The big story often arises when Magnus Beite composes simply.
/ 11/04/2014 / codexFrom TONO-News, no. 2-2013
The big story often arises when Magnus Beite composes simply.
Text and photo: Kenneth Hätta
– I am probably driven by the search for those magical moments. They can appear when I write – because that is what I want to do – write music that I like. Or when we combine the music with images, sound effects and dialogue, says Magnus Beite – the creator of the music in, among others, The Knerten Gifter Seg, Arme Riddere and Blåfjell films.
The glimpses can also come during studio recordings, when fifty musicians in the London Metropolitan Orchestra do their best and play precious instruments with empathy. And in the final mix or in the cinema, when his work sits with the images on the screen, the film tells the story as it should, and the hall fills.
– Suddenly something is right, something lifts and becomes something more, more than something that fits together. When several people get goosebumps, the hairs on the back of their necks stand up, laughter resounds, or tears roll, then you have succeeded, says Beite enthusiastically.
Number one on radio in the US
We're sitting in Rainbow Studio, where he works as often as he can. But the musician doesn't rely on magic alone.
– Sometimes it becomes more of a work victory, you make it work. That's what you take with you to the next film. The desire to do it better than the last. Make the strings sound even fatter, make the orchestration richer or get even more juice in the action sequences. Film is a large format, with many narrative voices, and you could easily have adjusted, changed and tweaked yourself well into the next decade if you hadn't had a deadline.
In addition to film composing, the 39-year-old works as a songwriter and producer. In 2008, Beite reached the top of the Billboard Hot100 with Ne-Yo's Closer, which was the most played song on radio in the United States. Beite wrote the song together with Stargate, Bernt Rune Stray and the artist himself. He has also written songs for Mary J. Blige, Jessica Simpson and Kelly Rowland.
– One of the few things that film music and songwriting have in common is that you have to create something that is clear. Something that is refined in a way, and strictly directed. I think it was Hellstrøm who said that there should be a maximum of three toppings on a pizza. Not too many things at once.
Fascinated by studio musicians
– The LA environment with its high level of production and access to the best musicians in all styles has always fascinated me. There you can basically record pop music, classical music, film music and jazz in the same studio session. The musicians are so experienced, versatile and professional, and the competition is so fierce that they master everything. I love that city, he says.
After finishing his music studies at Gjøvik and a few years as a freelance performer in Oslo, Beite noticed that it was the studio and film that were most tempting. The University of Southern California was chosen. Private lessons in composition with Henrik Hellstenius and guest student status with Jon-Roar Bjørkvold at the university and Olav Anton Thommessen at the Academy of Music sharpened his skills. To his wife Hilde's amazement, he was accepted to the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program.
Back home in Norway, short films and commercial work awaited him, before he made his feature film debut with Izzat in 2005. Since then, Beite's full-time job has been as a film composer, in addition to writing songs for the international market when he has time. Previously, he shared a studio in Oslo with Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund.
– Film music is commissioned work. There you know that the music will be used, almost everything you create will be released. In the pop industry, as a songwriter, it's the other way around – most of what you create is never used. But every now and then it hits the mark. It's a kick. Then you can live for a good while on one hit, both in terms of motivation and salary.
– The film composer is a lonely man, I think it can be similar to being a writer. Throwing a ball with other songwriters in the studio gives me a drive, and is becoming more and more important to me. After delivering a 70-minute film score, it is liberating to work on songs that are three and a half.
Too much at once
– When you first start writing for a film, it’s easy to do too much at once, writing music that sounds good until you get to the mix, where the dialogue is turned up and the sound effects are supposed to come through. Much of the music that underlies the dialogue is mixed relatively low, and if it’s too complex, it can quickly seem unclear and messy. This can in turn lead to it being mixed even lower.
– In the end, it just becomes background noise, and the music may end up being removed altogether, or replaced. It is important in this job to tell a story clearly, and to tell one thing at a time.
– Creating music for a film takes whatever time you have. On average, it's maybe three months on a feature film, from start to finish. It's working under pressure. It boils over from the moment the clip is locked to my deadline, says Beite.
With the film finished editing, Beite meets with the director and reviews the film in detail. Here, the focus is on desired narratives, where music is desired, and whether the director wants to link musical themes to specific people, places, or events. After the director approves the composed music in the form of demo recordings, orchestration and voice writing await. Usually with a symphony orchestra, sometimes just strings, and rarely smaller ensembles or just a couple of soloists.
But he has already been working on the film for some time.
Idea cloud
Early in a film job, Beite often gets to see a few individual scenes or a rough cut as a kind of initiator.
– I often get a kind of idea cloud quite immediately, a vision in my head of how the music for this particular film should sound. I am keen that each project should have its own taste, its own concept, its own sound. I then create a palette of sounds and a list of which live elements I need to achieve the goal. In this phase, things start to buzz in my head while the film is still on the cutting table, and without me starting to work scene by scene. Maybe I make some simple recordings that are more atmospheric and mood-setting than thematic. The themes often come in the next phase. It sometimes happens that I create some guiding themes or musical lines, based on my memory of the first impressions I got when I saw the first material from the film.
For him, first impressions are important to use for something.
– I never like to see things too many times, then I feel like I become duller and lose some of my creative energy.
Lillehammer ahead of LA
Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard are film composers Beite likes to highlight. He believes that the level is rising back home, both in terms of films and film music.
– In just a few years, Norway has been put on the international map. It wasn't many years ago that we sat in the studio and wondered how the Swedes managed to be part of the international industry. Now Norway is there too, and that is a motivation for those of us who work with this.
Undoubtedly, both short and long compositions will be created on the hill in Lillehammer in the coming years. Beite has moved here with his wife and three children. At the top of the hill, Beite is building what he calls a five-star music studio.
– A colleague of mine who was on the site last year stated that this was Norway's best studio. I don't know, but the location is certainly fantastic, in quiet surroundings, with panoramic views. Since I have chosen such a remote location, I found that I had to compensate by being able to offer people nice guest rooms and a complete and modern studio, and it looks like it will be even better than I imagined.
Architects Jensen & Skodvin, in collaboration with Munro Acoustics in London, have designed Beite's heart's child, which will have one larger live room and four separate, floating recording rooms.
– The world has become small. You can now sit in the countryside and send music to anywhere in the world, without people caring where it was made.
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The article is taken from TONO-Nytt no.2-2013, published in week 50/2013.