STAR TREK LIVE - Michael Giacchino at the Royal Albert Hall
Excitement, passion and sheer enjoyment... this appears to flow through every aspect of Michael Giacchino's psyche and is what allows him to create the magic with every picture he scores. In his own words "... you gotta love doing what you do to make you want to keep doing it."
May 29th-31st sees the Royal Albert Hall (RAH) become the newest HQ for Starfleet as fans of the ever-popular Star Trek franchise alongside the growing number of film music aficionados witness the UK premiere of JJ Abrams Star Trek films, accompanied by Ludwig Wicki's 21st Century Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. The orchestra annually perform around 45 concerts worldwide dedicated to the art of symphonic film music and have performed Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the Hans Zimmer / Klaus Badelt score to Pirates of the Caribbean and Zimmer's own Gladiator, Disney's Fantasia and most recently at the Royal Albert Hall 'Best of Pixar'. The passion and power of this orchestra to serve the projected film in an alternative setting and arrangement brings an extra dimension to the music.. most notable in the reconstruction of the score to allow for the entr'acte to occur.
The opening night of the 3 day music extravaganza included the added treat of not only Giacchino on stage to introduce his love of film and music but also Star Trek actor Simon Pegg (Scotty) to introduce the power of music in film and the Director JJ Abrams (who Giacchino referred to as coming to the stage fresh from working on some small independent film that nobody will probably bother to see). More and more of these events are occurring worldwide and it shows that the current status of music to picture is high ranking and becoming increasingly important to the fan base of franchises and film music followers. Whereas Hollywood would host it’s annual Bowl spectaculars there has been a spread across Europe and further afield to embrace this popular art form; festivals are springing up annually that feature high profile guests and there has been a significant rise in the number of young composer competitions.
BAFTA CONVERSATIONS WITH SCREEN COMPOSERS
Fans of Giacchino's music also had an opportunity on Friday 30th to attend an afternoon BAFTA talk with Tommy Pearson which was part of their ever growing and ever popular 'conversations with screen composers' series. Past guests at these talks have included Michael Price, Murray Gold, Rachel Portman, George Fenton and Dario Marianelli and there simply is no better setting than the RAH Elgar Room to be entertained by the knowledgeable host and his guests whilst being accompanied with live music excerpts and video clips. Giacchino's talk was witty, well structured and offered ever person in that room an opportunity to understand his love for film, his desire to make great music, and his necessity to simply enjoy what he does for a job. At one point in the conversation he recalls visiting the set of MI:3 and having JJ Abrams turn to him during the filming of a stunt scene in downtown L.A. and laughingly state"...can you believe they are actually letting us do this?"
The man is not only viciously witty and insightful about the profession he works in but is uniquely humble and grateful for everything that comes his way. Referring back to his childhood in New Jersey and making Regular 8 and Super 8 films in his backyard he quips that if he had had JJ as a neighbour who knows where his path may have gone. He talked about being a terrible piano student who loved to 'tinkle the ivories' and play out themes and that led to studying at Juilliard alongside an opportunity to work for the New York Disney office. Giacchino has worked hard to forge his way into the industry and his path shows yet again that it is the opportunities you take, the people you meet and the desire to do your job well that gets you ahead. Some would say Giacchino has had a meteoric rise when considering other composers journeys to the Hollywood elite but it is important to realise his career (alongside his motivation and work ethic) began at the dawn of the modern day computer game boom and launch of newer technologies. "The PlayStation was a game changer... you could have full music on the disc to accompany the game, not just 8-bit synth scores." The story of being summoned to a meeting with Steven Spielberg at the bottom of a slow moving escalator filled the room with raucous laughter and made you realise just how much of a 'fanboy' he is at heart; and keeping this in mind if you listen to his music, digest his music and contemplate his music you quickly determine his childhood memories, bubbling energy and a thirst to pay homage to the classic films and their music runs deep in his cues.
Tommy Pearson led Michael through his career; where he began with the video games and onto Alias (the start of his JJ Abrams collaboration) and LOST. "Nobody ever knew where this would go... it was insane...it just became something huge and we all became a family through the process." Giacchino refers to one of the first meetings to discuss the score (having already elaborated on how Abrams left an ALIAS spotting session stating "... you know what you are doing") and how a member of the team was offering suggestions for ethnic flutes and woodwinds in the score; were these used, well go and have a listen. One thing definitely appears in LOST and that is the commercial break cue, bold brassy trombones that Giacchino put in place as an homage to early TV series such as MASH, "... I wanted people to recognise from the kitchen via my music that LOST is on. Maybe in a good way or a bad way."
The audience was treated to a special recital from the Bond Quartet accompanied by Giacchino's longtime Orchestrator and Pianist Andrea Datzman; they performed a special arrangement of the final cue from LOST ‘Moving On’ that contained the raw energy of his compositions and showed how economical he can be with the instruments he uses. The piece played like a true eulogy to a show that garnered such a cult following. Bond also played the ‘Married Life’ cue from the Oscar winning UP at the end of the talk and whilst still an overwhelming and emotional cue we should be thankful it was not accompanied by the visuals for fear of having a room filled with sobbing adults. Giacchino talked of the impact of his music on the Producers and musicians and they knew that if they did not score that particular scene correctly it could quite have easily changed the flow of the whole movie.
The audience was a mixture of Star Trek and LOST fans, as well as film music listeners alongside young composers and industry professionals (including British composer David Arnold). Despite this range of interested parties Giacchino had the unique ability to make every aspect of his work accessible by all and he achieved this not only through his stories and anecdotes but by also immersing the audience into his world; giving a glimpse of his processes and experiences. He showed the scene from UP where Carl lifts off with the house pulled by balloons using the original composition before discussing how it just did not fit with the scene and the need to make it more of a waltz to highlight the memories of his life. Playing the final version shows you how meticulous and dedicated Giacchino is to getting the right music for the scene: “…whilst the original was ok it would have bugged me everytime knowing that the music was just wrong and not what I wanted” is how he also referred to rewriting music in a pickup session for MI:3.
To add more joviality to the talk Pearson enquired about forum boards and discussions when attached to projects and in the vain of Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Celebrities Read Mean Tweets’ Giacchino read out some of the reviews from the Film Score Monthly board relating to his work on MI:3… hugely entertaining and a perfect way to hit back at the critics “… it’s like a car crash, you don’t want to look but you just have to.”
The audience then saw the complete 8 week process from initial discussions about the Super 8 score through to recording and mixing on the dub stage. Giacchino highlighted the importance of regular conversations with Abrams via iChat and the sharing of his synth mockups, as well as the team he works closely with when orchestrating, copying, recording and mixing. Images of his studio space, Pro Tools setup alongside session photos from Dan Goldwasser gave a unique glimpse at the intricacies of writing a full score, and once again he showed how grateful he was to be able to work with so many “… amazing individuals that let this insane process happen.”
It was only going to be a matter of time before the conversation led itself to discussing JJ Abrams work on the new Star Wars feature as in the words of Pearson “… you have been involved in nearly every other franchise.” With a smile and little need to think of a response Giacchino simply uttered “ Star Wars is John Williams for me… it is a film from my childhood and John Williams was a huge part of my childhood.” He recounts a story of his parents (who were sat in the room) purchasing the Close Encounters of the Third Kind LP for him when he was sick as a child and listening to it constantly “straight for a week”. Giacchino is an absolute fan of 60’s and 70’s science-fiction and adorns his studio space with childhood toys, using this as an inspiration for doing what he does.
It is evidently clear that Michael Giacchino is in awe of the older generation of composers and uses this as part of his own musical process; whether it is meeting Lalo Schifrim for lunch to discuss Mission Impossible, paying respect to 1960s jazz scores of John Barry and Hoyt Curtin in The Incredibles or contemplating how to use Alexander Courage’s Star Trek theme appropriately he simply wants to do the picture justice and give it his best. It is far to say that with 3 sold-out days at the Royal Albert Hall he is being rewarded for his dedication and appetite to write beautiful music and long may it continue. He works a 9-5 day and does not let his music become all consuming and I think that is evident in what he writes and in the time he writes it; he has a job to do and he gets it done.
When asked by an audience member whether when he sits and writes music he considers the listening experience for a life outside of a film he states “… do you know, when I write it is for the picture I see at the time… the longevity comes through events like this, through fans like yourselves. You give me an opportunity to come to a venue like the Royal Albert Hall and perform my music. It is you who give it the life after a film.” Humble words from a gracious man who stayed for an extra hour to talk and sign autographs with fans before getting himself ready for the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness.
THE CONCERTS
In the words of JJ Abrams “Michael has written a score that holds its own against now-classic works from the likes of Alexander Courage, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. It’s the kind of film music I adored as a kid.”
Anyone present at the Royal Albert Hall this week will have understood exactly what Abrams means; pure unadulterated film music with a bold and brassy central theme running through the heart of the score. Die-hard fans in their eclectic array of outfits and extravagant costumes applauded the opening sequence loudly once they had finished hyper-ventilating at being in the same room as Simon Pegg, Michael Giacchino and JJ Abrams and this enthusiastic approach continued throughout the evening as key scenes unfolded on screen beautifully told with the delicate touch of Ludwig Wicki and his 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus.
Purists will have noticed that certain cues were rearranged for this particular setting, but as Giacchino made reference to in the Friday BAFTA screen talk “…sometimes the movie comes out with pieces that just had to be finished. Afterwards I fine tuned a few cues and that is what you hear in the concert.” That aside every member of the audience was treated to something spectacular. From the soft, subtle Chinese Erhu instrument that speaks for the half-human and half-Vulcan Spock and his people through to the pounding deep brass of Nero’s theme, complete with powerful beating percussion we are drawn into this soundscape at every possible opportunity. For Into Darkness, Giacchino develops the themes, altering and expanding them as necessary; Spock in particular loses the use of the Erhu and is accompanied through a range of staccato strings, snare drums and punchy brass phrases. The orchestra is adept at handling these changes of pace and delivers to the audience what they want… an edge of the seat experience (a superb example was the point at which Into Darkness split for the Intermission; rising crescendos, pulsating strings and gasps from the audience even though they knew exactly what was coming next).
Conductor and Artistic Director Ludwig Wicki entertained the audience as he appeared in a different Star Fleet shirt each night after the interval and it was clear to see that this man is as passionate about the music as the composer whose work he is interpreting. He glides through every action and puts his energy into getting the best from the orchestra at every possible opportunity; something that is rare to see- the orchestra smiling and enjoying the music they are playing. The Entr’acte drew the audience back into the action after the intermission and the power of the chorus supported with long deep bass cello strokes put the music deep into your own heart as once again you were immersed into the world of Giacchino and Abrams.
From a film fans point of view I really appreciated the importance of the dub process and music mixing as there was no control of the orchestra volume here, hence the use of subtitles during the films. Powerful cues with powerful scenes showed the audience yet another nuance of the power of music in film.
Each night as the action drew to a close we were treated to a rousing rendition of the Alexander Courage theme that was so powerful it could probably have been heard in the local streets and Giacchino’s interpretation of this theme was greeted with rapturous applause from the numerous Star Fleet Officers, Klingons, Romulans and dare I say it Tribbles! The Star Trek hard core was content with what they had paid for.
I have had the pleasure of attending a number of these events where the film is projected and accompanied by a live orchestra and can honestly say that this ranks up in the top 5 alongside Danny Elfman and Ennio Morricone (coincidently both of these were staged at the Royal Albert Hall). Giacchino is a master of his art and to have had the opportunity to witness his scores performed live is something I feel very honoured to have watched. I only hope more people get the opportunity to experience these events as it is what cinema and movie making should be about: giving you an experience. I know that the next time I venture to my local cinema I am going to feel slightly down when there is no orchestra to accompany the picture.
As an extra bonus the audience (that stayed) were treated to a small taster of his upcoming score to the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes film. Again, as we have come to realize with Giacchino, he has referred back to his love of the originals and the timeless Goldsmith score and has created something that I can only begin to describe as ‘…delicately gentile with lashings of strong percussive melody, generously assisted with lush strings and powerful brass.’ This is going to be a score to watch out for this year!
Michael Giacchino says we are lucky to have “… such an inspiring and amazing venue in our backyard” and all I can say is that Michael you are welcome to return here anytime to perform your music as we want to hear more of your repetoire live.
