VC6 Live: Eric Whitacre in conversation with composer John Powell
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2020
- A-list composer, John Powell, shot to fame with his widely admired and loved scores to the Matt Damon “Bourne” trilogy. John is a go-to writer for family animated films from Shrek, Chicken Run, Ice Age and How to Train Your Dragon. His critically acclaimed “Prussian Requiem” for the concert stage commemorates the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One and all those who died in it, soldiers and civilians.
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Imagine a composer starting out forty years ago stumbling across a recording of their favourite composers talking shop over the phone... What a treat to live in the TH-cam era, in the composing landscape, at least!
What a great interview! I’ve always been a huge fan of Powell’s work for such a long time, but I never knew how funny and great of a guy he was!
I don't know what I like better - your whole admiration and attitude towards him and his work or his random jokes :D Awesome interview!
Love it! Such an inspiration
Great interview. Great job.
I have mixed responses to this interview. On one hand it’s pure beauty to see the time and sacrifice of you both - Eric is the epitome of child like energy and creativity, and John is a legend. On the other, it couldn’t be more apparent how devastating and life-sucking the job of a film composer is at the studio level. I’ll emphasize the STUDIO level. I’ve only scored 6 features (each of them indie) and my experience has been so much more enjoyable, but John’s experience (and many like him) is why I’ve decided to move away from hoping to be in film composing at a “high” level as a profession. It seems the further these people get into this big screen world, their IMDb credits might continue to be impressive, but they seem to be less and less inspired as the years go on. More and more exhausted. Music just becomes a job. Yuck. I’d love to hear of a film composer who remains inspired by their work in film rather than having to do a separate project on the side to satisfy their curiosity. His comments on working with Mallick were beautiful. Thomas Newman might be the closest I can think of who works and plays at the same time. Regardless, the process and cycle John describes here is brutal, soul-sucking and joyless. It could also just be that he’s British and his tone is intentionally understated. But wow. What kid hears this and says “yeah; I want to write music that a studio will own that I need a lawyer to discuss when I grow up!” I hope we are entering new territory with film composing in years to come…your interview with Jacob was so life giving. This interview was almost an advertisement to avoid film scoring 😂
I agree with you, definitely. When I started composing four years ago, my dream was to become a film-composer at a high level. Nowadays I don't know if I even want to write to any kind of media, I just want to write music for myself and if others like it, fine.
Sorry but I disagree with you deeply. John Powell has a very particular and cynical way of talking about things. He tends to emphasize the negative. That's his style and he's just one guy. He doesn't represent the whole damn field of media scoring! :-( I know several people who have serious mileage of projects behind them already but are still inspired or at least come across as such! Paul-Leonard Morgan is one of those examples. Go listen to his interview on The Sound Architect Podcast if you don't believe me.
Stop emphasizing the negative.
I’ve been developing this idea of the difference between an “artist” and “artisan.” An artists job is to be inspired and visionary and to give birth to an idea that they then bring into the world. The artisans job by comparison is to bring someone else’s vision into the world, to complete shelve your own vision and ego and apply all your skill until your client says “that’s it! That’s what I was thinking of!” Both are noble perhaps, but I think the artisan more often has the ability to really serve others. It’s a shame that nowadays the “artisan” as I conceive him or her is often accused of “selling out” when they are really just honest craftsmen who have retained, and also delight in, their ability to serve someone else’s vision, follow instructions and do what is asked of them. Powell seems like an “artisan.” I once heard him say “I’ve never had an original idea in my life”, and he wasn’t sad about it. It almost seemed like he said it as a point of pride in his own work.
9:52 HS's phone goes off. . . . hope it wasn't me.
Interviewer is 4 times louder than interviewee.
Never mind the great interview, let's talk about the facial hairs, shall we?
38:25 39:30
1:02:03
I agree with the sentiment towards AT & T. Ugh.