The Synthesis Of Editing
And ScoringAn Interview With John Ottman
John Ottman was nominated for Best Editing by the ACE for 'The Usual Suspects' and won theBAFTA award for it. In an unusual twist he also wrote the score for the movie - he's a unique hyphenate, an editor-composer. He also wrote the score for 'Cable Guy', 'Snow White' (the recent version starring Sigourney Weaver), 'Incognito' and is currently writing the score for Roland Joffe's 'Goodbye, Lover.' He had just finished both editing and writing the score for 'Apt Pupil' (which he also associate produced) when he spoke to music editors Sally Boldt and Carl Kaller for the Newsletter.
Edtor-composer John Ottman. John: I started making films in third grade. I was really making movies so that I could edit music to them with some favorite film scores - like a music editor would.
Q: Even at that young age?
A: Call me weird. I would edit the music on cassette tapes, based on visual timings, and then dub that onto the balance stripe of the films I was making. There are two little sound stripes on sound super 8 film - and I had this little two-track projector, so I would do the dialogue on one. I learned a lot from watching the old 'Star Trek' series too, because they would re-use the music over and over and edit it for each episode. It gave the series such continuity because there were themes recurring. The music editor really often scored that series. My dream was to direct movies and hire my idols, like Jerry Goldsmith, to score them. Somehow it took the wrong turn - or right turn - and I ended up writing the music myself.
I went to SC film school to pursue that dream of directing. I started getting a reputation for being a good editor. There was a thesis movie I was boom-miking and the P.A. was Bryan Singer. I wasn't the editor of the film and apparently they were having a lot of problems because, a month later, the director asked me if I would re-edit it. Bryan got to observe all of this. The
film was a simple family melodrama that took place in the '30s but no one could follow the story. I disassembled the whole thing and retold a new story because I had a lot of footage of this little girl and thought of the idea of having an elderly woman recounting her experience through the little girl's eyes and told the story that way. It ended up winning the student Academy Award. And from there on Bryan and I started doing stuff together.
I edited the plane landing to a click so I would know that whatever the score was going to be, it would be right on As a hobby I was scoring little student films with a MIDI setup. I had a Baldwin organ and one sound module from the Recycler. I just slowly started building my studio with used pieces of equipment, just for fun in the evenings.
To make a long story short, I re-edited 'Public Access' for Bryan and then the composer left, so I also wrote the score. That was where the synthesis was really discovered between the editing and the scoring. It went on to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize so then, for 'Suspects', I was built into the deal as being both the editor and the composer. The producers were very leery because it had never been done. I was scared to death about pulling it off.
Q: Are you going to start directing now?
A: I want to, and have a project in development; it's just that I love scoring movies. Part of the detriment of editing is that it keeps me from scoring films. I mean I could have scored three movies in the months it took me to edit 'Apt Pupil', so it's quite frustrating. But I promised Bryan way back that I would do it and he, so far, won't let me score the movie unless I edit the film. Just before 'Apt Pupil' I squeezed in another film, 'Incognito' -- I don't know what its fate is but the CD's on sale. I did 'The Usual Suspects' and then I scored 'Cable Guy' and 'Snow White' -- that was exciting because I got to record a huge orchestra with big choral groups, and it was one of the best things I think I've ever written. It's so heartbreaking that the film ended up going on video.
Drowning In Film
Then the brakes screeched on my career because I was waiting for 'Apt Pupil' to happen. It was happening for the longest time -- "It's still happening, don't take any jobs, it's still happening" -- so I would say no, no, no, no [to other jobs] and that hurts. Finally 'Apt Pupil' did go, just after I got offered 'Incognito' -- a John Badham movie. It was like, damned if I was going to say no to this after all that time writing nothing and waiting, so I said yes and I did it. It was a real composer's film - full of scenes that were all music -- no dialog or effects. The hard part was that I was in Seattle scoring the film while they were already shooting 'Apt Pupil' so when I got back, I was three and a half weeks behind editing -- I was being sent dailies for 'Apt' to watch while I was mixing 'Incognito.' Worse, I was editing on a flatbed - like 'Suspects' -- and was drowning in film so, in midstream, we went Avid.
Q: Do you find when you're editing, you are setting yourself up for score moments?
A: Yes, but I think any good editor does that. To me, the best editors are those who really understand film music or film scoring and are storytellers themselves, of course. So they will leave pregnant spaces for those moments. It's all part of the peaks and valleys that they create in a story. The best editors and filmmakers allow their films to breath. About three-quarters of the way through the editing process, things start gelling a little for me musically. I start thinking about themes and so forth, but in the beginning I'm just trying to make the film work. There are only a few instances where I consciously, during the editing process, think about the score. Like in 'Suspects' -- the sequence where I did these jump cuts of the plane landing. It could have just landed in a typical way but the footage was sort of screwed up and I wanted to give it an edge. I knew that if I was to make the technique work with score, it would have to hit precisely. I edited that to a click so I would know that whatever the score was going to be, it would be right on. That worked out really well - it became this little infamous part of the film because a 747 is approaching but a DC-10 lands. I didn't think anyone would notice.
We recorded that score to click only, no picture, and it worked beautifully. As an editor you know the film better than anyone, especially if you're the editor and have written the score; so you know exactly what's happening with the score and how it's fitting. Bryan trusted me and we had a limited budget. I knew that logically, if the orchestra was right on click, there would be no reason why we would need the picture so we did the whole thing without picture. It saved so much time! When we went to mix the score we threw up the video with the SMPTE code and everything just fit in perfectly. There was a huge gasp of relief.
Why Use An Auricle
To this day I'm like, "Well, do we really have to have picture there? It's really kind of a drag." Again, it always depends on your relationship with the director and how solid the film is. I always use picture now - why rock the boat too much! But so many friends of mine now do this on a smaller level -- doing independent movies or low budget stuff -- they're all doing it that way. None of them uses picture. And it's worked for all of them perfectly. To a music editor, that's sacrilege, I know. You don't have any idea how my editor had to twist my arm to use an Auricle! "Why do we have to use this? I just want to do it the simple way. I generate a click, throw it on a DA88, that's the way we've always done it." 'Snow White' was my last non-Auricle film. There have been a couple of instances where it's been really great and it very quickly got us to the point where we needed to change something.
Q: How have temp scores affected you?
A: Well, the strange thing is on 'Cable Guy' I wrote the score as they were filming. They did all the test screenings with my synthesized rendering of the score. So there was no temp score. The irony is that the film was so re-edited in the eleventh hour I had to practically write a whole new score in no time. On 'Snow White' I basically did the same thing, testing with the synth score. On 'Incognito' there was a temp score but we came in late - someone had already created it.
Q: What was your feeling about that process?
A: I try to ignore it, although what's really weird is when they start using your music - like with 'Incognito' they used a bunch of 'Suspects.' It's like "What am I supposed to do now?" They want something like the 'Suspects' theme but it can't be. So it's strange. I came up with a unique theme, thank God, but I was afraid I was going to be having to create a rip-off of 'Suspects.' Another reason this whole system works for Bryan, or any director, is that I create a synth rendering for each cue so when we go to the recording session, there are no surprises. I mean I couldn't sleep the night before a recording session thinking that no one knows what the hell I've done - and here's my score. Sometimes there is so little communication between the composer and the filmmakers, scores get recorded and then dumped. It's astounding how often this happens.
Q: The first time the director, editor, and composer sit down together, the composer brings a fresh perspective to the film - they articulate or illuminate a problem that neither the director nor the editor has really thought of before. That's a very productive perception to have.I wonder when you change hats, whether you start to look at the film in a different way?
A: Yes, you have to. It's really hard. You step back from it and try desperately to see it as though you've never seen it before. It's a double-edged sword because I think so many scores fail today because they're working on strictly a technical level based upon the fact that the composers are brought in so late. Today, top composers are doing five or six movies a
year; barely having time to absorb the film and write a score. In terms of the depth of the music, it's often not there anymore. If you hear scores today juxtaposed to those of the '70s, ending probably in the early '80s, the depth and the development of themes and the recurrence of certain melodies are just gone because the scores aren't designed like a story anymore. The advantage of being on the film for so long is you know the film - you have insight into the film better than anybody might. The disadvantage is that, by the time you're ready to write the score, you're burned out. But in terms of problem-solving, it is a challenge to step back from it and try to see it in a whole different light. When I used to edit and not score the films I was editing, it would drive me nuts. I had specific goals in mind musically. I had designed things with certain types of music in mind and it was frustrating handing it over to a composer - it was like releasing my painting to someone before I was done with it, and they would throw some other colors on that I hadn't intended. As you mentioned, I guess that could be good or bad.
The advantage of being on the film for so long is you know the film...better than anybody Q: Do you feel that way at all when you're doing the score only and somebody else has done the editing?
A: Oh, yes. I've done my share of grumbling. "Why did they do this cut, why didn't they do it that way?" Of course an editor looking at a film doesn't know what another editor was faced with and why they did a certain cut. It's funny though. Bryan reminds me when I complain about the fact that I'm trapped editing his movies and having to score them, he goes, "Yeah, but remember when you complained to me when you were scoring these other films and you were screaming about how they could possibly be making these cuts?" I say, "Yeah, yeah." Editing can go a billion different ways because although it's largely technical, it is the interpretation of a person.
Q: Regarding the logistics of being able to do roles that are more than full-time..
A: I was three or four years younger than I am now when I did 'Suspects' and you know, I'm not that old but, boy, in just a couple of years you feel the wear a lot more. To do again (on 'Apt Pupil') what I did before almost killed me. For every movie we've done, I've had three weeks or less to write an hour or so of music with a full orchestra, and I orchestrate almost everything. Basically when it was time to write the score for 'Apt Pupil', I looked at myself in the mirror with the baggy eyes and said, "You know, in three weeks you're going to be in front of an orchestra recording some sort of score that you're about to write. God knows what it's going to be." Sure enough, three weeks later there's a score written and we're recording it. I don't know how it happens but it's a brutal process. I think that's probably why I'm the only person doing it!.. And 'X-men'? (The next Singer-Ottman venture.) I shudder to think about it! Yikes!
MIDI - musical instrument digital interface.
Auricle - an electronic tool for composing and scoring sessions.
