Musician and composer Fabian Almazan, chosen for the 2011 Sundance Composers Lab, talks about film composing and why composers should experiment.
StudentFilmmakers Magazine catches up with musician and film composer Fabian Almazan, who was recently selected for the prestigious 2011 Sundance Composers Lab. Almazan’s debut CD, “Personalities,” is scheduled to be released in October 2011 during a week-long run of performances at the Village Vanguard in NYC.
StudentFilmmakers Magazine:
When you’re scoring and composing for a film, what is your process like?
Fabian Almazan: It depends on the film and the director. If it is a period or regional piece, I try to emerge myself in the music of that time and place. I then proceed to try to recalibrate my aesthetic interpretations so that they are in tune with that of the director. Music is a very abstract thing and it is interpreted differently from person to person. I can’t assume that I will be emotionally impacted by certain music the same way someone else will be so it becomes a game of recognition of the other person’s emotional, musical triggers. After all that, an enormous wave of “what am I going to write for this” hits me and I get to work.
SF: Could you share with us one of your most memorable experiences scoring and composing for a film?
Fabian Almazan’s Studio Setup
Fabian Almazan: That would have to be a very recent one at the Sundance Institute. I was working on one of the cues that Harry-Gregson Williams brought in for us to work on, A Day in the Life. I guess I should explain the process at Sundance first. Composer-advisors would come in every two days and give us scenes from films they had scored so that we could re-score them and compare them to each-others’ unique versions. He brought in a scene that had the potential to go a number of different ways. We all [six of us] worked in our own individual trailers and Harry would pop in from trailer to trailer. When he came into mine I was of-course a little nervous to play it for him but I admire him so much that I was anxious to hear what he had to say. To my surprise, it had very little to do with what he said but rather way more with what he showed. It seemed to me that he immediately took the music in and in response started making little gestures with his hands which soon thereafter turned into full blown conducting. It was the first time I’ve ever had someone so clearly express to me the direction my music is trying to go in by just moving. He spoke up after having intensely waived his arms for the computer and me but his gestures were so clear and genuine that had he not said anything at all and walked out of the room, I would have understood exactly what he wanted. I was stunned to have just been conducted into composing.
SF: You also did some work with filmmaker Yolanda Cruz at Sundance. What kinds of things did you create together?
Fabian Almazan: Yolanda had been in the Directors Lab for a month prior to my arrival. She shot 5 scenes from her future feature film, La Raya, and I scored a couple of them in the three days we had together. I received the script ahead of time but didn’t see the footage until the day we met. The story takes place in Oaxaca, Mexico, so before going to Sundance, I did a lot of research on Mexican music and specifically, Oaxacan music in addition to Oaxacan culture, traditions and history in general. Once we actually started working on the film, that all went out the window and then came back in through the back door. Yolanda wanted me to experiment by scoring it with music ranging from electronic elements to orchestral to Mexican to “universal music using Mexican instruments.” In the end, after many different versions and sonic palettes, we opted to go with a mixture of traditional Mexican music, “pop-ish” Mexican music and a little of the “universal sounding music using Mexican instruments” idea. We did exactly what we were there to do: “creatively experiment.” I think both Yolanda and I learned a lot from the experience.
SF: What’s the best part of being a film composer?
Fabian Almazan: Being in a dark room with a bunch of people who are completely in trance with a film I was involved in.
Fabian Almazan was born in Havana, Cuba in 1984 and fled with his parents as a political exile in 1993. He studied piano with Conchita Betancourt and went on to join the exclusive Grammy Band High School Combo. He studied in New York with Kenny Barron and began composing chamber and orchestral pieces. His compositions have won him numerous prizes, including ASCAP and Cintas Foundation awards. He was one of five composers selected for the ASCAP/Columbia University Film Scoring Workshop. For the last four years he has been pianist for Terence Blanchard’s quintet and recorded and toured extensively throughout North and South America, Asia and Europe. He recorded his first CD as leader, “Personalities,” which is scheduled to debut in October 2011 during a week-long run of performances at the Village Vanguard in NYC.
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