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Tuesday, November 24, 1998 @ 10pm EST / 7pm PST

ScoreLogueVB: Basil Poledouris is ready to take questions...

cliesch asks: Would you recommend a program for film scoring like the one at USC?

Basil Poledouris: I think it's very valuable because it gives a young composer access to a professional series. Anywhere near a major scoring center gives them access to some amazingly valuable resources. I wish they had as much when I was starting out.

Cas_Troy_ asks: Hello Mr.Poledouris, Did you have any other previous thoughts on another profession/s before turning to scoring films?

Basil Poledouris: I was always in music from the time I was 7. In college I was thrilled with what was going on in 20th Century composition. I was taken with the cinema department and felt film was art form that spoke to my generation; it seemed more socially relevant to

Basil Poledouris: go into film than music, which seemed like an antique art (except for rock 'n roll, which I didn't get into until the Beatles really hit it big). For about 10 minutes I wanted to be a film director, and I started scoring my own pictures and those of my classmates like Randall Kleiser.

Basil Poledouris: I worked on a masters degree, then went to the American Film Institute and studied privately in L.A.

Mike_8530 asks: Mr. Poledouris - Do you prefer to read a script before scoring or do you wait until a rough cut has been assembled?

Basil Poledouris: Always wait to see the film. As composers, what we do is write film music.

Basil Poledouris: Without the film, what's the point? Assuming a film has a unique style and the score is tailored with its own style to match or complement the movie; on two occasions I have tried to score thematically from the script, but I think it's a mistake.

Basil Poledouris: The film takes shape with the directors and editors, with nuances and tonality; the pacing of the editing suggests rhythm. You can only imagine this from a script. The range of a character's voice can influence a key. LES MISERABLES was written in G-sharp minor because the dialogue seemed to come to life in that, a very difficult key.

Basil Poledouris: With sequencers we can transpose our mock-ups, and we tried it in other keys and the dialogue fell flat. So it's counterproductive to work without the film.

bffl12 asks: With the bootleg of BIG WEDNESDAY out any chance of a legit version?

Basil Poledouris: I would hope so. It's always been high on my list of things to revisit, and there's never been a release fo that except for a few cues on my sampler, HONOR AND GLORY. That would be a strong contender for a release.

_Cas_Troy_ asks: How much or how often does Zöe help you in your work?

Basil Poledouris: She did some stuff which no one knows about on BLUE LAGOON; she wrote "Baby Swim", I think. I mean that she was 8 years old at the time and hummed I melody that I then ripped off and arranged as a piece of music!

Basil Poledouris: On CONAN she was a great help on the "Orgy" cue because she suggested a melody on a recorded and it became one of the main themes!

FHurt asks: Mr. Poledouris, How does if feel to stand in front an orchestra and have them play your music?

Basil Poledouris: That's really about it except for STARSHIP TROOPERS, which she did entirely on her own. She writes her songs, and I'm not involved in her material.

Basil Poledouris: Have you ever flown a 747?

Basil Poledouris: There are a lot of things that go through your mind!

Basil Poledouris: So far it's always been better than I thought it would be, when an orchestra plays your stuff. It's a great feeling.

mumcml asks: Hello Mr. Poledouris! I loved your score for CONAN THE BARBARIAN. I read somewhere that you employed about 20 horns for the theme of the "Anvil of Crom" and I'm wondering whether are there any other cues you've done had employed such extreme instrumentati

Basil Poledouris: Let me dispel a myth--there were 6 french horns on Conan, and I ovedubbed them 4 times.

Basil Poledouris: There weren't 24 players.

Basil Poledouris: Maybe the most extreme usage of an instrument would be IT'S MY PARTY, all solo piano. Most of my scores tend to be a historical, mythological, or sci-fi nature, so for me in the past

Basil Poledouris: the best way to express that is through a pretty standard orchestral setup.

Basil Poledouris: The standard orchestra gives you lots of variations. If it's a film with a lot of dialogue, you get a lot of effective underscore, switching from woodwinds to string, what have you.

Basil Poledouris: I'd love to do a film that could utilize really bizarre instrumentation.

wacko43229 asks: Hi Basil, It's Jeannie Dillon !

Basil Poledouris: Hi Jeannie! I'm glad you're online.

iamsartana asks: CONAN THE BARBARIAN knocked my socks off. I was amazed at the similarity to "Riders of Doom" and Prokofiev's "Battle on the Ice" from ALEXANDER NEVSKY. Was that on your mind at the time?

Basil Poledouris: Yeah, it was on my mind. I think ALEXANDER NEVSKY is one of the greatest scores ever written, and Milius had always loved the film. It was a staple at film school, Eisenstein's work.

bffl12 asks: There's talk of a new CONAN with Arnold. Have you been approached to do the music if it's a go?

Basil Poledouris: No, I haven't heard about that. Milius always wanted to do the CONAN stories as a trilogy ending with Arnold the King. The first one ends with him on the throne as an old man. If that were true, it would be fabulous.

Cinemusic asks: How does it feel to win an Emmy for LONESOME DOVE?

Basil Poledouris: It was interesting in that when I was nominated, I was afraid to let myself feel that I had a possibility to win because I didn't want to be disappointed when I didn't. It was a defense mechanism.

Basil Poledouris: Concepts like that have never been that important, like Academy Awards. But when they announced the names of the nominees that evening, this amazing kind of competitive primal feeling came up within me for those 10 seconds where

Basil Poledouris: I thought that if I hadn't won, I would have exploded! It's a horrible feeling because there's nothing I could have done to influence the outcome. It's so subjective.

Basil Poledouris: I was awestruck; I'm very proud of that award. I like the Emmy Awards because they're given by your peers.

Basil Poledouris: All of the music branch nominates, and there's a select blue ribbon committee that actually votes, about 10 to 15 composers and lyricists.

Basil Poledouris: It seems like more of an award from your peers than the Oscars, which are from the general membership of the Academy.

ScoreLogueVB: You have told us that LONESOME DOVE was one of your favorite scoring experiences...can you tell us why?

Basil Poledouris: I think all the elements were extraordinary, starting with a brilliant Pulitzer-winning novel by Larry McMurtry to an incredible screenplay, which Bill did a great job on. Living in Texas, he got the whole ethos of the film. For me, I had always had these mythic perceptions of the Old West,

Basil Poledouris: and it gave me an opportunity to speak to that and to exercise my love of folk music, especially American folk music. I could create a combination of real references, like the Texas rangers folk songs (used when they're bringing Gus' body back)

Basil Poledouris: to completely invented things that sound like traditional folksongs. Another aspect is the brilliant acting and direction by Simon Wincer. It all came together,

Basil Poledouris: and I've never been involved in another project where the key people all shared the same vision of what we were tryng to do. That's rare in movies.

Basil Poledouris: Usually everyone has a different idea of what the music or film should be, and that's one of the things that made it go so smoothly.

iamsartana asks: What effect were you trying for in the fabulous QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER? It sounds obviously like a Western score, but the style is unique.

Basil Poledouris: It was obviously for the same director from LONESOME DOVE, Simon Wincer, and what we were going for was, with Simon being Australian-- well, I was hired because I was American, and he wanted an American point of view to juxtapose with the characters and the setting.

Basil Poledouris: It would create the kind of synergy he was looking for. After seeing the film, I realized it was kind of a romp, and Tom Selleck's character is pretty lovable. There's no strangeness to him, and I wanted to get across a sense of fun in the lighthearted instrumentation--tubas, base trombones, against banjos and clarinets.

Basil Poledouris: The rest of it was also romantic; you had a male-female relationship as opposed to the male-male LONESOME DOVE.

Basil Poledouris: QUIGLEY was a little more macho in a funny kind of way though.

Basil Poledouris: In terms of the character it was just more fun for me.

huggolin asks: Did you ever arrive in front a movie and said: I can't write music for this?

Basil Poledouris: Yeah, that has happened. It wasn't necessarily because of the film, but there are a few styles that i'm not well-versed in-- big band jazz, and comedy.

Basil Poledouris: I've done comedies but don't relate to them as well as those other kinds of pictures. In those situations it's best to tell the directors or the producers that you're not right for it.

SteveLancelot75 asks: With the re-release of LONESOME DOVE, is there a chance of possibly re-releasing some of your earlier work, like FLESH AND BLOOD?

Basil Poledouris: I guess that's up to the record company. I don't even know what they are; let me look at a list!

Basil Poledouris: THE WAR AT HOME.

Basil Poledouris: There's some interesting stuff in WHITE FANG, RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON.

Basil Poledouris: That's about it. The differences in my scores are pretty well represented by what's out there.

Basil Poledouris: It was kind of terrifying when cable TV came around because things you hoped would never turn up are suddenly out there.

Basil Poledouris: I would encourage any record company to put out anything of mine they can!

FHurt asks: The music that you wrote and performed at the Olympics was incredible! Is it possible to get that piece on CD?

Basil Poledouris: That's one of the few pieces of music I've written that wasn't for a film. I don't really write music for songs, or modern classical. It was interesting because I had a tremendous amount of time to think about it and got to work with a very gifted choreographer, Kenny Ortega.

Basil Poledouris: There were no timings I was constricted by outside of "around one minute we'd like smoke to come out of the guy's ears," etc. There was a lot of latitude to experiment. For once I could finish a phrase if I wanted to.

Basil Poledouris: It also spoke to something about my heritage that was very meaningful in that respect. I've always like the antiquity of Greece, and this was about the very first games of Greece.

Basil Poledouris: I wanted to use lyrics but couldn't decide whether they should be in English or Greek. I asked my daughter Alexis, who studied Ancient Greek,

Basil Poledouris: and she told me about writing odes to Olympic athletes written by Pendar. He was essentially a PR guy who sang the praises of different athletes in the games,

Basil Poledouris: and he tried to create heroes and celebrities like Madison Avenue does now.

Basil Poledouris: So I pretended I was writing an ode to these athletes and then realized that since film was in real time, she helped me with the lyrics and we came up with this heroic construction of praising the muse, and praising Nike the goddess of victory,

Basil Poledouris: then the last lyric, which is "Faster, higher, stronger." It was a wonderful experience.

Basil Poledouris: The mood that came over that place when the dancers started was just unbelievable.

Basil Poledouris: I've always read about the electricity of live performances, but 90,000 people riveted to it at the same time was just amazing.

Turgison asks: Which type of music do you find easier to compose, a film's main theme, or understated background music?

Basil Poledouris: The main theme.

Basil Poledouris: That's what occurs most naturally without really having to get into the mechanics of timing, without being concerned about sound effects and everything else that goes into good underscore.

Basil Poledouris: What I try to do is sum up the dramatic concept of the film, while underscore addresses specific moments within the film.

FHurt asks: The "Hymn for the Red October" is so powerful, did you use any Russian music for a springboard?

Basil Poledouris: No, no Russian music outside Prokofiev and Stravinsky, my usual sources of inspiration. In terms of referencing anything that existed, no. The idea came from John McTiernan, the director, who had this long title sequence with a Russian submarine pushing through the water.

Basil Poledouris: Then it cuts to Jack Ryan in London, then he's going to Langley, to the CIA. McTiernan was concerned that by the time Ryan gets to where he's going, the audience would forget about the sub. What he wanted was a device to keep the idea of the submarine advancing towards the U.S. constantly in the audience's mind for those four minutes.

Basil Poledouris: There's this gravity underneath when he's saying goodbye to his wife and daughter.

Basil Poledouris: The studio was very opposed to it and was concerned that the lack of dialogue for the first few minutes would make it sound too foreign and put audiences off.

Basil Poledouris: I always wanted to start the CONAN album off with Mako's prologue, which is how the Milan version starts. That's much the same problem. Universal wouldn't let me put that on the record,

Basil Poledouris: saying that's not for Western ears! It was in English but in this Hiborian accent.

CrispyBaconGals asks: Mr. Poledouris, other than a work of your own, what is one of your favorite film scores?

Basil Poledouris: Well, ALEXANDER NEVSKY, some of the works of Copeland, such as THE RED PONY. He did a documentary about the building of a city that was brilliant.

Basil Poledouris: My favorite historical film composers have been Alfred Newman, Miklos Rozsa, and for different reasons, Dimitri Tiomkin, mainly for his lyricism, and more recently,

Basil Poledouris: early Morricone and early Goldsmith.

CineMan27 asks: How did your career develop? From your prospective, how influential were your studies with David Raskin?

Basil Poledouris: Very influential. David was the first person I ever met who had ever written a film score!

Basil Poledouris: That doesn't seem like a big deal these days because composers are more accessible than they were then.

Basil Poledouris: We never had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, like we are now!

Basil Poledouris: David Raksin would bring his films, like "Laura," to class and screen it off a 35mm print. Then he would talk about why he did what he did, more about philosophy, and that's all any teacher

Basil Poledouris: can try to impart to any discipline. This goes back to the scoring program question; no one can teach you how to write music. All they can hope to do is instill a philosophy about how to approach projects with a point of view.

Basil Poledouris: David also talked about the techniques of scoring, the actual picking up of music to visuals, which was just like black magic unless you know how it's done.

cur_mud_geon_65 asks: Basil, do you still see or speak with David Raskin? Has he ever commented to you on any of your scores?

Basil Poledouris: I see David often; I just ran into him at a wedding a couple of months ago. He has commented on my music, which is very flattering. I don't ask what people think about my music; I don't feel that people have to. Bill Conti asked me at one time what Greg, my longtime orchestrator thought of my music, and I said, "I don't know, I haven't asked, I'm almost afraid to!" David has expressed positive reactions to my music, and I'm proud of that.

Basil Poledouris: He's a serious, knowledgeable historical figure in Hollywood.

Jason_28227 asks: Do you feel that there is anything, speaking creatively you have yet to accomplish as a composer?

Basil Poledouris: I sure hope so!

Basil Poledouris: I try to do something slightly different; I make these improvements and try to analyze what I've done. A couple of years later I'll take a listen and try to incorporate what I feel I could have done differently. Someone, maybe me!--once said that each film score is a rehearsal for the next one.

buan_se asks: Do you feel a 'creative preassure' on your shoulders, to write a score that's unique?

Basil Poledouris: I don't think the score can be written to stand apart from the film, or at least I don't; I don't want it to be more noticed than the movie. I can go out and do something wild or quirky, but if it doesn't serve the film, I won't do it. What I look for is a film where I can be involved on a more significant level.

_Xenogears_ asks: Mr Poledouris how do you feel when one of your wonderful scores gets cut short on the CD release. (eg. STARSHIP TROOPERS)

Basil Poledouris: It's painful!

Basil Poledouris: In that case there was about 70, 80 minutes of music, maybe even 90!

Basil Poledouris: There were a lot of choices, and we could have put together an interesting listening experience. 30 minutes is a little short, but I feel it touches on the main points of the score.

Basil Poledouris: But it doesn't have the variation that would normally go along with it. Each cue represents an attitude of the film.

Mister_Vibes asks: Can you tell us about Blowtorch Flats?

Basil Poledouris: That's my studio, in Venice, California. It's a three story loft. The main floor is probably 30 ft. wide by 50 ft., maybe. The ceilings about 16 ft. high. We have a Euphonics mixing console, which is digitally automated; all the synthesizers, computers, etc. are down there.

Basil Poledouris: The second floor is sort of a dining area, with a power table for directors and producers. The third level is the office--fax machine, computer, etc. with a private room for me with another mixing console. It got its name from John Milius' studio in Encino, in the valley in California. I didn't have airconditioning at the time. He said, "You know, it's so hot in here, it's hotter than--"

Basil Poledouris: i thought he was going to say "Hell--"

Basil Poledouris: He said, "--hotter than Blowtorch Flats!"

Basil Poledouris: This from the guy who came up with "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"

SteveLancelot75 asks: The remake of PSYCHO has caused a little contreversy in areas of the film business. Do you have an opinion on this?

Basil Poledouris: I don't know what the controversy is, really. If they can improve it, my hats off to them, but good luck!

Basil Poledouris: It bothers me when composers go in and rescore films with past scores, for example.

Basil Poledouris: For example, look at silent films, which are rescored. What's the point? I object to that. Why take half of a piece of art, like a great existing film, and rescoring it?

Basil Poledouris: Having said that, I'd love to go back and score some of the TARZAN films, which I love--they don't have much music in them.

Basil Poledouris: I'm really addressing when the scores are extant, not when they're lost.

Basil Poledouris: These things are all part of the markers of time. I was listening to a Hayden symphony this morning; they represent where this person was in their era--the social, religious, and political attitudes of the time. When you take a modern composer and rescore the film, it's a mixed metaphor.

Basil Poledouris: There's no way you can go back and alter something from D.W. Griffith's time.

cur_mud_geon_65 asks: When composing the music for THE JUNGLE BOOK, had you listened to Rozsa's previous score?

Basil Poledouris: No, I didn't. To this day I haven't, and I want to. I only had 3 1/2 weeks from the time I was set to the recording session to do the score, so there wasn't time to do anything, even sleep.

Basil Poledouris: I must have seen JUNGLE BOOK as a kid, though I don't remember it. I remember TARZAN!

Cinemusic asks: You are well known for both your rousing and your romantic styles. Which style do you prefer to score?

Basil Poledouris: I like them both.

Basil Poledouris: This goes back to the film itself; what I''m trying to get away from his films with really heavy sound effects, so I guess you'd call that rousing. I'm tired of fighting the explosions on the dubbing stage.

Basil Poledouris: I like writing films about real people, maybe it's enough heroics for now.

huggolin asks: What was your experience on FAREWELL TO THE KING?

Basil Poledouris: It was a wonderful experience, for a number of reasons. I got to work with Milius again, whose films I always enjoy writing. He always thinks larger than life, and it gives me a bigger musical canvas.

Basil Poledouris: There's nothing worse than someone saying they have this wonderful little piece that's really delicate, like a candlelit parchment. I want someone coming up and saying, "This has got to be bigger than the biggest thing anyone's ever heard!"

Basil Poledouris: It gives me more of a license; with John it's like a grand adventure, a huge voyage with a seriously good time getting there.

Basil Poledouris: And it was a very romantic film, interestingly, for all that action in it. The main focus for him was the relationship between the botanist and the king.

SideWinder9X asks: Mr. Poledouris, I'm really kicking myself now for only having HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER out of all your scores. I've asked several other people, but now I'm going right to the source. Which of YOUR scores do you recommend the most?

Basil Poledouris: I think you're asking the wrong person! I've done enough now where there is a variety, a big selection. It would depend on what kind of film you like. Do you like CONAN better than LES MISERABLES, or IT'S MY PARTY more than RED OCTOBER?

Basil Poledouris: I have serious misgivings about spending $2500 for CHERRY 2000!

ScoreLogueVB: Any closing thoughts for your fans, Basil?

Basil Poledouris: Thank you very much to everyone out there for the support I've gotten through letters and through CD sales, and just the fact that there people out there who can appreciate the music. When I used to write, I'd think, What difference is it going to make to anyone if I stay up all night to get this right?

Basil Poledouris: Knowing that people do listen out there and care about this stuff is very important to me. When the going gets tough, I appreciate that.

ScoreLogueVB: Thank you to Basil Poledouris! Check out our interview with Basil - December 1st on ScoreLogue

ScoreLogueVB: Thanks again to all that came for the chat with Basil Poledouris.... go to www.scorelogue.com for details on winning a FREE signed CD by John Beal or Basil Poledouris!!!!!

ScoreLogueVB: Thanks to John Beal and Basil Poledouris! and to Cinemusic for co-sponsoring this event!