Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Edward Beltramiis an American film composer best known for his work scoring horror films such as Mimic, The Faculty, Resident Evil, Don't Be Afraid of the Darkand The Woman in Black. A long-time friend and collaborator of Wes Craven, Beltrami has scored seven of the director's films including all four films in the Scream franchise. Beltrami has been nominated for two Academy Awards for 3:10 to Yuma and The Hurt Locker, and won a Satellite Award for Best Original...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth7 October 1966
CountryUnited States of America
I started out coming from more of a concert music background. It just turns out that 20th-century music techniques lend themselves to scary movies and horror movies.
I like the scene in the first 'Scream' movie where Sidney gets up, and dusk is falling, and she's looking out at the hills of Santa Rosa, there where it was filmed, and that's where you sort of hear her theme being played out. I always liked that moment because, to me, it became more than just a horror movie.
I have to admit that I really don't care for horror movies all that much. I think mainly just because I'm a cheap scare.
Robert Townson at Varese is a huge fan of film music and has really done a lot to educate audiences about film music and scores.
I think the only thing that I really haven't done much in, and I haven't felt too attracted to, is romantic comedies.
One of the major aspects of film composing is that it's not so much a musical thing as it is communicating your ideas with the director, who often does not come from a musical background.
I am inspired just by the way a scene can be interpreted by the actors. It can make a huge difference on the type of music that you write. It's best for me if I don't work at all on a project until the movie is shot and I have some sort of edit in front of me.
If it's a real bad score, then it can ruin a movie for me, or, at least, it will draw a lot of my attention to the score.
To me, music is music, and it's not limited by the medium; it just encompasses everything.
The thing that struck me most after first viewing 'The Sessions' was the charm of Mark O'Brien and the intimacy that the director, Ben Lewin, manages to capture perfectly on screen. I did not feel forced or cajoled in any way into believing the story.
I usually start from the most general to the more specific. I'll get an emotional overview for the film as a whole, trying to pinpoint what the musical identity is and come up with thematic ideas - any ideas that identify as succinctly as possible what the film is.
When I think of Morricone, more than his using a specific instrument or a specific sound, it's his way of approaching music that sticks out.
I had come from an orchestral background, but I didn't really have any orchestral pieces for film.
There's this whole other element of film scoring, which is the social and psychological side of how you're dealing with people... And that is not always in sync with what's right for the picture.