Elliot Wheeler
Elliot Wheeler has reunited with director Baz Luhrmann to work as music arranger on his new movie The Great Gatsby.
The film saw Wheeler work with the likes of Jay-Z as well as write some of his own compositions for the movie.
We caught up with him to chat about his work on The Great Gatsby, collaborating with Luhrmann and the release of his debut solo album.
- You have been working on The Great Gatsby as music arranger and producer so how did you get involved with the project?
I have worked with Baz (Luhrmann) and the music supervisor and co-producer Anton Monsted before on Australia and I happened to run into Anton at the airport in LA. Initially we worked on the arrangements for some of the screenings and then the role just expanded from there.
So I was doing bits of composing of original music alongside Craig Armstrong’s score and then doing work arranging a lot of the additional music that was coming in from other artists.
Baz is extremely good and getting a weave between the film of contemporary culture at the moment and the 1920’s: so we were doing a lot of transitions between the 1920’s sound and the contemporary material.
- Well you have touched on my next question really this film is set in the 1920’s and yet there is this contemporary feel to it so how hard was it to strike that balance?
It was a wonderful project to do. It was tricky because you have to do it such a seamless way but all the Jay-Z stuff that is in there and the hip hop has the same sexiness and vitality now that jazz had during that era. And hip hop does draw on sampling so much and so, in some ways, the hip hop was easier.
Although with the Jay-Z the production on them is so fantastic anyway so when you are overlaying other elements they slot in quite easily.
The other tracks we used a different approach so rather than adding stuff on you had to do a completely different re-arrangement of them or do them in a different style.
I was lucky enough to work with Bryan Ferry and his jazz age orchestra in London while we were working on the film and Bryan put together the most fantastic group of musicians who can play that 1920’s style. While we were working on the soundtrack we heard this and the sound was just so perfect for that era that we came over and worked with Bryan.
It was just amazing to see them work as they have this incredible chemistry as they would all record in the one room sitting together and so the arrangements were very organic. It was just amazing to see them work as they are just incredible musicians.
And Bryan and his producer were just exquisite as they would change one instrument or one part and suddenly it would have an entirely different feel. Also the musicians that they had there had a wonderful knowledge of the sounds of that era and the types of instruments that they were playing.
- How familiar were you with music of that era or did you have to do some research of your own?
Both. It is a style of music that I love and when you are studying you come knowing where those sounds originated from. There is just an endless supply of music in any genre and so you can always learn more and that was an exciting and fun experience to get your head into that detail.
Baz’s father was a collector of music from that era and he had so much of that music in his house and so Baz’s knowledge of that music was absolutely phenomenal - and a bit scary to be honest (laughs).
- You have mentioned Baz Luhrmann a couple of times already and he is in the director’s chair for the film so how did you find working with him? And how collaborative was it between you, him and the rest of the guys involved in the music side of this movie?
Baz’s musical sensibility and knowledge is just wonderful to work with - music is fundamental to the way that Baz thinks about a film and it is not something that comes at a later stage. He thinks very musically in terms of storytelling as well.
It was very collaborative and there is... in terms of working with the other musicians it was recorded in different parts of the world; Jay-Z’s involvement meant that a lot was done in New York and Craig’s incredible score was recorded in London and then we did a lot of music back in Sydney as well. Of course with the number of artists that were involved there was a lot of sharing remotely as well.
But in terms of working with Baz it was very very collaborative and he has a very strong idea of what he wants the piece to do and he would come in and sing you, if not the notes, then the emotion of where it needs to be up and down and where the weave needs to be.
He will absolutely conduct you through that and we would film what he was doing and try to figure out if that would work musically. So it was extremely exciting to work with him.
- Many people won't know about the how the music process works on a movie so can you talk about the stages that you go through when you are bringing a film to life with music?
There are a few different ways that we come at it; sometimes if it’s an incredibly scored section of music you will get the pictures with just sound and dialogue and you watch the pictures through and try and get a sense... every edit has an inherent rhythm to it and you get a sense of the pacing of the story.
Then there is a secondary issue that you have to deal with where you have work out what part of the story it is that you want the music to be telling; so are you telling a linear story where you are following what is happening in the plot?
Or are you telling the things that aren’t being told in the story such as the emotion of the characters? Or are you trying to set up a tension that is not there in the performance but you know needs to be there in terms of what is happening in the story?
So you work out those elements and then, for me, it is a lot of sitting down and sketching elements out on the piano. Once you have got a good sketch that works you start filling that out and make sure that you have key points where they need to be - in terms of what is happening on the screen - and then orchestrating it or bringing the sample.
Another way - particularly with a film like this when there was such an abundance of artists to work with and there was so much music - is just going through and looking at scenes and deciding who would be good for that scene; so you would think about who had that musical style and who had the personality to fit into a particular scene of give it an edge or give it romance.
Often we would find the track and then we would work out what needed changing or re-recording and we would go to the artist and work with them to get it to fit into the film.
- Away from the film and you are about to release you debut solo album The Long Time so what can we expect from that?
Because of the fact that I have been writing for screen I ended up choosing a number of scenes from my favourite films and taking those scenes as a starting point for a lot of those pieces.
There is a scene in Bonnie and Clyde just before the ambush and Bonnie looks over at Clyde - it is a tiny one second close up - and it is this amazing look where she knows what is about to happen and she knows they are about to get caught in this hail of bullets.
But she manages to give this look of love and that she has no regrets and while she knows how violent it is going to be she wouldn’t change any of it. That was enough of starting point for me to make a track out of. And I went through a similar process for a lot of the pieces.
Stylistically I think that they album sounds very cinematic; it’s cinematic orchestra through Morricone meets Portishead - that is a good way of describing it.
- How does working on your own album compare to the work that you did on The Great Gatsby and other films?
The process is quite tricky for me as I am so use to telling other people’s stories and having the visual sign posts to work with - I think that is probably why I end up going back to finding some stimulation from films.
I spent four or five months looking for what it was that I was trying to say and then realised that I always think in a very narrative fashion when I write.
So it was a very interesting process for me. I love the collaboration of working in a team because it is a very different process when you are working and generating all of that from your own staring positing.
- How have you found the early response to the album so far?
The early response has been great and really positive. I think it is a slow burner and I think that you will get more out of it as you listen to it - but I suppose everyone hopes that about their music (laughs).
- So where did your love of music start and how did you find yourself working in movies?
Music is one of those things that has always been in my life as I started playing piano when I was four or five years old - I can’t remember a time when I haven’t been involved with music.
I was at university I was lucky to be able to start doing a few sessions for a screen composer and he really took me under his wing. Screen composition can be one of these crafts that is difficult to get into unless you have someone who is willing to train you. I was lucky enough to have it with Pete and I have been at it ever since.
- Finally what is next for you?
We are just working on a something for opening titles for a new film which is an adaptation of Australian novelist Tim Winton’s short stories called The Turning. It’s gorgeous and Cate Blanchett has done one of the short films and so has David Wenham - there are eighteen short films in the feature.
We have also been working on the soundtrack to the new Mad Max movie Fury Road as well. There are a few other projects that are on the boil but I can’t really talk about those - they are very exciting though.
The Great Gatsby is released 16th May.