BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
In 2012, Nicholas Marks composed a seven-minute score in his bedroom.
The music was to be used by his film-maker brother for Tropfest entry ‘Joshua’, which ended up on the competition’s 2013 shortlist and was screened at the United States’ Kah Bang International Film Festival. One thing led to another and in the following year, Marks got a gig composing for the ‘Love Your Sister’ project starring Guy Pearce and Samuel Johnson, airing across the nation.
But the Melbourne composer’s latest achievement is a big one – Hollywood style. He was chosen to craft new music for Village Roadshow Pictures, a company which hasn’t changed its musical theme in more than two decades.
Marks gives us the low down on working in the industry, and chats about how he scored the part with Village.
Your first job composing for screen led you to be in a Tropfest-shortlisted film. How did you know how to make an effective soundtrack from the get-go?
Initially, I had no idea! I’d composed a lot of instrumental music and songs for my projects, but I knew writing for film is a different game. I sought guidance on where to start from a good friend, Adrian Sergovich, who had composed many short film scores and jingles (we went through the Monash University Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music together). He showed me his work, shared some invaluable pointers on his process, and very generously offered his studio space for me to record and produce my score (back then, I had basically no technological resources).
I spent a number of weeks watching films according to my favourite screen composers, analysing the interaction between score and picture, with both a macro and micro perspective. I developed my own list of principles and began writing. The short film ‘Joshua’ is a quirky, comical/ romantic film with no dialogue, so I pitched the idea to the director (and set myself the challenge) of writing a coherent score containing different genres and in some cases a hybrid of styles (many of which were from my favourite film scores). In the beginning, I didn’t know how effective the final outcome would be. I trusted that if the music (a) worked with/ facilitated the narrative at all times, and (b) was well written, it would work.
Each achievement you’ve earned has been a dramatic next step from the previous. What were some of your smaller projects in between?
I’ve certainly done many, many smaller jobs in between! After ‘Joshua’ (Dec 2012), I spent 14 months composing short scores for the ‘Love Your Sister’ project’s online series. It was through this work that I landed the opportunity to write my first feature score for that project’s documentary, which featured Guy Pearce and Samuel Johnson, and screened nationwide on Network 10. In addition, I wrote many works for commercial briefs, short films, teasers, theatre and competitions. I also composed for (and performed with) my trio, other ad-hoc ensembles as well as one of my principal projects, Hey Frankie. All of these outlets are wonderful opportunities to write in new genres, or experiment in creating music that combines styles, which in turn, ultimately enhance my personal voice as a composer. The big achievements are really an aggregate of many small steps and little wins. Writing great music is the goal, no matter what the profile of the project is.
With your rapid progression to bigger goals, have you shattered the image that people need to take on an abundance of minor jobs to work their way up to the top?
I don’t think I’ve shattered any image. A more accurate representation of my story is that the 1 per cent wins add up over time and (sometimes unexpectedly) turn into greater achievements. Like many creatives, I’ve worked extremely hard on a number of small to large scale projects, paid or otherwise. I create opportunities: I spend many hours writing music, I reach out to artists I feel would be great to work with in bringing the music to life, I seek out avenues for putting the music into the world. While doing this, invariably, unexpected (often very exciting) opportunities come up, too. I strongly urge any artist starting out to create as many opportunities for themselves to work as they can. Start your own projects, or research and contact people who may be looking for composers/ collaborators. You have to make things happen, and when things get busy, work even harder to ensure that momentum continues.
In your experiences, have you found people in the industry really prioritise ‘who knows who’, or is talent the most important thing after all?
It depends on the context, and who the person is. While knowing people certainly helps, there can be no substitute for craft, personal voice and a clear aesthetic. I believe it’s important for artists to have a healthy balance of natural ability, strong work ethic, and hustle. Artists are increasingly being empowered to put their work in places where everyone can see/ hear it (like this magazine, for instance!). Industry people want to know who you are and what you’re doing, and in most cases, it’s up to the artist to make contact first. I’ve built my network base from scratch, and continue to expand on it to open new doors. It’s a slow game, though I believe sustainable careers get built over a long period of time. There is one certainty to answering this question: being a good human/ supportive of others in your field is something everyone cares about.
Tell us about your work on the Village Roadshow project. How do you prepare for and undertake a project like that?
I received a call from one of the executives in Los Angeles in July 2014. They had a tune written for their new “sting”, and were looking for different arrangements of that tune to suit different genres of film. They had demos of arrangements from Hollywood composers but were not satisfied with the results. I was given an ‘audition’ and asked to mock up some arrangements from a list of styles they mentioned. I wrote and produced 14 demos, ranging from different orchestral styles, to acoustic guitar tracks, brass ensembles, a jazz ensemble and a mariachi version. They approved five of the arrangements, and asked for live performance demos. These were done at SING SING Studios in Richmond with recording engineer Ross Cockle and a number of wonderful musicians from Melbourne. I sent these off to Village, and seven weeks later, while I was in New York, they contacted me to say they wanted to go final.
I began liaising with Ross, orchestrator Jessica Wells (Jigsaw Music) and conductor Brett Kelly (whose Impossible Orchestra, made up of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra players, performed the classical orchestral arrangements), as well as some of Australia’s leading improvisers (the jazz arrangement features Julien Wilson, Scott Tinkler, Luke Howard, Paul Williamson, Jordan Murray, Tim Wilson, Ben Robertson and Daniel Farrugia) to bring about all the elements for the recording and mixing sessions. We tracked at Allan Eaton Studios, and mixed in Dolby Atmos at Soundfirm. I feel very fortunate to have worked with such an amazing team of artists on this project.
So how does your music sound? And why do you think it fits, and was chosen?
Four of the cues are various orchestral arrangements. The main sting is a traditional Hollywood orchestral sound, with the blend of strings and brass sections featuring prominently. The second cue is a fanfare/gladiator style brass cue, while the third and fourth versions are varying orchestras lead by an acoustic guitar or piano, and backed by an epic choir. Then there’s a version with medium sized jazz-ensemble, and finally, there’s a cue that is essentially solo acoustic guitar, with added colours from woodwinds, percussion and small choir. Each track has a different character, mood, aesthetic, and can cater to a wider range of films in the Village Roadshow Pictures catalogue. It makes sense to have different options depending on the film, as the sting really invites the audience into the world of the cinema, be taken on the journey of the particular film.
Watch Nicholas Marks’ score in short film Joshua below.
