WAMG talks with John Paesano

With the impending release of TMR, We Are Movie Geeks talks with John Paesano about TMR scoring and more.

Here are the highlights:

On his initial attraction to the film:

Initially I saw Wes’s work, a short he did called RUIN, where he did everything himself, including the visual effects. Again social media – it caught fire and a lot of people saw it and loved it… including me. I had done some smaller projects with Fox, so when I found out they were doing the movie, I got involved in the mix and the film. We’re almost the same age and we come from that era where we both grew up with Spielberg and John Williams. Those are the kind of films we were inspired by. James Cameron’s movies like THE ABYSS. We grew up liking STAR WARS, JURASSIC PARK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. When I met Wes, we were both cut from the same cinematic cloth, so it seemed like a very natural fit. I went through the process of composing some music and my agent submitted it to the producers. I was part of a very short list of candidates. I think Wes and I creatively were aligned, had the same interests and ultimately the same vision for the film. It just worked out to where he picked me to compose the music for his film. I was very fortunate.

On the Old Hollywood vibe of the score:

In a way it’s a throw-back score. It’s modern but sounds like old cinema. Scores are different now and this wasn’t a huge budget film. Wes didn’t have the budget like some of the $90M movies, but it was amazing what he was able to squeeze in and it stands up with all those other films. The score was another portion of it. When we first got into it, we had to make sure the footage worked with the music. It all worked out in the end and it looks amazing.

On visiting set:

During my visit to the set, which basically was a hot, muggy swamp, I remember thinking how much environmental sound there was – Cicadas and birds and all the wind blowing through the leaves. The crew built this village and I thought there is so much acoustic, environmental sound out here it would be great to capture some of it, bring it back and incorporate it into the score. We went out there and recorded all the natural sounds from the area and the moving sets as well as beating against big oil drums with sticks and we used it along with brass and percussive instruments and then incorporated all of it into the score. When you have the time to work on the music and a longer schedule to visit the set, creatively it really enriches the score.

Check out the rest of this amazing interview with John at the source!