THR’s Composer Roundtable: Film Scoring is Like a Drug (Video)

Scoring a film can be quite addicting, awards season's top songsmiths revealed during The Hollywood Reporter’s composer roundtable

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Patrick Doyle (Brave) said his first job on Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V got him hooked.

“You’ll never have the same thrill,” he said of his first time composing.

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Danny Elfman agreed, saying that hearing the first moments of his debut film, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, was "the heroin" that made him a lifelong composer.

"The first shot’s free, they say, and you’re hooked for life,” he joked. “That moment — that first cue of the first score played back by a full orchestra was kind of life changing. ”

Fernando Velazquez (The Impossible) is relatively new to the scoring business, having played in orchestras until five years ago. He called the experience of music “overwhelming,” and recalled conducting an orchestra for a short film by The Impossible director Juan Antonio Bayona as a highlight for his career.

Zero Dark Thirty and Moonrise Kingdom scorer Alexandre Desplat said he had wanted to be a composer since he was a teenager, citing Star Wars as a big moment for his musical development.

VIDEO: THR's Composer Roundtable

“I listened carefully to Star Wars and I realized why the range of orchestration was there,” he said. “There were great melodies, incredible orchestration, complex harmonies and rhythms. ”

In addition to the talent mentioned above, THR’s composer roundtable also included Marco Beltrami (The Sessions) and was moderated by THR international news editor Kevin Cassidy and music editor Shirley Halperin. 

Watch the entire, uncensored interview here.