- [Producer 1] Attack.
(suspenseful music)
(hitting)
(fist slapping)
You did it.
- [Producer 2] Yeah.
- [Rebel] How do you get all these kids
to move in time for an entire day of filming,
so that they would look like they're all
dancing to the same song?
And the trick was,
(tapping)
you give them a tempo to dance to.
- Let's boogie.
I wrote kind of an early version of the dance music
and we would play it on-site and they would dance to it.
(orchestra music)
- Hi, this is Robert Rodriguez,
Director of We Can Be Heroes.
This film was made by a family for families.
My son Rebel, composed the entire musical score for
We Can Be Heroes at the age of 20.
He's been working on my films with me since he was a baby.
Like here on Spy Kids.
He was a stunt kid in Spy Kids 2.
(soft orchestra music)
He played a robot kid in Spy Kids 3.
(twinkling)
He also played Young Shark Boy in
the Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava girl.
(splashing)
He's played piano since he was 5 and wanted to try his
hand at composing.
So, I put him to work on my films.
And We Can Be Heroes is his third movie score.
There's so much incredible imagination that goes into it.
- [ Narrator] Here's Rebel, to talk about how they did it.
(tape flickering)
(intense piano music)
- Hi, my name is Rebel Rodriguez,
I'm the composer for We Can Be Heroes.
And I'm going to explain to you, as well as show some
examples of how I created the music.
All the little things we got to do to really
capture the style and feel this movie
early on through the music,
as well as make some really interesting unique scenes.
It was all because I was able to be on the project so early,
which doesn't typically happen.
Now because the movie starts with their parents,
rather than the kids I had to start with their theme.
So that's where we first got this theme.
(soft piano music)
It just sounds heroic.
It's almost like a fanfare. It sounds much softer.
And that's the first thing you see at the movies,
this grand image of Miracle Guy floating in the sky.
But to also set up the threat, which is our aliens,
we had to create something that strikes out and is
completely different sounding.
So you've got this beautiful sound.
(soft piano music)
And then it's interrupted by the alien sound.
(suspenseful music)
That's their main chord.
So you'll have this beautiful D major.
(plays chord)
And then
(plays chord)
it sounds almost like heroic theme,
but with that weird tinge to it,
almost like it's getting cut short.
And when you see the Mothership for the first time,
you get your first glimpse of the alien theme.
(suspenseful music)
(plays chord)
So, much darker, descending.
It's not rising out.
(descending music)
So, there's that theme,
but there was also a little variation of it,
I made to kind of signal the aliens.
And later to, signify Ojo when she turns on them
and it's this little thing.
(soft suspenseful music)
It's creepy.
It's very high pitched.
And it's really just the alien chord,
(plays chord)
but extended out a little more.
(plays chord)
(suspenseful music)
So the way music works in a movie is,
you're usually helping the story move along, using sound.
You can either write with the movie,
or you can write against it.
Maybe showing some foreboding of what has to happen.
And I did this during the battle of the Heroics.
This is when they clash for the first time.
And it's really not in favor of the Parents.
- Good.
- Yeah, that was good.
- So while the alien theme stays the same.
(suspenseful music)
The Heroics theme takes a darker turn.
(plays chord)
It's not the same D major.
(dark suspenseful music)
(plays chord)
To E major anymore.
Now it's.
(plays chord)
D major to C sharp minor.
(plays chord)
It's much darker sounding.
(dark suspenseful music)
So, when I was originally going to write for this part,
and I was just watching the animatic,
which is an animated storyboard,
of the scene, haven't even filmed it yet.
Watching that, I decided to already make it sound like the
aliens were going to win from the start.
So, we get this dark marching motif underneath our theme.
(plays chord)
(dark suspenseful music)
And that continues throughout the entire scene.
I actually don't let up once, to make it sound like the
aliens are just winning and conquering constantly,
and they're not stopping.
Like there's a never ending amount of them.
(dark music)
Typically, the composer comes into the project after the
movie's been edited.
And when things are already kind of getting finished up.
But, because I was on the project before we even started
filming, we got to do some really interesting things.
The first of which was,
we just had a costume test and my dad asked me
if I could write a little bit of music
to put under the costume test video.
And we kind of got to get more of a feel of what they would
look like in the movie, even with the music and everything.
(triumphant music)
(suspenseful music)
So, this little desk is where I created the entire score.
Working 14 hours a day for several months.
In order to keep up with the schedule,
I'd have to write 1 to 2 minutes of finished music
per day.
And sometimes even score 3 or 4 scenes in a single day.
(suspenseful music)
So here's some tips to how to create your own
music for a project, or maybe an idea
you just have in your head.
Probably my favorite place to start with is the chords.
And the reason is,
(plays chord)
the sound of notes together.
Anytime they're played.
(plays chord)
Played together,
(plays chord)
it's known as harmony.
And harmony really gives you the emotion
and the setting of the story.
So, it's almost like you're set it's that classroom it's
the spaceship in the end.
It sets up the story you're going to be writing for.
So, I love to find those first.
That's why with heroes, I found.
(plays chord)
That first was because it kind of
carried that heroic sound to it.
(triumphant music)
You can see, you can get the emotions
that you want to have in it.
Maybe it's also even Missy and her father's theme as well.
(soft piano music)
So once you have the harmony,
then, you can start to find the melody.
Missy, and her father, there is more of a story
to be told there about togetherness.
And so that's why you get.
(soft music)
One of the most important lessons I learned through this
process was, just how flexible you have to be as a composer.
So often did we have scenes that were reedited and I had to
cut a section in the music out, or edited where to add a
section of music in.
There was parts we didn't like, or we'd pull out a part.
You couldn't just throw away the whole thing,
but you had to switch it and change it around.
So, you always had to be ready to change parts of it,
and also still make it work with
the rest of the song and the scene.
Thank you for joining me.
And I hope you go out and
make some music for your own projects.
(plays chord)