‘Elemental’ Composer Thomas Newman On Scoring From A Passive Perspective: “The Scene Presents Itself In A Certain Way, And I Respond Musically”
deadline.comFor Pixar‘s Elemental, composer Thomas Newman was given the challenge of scoring for ‘elemental’ cultures that don’t exist in the real world, while instilling a sense of familiarity for the viewer.
He says the real difficulty was to “point towards different cultures and never land on one.” Directed by Pete Sohn, the story follows Ember (Leah Lewis), a fire resident working in her parents market, whose fiery temper leads her to a chance meeting with Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a sappy water resident working as a city inspector.
While fire and water do not mix well, Ember and Wade find themselves growing closer and closer. Rather than focus on the clash between elements for the score, Newman says the most important thing to remember is that it’s a love story. DEADLINE: You have a lot of different elements blending together, what were your initial inspirations? THOMAS NEWMAN: The idea was to point towards different cultures and never land on one.
The challenge was that it’s a made up world of elements, but there has to be some familiarity. There’s a sense of otherness, and I think in the case of Wade and Ember, there’s otherness on both sides.
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