I had this spooky psychological thing about 'The Piano' before it began, which was how everybody was going to go nuts on the set. Because a film tends to set up the way people are going to behave.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was really affected by 'The Piano.' Had I not seen that movie, I wouldn't have gone to film school.
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.
I hadn't seen that many movies that really go deep enough into the fears of playing music or the language that musicians can use to treat each other or, like, the way that you can see it dehumanize and the way that it can feel like boot camp.
I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody.
In horror movies, you can write music that if it was performed on the concert stage would have the audience running out of the room with their fingers in their ears. But in a movie, all of a sudden it becomes incredibly accessible and appreciated.
'The Piano' ended up on television. Everything ends up there anyway.
Playing piano well is one thing, but attempting to play at concert level accompanying Meryl Streep while Stephen Frears is filming you in front of hundreds of people is - well - psychotic.
Plus, there were so many pianos in my house, so I couldn't really avoid it.
I've always had a fascination for everything surrounding things that are unexplainable. Not surprising that my first movie was a horror film, even though, of course, at the time I had no experience writing horror music.
I saw the film 'Amadeus' from when I was five, which made me want to take piano lessons.