San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing and today I got the chance to first see several of the best composers in film today answer questions during the “Musical Anatomy of a Superhero” panel, and then actually speak with several of them myself. Here’s what we learned from the panel and our chats.
L to R: Christophe Beck, The Haxan Cloak, Michael Giacchino, Laura Karpman, Christopher Lennertz, David Russo
First off, I want to explain that while David Russo and The Haxan Cloak (who can both be seen in the image above) were part of the panel, they are best known for their work on DC projects and have not actually worked on Marvel projects. Also, Michael Giacchino, who has worked on several Marvel and other Disney projects, simply moderated the panel and did not take part in the interviews afterwards. So instead, we will be focusing on Laura Karpman, Christophe Beck and Christopher Lennertz.
Karpman has composed the music for Marvel’s What If…? and Ms. Marvel and she is currently working on The Marvels. During the panel though, she did mention that that the main theme is “somewhere out there in the world” right now, but “it’s not supposed to be.”
With Karpman now working on a superhero team-up film, during the interview process she was asked about the differences between trying to build on existing themes as opposed to starting from scratch and creating new ones.
“Every project that I’ve done for Marvel has been really different. I think What If, the idea is to take what’s been written by Chris, by Michael, by other great composers and figure out how to make it work in the multiverse and the world that is What If,” Karpman said. “For Ms. Marvel, that was fresh, right? You know, she was new to the MCU so that was really a starting from scratch type of thing. And with The Marvels, coming into what I really hope and what I really think will be a fantastic franchise, [it’s] taking the reigns and coming up with what works in this particular film and this particular context.”
Following up on that, I got the chance to ask Karpman if she prefers to listen to the work of some of the other great composers on Marvel projects for inspiration or if she prefers to block it all out so it doesn’t influence her own work.
“On What If, and part of it is sometimes inventing new themes but part of it is taking themes made by other people, I will never look at the sheet music though,” she said. “I’ll do it by ear, because I figure if I’m not looking at sheet music, it’s kind of going through my brain and going through my own sensibility and that will kind of turn it upside down like we’re supposed to in the world of What If.”
Karpman also mentioned another project she worked on that might be familiar to fans of Disney Parks and video games when she was asked about hiding signatures in her work.
“There’s one project in particular I scored a while back: Kinect Disneyland Adventures,” Karpman said. “And there were seven of us on it, we had to write 300 minutes of music in three weeks and my son was not quite a year old, so I took all the little dumb songs that we created, which I will not tell you the lyrics for because they get a little edgy, and they’re all in Kinect Disneyland Adventures.”
As for Beck, the composer who has scored the Ant-Man trilogy and will be workin on Agatha: Coven of Chaos provided the comedy for the panel when Giacchino revealed that he once played in a band called Chris and the Cupcakes. He also said that when he was a child, he recorded himself practicing the piano and played that recording so his parents would think he was practicing while he was really laying on the floor reading comic books.
“So technically, I’ve been scoring comics since then,” Beck joked.
During the interviews, Beck was asked about the differences between scoring the Ant-Man trilogy and scoring something completely different, like The Hangover trilogy.
“Some of the instruments might be different, the amount of secrecy might be different, but ultimately, the challenge is the same, which is ‘how do we tell this story?’” Beck said. “And the process is remarkably similar. Being composers, we come up with ideas that we think answer that question and then we work with the filmmakers to make sure it fits their vision.”
Beck also brought some different experience to the question regarding listening to the work of other composers versus blocking it out.
“Because of my relationship with Marvel, that has been so fruitful, and I hope continues to, I do make a point of watching everything that they put out but I don’t pay special attention to the score, except to appreciate it in the moment,” Beck said. “Or if there is some character thread from another project that I want to pull, then I’ll go ahead and study. But I think it’s important to not get too familiar with the other stuff because I don’t want it to, either consciously or unconsciously, affect my imagination.”
Jumping from the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and films in general, Lennertz shared some insight as to how he and other writers created the driving force for “Rogers: The Musical” during the panel.
“We knew early on, love stories make the best musicals and if you’re going to get people to sing who don’t normally sing, it needs to come from there,” he said.
During the interviews, I got to ask Lennertz, who has also scored Marvel’s Agent Carter as well as the new Wondrous Journeys fireworks show at Disneyland, what the differences are between working on a film or television project versus one for the Disney Parks.
“The idea of writing music that makes people feel emotions is not different at all, quite honestly, but the thing that’s really been amazing and what I’ve said to everybody about working on both Wondrous Journeys and on ‘Rogers’ is it’s a very different experience to be able to sit there on Main St. or sit in the Hyperion and watch people’s faces,” Lennertz said. “And as a creator, to watch people’s faces change and watch tears come down people’s eyes, it’s really gratifying.”
Lennertz, who also scores the hit Amazon superhero series The Boys, was asked about going between television and theater and what might be next for him in his career.
“I’m not going to even beat around the bush that I want to take a superhero musical to Broadway,” Lennertz said, to the delight of everyone at the table. “Whether it’s a Marvel musical or a Vought musical, or if DC wants to call me up and do a musical, but I think there’s enough emotion in the world there that you can do a superhero musical on Broadway easily and really make it work so people want to keep coming back.”
You can hear the work of all three of these incredible composers on Disney+ and in Disneyland Resort now.