Picture Editing and Music: A Marriage of Invisible Arts
Paul Hirsch, Ronald H. Sadoff · Music and the Moving Image · 2023
Over two decades of MaMI conferences, we have followed a vision of the keynote address as an opportunity—perhaps even a responsibility—to seek out innovative scholars and those industry practitioners whose perspectives might broaden a once fledgling yet bubbling field.1 Well, the discipline has become magnificently broad and rich since our initial 2001 MaMI keynote, which featured the pioneering film music scholar, Claudia Gorbman2—who by the way, is with us yet again this year.We have presented an eclectic range of practitioners, from composers Howard Shore3 and Carter Burwell4 to supervising sound editor and designer Skip Lievsay5 to Audio Branding Logo creator Joel Beckerman.6 As researchers, we have often absorbed their perspectives in our publications and teaching. And on occasion, we've seen palpable results—for instance in Ian Sapiro's7 2016 book Scoring the Score: The Role of the Orchestrator in the Contemporary Film Industry, published soon after Hollywood orchestrator Pat Russ's8 MaMI keynote address.With today's keynote, Kat9 and I hope to nourish and inspire interest from the creative process, industrial practice, and perspective of the film editor—in particular, that of the celebrated picture editor Paul Hirsch. His work is integral to some of the most seen, heard, and heralded films of the past half-century, including George Lucas's Star Wars (1977), for which he was bestowed an Academy Award.Paul's keynote is unique: it is in the form of a bespoke audiovisual presentation—a forty-minute film, if you will, which he created and, of course, edited expressly for MaMI 2022. You are, indeed, in for a treat, which will be followed by an extended Q&A session with Paul Hirsch.To that end, please post questions for Paul, either as they occur to you during the video, or throughout the Q&A period. OK—let's now roll the tape.What does music contribute to a film? [Hirsch plays clips and theme music from Mission: Impossible (1996),10Superman (1978),11 James Bond (Goldfinger, 1964),12Star Wars: Episode IV (1977).]13 Hi. It's an honor to be chosen as the keynote speaker for this year's NYU conference on Music and the Moving Image. The themes I've just been playing send a thrill of pleasure through me every time I hear them. They are iconic, instantly identifiable, and like calling cards for some of history's most indelibly memorable films.In 1911 in Paris, an early film theorist named Ricciotto Canudo was the first to recognize cinema as an art. Initially regarded as a novelty, a fairground, or penny arcade attraction, Canudo described it as being one of the Seven Arts.He divided arts into two categories. One group, in his view, dealt with the rhythms of space. These are the plastic arts: architecture, sculpture, and painting. The word plastic derived from the Greek, meaning moldable or shapeable. These arts use actual physical materials. Paintings and sculpture represent moments in time, but render them immobile and, therefore, perhaps eternal—at least that's what the artist hopes for.What did Canudo mean by rhythm in still objects? In architecture, the columns of the Parthenon come to mind, or the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals. There are countless examples. In painting, we can see rhythm in the hands and faces of Caravaggio's14Deposition of Christ15 or in Botticelli's16Primavera.17 The second group, which Canudo dubbed the rhythms of time, included music, poetry, and dance. These obviously do not use physical materials. He then declared that cinema was the Seventh Art.Film draws on all the arts. It has roots in painting and photography. It draws on architecture and music, and, of course, it adds the theatrical arts as well: costuming, set design, and acting. In addition, and crucially, it adds yet another art: film editing, or montage. This is the only aspect of filmmaking which is native to the new medium.All art forms are comprised of details, but the way we experience the details varies from medium to medium. If you approach a painting in a museum or gallery, you first see the entirety of the work. It's only as you get closer to it that you start to notice the details of which it is comprised. We can study a painting for hours if we wish, or just glance at it. With sculpture, we need to walk around the statue in order to fully comprehend it. The same is true to a greater degree in architecture. It's only after exploring both the interior and the exterior of the building that we can form a mental picture of its design. In each of these [examples], the artist doesn't control the order in which the viewer takes in the details.In literature, however, the writer carefully controls the order in which details are revealed to the reader. They hold back bits of information to create tension or mystery, but they can't control the pace. A reader might read a book all in one sitting or they may read it a chapter at a time over several weeks.A composer likewise controls the order but also introduces, crucially, the tempo at which the details come to the listener. In this way, [music] is very similar to film. Both control the order and the pace at which the details are presented.That's where I come in. The film editor functions at times like the conductor in an orchestra or the drummer in a band. We can, within limits, set a tempo. There's an old saying in editing that I can make her talk sooner, but I can't make her talk faster.This is no longer entirely true, but even without speeding up the action, we have a certain amount of latitude to change the tempo from perhaps an adagio to an andante, and this can greatly affect the audience's enjoyment of a film.This connection to music, my true first love, was my way of understanding how to approach editing. I first became aware of the critical importance of film music as a young film editor while watching a TV broadcast of Hitchcock's18Psycho (1960).Janet Leigh19 has stolen money from her boss and run away. She drives all night and falls asleep by the side of the road. In the morning, a passing patrol officer stops, concerned about her, and wakes her up. She is overcome with feelings of guilt, and she manages to get him to let her go. As she drives away, the music begins, and it's an incredibly tense scene.As an experiment, I reached up and I turned down the sound. The tension went out of the scene. I turned the sound back up, and there was that incredible tension again. I realized that it was all in the music. This was a revelation to me.Bernard Herrmann20 once said to me that music is the emotional connection between the audience and the events up on the screen.Film music has antecedents from way before film was ever invented. It was called incidental music and accompanied stage productions. There was also ballet music, which supported the dancers. Film music has sometimes been described as ballet music for preexisting choreography. This choreography has been established in the editing of the film, by the editor and director.john williams and star wars: episode iv – a new hope (1977) I know that all composers would like to see each film for the first time without any temp music, so that they could judge for themselves where the music should go and what it should express. But this simply isn't possible. Keep in mind that some directors may know nothing about music, but they may have very strong instincts about how the music should function in a particular scene. They may not have the vocabulary to express what they want, so think of temp music as a way of communicating. The director wants music that accomplishes a particular goal, and they and the editor may have made some perfectly valid discoveries.I'm now going to [discuss] some examples of how one of the great geniuses in film scoring, John Williams,21 dealt with temp music. In 1976, I was hired during the editing of Star Wars, now known as Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). I was the last of four editors hired on the picture, and a lot of music had already been chosen for the film before I even started. There were bits of The Planets (1918)22 by Gustav Holst23 as well as “Dance of the Adolescents” from The Rite of Spring24 (1913) by Igor Stravinsky.25 George Lucas26 asked me if I knew anything about classical music, since he had already made the decision to use symphonic music in the score. I said I did, as a result of my having studied music at the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York.27The editing of A New Hope has been exhaustively examined. Some of you may be aware that we eliminated some early scenes [that were set] on the surface of Tatooine.28 [In the finished film,] our very first view of the planet is when C-3PO and R2-D229 land in the desert (00:8:52:16). I thought the music should reflect the mystery and eeriness of the place. One particular piece, from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, came immediately to mind. This is what we used and showed to John. [Hirsch plays the scene, underscored by a selection from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.] John recognized that it was very effective, and he wasn't bothered by staying close to the temp. This is what he wrote. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score.] You can hear how he respected the intention but improved on it when the temp music went a little bit off course.Here's another example. This is the scene in which R2-D2 is captured by the Jawas30 (00:12:01:12). The costumes had a North African feel about them and suggested to me another cue from The Rite of Spring. This is what we showed John. [Hirsch plays the scene, underscored by a selection from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.] Now here's the scene with what John wrote. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score.] Again, the influence is clear. John improved on it in the reveal of the sand crawler, in the way the muted trumpets complement the sound of the Jawas’ voices, and in the descending musical figure as the big vacuum comes down.Let's move on to the cantina sequence (00:44:43:17). The scene cried out for music, but obviously it wouldn't be scored music, so I had to consider what we could use as source music. I wanted to use something that would emphasize the utter oddness of the place. I thought, “What would be an appropriate accompaniment for a galactic watering hole?” [Hirsch plays the cantina scene, underscored by Benny Goodman,31 “Avalon” (1937).]32 George [Lucas] loved the idea. Hearing Benny Goodman inspired him to shoot a member of the band playing a clarinet-like instrument. This is the version that John saw and wrote to. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score.]We've seen how John was unafraid to write music that was close to the temp. Now here's an example of where he deviated a bit. This is from the scene in which the Millennium Falcon is being pulled into the Death Star by the tractor beam (01:04:16:22). We had tracked the scene with Max Steiner's33 “Approach to Skull Island”34 from King Kong (1933).35 It had the necessary mystery and tension. I've had to drop out the dialogue so you can hear the music. [Hirsch plays the scene from Star Wars, underscored by Steiner's score from King Kong (01:17:52).] John improved on it. He retained the requisite tension, but he added a new element. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score.] He played the power and might of the Empire. The cue could have served as underscore for a Roman general returning triumphant from a military campaign. [The scene continues with the trumpet fanfare.] This was a brilliant addition that elevated the stakes, because it underlined the disparity in the forces, making us feel the enormity of what our heroes were up against.the influence of bernard herrmann It was 1976. Bernard Herrmann, with whom I had done two pictures and who had become a friend, had died a year earlier. I had been listening to his music a lot, and there was a cue from Psycho that I thought would be perfectly appropriate for this moment: something that would darken the scene and play easily under dialogue (00:56:08:13). Its opening three notes are a recurring motif in Psycho: F–E♭–D. I thought it would be appropriate for the peril that our heroes in Star Wars are in at that moment. This is what we showed to John. [Hirsch plays the scene in which the characters are hiding in the secret compartment of the Millennium Falcon, underscored by a musical selection from Psycho.] John had also been a friend of Benny's and, of course, recognized the cue. He decided to quote it as an homage, and this is what he wrote. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score (01:07:02:03).]The medal ceremony, at the end of the film, was cut to Dvorak's36New World Symphony (1893).37 [Hirsch plays the scene with the Dvorak selection (01:58:21:05).] When we presented it to John, George was especially keen on preserving the change in energy at the end of the cue, a piu mosso. He stressed to John how important that was to him. Again, John effectively endorsed the choice of the temp and delivered what George had asked for to great effect. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Williams's score.]Let's move on now from Star Wars to another film I had just completed, Carrie (1976), directed by Brian De Palma.38 Among many memorable moments in the film is the jump scare at the end of the picture (01:34:31:06). This depended heavily on score to deliver the jump. Once again, I turned to the master, Bernard (Benny) Herrmann. The scariest music I could think of was the score from Sisters (1972).39 I set up the moment by playing Tomaso Albinoni's40Adagio for Strings and Organ [Adagio in G Minor;41 composed by Remo Giazotto,42 1945]. The scene was shot with subtle, odd elements. In some shots, Amy [Irving,43 playing Sue Snell] was actually walking backward, and we reversed the film. We don't make a big deal of it, but a keen-eyed observer might notice a car driving in reverse in the background. Certain angles seem to be daytime shots and others have a nighttime sky. At the first movement of Carrie's hand shooting up out of the grave, I cut to the cue from Sisters. Because Benny had used metallic percussion instruments, we made sure to ask Pino Donnagio,44 the composer for Carrie, to begin the cue with an anvil strike or something similar. [Hirsch plays the same scene, now with Donnagio's score.]In 1983, I cut a musical film, Footloose,45 directed by Herbert Ross.46 [Hirsch plays the opening credit sequence of Footloose.] It was about a small town that had banned dancing, and how a new boy in town works to reverse that ban. So, of course, there were going to be a lot of dance numbers. The screenplay was by Dean Pitchford,47 who had won an Oscar for writing the lyrics to the song “Fame” (1980).48 Dean was planning to cowrite every song in the picture with various musicians. By the time shooting began, he hadn't had time to do this with more than a couple of composers.In this scene, Kevin Bacon49 teaches Chris Penn50 how to dance. There was a song that Dean had completed during preproduction called “Somebody's Eyes.”51 Although it had been intended for a different scene in the picture, Herbert decided to use it for the dance lesson (00:59:39:14). The lesson was to take place over several days or weeks, showing gradual improvement until Chris gets really the time the various of the song were at different Herbert shot it over several weeks, “Somebody's as This we were into the tempo. When I finished the first cut of the scene, I it work. The lyrics now made no In addition, I just like the It was of and it had no Herbert to the and we went to who We asked the music editors for some of that had the same or tempo because of the Among we It was the same but it It had we went to Dean and the and we asked for a song that had the same They [Hirsch plays the same scene, now underscored by it for the and Dean by Dean the lyrics so they now made and the the last one and the one of the two from the that in my I with John going back and between him and In we music for the of the We used [Hirsch plays the scene with a selection from But we for [Hirsch plays the same scene, underscored with I finished I went immediately back to work with Herbert on a picture called The of Herbert had once said to only get one to see for the first he me to him the all at at the end of with music. The picture a of all of which to be set to music, but of which had been shot to music. It was up to me to temp for the to I had a song to use in but John, who had loved it, of it and had me it. I had to use it for when up from and they and to for their off [Hirsch plays the scene, underscored by and the on John loved it at first but decided on a different [Hirsch plays the same scene, now underscored by The Well, I still on so I it again in The of in the scene where a played by an as a This time, it [Hirsch plays the scene from The of underscored by on a scene in which is driving his in a He who she but she doesn't know who he is because [Hirsch plays the scene from The of underscored by She takes a to which him A as this music. And for the scene to it has to be just The scene was to be The music had to reflect the of the to John I had the When they at she they go for a in the This is another way that music can to the of a scene. [Hirsch plays the scene from The of underscored by John Williams's here's a scene from The shot out for a cue. [Hirsch plays the underscored by John Williams's Star Wars of us The is with in our There has been a movement from film I've been that the days of themes and are Music is often used now as a of sound like a or a And there have been who that the use of music in film is that it how to in a film is there for a the the the are all to a emotional from the Music is a perfectly valid what is on and is in moments that A musical theme can in a the of a emotional themes have become of our play at at every does a contribute to our would James Bond be without that or Mission: Impossible without that would be without Benny or Star Wars without John