup, Christina Applegate, Mary Kay Place, and Josh Lucas in a story about the human consequences of a quest for assisted suicide. I asked the director about music during the Q & A, heard him mention “Temp Track Madness,” and decided to ask West about a story. “Joel was kind and enthusiastic about me helping to breathe some new life into the movie, since they had been in the editing room for a while. He knew it would be easy to push the music too far, so I think he was drawn to the simplicity and emotional vagueness of the Short Term 12 score. We started this process on the same page, that it was a ‘less is more’ project, and that the key would be to find something striking and rich without the music taking over scenes
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or being in the front of the audience’s minds.” I wonder how you decided on the sonic palette for your score, which is extremely varied. I managed to write down some of the instruments in the end titles, but I think I missed some: piano, bass clarinet—which fascinated me because I thought it was something even lower in range, flugelhorn, harmonium, and percussion. “One of Joel’s initial ideas was that there should be a layer of dread or heaviness blanketing most of the film,” offered West. “I tried to work only with instruments that are built for the low register and lack brightness, and then looked for melodies and textures that could stand out without leaving the low-end ‘mud.’ I started by recording layers of cello on simple arrangements I would normally split between a string trio or quartet, and then really fell in love with bass clarinet as companion to cellos; it has a brooding quality that just hits me in the gut. And yes, that is most of the list. Joel really liked the way organ was working in a couple of temp tracks, but I was worried that an actual organ might feel too obvious or forced, since it is often associated with death. I tried to create an organ by writing for a few different instruments that have long dark tones, and then blending them together into one thick sound. There’s harmonium, cello, bass clarinet, voices, bowed vibraphone, Wurlitzer, Moog synth, electric guitar tones, and a little bit of flugelhorn. I used some acoustic guitar with the Wurlitzer for some of the more fun road trip scenes, and my engineer Chris played some simple piano parts on a few cues.”
Although the emotional arc of the story is clearly and beautifully drawn, I wonder if you might comment on particular challenges of scoring a movie like this, that is so driven by details of actors’ performances. “I’m attracted to movies with performances that don’t require a broad score to tell the audiences what they should be feeling, because it’s a chance to explore how music can portray really specific and subtle emotions,” he explained. “This film definitely fits those criteria, and to me it’s a satisfying process of distilling ideas and trimming fat until there’s not a note or texture that doesn’t need to be there. I love working this way, because http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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often we end up weeding out traces of music that influenced the initial idea, and coming up with something more interesting, more tailored to the characters and narrative.” Also very engaging are those open intervals in a frenetic scene of packing for traveling, the lovely transition from moonlight into honking geese in dawn flight over a pond, and allowing music to speak for Seconal-laced drinking. “I’m realizing now that those play so much like heavy breathing, which was an abstract reference for me at the start of the process,” said West. “The feeling of a deep slow breath is the one thing all the characters are experiencing in their own ways. I think something about that motif just seemed to sum up the mood in several different scenes.”
West concluded with his background and influences: “I was a songwriter first, and I’ve always connected most with music in recorded form. I’m drawn towards music that captures feelings that words can’t quite communicate. Some of the records that made me want to be a composer are Vespertine by Björk, the first couple of Sigur Rós records, and Figure 8 by Elliott Smith. Later on I found John Tavener, Henryk Gorecki, Arvo Pärt, and other 20th century minimalist composers who harness those feelings in an even more immersive, almost hypnotic way. That music seems focused on presence rather than on melodies or energy, which translates well for film music.” The notion of living one’s life to the fullest even when that life requires complete redefinition is beautifully configured in the U.S. premiere of writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s The Meddler, and in the exquisitely detailed title character performance by the great Susan Sarandon as Marnie Minervini, who meddles in the lives of virtually everyone she comes into contact with. Composer Jonathan Sadoff is a close friend of Scafaria and reports that they “have worked together on a number of film and record projects over the years. I remember Lorene mentioning she was writing a screenplay about her mother, and sometime later she played me the teaser she shot with her mom basically playing herself, which already showed a very clear vision for the film. We had a number of conversations about the emotional arc of main character Marnie, who is the focal point of the score. Lorene is herself a gifted songwriter, singer and musician, and an integral part in setting the tone and palette of the score. The concept we came up with is that any time we hear score, we’re hearing it from Marnie’s perspective, as if music is playing from inside her head. Despite losing her husband and moving by herself across the country, she is basically chatty and optimistic. Her theme, which is established in the opening titles, needed to be sunny and optimistic, but also subtly melancholic at the same time. It can be challenging to find this tonal balance, but it’s something I love to do.
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“The theme starts as a playful waltz. It’s predominantly orchestral—22 strings, single woodwinds, harp and four brass players—but I tend to blend in elements from jazz, pop, and old-school rhythm and blues. I incorporated mandolin, accordion, and harpsichord to give it the nostalgic feel of classic Hollywood film scores, and also to tie into Marnie and her late husband’s Italian heritage. Later on, Marnie begins to accept her grief and loneliness, and the score needed to more grounded and contemplative. I wrote some variations on the main theme using sustained glassy string textures, finger-style acoustic guitar, and upright piano. It was important to me that the tone of the score follow Marnie’s journey but still maintain continuity.” I asked about how Sadoff arrived at that marvelous piano and strings cue for Sarandon to attach a telephone so her elderly hospital care friend can reach out to her son; this was to me a terrific example of how music can do something emotionally that may otherwise be clumsy and unconvincing. “That was definitely the most challenging cue of the entire project,” responded Sadoff. “I was reworking it all the way up to the night before the scoring session, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. It’s a moment in Marnie’s story that is told visually, without much dialogue. It was a great opportunity to allow the score to do the storytelling, but I had to be sure about the right emotions. I had the strings all doing slightly different articulations at varying dynamics to create a flurry: some were sustaining tremolos, some harmonics, and some trills. Lorene and I spent time fine-tuning the big crescendo in the middle when Marnie arrives at the hospital. Once I got the strings to really breathe, it felt great. I played a slightly swinging playful variation on Marnie’s theme above it as a counterbalance, and that seemed to be all it needed.” The idea of living life by inventing fake Internet identities, and then having to cope with the consequences of pretense, is explored in the tawdry but thrilling world premiere of King Cobra, the first mainstream American film to tell a tale about the inner workings of the gay porn business. It is based on a book about the sensational 2007 murder of successful Cobra Video entrepreneur Bryan Kocis (here called Stephen) by two partners Joe (James Franco) and Harlow (Keegan Allen), who http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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want a quick solution to the problem of porn star Brent Corrigan being under contract, and legally unavailable to work with them. This film could only have been made now, under the auspices of iconoclastic star, producer and industry power broker James Franco, and could only be shown at a festival like Tribeca. The surprise of director Justin Kelly assembling actors such as Franco, Christian Slater, Molly Ringwald and Alicia Silverstone contrasts sharply with the shock of Garrett Clayton, star of the Disney Teen Beach Movie franchise, as gay porn icon Brent Corrigan, who claims the film’s memorable final line in close-up: “Let’s f-ck!” But the biggest surprise of all is a sensational rock score that provides the dramatic heartbeat for the film—the work of multi-talented musician and composer Tim Kvasnosky.
I asked Kvasnosky at what point in the process he became involved with King Cobra. “Director Justin Kelly and I worked together on his previous film I Am Michael,” he explained. “He asked me to sign on early last year. We actually started working ideas together before shooting last summer.” When asked how he decided on the sound, and how/when/where music would be used, Kvasnosky offered, “I spent a week or so developing a set of 40 sounds to make the first group of cues. Along with feedback from Justin, we narrowed down a palette. I did a fair amount of sampling and pitching to get some unusual textures. Editor Josh Lee along with Justin placed music in some scenes in an early cut, which I consequently loosely scored for vibe. As the scenes tightened, music placement shifted.” I asked about a few cues, such as the piano reverb for the evolving relationship between Brent and Stephen: “That simple piano was meant to give the feeling of romance, but smeared in the murk of deep reverb.” And the back and forth cutting between Stephen’s sister and Brent’s mother? “This great edit idea came from Justin and Josh, and indirectly from conversations with their friend Elliot Graham, later in the editing process. I love how they brought tension to the story through this idea. The music was meant simply to link and propel this section of the film.” http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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As for the arpeggiated riffing during conciliatory phone conversation between Stephen and Brent, “this scene was a variation on the introductory theme, which starts more vaguely but deepens as the scene progresses. The lonely piano comes back near the end as the two reconcile.”
When it came to the dramatically scored sequence of Harlow and Joe being arrested for the murder, “Justin and Josh had this longer temp track that they cut this trick scene to, so this was a real challenge for me. There are really three themes combined in this long cue, which first follow Brent to the final scene with his mother, then shift into the deceptively resolving Joe and Harlow seeming to ‘get away with it’ feeling, then deepening into the final arrest scene, which then went into the Michel Polnareff. We tried this a few ways, and I ended up doing a long cue reflecting closely what was happening on screen. I think Ryuichi Sakamoto’s electronic operative score for Wild Palms was an influence here. I think it gave the scene a nice feeling of completion, not to mention it was a little campy and fun to take the audience on the entire ride emotionally.” Finally, I asked about the particular challenges faced in the creation of a score featuring both throbbing rock but also emotional yearning, and about the composer’s background and influences. “Early on Justin liked two pieces that, although from the same sonic palette, had dramatically different feelings. The ‘audition scene’ moved earlier in the cut to the intro, and my piece along with it. The impact of the piece at the very top of the film shifted the rest of the music immediately. We adjusted though, and I loved how it turned out. We wanted to bring back that intro scene melody, so it returned a couple of places in different forms, to mirror the relationship between Stephen and Brent. I studied jazz piano but play a bunch of instruments well enough to track: bass, guitar, drums and saxophone. I’m obsessed with the great electronic composers of the ’80s and ’90s— Ryuichi Sakamoto and Angelo Badalamenti were big influences on the sonic palette. I tried to bring some of these sounds into a modern place, though—darker, more saturated and manipulated.” It would seem fitting to conclude with the spectacular world-premiere immersive installation The Bomb—eight huge octagonal screens surrounding an audience standing in the middle as “The Acid” perform a live musical score to images of the threat to humanity of nuclear weapons and war: a canny closing night gesture that TFF’s guidebook says “exists at the intersection of art, politics and technology.” But instead I conclude with the world premiere of Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching’s heart-breaking documentary After Spring, which daily becomes more timely, as it http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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introduces us to some of the 80,000 Syrian refugees of the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, the world’s second largest such facility. I observed in looking back over my notes that composer Katy Jarzebowski seems to have lavished her heart and soul on the music for the Zaatari Taekwondo Academy, and I needed to ask her why. “Despite the dire reality in which these Syrian refugees find themselves, they remain cautiously but genuinely hopeful for their future,” she responded. “The directors have chosen to spotlight an issue affecting the refugees that is repeatedly alluded to, that of ‘The Lost Generation,’ referring to a lack of educational opportunities. There is a change in the children’s demeanor—and the tone of the film—when they step into the Taekwondo Academy: They relax and forget their misfortunes, if only momentarily. We wanted the hopeful tenderness of these tonal shifts to resonate in the score, and it is very pleasing to know that they did.”
I asked if her use of sustained unisons in initial scenes makes the narrative feel even sadder than it already is: “Using sustained strings, in this case a tonal cluster, is a simple choice with great effect; the slow-building chordal columns in the piano add some impetus, and I asked each string player to place the bow further up the fingerboard or closer to the bridge to create subtle movement with altering dynamics. I feel the imagery and sound during this sequence are so emotionally overwhelming that the music can do little to stop the desolation already resonating off the screen. That footage of Syria during the Arab Spring is shocking and heartbreaking, even after watching it dozens of times.” There are some fascinating instrumental transitions in the score, as in the sudden introduction of concerted strings for the Amman, Jordan sequence. “This cue originated with the music I had composed for the video teaser that Ellen and Steph had included with their grant proposals six months prior to scoring. Our editor Paul http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=5639&issueID=138&printer=1
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Lovelace used much of my own music as temp, and this cue was placed for the transition between Zaatari and Amman, where many of the Jordanian aid workers were living. If you listen carefully, it’s actually based on the same harmonic progression used for the Taekwondo Academy cues. The sequence felt expansive, like a journey—wide pans across highways and twinkling cityscapes crowded with people. After the introduction, this is our first step outside of the camp, broadening our experience.” The score’s final cadence is unresolved; I am guessing this is deliberate, because the entire horrifying situation is unresolved. “Exactly,” she answers. “Undeniably there is vibrant life and hope at Zaatari, existing alongside sadness, fear and bittersweet nostalgia. The thematic core of the score is a malleable harmonic progression, tonally ambiguous but easily nudged in one direction or another as needed. I don’t believe any of the cues end on a complete cadence, or even on a root position tonic. Suspensions also run amok throughout the score, so there is simultaneously a sense of stillness and of motion. With regard to working on a documentary—and as I am still new to this scene, so this is going off instinct and early experience—it felt most important to honor the issue and respect the subjects. I did not want to invent a new world, but instead to understand an existing one, so I had to celebrate their story and tell it honestly and without embellishment.” —FSMO
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