BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
INTERVIEW WITH: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
FILM: "The Social Network"
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Q. Just talk about what this means first and second, follow up, just talk about what your plans are after this musically?
A. [Reznor] Well, I can say that I am truly stunned by this. I mean, we kind of fell into this. David Fincher approached us to work on this film, he kind of bugged us to do it. I'm very glad he did. It was an incredible working experience and a lot of fun and very rewarding. We never even considered that we would be getting an award, certainly at this magnitude, but it's been very, very flattering and it's high praise. So, future projects, we're both working on David's next film, GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Q. I've been a huge fan personally for Nine Inch Nails and but what prompted you to shift to compose this type of music from such a rock and roll type of music?
A. [Reznor] Well, I kind of put Nine Inch Nails on the back burner for awhile, try to branch out, try some different things. Film wasn't particularly what I was had any career trajectory aiming for that necessarily. But when David approached me to do that, a lot of the music he was using for a very temporary edit, was based on the Ghost records that Atticus and I both worked on with Nine Inch Nails. So, it wasn't a side of my Nine Inch Nails nature that was soundtrack ish, so it wasn't hugely, in terms of, it wasn't a giant stretch for me to try this. So, it was interesting to have to work with a picture and actually serve the picture and that was the biggest challenge. David Fincher was very clear about what he wanted, and it was an education and, as I said earlier, it was a real pleasant one of the best experiences I've had from start to finish.
Q. Did you as a budding musician ever dream about holding an Oscar? Did that occur to you and if not, when did you realize that you may actually be an Oscar winner?
A. [Ross] I can't say it occurred to me as a budding musician and even on this trajectory of the film, I think we've both been stunned as each nomination's come in. And then when we won the Golden Globe, I thought possibly we would get an Oscar nomination, but still not sure. Really, the day that it, the nomination was announced, that I really considered, "Wow, this is a reality." And then to win, again, came in here with no expectations. Everyone's so great. It's just been incredible.
Q. You said David Fincher gave you specific direction or really knew what you wanted; was there kind of an overwhelming or over arching theme he had for you guys?
A. [Reznor] Well, we had read the script and David called us in and said, the only immediate direction was, "I don't want to use an orchestra. I would like it to feel kind of electronic." He referenced a couple films. BLADE RUNNER was one of them. Not to sound like BLADE RUNNER, but to inhabit the to have a score that felt like the same iconic quality that the music BLADE RUNNER had in its time. Not something that sounds like that or sounds dated like, but might today. And the thing with David though, and I think this is where we we hit the mark right from the start, is David is never making things up on the fly. And it was difficult at first for us to see a film or read a film and read a script that was a bunch of people talking in rooms. It was no great sweeping landscapes or battle scenes or anything like that and it wasn't obvious to us what flavor or kind of shape the music was going to have.
And knowing that David what I am trying to say here is David had a very I knew he had an idea of what would make this picture special and that kind of rested on the music. We just generated blindly with no picture. We wrote almost two hours worth of music, just to give him, say, "Hey, it feels to us like the emotional temperature of this film," and what could be interesting and a little darker than I thought he was going to react to it. And that became 90 percent of what you heard in the picture, so.
Q. I think you somewhat just answered my question, but when you first got the script, when you heard about the subject of the movie, were you a little bit nervous thinking, "Oh, this is very dry, how am I going to do this?"
A. [Ross] I remember the trip back from David's the first time we saw the rough cut, it was probably more we watched about 45 minutes. And there was more dialog in that than in the last ten films that he did, combined. And we were just it was a quiet car ride home.
A. [Reznor] And really, it came down to the pedigree of Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher is what attracted us, just the idea of scoring the film of the founding of Facebook doesn't sound like a great idea, doesn't sound like a great film. When we read the script, we knew this is a very smart and very intelligently written film; how can we make it, how can we make it feel kind of human and not just what could be unlikable people jousting verbally, you know.
Q. Trent and Atticus, are there any popular artists whose music you listen to, who you'd encourage or like to see a score from, going forward?
A. [Reznor] Well, I think, you know, I've befriended Hans Zimmer in this process of battling him at award shows, all these things had come up. And he said in a lot of ways, "I hope that your score does win because it's a vote for it opens the field up a bit, the textures what one can expect in film." And I personally would like to do a very traditional score with an orchestra, but I also see where, I think that the there's a general sense of conservatism in scores these days, and I think it can branch out into stuff and has a little richer palette and whiter palette with sound. And I was very impressed we actually won this with a very nontraditional sounding score. And I say that, with all due respect. I think it may encourage a number of artists who hadn't thought in terms of rigid film scoring, that there's a possibility out there to work in film and make something interesting, a bit different.
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