Column: Writing from the Real World
Title: Music to my Ears
Author: Victor
D. Infante
In the early days of my screenwriting
career, I committed what was evidently a cardinal sin. The offense? I
wrote in
suggestions for a soundtrack into the script. Evidently, that little mistake
infuriated people. Well, some people. People in workshops and other writers who
read it and a couple wannabe producers who were kind of
unsavory.
On the other hand, the agents and producers
I spoke to all of whom have passed on the script for various reasons mind you,
were all relatively unconcerned about the trespass. A couple even commented on
the song choices, particularly X-Ray Spex’s Oh Bondage Up Yours and Peter
Mulvey’s Smell the Future, which is a much edgier song than the one he
had on Felicity, On the Way Up.
There
are many, many reasons why things are the way they are. One, quite frankly, is
that there’s a lot of money in music, and having a new song placed prominently
in a blockbuster film spreads a lot of cash around to a lot of places. Another
consideration is the director’s vision. YOU might think it’s cool to have Billy
Holliday trickling off the stereo as your characters enter, but the director may
think straight ahead jazz would be better. On the other hand, you probably
didn’t think that Paul Hogan was going to be the lead of you Romantic Comedy,
either, so there you are. Lastly, just because YOU think you have impeccable
music taste, it doesn’t mean you do. Or, just because you DO have impeccable
music taste, it doesn’t mean you can move a soundtrack.
Still, I remain at a quandary as to the question of
how much input a writer should try to have on the film’s soundtrack. Obviously,
the safest thing to do is to just make general notes: “A car rolls into view.
Loud hip-hop is blaring from the speakers” or “Grandpa walks to the record
player and plays a classical CD.”
But it lacks oomph.
I know, I know. You should derive your oomph from the narrative and the dialog,
not the accessories. My problem is I want to write a movie that I’d go see, and
I’m the sad sort who really does judge a film by its soundtrack. To this day,
I’m still in love with the lackluster Batman II because it used the
Offspring covering the Damned’s Smash it Up, and don’t even get me
started on John Cusack flicks. High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe
Blank? We’re talking constant replay.
So, yeah, I
sit down to write a scene, and, I hear music playing. I bring my protagonist
flying on acid as
she is up to her car, have her click the automatic ignition on
her key chain, and I hear Poly Styrene suddenly screaming, “BUY ME/TIE ME! CHAIN
ME TO THE WALL!/I WANNA BE/A SLAVE FOR YOU ALL!!!” But I’m like that. I have my
dark, mysterious antihero leaving his love interest behind as he drives away, I
don’t want just a pained, stoic look on his face, or worse, bad expositionary
dialog. I want to hear Peter Murphy turning noise into heartbreak as he croons,
“You know the way/it falls apart/it cuts you up and spits you
out…”
Which leaves me at two conclusions. The first is
that I am entirely a creature of the 1980s Goth and Punk scenes, and really need
to start living in the present. The second is that maybe, just maybe, it’s not
so bad to make musical suggestions as you go. I mean, if the producer or
whomever likes the story, are they REALLY going to turn it down because you
suggest that Shriekback’s Nemesis is screeching from the stereo as the
antihero pulls up? I doubt it. If it lends texture and tone to a scene, I say go
for it. If it’s just extraneous, cut it out, and no matter what, be prepared for
it to get axed. Because them’s the breaks in show
business.
(Victor D. Infante is a regular contributor
to OC Weekly and the Worcester InCity Times, and is the author of
two screenplays, "the List" and "Nihilist Chic". Visit him on the web at
http://www.quantumredhead.com/victor.)
(c)
Victor D. Infante 2002
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