Hi, I'm Marco Beltrami.
I'm a film composer and I've scored numerous films,
including Scream, A Quiet Place, Ford v Ferrari,
and most recently, Fear Street.
And this is called "Score Board."
Cue the music!
Let's see what our first note here is.
"Top three scores of all time."
You're giving me the hardest question first here.
I can give you my favorite composers.
Ennio Morricone.
And I guess Once Upon a Time in the West
would probably be one of my favorite scores.
The way he mixed sound and music.
Bernard Herrmann.
I would say North by Northwest
or Vertigo.
Then Nino Rota. Great with melody,
his score, 8 1/2.
I mean, I danced to his waltz from that at my wedding, so.
All right.
“Scoring a slasher.”
In, Fear Street, it felt like there needed
to be an overarching theme.
And the first place you hear this is in the very beginning,
when the first girl gets killed in the mall.
It plays throughout the movie because the theme is,
they're a love story,
which carries on throughout these three movies.
And I think by having an emotional connection,
it actually makes everything else stronger.
In 1978, we thought maybe it'd be fun
to play with the intervals between 1, 9, 7, 8.
Starting out with the unison and then going
to a major ninth above that,
and then a major seventh and then an octave above that.
That became the theme that is used throughout
for the mystery.
“The creepiest sound or instrument.”
All right, well, instruments such as the waterphone.
This, like, metal thing that they pour water in the middle
and bow, or hit these metal rods that come up.
It gives it a really unique, creepy sound.
And if you'd hit a bow backwards across the string,
“col legno tratto,” as they call it.
Your string player might not be happy with you
because you're taking the enamel off their bow,
but it gives a very creepy sound.
Especially when you have a whole string section doing it.
Let's see what's next here.
“The first movie score that I remember loving.”
This would have to be, Fantasia.
The thing that sticks with anybody that watches that
is the music, because the music is so prominent.
I wouldn't say that got me into doing film scores,
but it got me really excited about music.
And I realized the power of
visual images and music together.
Let's see what's next.
“How Fear Street scores pay homage to horror.”
One thing that you might notice in these scores
is that they all have a slightly different sound to them.
Like in '94, it was very much influenced by Scream.
And we had, like, huge orchestras and choirs.
But we also were experimenting a lot with synthesizers.
So there's a big electronic component to the scores as well.
In '78, there's no synths at all.
You know, it was almost like an excuse to revisit
all the great horror movies of the '70s.
There, the focus was more on the woodwinds and percussion.
Things that might clue you into being
a little bit dated if you heard it today.
And then in 1666, that ironically enough,
is probably the most modern sounding
because it didn't have to follow any of those conventions,
it sort of could be its own thing.
“A score I wish I wrote.”
Well...
Avatar because there's so many different layers.
There's the dramatic layer.
There's the whole new world layer where you can create
music that's completely new.
There's a epicness to it,
but there's also an intimateness to it.
I think that would have been a lot of fun to do.
All right.
“The first thing I do when I start writing a score.”
Watching the film, if it's already been shot.
I think the most deceiving and worst way to start
is by working on a script because you know,
you can just read it really wrong.
I mean, when I was doing I, Robot
I had 17 days from the time I first saw the movie.
Luckily, the movie gave me so many ideas right away.
So I knew exactly what I was going to do.
Sometimes it can be weeks.
Then after it clicks,
it's almost like putting the pieces in a puzzle.
“Favorite piece of music I've composed.”
Shoot, favorite piece that, oh god.
These favorite ones are really hard.
All right, I'm gonna pick one.
There's a cue from Hellboy called "Fireproof."
Hellboy is down with the subway.
I remember having so much fun writing that piece of music.
Waitin’ for me?
The orchestra nailed it. Runs the gamut from really small
single instrument to full orchestra playing it.
I think it's just an exciting piece.
“Most underrated film score.”
I don't know if they're underrated,
but Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu did a score for an old
movie called Woman in the Dunes.
And it's this idea of sound and music working together.
Because the whole movie is about this woman going crazy.
She's constantly sweeping out her house and the wind keeps
coming and bringing the sand in and just sonically, it defines
her mental state.
It's brilliant, you know, through sound exploration.
To me, it was very influential.
“Director memories.”
Well, I was really a novice composer when I started
with Wes and the first movie I ever scored was Scream.
Scream was a really low budget movie.
And Wes took a huge chance with me.
Just making me see the picture in ways that I wouldn't have
thought of and having the patience to let me learn.
I remember with Guillermo del Toro,
he was like right after Wes.
My second movie was doing Mimic for him.
And there would be a sound that we explored and it took a
while to get, and then he'd be like,
"Oh, this sound gives me the butt willies," he said.
So every time, you know, we'd be working on another score
he'd say, "Give me the butt willies sound."
So Leigh, over the course of these movies,
she's been such a proponent of the music.
I mean, I think there's like four and a half hours
of music in the three movies together,
which I collaborated with three composers:
Marcus Trumpp,
Brandon Roberts,
and Anna Drubich.
It's an homage to Wes, but it's also
it's own original thing.
And she inspired me, and Marcus, and Brandon, and Anna.
I couldn't ask to work for a better director than Leigh.
How do we not die?
And I'm looking at you, witch nerd.
Check out Fear Street, now streaming on Netflix.