Supe Trooper Laura Katz talked to composer Keegan DeWitt about film scoring and the recently released film starring Lola Kirke and Zoe Kravitz, Gemini, on which they both worked.
Supe Troop (ST): Is there a particular score or individual composer’s work that inspired you to be a film composer?
Keegan DeWitt (KD): I went to film conservatory thinking that I’d be a writer/director, so my approach to film was always very much from that point of view. In the beginning, I listened very little to the scores of films. Especially because the films I was drawn to were not score-centric. I was immersing myself in Fred Wiseman and Antonioni and other more verite-type film makers that tended to feature film music less. I still feel like that informs so much of how I write as a film composer now. That being said, the first film music that really sparked my imagination was Michael Nyman and Ryuichi Sakamoto. In the beginning, I was really turned off by big orchestral scores, and the raw melody and heartbreak of both of those composers solo piano performances were a gateway for me to understanding film music. Specifically, Nyman’s score for “Wonderland” and Sakamoto’s “Bibo no Aozora” for “Babel.”
ST: What is your scoring process? Do you see a full piece or do you start with one instrument?
KD: It really depends. Sometimes it’s a “sound,” the fluttering of cassette tape or the breathiness of woodwinds. Other times it’s a piano improvisation that leads to then abstracting that into a more formal score. I typically try to work in the abstract at first and just create create create. I’ll get a folder going of maybe 15 sketches and not judge any of them at all, just keep moving forward. Usually by the time I’ve reached the 15th, a voice for the film is starting to emerge. More recently I’ve tried to restrict myself to themes more than I typically did in the past. In the past I sort of prided myself on NOT using themes haha. Now, I enjoy the artfulness of how they can work within the narrative structure of a film. That being said, how filmmakers temp music and work with composers now makes it much more difficult. That’s why I tend to work with the same collaborators over and over again. They place their trust in me to really bring my full talents to a project. When I get hired onto something through my agent or it’s a big project where they don’t really care about my past or catalog, it’s harder to say… “just trust me, let’s place these themes in here and keep using them.”
ST: What do you look for when you’re spotting a film?
KD: I always try to start from a place of no score and then figure out which places really need it, rather than just toss it everywhere. I think silence, or the lack of score, is a very valuable and powerful thing in a film, and I feel like it’s my job to fight for it. Often, when I’m spotting, there’s music already in there, so for me it’s about trying to read the room. How intense is everyone’s temp-love? etc., etc. That being said, as I get further along in my career, I try to focus less on how to please every single person in the room 100% [and] instead take away a collective emotional feeling. Often there will be 8 producers and they are all sorta talking past each other, so I try and just let that wash over me and jot down my gut instinct on stuff, filtered through a macro level of the producer notes. If you try and please each of those 8 producers, it’s gonna 1) be impossible and 2) suck.
ST: We both got to work on Gemini! Is there one cue or one scene from that project that you really enjoyed creating?
KD: Gemini was unique in that we wrote almost 3/4 of the score before scrapping it all and re-calibrating. There was a lot of days where it was just me and Aaron pacing around–talking about music, about the edit, the feel, etc. I’m proud that we were able to get through that process in a way that always felt super creative and possible. We weren’t scrapping the original score because it was bad; it was because it wasn’t perfect for the tonality of the film and we wanted to make sure we were pulling out specific aspects of the narrative with the music. It was exciting ’cause instead of pulling your hair out ’cause you don’t have any good ideas or the vibe in the collaboration is bad… we were just pushing ourselves to do something really laser perfect for that specific film.
ST: What music are you listening to now?
KD: I spend all day making music, and, when I’m not doing that, I’m with my girls, who listen to only My Little Pony. That being said, when I can squeeze stuff in, it’s always the same stuff honestly: Gorillaz, Little Dragon, Kings of Convenience, Warpaint, Frank Ocean.
ST: What is your favorite soup?
KD: French Onion all the way.
Thanks, Keegan!
Click that Gemini tag below to see more about the film.