Written by Tyler Grow, Photos by Meg Aki, Video by Alex Puga
Harry Gregson-Williams is a name that many composers in the field are familiar with. He is best known for his work on “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Shrek” Movie Franchise, “The Martian”, “Man on Fire”, and so many others. His work to me as a composer is soul-touching, complex, and well-balanced in terms of orchestration. There are many film composers today in the industry, but Gregson-Williams, I would consider him to be one of the best film composers of our time.
Almost every composer relates to the same problem when they first begin a project, which is to start from a blank page. Nothing is written, and the only thing you may have is a cut from the director. Visually, you have the film and if you’re a smart composer you took notes during your spotting session. Sometimes though, this isn’t enough. Composers struggle to find our starting point, and Gregson-Williams’ presentation at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival enlightened me to write this piece.
When Gregson-Williams first began his presentation, he mentions how he wrote this beautiful swooning theme for a film, which he quite liked. However, upon presenting this melody to the Director, he came across a problem many composers encounter. The director felt that what he had written didn’t fit the scene they were looking for. Gregson-Williams was discouraged and went back to the drawing board; however, he was lucky as the Director realized they could use it for the fairytale theme of Shrek. This melody would then reappear in many other scenes in which Gregson-Williams could change the overall orchestration. A big band version of the melody played during the red-carpet scene of Shrek 2, the melody is beautiful and light during a scene that is quite dark as Fiona takes a sip of her tea. Gregson-Williams changed the feeling of the same melody we’re used to hearing to fit various scenes. This serves as a reminder for composers to always adventure into new ways of how a film’s score can be better served with a side of diversity.
One of my favorite parts of his presentation was when Gregson-Williams loaded up a scene from Unstoppable and described how the Director needed specific sounds for when a character did something. The possibilities are endless in what a composer could create. It’s important to note that there should be an established tempo specifically mapped to each loop so that everything is in sync. Once the loops are recorded, Gregson-Williams pressed a note on his keyboard to activate the loop. This was a game-changer, as it allowed him to compose over the scene flawlessly with a tempo that matches the pacing of the quick jumps cuts in the scene and meet the Director’s requests.
Gregson-Williams is not just a musical genius, but his skill in technology is why I consider him one of the best composers of our time.
Watch Gregson-Williams interview on the red carpet here.
