One of the things I love most about coming to conventions like WonderCon is that they bring in creatives who normally work behind the scenes. The Music of Anti-Heroes: From Suicide Squad to Brainwave was a really fascinating discussion among film and television composers Stephanie Economou, Kevin Kiner and John Murphy about process and storytelling through music.
How to Become a Composer
One of the most fascinating moments in the panel was when they talked about how they became composers. Stephanie came from a more classically trained background, attending the New England Conservatory to write concert music, and found her way to composing when she wrote music for her high school friends’ short films before going to UCLA for film music. Kevin had never taken a music class and was in fact in pre-med when he heard Kenny Loggins speak at his school and they had a similar history. John and Kevin both grew up playing in bands, but it was John’s playing in a punk band that got him in the orbit of a filmmaker to write music.
Clips
Three clips were shown at the panel:
Kevin presented a scene from the finale of Peacemaker. There’s a very funny joke in a moment that’s also about Peacemaker saving his gang. Kevin spoke about the importance of not playing the joke with music, instead letting it stand for itself.
Stephanie presented a moment from Jupiter’s Legacy. With this show there’s multiple timelines and generations, and she mentioned it was great to see all the episodes before writing any music, cause it allowed her to develop a strong understanding of how the characters got to where they are and where they will go. For example, the character named Chloe had a punk rock score (electric guitar) for bad ass scenes with her powers but quieter score (acoustic) for when she overdosed.
John brought a scene from The Suicide Squad where the rats come and overtake Starro (a scene that still grosses me out…all those damn rats!) What I loved learning about was how John made the score much more melancholy, because he said as the audience you know the good guys are going to win, better to play the emotional beat.
Keeping Story First
Wrapping up the panel was a discussion about how to truly balance music with the movie or show. Sometimes composers feel like song are in the way but you learn it’s about the whole musical experience. John mentioned that James Gunn writes with songs in mind, so it was interesting as a composer to score into the songs with the right key and tempo.
There’s always a balance between being manipulative and underscoring emotions and all of the panelists noted that you write music to the story, not the images and that with antiheroes you get to work with more complexity.