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Spit and the secrets of movie music · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Elliott, you've been learning to surf.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's the grandiose statement of what I've been doing.
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  Speaker 2: But yes, I have been taking a surfboard down to
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  Speaker 2: the ocean and falling off it a lot. It's been
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  Speaker 2: a wonderful, wonderful addition to my life.
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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. What if I told you there was
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  Speaker 1: a composer who'd worked with Jay Z, Florence Welsh, Brian Ferry,
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  Speaker 1: Rappa Nas, Christina Aguilera, Nile Rodgers Sea, and that this
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  Speaker 1: same composer had written the scores for Baz Luhrman's The
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  Speaker 1: Great Gatsby, The Get Down and twenty twenty two's Oscar
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  Speaker 1: nominated smash Elvis. Would you believe me if I told
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  Speaker 1: you this composer was born in woggle Wogger, Well, he was,
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  Speaker 1: and his name's Elliott Wheeler. We've all walked out of
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  Speaker 1: the cinema humming the theme of the movie we just saw.
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  Speaker 1: Then notice where humming the same tune weeks later, when
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  Speaker 1: memories of the movie's main plot points have started to fade,
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  Speaker 1: like this beautiful piece of Elliott Wheeler's from Netflix series
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  Speaker 1: The Get Down. Elliot's kindly given us some of his
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  Speaker 1: music to use throughout this episode. I've always been fascinated
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  Speaker 1: by how composers plant their work so deeply in our
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  Speaker 1: subconscious how it's the music we recall first when we
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  Speaker 1: think of certain movies or TV shows. Film composing is
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  Speaker 1: a fascinating art form, and our guest today is one
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  Speaker 1: of the genre's masters. Joining me from his home on
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  Speaker 1: the Gold Coast is Elliot Wheeler. Elliott wrote the score
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  Speaker 1: for Spit, the new movie featuring David Wenham, which is
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  Speaker 1: in cinemas now, a sequel to the beloved Australian movie
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  Speaker 1: Getting Square, in which when and played the oddly lovable
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  Speaker 1: rogue Johnny Spatiri. Your full name is John Francis Spatiri.
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  Speaker 3: Suh, excuse me, there's just paying for my bush fear today.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things I love about film scores is
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  Speaker 1: the way different characters have a little theme of their own.
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  Speaker 1: The most famous one is probably the shark in Jaws.
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  Speaker 1: You know as soon as you hear the music, you
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  Speaker 1: know that the shark is coming.
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  Speaker 2: And the thing I love about the shark theme in
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  Speaker 2: yours is a scary thing isn't actually the cellos and
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  Speaker 2: the bases, it's the piccolo. It's a little what terrifies everyone.
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  Speaker 1: You know, how do you do that? And did you
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  Speaker 1: do a theme for Johnny Spatieri in Spit? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, For Johnny spip there's numb themes. So there's sort
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  Speaker 2: of a theme for he's got a relationship with his sister,
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  Speaker 2: which is a much more emotional theme that carries through
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  Speaker 2: the film as it's sort of him as a character
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  Speaker 2: who's sort of always run from everything all his life.
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  Speaker 2: He suddenly faced with a bunch of decisions where he
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  Speaker 2: has to work out whether he's going to run or stay.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a piano based theme with strings that comes
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  Speaker 2: through whenever he's sort of dealing with that side of
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  Speaker 2: his personality. But then there's another side of him, which is,
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  Speaker 2: I guess the more comedic side of Johnny Spit. You
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  Speaker 2: can't work out whether he's the dumbest guy in the
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  Speaker 2: room or the smartest. We've dectinitely gone around and around
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  Speaker 2: trying to work out what this was, and I'd written
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of stuff as you sort of meet his
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  Speaker 2: character for the first time, and I'd written some beautiful
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  Speaker 2: strings stuff and I like, now, I didn't watch it
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  Speaker 2: with a film and be like, it's got nothing to
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  Speaker 2: do with what this film's actually about. And David actually
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  Speaker 2: came in because he's a producer on the film as well,
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  Speaker 2: and watched it and he said, you know what, Johnny's
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  Speaker 2: at clown and we're like, what speaks clown? And we're like,
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  Speaker 2: what about the accordion? And so we tried the accordion
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  Speaker 2: and the accordion actually became the main instrument that we
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  Speaker 2: used as Johnny's sort of comedic theme.
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  Speaker 1: And it's great.
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  Speaker 2: We've got this wonderful accordion. Players Fetlanta Buni who's down
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  Speaker 2: in Tazzi and she recorded it for us and wow, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's not at all where I thought we would have
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  Speaker 2: ended up, but it works great for the film, and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it was really fun. Choice.
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  Speaker 1: On the way here, I was listening back to the
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  Speaker 1: Elvis soundtrack. I'm really interested in how scoring a movie
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  Speaker 1: like that, a huge international movie about a huge international figure,
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  Speaker 1: compares with something like Spit, which is such an Australian story,
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  Speaker 1: such an Australian movie. What were those two experiences, Like.
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  Speaker 2: There's similarities and vast differences between the two of them.
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  Speaker 2: At the center of it, your job is to help
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  Speaker 2: tell a story. Musically, there's usually something happening on screen,
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  Speaker 2: which is the dialogue and the action, and then there's
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  Speaker 2: also usually another storyline that isn't being told by you,
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  Speaker 2: that what's being said or what you're seeing that the
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  Speaker 2: audience is trying to tap into, or you're trying to
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  Speaker 2: help the audience to tap into, and that's sort of
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  Speaker 2: the thing that you're often trying to find, And for me,
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  Speaker 2: the real joy of screen composing is about trying to
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  Speaker 2: find what that element is, and a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: conversations that you have with the director and your team
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  Speaker 2: is about what story are we actually trying to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Like in so many industries, technology has revolutionized the composing
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  Speaker 1: world in the past two and a half decades. Using
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  Speaker 1: digital audio workstations or doors loaded with ultra realistic samples
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  Speaker 1: of just about any instrument imaginable, composers can produce a
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  Speaker 1: score without leaving their home studio. They do it by
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  Speaker 1: programming layers of different instruments together. For Elliott, this is
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  Speaker 1: a handy tool for what he calls the sketching phase,
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  Speaker 1: but no substitute for colaborating with real musicians and getting
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  Speaker 1: a great human performance.
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  Speaker 2: There's a real danger that you can end up writing
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  Speaker 2: for what you know will sound good on the computer.
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  Speaker 2: And one of the ways that I try and get
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  Speaker 2: around that is now just using live players as much
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  Speaker 2: as possible. And that's one of the real joys of
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  Speaker 2: composing for me, is actually hearing other musicians bringing your
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  Speaker 2: ideas to life, because yeah, I'm so bored of the
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  Speaker 2: way that I play, having done this for as long
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  Speaker 2: as I've been doing it.
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  Speaker 1: And do you also think about the fact that this
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  Speaker 1: is going to be an album eventually that people will
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  Speaker 1: be listening to in their cars. Is that part of
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  Speaker 1: your thinking or not? Really? Are you actually just thinking
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  Speaker 1: about the film as the piece of art first?
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  Speaker 2: Really, you've got to focus on the film. I've got
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  Speaker 2: myself into a lot of trouble sometimes trying to think
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  Speaker 2: of how a film protects are going to sound as
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  Speaker 2: an album, and it really can take your eye off
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  Speaker 2: the ball in terms of making sure you're doing the
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  Speaker 2: best storytelling. And like Elvis, where there is obviously going
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  Speaker 2: to be so many eyes on it and such an
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  Speaker 2: appetite for it, there's the whole team of people who
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  Speaker 2: are involved in that process from music supervisors and obviously
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  Speaker 2: at that level you've got record labels involved as well.
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  Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, with someone like
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  Speaker 2: bas bas is driving that entire process. He has a
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  Speaker 2: very clear vision of who and how he wants to
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  Speaker 2: sound to come out like. But really, you've got to
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  Speaker 2: make sure the story works at the first level. Otherwise
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  Speaker 2: people aren't going to be interested in in the album
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  Speaker 2: if the film sucks.
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  Speaker 1: So coming up the Secrets of Elvis.
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  Speaker 3: I've been looking for Trouble, you came to the right place.
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  Speaker 1: Music videos have exploded in the past few decades. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not talking about three minutes t second music videos played
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  Speaker 1: on Rage, but full length features where music takes center stage.
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  Speaker 1: There are documentaries on hit makers from Taylor Swift to
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  Speaker 1: Quincy Jones. Every band from Joy Division to NWA seems
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  Speaker 1: to be getting the Hollywood treatment. In the olden days,
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  Speaker 1: actors on screen would lip sync. Now they're expected to sing.
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  Speaker 1: Timothy Chalameez, Bob Dylan, Taron Edgerton as Elton John, and
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  Speaker 1: Austin Butler, who earned a Golden Globe for his performance
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  Speaker 1: in Elvis Throos.
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  Speaker 2: Working with the actor really closely gives you a really
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  Speaker 2: clear idea of what the instrument is that you're working with.
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  Speaker 2: And in the case of Austin, we were just so
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  Speaker 2: lucky that he's such an amazing individual and performer and
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  Speaker 2: his work ethic is like nothing I've ever experienced before.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the guy would be up at literally four am.
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  Speaker 2: There wasn't a thing you could ask him to do
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  Speaker 2: that was too much trouble. It becomes a real collaboration
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  Speaker 2: because once the trust is there, they can talk to
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  Speaker 2: you about things that they're comfortable doing and not comfortable doing,
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  Speaker 2: and you can lean into where their strengths are. And
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  Speaker 2: with someone like Austin on Elvis, where the voice of
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  Speaker 2: Elvis changed at least four times during his life, like
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  Speaker 2: it starts very high in nasal and by the end
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  Speaker 2: this incredible operatic baritone. We got to work with Austin
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  Speaker 2: to sort of develop all those different styles of his voice.
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  Speaker 1: It must be hugely daunting for those actors. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you wouldn't be training a novious accordionist like to perform,
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  Speaker 1: but you are potentially dealing with a nervous singer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, Austin is on record as saying he
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  Speaker 2: lived on terror because Elvis is literally a religion to
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  Speaker 2: millions of people. I mean, there's a canon, there's pilgrimages,
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  Speaker 2: all the impersonators. So your Austin was that's why you
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  Speaker 2: wake up at four am. He didn't want to let anyone.
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  Speaker 1: Down speaking of the cannon. Bas Luhrman is someone who
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  Speaker 1: has created a canon of his own. What's it been
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  Speaker 1: like for you working alongside him, and how do you
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  Speaker 1: to work together? It's very, very collaborative.
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  Speaker 2: There's a shorthand now because we've been doing it for
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  Speaker 2: so long and some of the projects that we've done
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  Speaker 2: have been so intense. Bas is incredibly musical himself. I've
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  Speaker 2: got lots of films of Baz standing in front of
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  Speaker 2: the pictures sort of singing string lines that I then
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  Speaker 2: sort of if you listen to the final recording, you
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  Speaker 2: can absolutely hear the shape of where those lines are. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: and my fondest memories like us over in Nashville recording
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  Speaker 2: the over sessions over there and these great gospel sessions
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  Speaker 2: that we had. He's absolutely on the floor with us,
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  Speaker 2: working with the musicians and even to the point of
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  Speaker 2: conducting choirs and that sort of thing, which is wonderful
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  Speaker 2: to see.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I can't wait to see Spit. Did you like
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  Speaker 1: Johnny Spittiri? What is he? Is he the dumbest person ever?
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  Speaker 1: Or is he a genius?
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  Speaker 2: I think he's probably a genius. I'm coming down on
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  Speaker 2: the side of genius. He's such a wonderful character and
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  Speaker 2: such a fantastick characters score and David's performance is hilarious
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  Speaker 2: and heartbreaking, and it's such a complete immersion in the character.
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  Speaker 2: I love it. It's a wonderful character and I think
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  Speaker 2: a really, really wonderful film, and I can't wait for
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  Speaker 2: people to see it.
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  Speaker 1: Spit is in cinemas now. Thanks for joining us on
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  Speaker 1: the front. Our team is Jasper Leik, Kristin Amiot Leat, Sammerglue,
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  Speaker 1: Tiffany Dimak, Joshu Burton, Stephanie Coombs, and me Claire Harvey.