That's the time I remember as a kid, being so excited to go to the movies. To be part of that now is really an amazing gift.
As a kid, I would listen to anything that had a live orchestra or ensemble playing, so that covered everything from show tunes to eclectic jazz things to film soundtracks to classical music. They're all inspiring to me.
Many film scores try to force an emotion into a story that inherently is not there in the first place.
The Internet's a crazy place to hang out because it's insane to see so many people doing so many creative things all over the map.
I love percussive instrumentation.
I think I learned everything about comedy and timing and drama from watching 'The Muppet Show,' which was one of the best shows ever produced.
'Lost,' at its core, is a science-fiction show. Live music helps lend an air of legitimacy to this otherwise crazy storyline. It makes a big difference.
I have an uncle who was heavily involved in World War 2, so over the years, I've talked to him many times.
'Lost' is such a thematic show that I'm always afraid that if I know something's going to happen at the end, I'll subconsciously write something in where someone who's astute will go, 'Oh, he used so-and-so's theme: that must mean so-and-so is coming back!'
I always feel like my writing is consistently influenced by everything I watched and listened to growing up, so it's just this crazy collage of everything, you know.
If you have a bad story on your hands, you have a bad story on your hands, and no amount of score re-working is gonna save that.
I was obsessed with 'The Twilight Zone' as a kid, and one of those things I didn't realize until I was in college was that I had been listening to Bernard Herrmann all my life.
Working with Kevin Feige has just been a joy.
For me, the music is always speaking from the point of view of the characters. Rarely do you score an event.
Without my experiences on the likes of 'Lost' and 'Alias,' I don't know if I would have survived 'Rogue One.'
On 'Lost,' I write a score and orchestrate it on days one and two; I record it on day three. In animation and film and videogames, you have a little more time to work things through.
Scoring animated films, I have the exact same approach and philosophy as I do for a live action. It's all story- and character-driven. I don't care if it's a mouse or Tom Cruise.
Life is #1 on the agenda, and #2 is work.
I've been pretty lucky in that I'm not a big writer's block kind of person.
I've always looked at guys who I've admired, like John Williams and Lalo Schifrin and Max Steiner, and looked at the choices they made and always try to take a cue from that.
