Herald - How did you get involved with What the Bleep!?
Franke - I got involved with What the Bleep!? through my agents, which sounds boring, but it was kind of an interesting story. Will Arntz called my agent for some help finding someone in the music supervising and editing field. And my agent asked if they had already thought about a composer.
And Will said “No, but we've always thought there was this guy from Germany that we like,” and then he mentioned my name. And my agent said, “Well, that's too funny, because that person is with our agency.” So that was a “coincidence.” And I really looked at that because I'm interested in “coincidences.” It was like a clear sign, if you will, that this was good. So Will said he would send a script, and then the script, of course, was odd and different. I could not see how they could do that in pictures. But I was very interested to see how the script could be brought into celluloid, because I'd not seen anything like it before.
Herald - Had they done the interviews, the story line, or both at the time?
Franke - Well, after so many revisions I don't have a clear idea of it anymore. But it was very rudimental.
Herald - So how did you take what there was and translate it into sonic images?
Franke - I normally would review the film, and I would see my music as a sonic “under title” if you will [created in the] normal ways that you would enhance the emotions of a particular scene, or the dialogue, or the action - whatever grand epic moment, whether it's about war, or about love, or suffering, about investigation, heroic moments - suspenseful moments …
This is how a composer, including me, would approach a scene. Or he would find a particular music style that is, in the whole, suitable for that project, whether it's all orchestral, or mostly ethnical instruments or electronic instruments. So you make a decision by doing something like a roadmap to a movie - but the film score music, per se, is enhancing the emotional levels without really being heard by the consciousness of the audience. Film music per se, you don't hear. You just feel it. If you hear too much, the composer made probably a mistake.
Herald - Neither What the BLEEP!? or Down the Rabbit Hole have a lot of typical dramatic film moments, except maybe Marlee and the mirror scene.
Franke - Yes, you would say this might be a scene which I could score with my conventional methods or skills. Otherwise, for that particular project I had to find new tools with new skills, because the ordinary would not really work. It was always in flux, it was a work in progress finding music which is basically quiet by volume, but yet very meaningful in one’s conscious present. Next > 1 2 3 4
