Recording - April 2015 - 52
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Michael Mann, around the same time started
Miami Vice, which had the whole different kind of
Miami sound that was going on, and electronica
and all that.
Becky Mancuso, who was one of the first music
supervisors, had worked on Urban Cowboy and on
Footloose... And when I was working on Fame, someone said, "You know, there are people that are kind
of doing this thing as a career. You should do this."
Television is very much like a machine that you get
one script that you're reading, one script that you're
shooting from which you read two weeks before,
and then you're doing post production and finishing it on the other end. So you're actually working
on three projects kind of at the same time, and it's
very fast. So that really was kind of the training.
Like, okay, he feels bad, and then he sings a song,
and then afterwards he feels better. Or he kills himself, or... But the song-like in a musical-had to
kind of push the story forward in some way, and let
the audience know what was going on.
So it was a tremendous training ground, and I think
when I worked on The Bodyguard I was kind of new
to film... I was really the kid. They were like, "Okay,
she can help organize stuff or whatever." But
because I had been doing it already for like five
years in terms of helping to tell the stories with
songs, when "What Becomes of the Broken
Hearted" was recorded for the film Fried Green
Tomatoes-and that was the originally the song that
she was supposed to sing-was climbing the charts
as we were shooting, we had to find another song.
And for a story, you always look at what does the
song have to do; what is the end result; what does it
serve? It had to be from his world; it had to be in a
bar that played music that he would listen to, and
that she would sing it back to him-a man she had
had an affair with who had just taken a bullet for
her and she was probably never going to see again.
So when you ask the right question in the story, I
like to think the song presents itself, because you
have to answer those questions. It has to fulfill all
those needs at the end of it.
That's a look into the actual thought process of the
supervisor. When I was working on the questions the
other night, I realized; there's not a person in this
room who wouldn't give up a fingertip to get a song to
you. They're thinking,"Oh, man, if only I could get my
stuff to the supervisor."But the timing has to be so
perfect, because your need as a supervisor... It could
be the greatest song in the world, but if you don't
need it...
Yeah, that's the thing. The amazing part of talking
to songwriters like at conferences, you'll have somebody come up and say, "I have the perfect song. I
have the perfect song for Scandal; I have the perfect
52
song for Breaking Bad." Well, okay, great, what kind
of music is it? Or what's been in the show? Why do
you think that it's perfect? Like what character
would be...? "Oh, I don't watch the show. I'm too
busy in the studio. I don't have time to watch these
shows." Well, how do you think it's perfect for the
show if you don't watch the show?
I know it's hard, because you're in the world creating. But it's just like if you wanted to place it with a
singer. If it was a Country song, you wouldn't necessarily be sending it to Jay Z, you know what I
mean? It's that kind of thing where you have to
"The music in Houdini was actually
from a TAXI member."
-Maureen Crowe
really do your homework in terms of what's going
on and what the needs are. You know, Scandal uses
all existing music, so probably not a big shot, unless
it was something in the genre that might be used as
kind of a background thing.
I did want to mention to you that the music in Houdini was actually from a TAXI member. It was
something that was crafted for the opening and the
main title sequence. It was a source cue in a
bordello, and they definitely wanted it to have a
certain type of vibe that you were not going to hear
in just traditional turn-of-the-century music, and it
couldn't be so contemporary that it would take it
out of the period. So that was a listing, and it really
solved the problem. But that's really it with the
placement of music-how do you solve the problem, or how do you enhance the scene, and how do
you tell the story? So that's why the clearer you are
in terms of this song is about this, and creating relationships, and following through. When you said
[in the opening remarks] there was only a small
percentage of people who followed up [when they
were contacted by the library owner for] a listing,
that's not acceptable. There are a plethora of
sources for music right now. That's an understatement, and honestly, TAXI is your best friend,
because they have these tentacles out to all these
different people. They are serving you in terms of
kind of song management, and all these different
things. There are other companies out there that do
far less and take far more. So you talk about
integrity, Michael is a man of great integrity.
[applause] He started a format that early on people
were like, "Well, I don't know about this." Now it's
like, oh my gosh, he's a visionary in terms of it,
because a lot of the stuff that's going on now is just
cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, you know, really. So you have
to do your part. No one can want it more than you
want it yourself.
So every supervisor has their issues [they have to
deal] with... We answer to... If it's in a film, maybe
it's the director and a producer, and maybe a studio. If it's on television, you might have 10 writers;
you might have actors that have feelings... So you
are dealing with a lot of people. It's not just like,
"Oh, listening to music, I'll write this song." That
would be so nice.
So whose decision is it...? Let's talk about different
types of supervision. Supervising a reality show is different from doing an episodic drama; doing an
episodic drama is different from doing a big budget
feature; doing a big budget feature is very different
from doing a documentary. Let's talk about feature
films, because that's more-or-less your specialty. And
who do you answer to?
With features you have a lot more time. You usually
answer to the director. You know, usually in feature
films the director is the 800-pound guerilla. In
some cases, like in The Bodyguard, obviously Kevin
[Costner] was a big influencer; everything had to go
past him. So [mega-producer] Jerry Bruckheimer, I
would say, runs the show. So there will be a conversation between the director and the producer on
that. And depending on who the kingpin is, who
the ultimate decider is, will decide on that. The Broccolis, the James Bond producers; they would have a
say with the director.
Does it start out with a script? Do you get a script in
the early stages, and go through it and hand back
to them penciled-in notes and say, "In this scene I
think there should be a love song?"
Yeah. Well, you go through the script, and anytime there's an opportunity for music... It could
be in the car driving, do you want music in there
or not? Do you want to play it quiet or not?
They're in a restaurant; do you want music in
there? Or there's a montage scene, is that going
to be score, or should we get a song for that?
In a lot of cases, also, you might go into postproduction, and they have overshot the film and
it's running two and a half hours, and it's a
romantic comedy and we've got to condense it.
And that's kind of what happened with Tootsie. I
know that the director for a long time, wanted
that old song "Something's Telling Me It Might
Be You." They had to chill the whole relationship between Jessica and Dustin Hoffman's
character when she goes home, and they were
like, "This is taking forever." So they cut it
together and put in a song, and it developed the
entire relationship in a minute and a half, as
opposed to 20 minutes later. "Okay, we got it.
Let's move on."
The producer of The Hangover was recently talking about that. A great song can save so much
time and energy in terms of shooting. And an
inexpensive shooting day is about $250,000 a day.
So, if you have a song that eliminates basically having to shoot two or three days of dialog-and be
more effective in terms of communicating to your
audience-it's the fastest shorthand, and the most
compelling way to actually help tell the story. And
this is coming out of a producer's mouth!
There must be a tremendous amount of pressure on
Continued on page 55
Recording - April 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2015
Recording - April 2015 - Cover1
Recording - April 2015 - Cover2
Recording - April 2015 - 1
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Recording - April 2015 - Cover3
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