Have you ever stopped to think about what makes all those superhero movies so exciting? Sure, there's the cool hero origin story, the maniacal villain, and the fate of the world at stake - but if you stop to consider the composition of a fight scene in "Kick-Ass" or take a breather in the middle of that pitched battle between Iron Man and Ivan Vanko in "Iron Man 2", you might find yourself paying attention to the background music. Scoring a superhero film and finding a balance between the music and other production elements is intricate work, and fans at Comic-Con on Thursday morning gathered to hear a panel of some of the best in the business discuss their craft.
The panel, titled "The Anatomy of Superhero Film Music: Bringing a Comic Book to Life", included composer Marco Beltrami who discussed his work on the forthcoming "The Wolverine"; director Jeff Wadlow and composer Matthew Margeson, who collaborated on "Kick-Ass 2", composerJohn Debney and music supervisor Dave Jordan from "Iron Man 2", Christopher Lennertz, whose credits include "Revolution" and "Supernatural" with creator Eric Kripke, and the very busy Bear McCreary, who premiered a portion of his main theme for the eagerly anticipated "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." series, coming to ABC this fall. Journalist Ray Costa moderated the panel.
The importance of musical scores in superhero films was demonstrated several times over, as clips from "Iron Man 2", "Kick-Ass", and "The Wolverine" were shown first without music and then with the music in place. Th difference in how the clips played pre vs. post-score was considerable. The "Iron Man 2" clip, excerpted from the penultimate fight scene between Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) was shown first in a pre-rendered format, with no music or sound effects, and the short segment felt awkward and elicited a few laughs from the audience. Shown again fully rendered, with the soundscape included, the sequence took on the immediacy and gravity that we all remember from the completed film. Composer John Debney noted that the music in the scene was "mixed low", and pointed out that although it's sometimes difficult to hear, and music often takes a back seat to the action, "...and rightly so", it's the music that can fully flesh out a scene.
This idea was again demonstrated with a clip from "Kick-Ass 2" that depicted two concurrent fight scenes. Again, the unscored clip felt oddly paced and incomplete - but the addition of the driving, relentless musical score added a needed tension and momentum to the sequence, while simultaneously highlighting the balletic yet brutal fight coreography. Jeff Wadlow and Matt Margeson discussed their collaboration in building the score for the film, and noted that a successful score, "provides editorialization to underscore the action onscreen."
Genre fans were treated to a special surprise when composer Bear McCreary debuted a portion of the score that he has been working on for the forthcoming series, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". While none of the actual footage was new, the Comic-Con panel was the first instance of the music being heard publicly. Regarding his work on the series, Mr. McCreary said that he was, "happy that Marvel let me play in a corner of their sandbox, that they let me write a melody" - one that he "hopes you will hear a lot this fall." The music accompanying the trailer is spot-on: bass-heavy and deep one moment, lighter and quirky the next, it's reminiscent of classic 60s tv spy themes but without the kitsch. When asked about how this project differed from other similar productions he has scored, the composer described "S.H.I.E.L.D." as being "about what goes on behind the scenes; most of the characters aren't superheroes, so the music couldn't be too "superheroic", but had to retain some of the same elements." Mission accomplished, Mr. McCreary.
The panel wound down with a couple of questions from the audience. Regarding the development of character themes in a score, Bear McCreary talked about developing an overall theme first: "To stumble into a score without knowing what you're doing melodically and thematically with characters is courting disaster." Jeff Wadlow and Matt Margeson talked about trying to collaborate while 6,000 miles apart. In response to a question about balancing a musical score within an industry that puts so much emphasis on sound effects, John Debney said, "a film's soundscape can be massive", and he cited "Iron Man" as an example. "Sound can get too assaultive; but the most successful marriage of music and sound is when they can co-exist. If they're out of balance, an audience can feel that." Mr. McCreary continued with the metaphor: "It's up to a filmmaker to function as a marriage counselor between music and sound design, and if everyone is on the right path, there's a way to do that."
The panel itself constituted an ideal balance of discussing the craft of creating superheroic film music and illustrating the importance of the finished product. Fans who attended came away with a greater appreciation of the subtle art of film scoring, and with the realization that the composers who work on these films can be considered heroes - albeit unsung - in their own right.
