Is Anybody Writing Unique Film and TV Scores?

July 9, 2022

By Charles Mallory and Parker Wiksell

Synopsis: A good number of a-list media composers are writing and producing unique film and TV scores – Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Britell, Germaine Franco, Alberto Iglesias, Jonny Greenwood, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Ludwig  Göransson, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, John Powell, Cliff Martinez, Thomas Newman, and Dario Marianelli, to name a few in no particular order.

There are also a number of media composers not considered a-list composers who are writing and producing unique film and TV scores, primarily for indie filmmakers, but they may be harder to find. Rather than list those composers and discuss their scores, we (Charles Mallory and Parker Wiksell of Cut Time Music) turned to our own work as media composers and wrote about the ways in which we have tried to write and produce unique film scores.

Analysis: There is a plethora of film and TV scores that all sound virtually the same. It seems that media composers love to emulate the sound of the media composer(s) they look up to and revere, resulting in a homogeneous sound when comparing one score to another.

For those filmmakers using library music, the good news is that library music has improved dramatically over the last several decades. The bad news is that library music in general also sounds very much the same (especially orchestral tracks).

No matter which library tracks a filmmaker selects for his or her film, there are other filmmakers who have likely selected the same tracks. Then there’s the problem of YouTube telling content creators that they are guilty of copyright infringement for tracks for which they have non-exclusive licenses, which then requires filmmakers to respond or else risk having their content removed from YouTube.

Exclusive licenses are typically much more expensive than non-exclusive licenses. The other issue with using library music in films is that the filmmaker must spend time looking for tracks that work in his or her film, which can take hours or days of the filmmaker’s time, unless he or she hires a music supervisor to take on that task.

For filmmakers and showrunners who can afford to hire an a-list media composer, there is a fairly long list of media composers who are writing and producing unique film and TV scores today. For filmmakers and showrunners who can’t afford to hire an a-list media composer, there are also other media composers who are writing and producing unique film and TV scores, but they may be harder to find.

We will start with some of the a-list media composers who are writing unique film and TV scores (in no particular order).

Hans Zimmer, the winner of the 2022 Oscar for Original Score for ‘Dune,’ immediately comes to mind as one who constantly pushes boundaries and writes and produces unique scores.

‘Dune,’ which received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best Picture, is a film directed by Denis Villeneuve, which Warner Bros. said¹ is about “Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.”

Hans Zimmer said in an interview for Vanity Fair on YouTube² that he asked several people to build instruments never heard before to be used in his score.

He shared that Chas Smith built several instruments used in the score and has a home in Northern California, which is basically a musical instrument.

Zimmer said that he and his team built electronic chamber resonators. His duduk player Pedro Eustache constructed a subcontra base duduk out of PVC pipes.

He shared that he also asked his musicians to play their instruments in unusual ways. He asked Tina Guo, his cellist, to make her cello sound like a Tibetan war horn. He asked his singer Michael to sing a Sardaukar chant, and he heavily compressed the recording of his voice. Loire Cotler is also featured with her rhythmic singing and what sounds like the cry of a banshee. He asked Eustache to make his flute sound like wind whistling and to make vowel sounds while blowing air into his flute. He also wanted layered duduk parts that sounded like a string section, so Eustache recorded 89 tracks of duduk parts for 1 cue.

The result is a score that sounds eerie, powerful, and other-worldly.

Nicholas Britell’s score for ‘Don’t Look Up’ received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Original Score.

The film ‘Don’t Look Up’ received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best Picture and is a film directed by Adam McKay, which, according to IMDb³, tells the story of 2 “low-level astronomers” who attempt to “warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy the Earth.”

The score is an eclectic hybrid score featuring bells, mallet instruments, and synths, as well as big band cues with a toy piano.

Britell said during an interview for GoldDerby⁴ that as he read the ‘Don’t Look Up’ script, he felt like the story was about a battle to offset the damaging effects of climate change, that nothing was going to be done about it in time, and he compared this losing battle to World War II in a scenario in which the war was lost by the Allied forces. For Britell, that brought to mind a “mid-century big band, but it was crazy, and it has a toy piano and all sorts of weird instruments in it.” Director Adam McKay liked the idea and encouraged Britell to try it out.

It stuck.

Joyce Eng wrote for GoldDerby that “while the theme is upbeat as a whole, it carries an edgy, distressed undertone, thanks to its cocktail of competing instruments.”

Germaine Franco’s score for ‘Encanto’ also received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Original Score.

‘Encanto’ won a 2022 Oscar in the Animated Feature Film category and is a film directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Charise Castro Smith, which Walt Disney Animation Studios says⁵ is a “tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family with a unique gift from super strength to the power to heal-every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope.”

Franco explained during a YouTube interview for AwardsWatch⁶ that her job was not only to bring “Columbia to life” in ‘Encanto,’ but to also complement songwriter “Lin Manuel’s very specific music style.”

She said that “the sound of the score is based on the idea of ‘magical realism’ – a specific type of Latin American literature, where the spiritual realm is part of everyday life…The sound of magical realism is filled with Colombian rhythms, inspired by Cumbia—the national dance of Colombia.”

She went on to say that “Colombian singers and musicians are featured on the score, as well as various instrumentation, including guitar, bass, flutes, accordions, strings, winds, brass, and an authentic hand-made Afro-Colombian marimba.”

Alberto Iglesias’ score for ‘Parallel Mothers’ is another score which received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Original Score.

According to IMDb⁷, the award-winning film ‘Parallel Mothers,’ directed by Pedro Almodóvar, is “the story of two mothers who bond in [an] unexpected way after giving birth the same day.”

Iglesias is quoted in an article⁸ for Spitfire Audio by Sean Wilson as saying that the score uses a string quintet and a larger string orchestra (with piano and several woodwinds) and draws from the legacy of Bernard Herrmann’s film scores, while also maintaining Iglesias’ unique voice.

Iglesias explained his approach to his score in a YouTube interview for GoldDerby⁹ by saying that he analyzed the film to determine where he thought music could help and that he works by instinct. He collaborated with Almodóvar to give the music its space.

Denton Davidson of GoldDerby characterized the score as being urgent and frantic and said that the music keeps you thinking that something is not right. Iglesias responded that the music is connected with the meaning of the film and the “little things” of the movie. He said that the music considers the juxtaposition of the geometric nature of the film, as well as its craziness.

Iglesias went on to say that the motifs in the score are not connected to the characters, that the music is a character in itself, and therefore, the motifs can be used for more than 1 character (not the typical approach).

British composer and artist from Radiohead Jonny Greenwood’s score for ‘The Power of the Dog’ rounds out the 2022 Oscar nominations for Original Score.

According to IMDb¹⁰, the film ‘The Power of the Dog,’ which received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best Picture and was directed by Jane Campion, is a story about a “charismatic rancher Phil Burbank, who inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.”

Greenwood’s score incorporates strings (both solo and ensemble), horns, and a detuned mechanical piano. The result is a stark, but beautiful score, which sounds unlike any other score for a Western film previously heard.

In a YouTube interview¹¹, producer Tanya Seghatchian said that Greenwood “read the first draft of the script [for the film],…fell in love with it, and immediately started responding with [musical] ideas to [director] Jane [Campion] about how he wanted to use the instrumentation in the score to match the characters.” Seghatchian and Campion both felt that Greenwood created a character in the music itself.

Seghatchian relayed that Greenwood incorporated some very original components in the score: playing the cello like a banjo, creating atonal piano work that mirrored “Rose’s descent through the alcohol,” and using horns to emulate the beautiful landscape.

Campion offered that Greenwood’s music has a yearning, stretching quality. She said that she appreciated the way his music reminds us that “in life..we really want those moments that…stretch us up emotionally and intellectually together.”

Greenwood talked to Variety¹² about creating the score. He shared that he “was obsessed with the music feeling contemporary, or, at least, not 19^th century.”

When asked whether he wanted to create a theme for each of the main characters, Greenwood said, “I’ve never really consciously thought of scores like this. Rather, I write to the situations, or tone of the film, or the look and color of it. I guess the detuned piano material fitted Rose so well that it became a kind of theme…but only by accident.”

When asked why Greenwood didn’t opt for a big “Western” score, he responded that he “wanted to avoid the trope of sweeping strings to accompanying sweeping landscapes” and shared that he was “more inspired by the ’60s ‘Star Trek’ scenes which, in my memory at least, had lots of atonal brass.”

Greenwood said that the score was recorded “at the height of the pandemic, and all the harshest restrictions on gatherings were in place.” He shared that he recorded a viola quartet one day and six celli on another day. He said, “Because orchestras were unusable, I had to fake a lot of it using my own cello.” He layered celli tracks to build up an orchestral texture.

Moving to TV, media composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (an Icelandic classically trained cellist who, according to Wikipedia¹³, has recorded and played with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and has toured with Animal Collective and Sunn O)))) scored the 2019 TV miniseries ‘Chernobyl,’ for which she won a BAFTA Television Craft Award, a Grammy, an International Film Music Critics Award, a Music + Sound Award, a Society of Composers and Lyricists Award, an Online Film & Television Association Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Royal Television Society Award, and a World Soundtrack Award.

According to IMDb¹⁴, the award-winning TV miniseries ‘Chernobyl,’ created by Craig Mazin, “follows the stories of the men and women who tried to contain the [explosion that erupted in April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine], as well as those who gave their lives preventing a subsequent and worse one.”

Guðnadóttir shared about her process of scoring this TV miniseries during an interview with Epicleff Media on Score: The Podcast¹⁵. She said that before the film crew began filming, she recorded the ambient sounds at a decommissioned power plant in Lithuania where they filmed with her score producer Sam Slater and recording engineer Chris Watson. She shared that she didn’t play the power plant as an instrument, but was there to observe. She relayed that everything in the score is derived from those recordings. She talked about a door to a pump room that was a solo instrument in the score and provided some of the melodic elements.

The result is a very dark and eerie score that perfectly fits the story.

Ludwig  Göransson scored the 2019 award-winning TV series ‘The Mandalorian,’ for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award.

According to IMDb¹⁶, “’The Mandalorian,’ [created by Jon Favreau], is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”

In an interview with Variety on YouTube¹⁷, Göransson talked about scoring the series. He shared that he used recorders, guitars, synth guitars, piano, 70s synthesizers, a drum kit, and a Rhodes keyboard in the score, along with a 70-piece orchestra recorded in LA. He offered that it’s important to him that every project he does has a different sound world. He said that he thought about how he could recreate the feeling he had as a kid when he watched Star Wars. He shared that when he initially met with the showrunner Favreau, it was clear to him that Favreau wanted the music to be different.

Göransson said that he wanted to get away from his computer and record live instruments. He shared that at first, he thought the recorder parts were too simple, but as he added piano and drums, the piece began to take shape.

The end result is a sound from the Star Wars universe that is uniquely Göransson.

Back to films, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails are perhaps best known for their ground-breaking score for ‘The Social Network,’ for which they won an Oscar. More recently, they scored the 2020 award-winning animated film ‘Soul,’ for which they also won an Oscar.

According to IMDb¹⁸, the film ‘Soul,’ directed by Pete Doctor and Kemp Powers, is the story of Joe, a “middle-school band teacher whose life hasn’t quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz, and he’s good. But when he travels to another realm to help someone find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have soul.”

Reznor and Ross shared about their experience scoring ‘Soul’ during an interview¹⁹ on YouTube with Chris Beachum for GoldDerby. They both expressed an affinity with Bernard Herrmann’s music, especially his score for ‘Taxi Driver.’

Reznor said he finds that the score for ‘Taxi Driver’ is inseparable from the picture. He further described his and Ross’ creative process as beginning each project with an aspiration to create something as unique and yet as appropriate as the ‘Taxi Driver’ score was able to attain. They look to elevate the story into something that has its own uniqueness.

Reznor shared that the process of scoring ‘Soul’ was different than previous projects. They had a long period of time to work on the score. They spent time at the beginning developing demos that sounded positive and pleasant. Reznor said that almost none of the demos ended up in the film.

There was no script for ‘Soul.’ Reznor and Ross received versions of the film in animatics with voice overs. As they began scoring the film, they had to deal with constant changes. Whole sequences were removed, which meant that all of the work they did on those sequences was throw away.

The ‘Soul’ soundtrack includes an eclectic collection of jazz pieces by Jon Batiste and innovative, ethereal synth cues by Reznor and Ross.

Composer John Powell is known for his scores for ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (2018), ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (2010), ‘Rio’ (2011) and ‘The Bourne Identity’ (2002). More recently, he has scored ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ (2022) directed by Olivia Wilde, ‘Locked Down’ (2021) directed by Doug Liman, and the award-winning film ‘The Call of the Wild’ (2020) directed by Chris Sanders, for which Powell received an International Film Music Critics Award. Powell is a master with regard to composing for orchestra and producing film scores.

He spent time at Malta Film Week 2022 sharing about his amazing career as a film composer and his approach to scoring films. His masterclass is available on YouTube²⁰.

Powell said that he has learned his job is more about storytelling than writing music. He stated that the creative process of scoring a film starts with the spotting session, in which he asks filmmakers why they want music in certain places in the film and why certain scenes are in the film. He said that the first challenge is to understand the story and to agree on the purpose of music in the film.

He expressed a need for both the filmmaker and the composer to understand how hard each other’s job is. He said that the composer’s challenge is to reach in as deep as you can and try to get something very powerful out, a very strong emotion. He shared that you do all of this, and the director might say that what you have done isn’t working for the film.

Powell said that we each have our own individual reactions to pieces of music – one might find the music to be sad, and another might find it to be full of joy. He further shared that the language of music is broken before you begin, because of these very different personal reactions to the same piece of music.

Powell shared that ultimately, the score needs to do for the director what the director wants it to do.

He said that he was exposed to a wide variety of musical styles growing up, which has impacted his style. He shared that he finds the same joy in ‘The Rite of Spring’ as he does listening to Aretha Franklin. He expressed that both styles feel the same to him. He said that his style of writing music is all about tangents.

Powell shared that filmmakers like him to experiment, but it’s important to leave enough time to write the score if the experiment doesn’t work. He said that he tries to focus on the film and its needs.

Powell said that he finds creative ways to impact production of the score, including having piccolo players wear giant sombreros (piccolo mute) and experimenting with placement of the orchestra.

Cliff Martinez, former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, scored ‘Kimi’ (2022), directed by Steven Soderbergh.

According to IMDb²¹, the film ‘Kimi’ is about “an agoraphobic tech worker” who “discovers evidence of a violent crime while reviewing a data stream and is met with resistance and bureaucracy when she tries reporting it to her company. To get involved, she realizes she must face her greatest fear by venturing out of her apartment and into the city streets, which are filled with protestors after the city council passes a law restricting the movements of the homeless population.”

The orchestral score, which, according to Cliff Martinez as relayed in his interview with Daniel Schweiger on Film Music Live²², was influenced by Bernard Herrmann’s unused score for ‘Torn Curtain.’

During this interview, Schweiger said that one of Martinez’s distinctive sounds is produced by the cristal baschet, an experimental instrument built by the Baschet brothers which produces a dark and ominous tone.

Schweiger and Martinez talked about the Bernard Herrmann influence in the score. Martinez said that he was concerned the score would sound like a Bernard Herrmann wannabe. So, he shared that he decided to try to fail in an interesting way, as Brian Eno puts it – he said that he wanted to use Herrmann as a role model, but wanted the score to sound like it came from him (Martinez).

Martinez shared that he thinks his unique style was due initially to his lack of knowledge about film scoring. He said that he thinks Soderbergh’s scoring philosophy is also unique (stark, minimalist), which has helped him develop unique scores.

According to Wikipedia²³, composer Thomas Newman ‘has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards, tying him with fellow composer Alex North for the most nominations without a win. He is known for the scores for ‘Skyfall’ (2012), ‘WALL-E’ (2008), ‘1917’ (2019), and ‘The Help’ (2011).

More recently, he scored ‘Let Them All Talk’ (2020), the award-winning film directed by Steven Soderbergh, which, according to IMDb²⁴ and Wikipedia²⁵, is the story of award-winning author Alice Hughes, who is working on her latest manuscript and “is convinced to attend an award ceremony in Great Britain,” where she is set to receive a literary award. She is unable to fly, due to her health, “hence she is offered to cruise from New York to Southhamption alongside 2 old college friends and her nephew. The journey is a set for the 4 to talk and re-establish relationships and past differences.”

Joyce Eng interviewed Newman for GoldDerby²⁶ regarding his score for ‘Let Them All Talk’ and said that it “is arguably the most unique one Newman has done for [Soderbergh].” Newman shared that Soderbergh wanted a retro ‘60s score for the film. He said that he “called on his longtime collaborator John Beasley, who also fronts a big band called ‘MONK’estra, to work on and record the jaunty, lighthearted music.”

Newman shared that “Soderbergh’s other request was that the music not be a dramatic underscore. Typically, cues would carry through scenes, but in ‘Let Them All Talk,’ they’re all brief pieces that are primarily used during transition scenes… As a result, the film’s score totals about 20 minutes, making it one of the shortest scores Newman has ever composed.”

The last of the a-list media composers that we will discuss is Dario Marianelli. Marianelli is best known for his scores for ‘Atonement’ (2007), ‘Anna Karenina’ (2012), ‘Pride & Prejudice’ (2005), and ‘Darkest Hour’ (2017).

More recently, he scored ‘The Secret Garden’ (2020), a film directed by Marc Munden, which, according to IMDb²⁷, is the story of “an orphaned girl” who “discovers a magical garden hidden at her strict uncle’s estate.”

It is rare to find an interview of Marianelli, but he was interviewed by Spitfire Audio’s Christian Henson about 5 years ago²⁸, during which he talked about “his process, his tools, and his philosophy on film music.” He said that he “seeks to write music that connects to something that is not what you are already seeing.” He shared that he “resists writing themes for characters” and had “been more conscious of developing arcs with his scores.” He said, “You need to serve the director and the story, but you also need to know how you want to serve the story.”

Jonathan Broxton wrote a review of Marianelli’s score for ‘The Secret Garden’ for Movie Music UK²⁹. Broxton writes: “The whole score is a paean to the northern English countryside – verdant hedges, endless seas of purple heather and golden rapeseed, rows of multi-colored flowers nodding in the breeze, [and] watery sunlight peeking through a vast expanse of cloudy skies.” He goes on to say, “It’s perhaps a lazy shorthand to namecheck composers like Vaughan Williams as Marianelli’s inspiration, but the similarities are certainly there; Marianelli’s score is rich and thick with beautiful orchestrations and warm and welcoming themes, a celebration of gentle and idyllic nature.”

Broxton continues: “In addition to the usual standard orchestral complement, Marianelli makes notable use of [instruments] that are plucked and struck and rubbed – harps, chimes, bowls, possibly a harpsichord, possibly a glass harmonica, possibly a celesta, alongside the familiar piano. This gives the score a daintiness, an elegance, and a sense of movement, which matches perfectly with the wonderment and excitement Mary feels as she explores her new home.”

There are a number of media composers not considered a-list composers who are writing and producing unique film and TV scores, primarily for indie filmmakers. Rather than list those composers and discuss their scores, we will turn to our own work as media composers and talk about the ways in which we have tried to write and produce unique film scores.

We are Charles Mallory and Parker Wiksell. Together, we comprise Cut Time Music³⁰, a media music company formed in 2010 through which we have elevated the unique voices of film and TV directors and producers through our engaging industrial rock and hybrid film music.

Credits include track placements in CBS, HBO, Netflix, A&E and MTV shows, scoring many award-winning feature films, short films, and documentaries, scoring an award-winning television series on PBS and a live awards show, and scoring commercials airing on ESPN, AMC, Comedy Central, and MTV.

I am a classically trained pianist with a bachelor’s degree in music composition. Parker has wide experience as a guitarist in several rock bands.

The most recent score we completed was for the award-winning documentary ‘Nowhere Man – St. Joseph’ (2021), directed and produced by Peter John Ross (also known as ‘Social Media Monster’)³¹.

The documentary is about a man who harassed many in the city of St. Joseph, MO (a city with a population of 76,780 56 miles north of Kansas City, MO) through social media and the resulting fallout. It includes video clips of the man who is the subject of the film and interviews with people in the community impacted by him and features the music of a local band The Ramey Memo. The documentary has so far won 13 awards from 10 film festivals.

Ross wanted a score similar to the score for ‘The Social Network’ (2010) by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, but also wanted a sound unique to his film and a score that effectively served it.

Our approach to the score was to musically examine the various layers and complexities of the man who is the subject of the film and the emotions of those who were impacted by him. We developed 6 motifs comprised of 4 – 6 notes each, all of which were molded from the same melodic DNA.

Each cue is made up of loops which morph as new layers are added and as variations on the 4 – 6-note motifs occur, resulting in a sound that has a technology vibe, but is also dark, moody, ambient, trance like, and hypnotic and builds as underlying tensions develop in the documentary.

The result is a minimalist synthesizer and guitar-driven score full of de-tuned synthesizers, pianos, bowls, distorted guitars, strings, and drum and percussion loops that accentuate the chaos created by this troll.

We scored ‘Poor Baby’ in 2019. According to IMDb³², ‘Poor Baby,’ an award-winning comedy short written and directed by KC Allen for which we were nominated for Best Music, tells the story of “Darlene Tate,” who “is nine months pregnant and fiercely independent. Her goals to raise her baby on her own are only possible if she’s approved for a loan. When she isn’t, she resorts to desperate measures.”

The film was produced for Winterfilm, an annual film festival in Cincinnati, OH. All filmmakers have a month to write, film, edit, and complete sound design, color grading, and scoring.

We had 3 weeks to score the film. Allen didn’t have a preference as to the style of the score, but he did want the score to be sparse. We elected to write and produce a guitar-driven rock score. Timing was very important to Allen in order to accentuate the comedy.

We wanted to support the physical comedy of the film. Thus, the score is high octane rock. We developed 5 themes, one and a variation for Darlene, another for Cal Evans (see cast on IMDb³²), a fourth for an exchange between Darlene and Cal, and a fifth theme for an exchange between Darlene and Patrick Mooney. Syncing tempi with the pacing of the film was critical.

The result is a fun rock score that we think effectively supports the story.

We hope that this article³³ has provided useful information about media composers who are writing and producing unique film and TV scores and some insight into how they approach the creative process.

Should you wish to learn more about us and the services we provide, please don’t hesitate to reach out at info@cuttimemusic.com or 614-893-1724.

Footnotes:

¹ IMDb Dune (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160419/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

² How ‘Dune’ Composer Hans Zimmer Created the Oscar-Winning Score | Vanity Fair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93A1ryc-WW0

³ IMDb Don’t Look Up (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

⁴ Composer Nicholas Britell on throwing ‘the whole kitchen sink’ into ‘Don’t Look Up’s’ big band theme: https://www.goldderby.com/feature/nicholas-britell-dont-look-up-composer-interview-1204740110/

⁵ IMDb Encanto (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2953050/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

⁶ Interview: ENCANTO composer Germaine Franco, the first female composer of a Disney animated feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlFHFOyGP7g

⁷ IMDb Parallel Mothers (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12618926/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

⁸ Alberto Iglesias locates the uniquely feminine sound of Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers: https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/alberto-iglesias-locates-the-uniquely-feminine-sound-of-almodovars-parallel-mothers

⁹ Alberto Iglesias (‘Parallel Mothers’ composer) on scoring his 13^th film for director Pedro Almodóvar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfmWUcyoyaE

¹⁰ IMDb The Power of the Dog (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10293406/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

¹¹ (2021/09/02) VIFF – The Power of the Dog Interview – Jane Campion [on Jonny Greenwood]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2HR4-xsPMc

¹² Jonny Greenwood on the Dark Power of His Music for ‘The Power of the Dog’ by Jon Burlingame: https://variety.com/2021/artisans/awards/jonny-greenwood-power-of-the-dog-score-composer-interview-1235113926/

¹³ Wikipedia: Hildur Guðnadóttir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildur_Gu%C3%B0nad%C3%B3ttir

¹⁴ IMDb Chernobyl (2019): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7366338/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

¹⁵ ‘Chernobyl’ composer created entire haunting score from real power plant sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTw1-nw5S4A

¹⁶ IMDb The Mandalorian (2019): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8111088/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

¹⁷ Variety: How ‘The Mandalorian’ Score Found The New ‘Star Wars’ Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQIcZbzr9Wk

¹⁸ IMDb Soul (2020): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2948372/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

¹⁹ GoldDerby: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (‘Mank,’ ‘Soul’ composers): David Fincher and Pete Doctor are ‘geniuses’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySR_8RZ8Bzs

²⁰ Malta Film Awards: Film Scoring with John Powell – Masterclass – Malta Film Week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amGXLsDfBL8

²¹ IMDb Kimi (2022): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14128670/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

²² Film Music Live with Cliff Martinez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcOQKio0O8

²³ Wikipedia: Thomas Newman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Newman

²⁴ IMDb Let Them All Talk (2020): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10808832/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

²⁵ Wikipedia: Let Them All Talk (film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Them_All_Talk_(film)

²⁶ GoldDerby: Thomas Newman on ‘Let Them All Talk’s’ atypical music: ‘The score’s not doing what it would normally do’: https://www.goldderby.com/feature/thomas-newman-let-them-all-talk-composers-panel-interview-1204000448/

²⁷ IMDb The Secret Garden (2020): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2702920/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

²⁸ Spitfire Audio: In Conversation with Dario Marianelli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VRXbhdx4PU&t=6s

²⁹ Movie Music UK – THE SECRET GARDEN – Dario Marianelli: https://moviemusicuk.us/2020/09/15/the-secret-garden-dario-marianelli/

³⁰ Cut Time Music: https://cuttimemusic.com/

³¹ IMDb Nowhere Man – St. Joseph (2021): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11506798/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1

³² IMDb Poor Baby (2019): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9877312/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

³³ This article was inspired, in part, by a YouTube video by Christian Henson Music called “If I Had ONE Piece Of Advice…:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1lhzja1WHQ