IN FOCUS SCORING FOR DOCUMENTARY
The music of life As the WSA opens up its awards to non-fiction scores, documentary composers Nainita Desai, Miriam Cutler and Nathan Halpern discuss the process and challenges of making documentary music. Nikki Baughan reports usic has been intrinsic to filmmaking ever since the earliest visual pioneers picked up a camera. Before the advent of recorded dialogue, filmmakers relied on music — then, live orchestral scores — to guide their viewers through the action. And, despite the evolution of special effects, the way a film sounds remains essential, with music choices able to set, or alter, the tone of any scene. Many composers have become famous in their own right but the household names — think Hans Zimmer, John Barry, Danny Elfman or Ennio Morricone — work almost exclusively on fiction features, spe-
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‘Directors just need to talk about the emotional purpose of the music, and I can translate that’ Miriam Cutler, composer
cifically the blockbusters that draw the biggest audiences. Yet composers are equally as crucial — and creative — in the world of non-fiction. From this year, scores from feature-length documentaries will be eligible for the WSA film composer of the year, best original song, discovery of the year and the public choice awards. “There has been a certain amount of snobbery, in that documentaries are considered to be the poor cousin of fiction,” observes Nainita Desai, who has worked as both sound designer and composer for features, documentary and television, and is the first documentary
composer to be nominated for WSA film composer of the year for her work on American Murder: The Family Next Door, Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests and The Reason I Jump. “But that attitude is changing, I think, because of the input of streamers like Netflix. There’s more money, there’s a lot of crew crossover between documentary and fiction, there’s more time in the edit. There are docs that are taking on the aesthetic creativity and high production values of feature films.” That, Desai says, has led to a willingness from filmmakers to try something new with scoring. “Music for documentaries has been seen, generally, as wallpaper music,” she says. “But the thought now is, ‘How can we tell this story in a creative way, and engage audiences in fresh, innovative ways?’” Desai points in particular to her “experimental” collaboration with filmmaker Jerry Rothwell on The Reason I Jump, a documentary that uses sound to immerse viewers in the world of its non-verbal autistic protagonists. “I spent 15 months crafting that score,” she explains. “I worked closely with the sound designer [Nick Ryan] and director on establishing the true voice of the film. I brought in cellist Elisabeth Wiklander, who is autistic herself; she brought a very personal perspective to her interpretation of my music.” Authenticity, says
(Right) RBG, scored by Miriam Cutler
Desai, is key when it comes to composing for documentary, where real people and real lives are depicted on screen. “It is important to me to get to the heart of the film, and to tell the story in the most authentic and sensitive way possible.” Heart of the matter
That is a sentiment shared by veteran US composer Miriam Cutler, who has built a career scoring issueled documentaries such as Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib, The Hunting Ground and RBG. After leaving college, Cutler — who describes herself as a feminist and an activist — began working as a researcher for publicinterest lawyers, before leaving to follow her passion for music. “For 10 years I was composing for low-budget films, horror movies and corporate work,” she recalls. But it wasn’t enough. “I woke up one day and said, ‘My life has no meaning.’ I was thinking of quitting. But then I met this guy named Arthur Dong at a screening, and he was working on a documentary called Licensed To Kill. I was floored when he told me what the film was about [an exploration of high-profile anti-gay murders]. I worked on it, and then it went to Sundance [winning two awards]. There I was introduced to the international community of documentary filmmakers, and it was like I had found my home.” Since then, Cutler has sought out documentary projects that speak to her values, drawn to independent productions with relatively small crews, which enable her to make a valuable creative contribu-
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
‘A rigorous, thematic score is the prime way to make the work feel more cinematic’ Nathan Halpern, composer
tion and, crucially, retain ownership of her music. “Each of the films [I have worked on] have resonated with me,” she says. “With The Hunting Ground [Kirby Dick’s exposé about the culture of rape on US college campuses], for example, I was an activist about the rape issue in college, so it was very close to my heart. And Ruth Bader Ginsburg is my hero and a feminist icon, so that film [RBG] was a no-brainer.” Whatever the subject matter, truth is at the heart of everything. “The stakes are much higher in terms of responsibility,” she says. “Most good documentary filmmakers adhere to journalistic values. There’s a lot of consideration of ethics and that feeds into my responsibility as a composer, as we all know how manipulative music can be. “It’s very important that I’m telling the same story as the director, so the filmmakers and I have deep discussions,” she continues. “Sometimes they don’t feel comfortable with the music process, as they feel they need a vocabulary. But the truth is, they just need to be able to talk about the emotional purpose of the music, and I can translate that.” Cinematic scores
For US composer Nathan Halpern, who has scored features including Swallow and documentaries such
