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Liner Notes
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Composing for Film: An
Interview with Film Score Composer Keith Kehrer--Page 3
MBADC:
Is it typically the director who hires for a film, or what’s the typical
hiring process?
Keith Kehrer:
On a small film, possibly, or the producer…Another film, it might be
Production and you might be working with a music supervisor, and you might
have a say in hiring [of the musicians] as well. Generally you’re hired by
either the production company, or for a smaller film, by the director.
MBADC: Was
the process of doing your first full-length film as you’d imagined it?
Keith Kehrer:
Yes and no…Never having done a full-length film before, I didn’t have any
expectations for the process. I just started working with [the director Sean
Hagen] and started writing music. My imagination was Bernard Herman writing
Psycho on score paper and then conducting an orchestra. That’s not what
happened with this, because I did it all in the studio. There’s certainly a
romanticized element to this, and that’s not how it was. It was fairly cut
and dry; I got the Quick Time movie, and I loaded it into my computer and my
recording program and proceeded to watch it and write music and then
basically play music to him. I think even before I got the final edited
version I think got the VCR version first, and it was like 2 hours long
uncut to give me an idea about characters and everything.
MBADC:
What’s it like working around the Foley artists? Is the Foley layered on top
of your music, or is it the other way around?
Keith Kehrer:
They have to kind of cooperate with each other. I was lucky in that [with
Standalone] I had the edited version that had the Foley and dialogue in it.
It wasn’t the final version of it, because they did the mixing stage. But I
got my version after they’d hit the soundstage the first time, did the color
separation and the fades and all that stuff…and that’s generally what
happens with a movie; it’s done by the time the composer gets it. I was
lucky to see the process as it kind of evolved, but [usually] they’ll just
say “It’s done! You’ve got 3 weeks to do it.”
MBADC: In
general, what do you like best about the process of composing for a film,
and what do you like least?
Keith Kehrer:
I like the process of writing music. That’s the most fun. The least favorite
thing is just music editing, which I did a bunch of. It’s a little tedious.
Once I have something for the director to look at—at one point we were
watching it and were pretty much jumping up and down with excitement because
we were going, ‘this works so well! This is great!’ But in editing it’s ‘OK,
I have to stop this now and start it at 1.04…’ It was a little tedious. But
the actual creation of the music, and when things start to fall into place,
and things are lined up and you’re seeing the music effect the drama on the
screen, that’s the exciting part. And obviously when you see the movie on
the screen in a theatre with the music booming through the speakers that’s
the most exciting part, because you go, ‘This really works, oh my gosh, we
did a great job.’
MBADC: How
many times did you screen the film in its completion with the music before
it went to its first public viewing?
Keith Kehrer:
We only screened it here on a little tiny screen, and then it went straight
to the soundstage. So I didn’t really see it on a big screen until after it
was done. Which is kind of the typical process. There were times in the past
when the composer couldn’t be on the soundstage, so they didn’t really know
how it was going to turn out. Of course on the soundstage you’re mixing
dialogue, you’re mixing Foley—the sound effects—and you’re mixing music. And
if they’re good, or if you have some input into it, which you don’t always,
it will turn out well. I mean, for this movie I think the techno tracks were
a lot louder than the underscore, but it was underscore, that’s what it’s
supposed to do. And the techno is when people were dancing; in the scene
there was no dialogue whatsoever.
MBADC: So
when you saw it on the big screen for the first time, was it with an
audience, or was it in a screening room without an audience?
Keith Kehrer:
It was for the audience. It was small and intimate, but it was a good
audience. You could hear them gasp, and you could hear them, and it was a
good audience. It was very cool. And the best part was the Garden State Film
Festival in New Jersey, because I’m from New Jersey and that was a nice
theater and it sounded really good. But they had to use two Beta reels and
they had to switch them out, so the best [viewing] so far has been at the
D.C. Film Fest in Washington, D.C. because it was played all the way
through. The first time I saw it, at a film festival, there were glitches in
it—there was something wrong with the machine. And we still won. The second
time was with the switch, and this last time was like a regular movie, so it
was like, this is the way it should be. And there was a packed theater, it
was sold to capacity, and we had a great audience. It was fun.
MBADC:
That’s so cool. And that award was for Best Drama at the Garden State Film
Festival?
Keith Kehrer:
Best Feature at the Hearts and Minds Film Festival, and Best Dramatic
Feature at the Garden State Film Festival. And I wasn’t there, but it won
Best Feature Film at the Zoie International Film Festival--that was even
before I came on board. That was even before my music was done. It’s coming
out to the Lake County Film Festival but we’re not competing in that one, so
the next one we’re competing in is at the West Valley Film Fest in
California.
MBADC: Has
it picked up a distributor yet, or are they still working on that?
Keith Kehrer:
They’re still working on that…The director, Sean Hagen is very ambitious
guy. He’s written two or three things with a similar scenario. It is kind of
a conspiracy theory crime drama about people posing as criminals.
MBADC: What
kind of advice do you have for people who want to compose for film?
Keith Kehrer:
I’d say you really have to do it because you like it, because it’s very hard
stuff. And I’ve been successful on the first major film I’ve ever done, but
you have to work very hard to make a living at this until you’ve built a
reputation. I mean that’s really what we all try to do is, to score better
films, score more successful films, score higher grossing films, and so on.
And the industry’s going to look at what you’ve done. They say that it’s
better to have written a bad score for a successful film than a beautiful
score for an unsuccessful film. So that’s what I shoot for: at least if this
one’s not successful the next one will be. You just have to build on your
successes. It’s all about perception. This is Hollywood we’re talking about
here, you know? How things are perceived is how well your career does. So if
you’re perceived as a successful film score composer, then people will hire
you.
MBADC: You
said you’re originally from New Jersey. Where in New Jersey are you from?
Keith Kehrer:
I grew up in New Monmouth, New Jersey, which is right near Middletown, and
then went to the Middletown school system, which is part of Monmouth County,
which is kind of near Red Bank and Asbury Park. On the Shore, you know?
MBADC:
Mustard or Ketchup on the pork roll sandwich?
Keith Kehrer:
Neither, I was more into delis and New York style pizza…So, hot pastrami
with spicy mustard. On rye of course. But I’ve been a vegetarian for a while
now, so it’s definitely out of the question. Now I’m a grazer.
Keith Kehrer Page 2
Keith Kehrer Page 1
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