Clint Mansell's music
and Brian Emerich's sound design oozed through Darren Aronofsky's
first film, Pi. They helped to create a world that pulsated with
high-tech paranoia. On their second outing with Aronofsky, they
had the opportunity to up the ante and play with bigger toys. Requiem
for a Dream is a story about addiction. It's relentless in its visual
and audio attack, and the music and sound grow stranger as the film
hurtles towards its climax. The success of Pi afforded them the
chance to work at George Lucas's Skywalker Sound to do the final
mixing, as well as record with the Kronos Quartet.
Clint was the former
lead singer for Pop Will Eat Itself. His love of film has always
been evident from the band's integral use of film dialog in its
music. Brian has been knocking around the New York City music scene
for years, playing in bands as diverse as the ska staples the Toasters
and his current gig with the seminal industrial band Foetus. Clint
and Brian have been friends for many years, and they hooked up with
Aronofsky in the early stages of Pi's production. They each contributed
a track to the soundtrack; Clint gave the film it's main theme and
score, while Brian contributed a psychedelic-trance piece under
the alias Psilonaut, as well as doing the sound design.
During the making of
Pi, Clint was holed up in a New York hotel working away on the soundtrack.
He recalled, "I was working on a [Roland] MC-303 Groove Box. It
wasn't too advanced, but neither was I. Everything was pretty much
recorded live into [C-Lab] Creator on an old Atari Computer."
This time around, Clint
worked in a studio equipped with an Akai S1000, Roland JV-880, and
Propellerhead ReBirth software. He also had the Kronos Quartet contribute
to the score. "It was really a stroke of luck," says Clint. "Darren
saw them perform in New York. Somehow he got backstage and talked
them into working on the film. The were excited to be working with
electronic elements."
Meanwhile, over in sound
design land, Brian began working with the Sound Dogs, from Toronto.
They were hired to do dialog, Foley, and background. Brian had a
great respect for them and worked closely with their sound designer,
Craig Hanighan. "I had to go up there and take their sounds and
bring them home to work with them," Brian explains, "which was not
a normal thing to do. You don't usually steal someone else's sounds.
But they met with me and realized that it was cool. I manipulated
a lot of it once I got into my studio." Brian did much of his work
in Digidesign Pro Tools, shuttling data CDs between his studio and
Sound Dogs' in Toronto. Some of his rhythmic effects were created
with a Roland TR-909. To add an underwater feel, he went to the
lake and captured the sound of rockets being launched from a boat
with an underwater mic.
Once the sound effects
and music were recorded and approved, everything moved to Skywalker
Sound in Northern California. Tom Johnson, who had done work on
Star Wars: Episode One as well as many other films, was brought
into the mix. The team had use of Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and
they took full advantage-using a joystick to move the sound along
with the wild camera movements.
Requiem is now in theaters,
and Clint and Brian hope to build on the momentum of the film. Brian
is looking forward to scoring films on his own someday. Clint has
finished another soundtrack, for a film called Knock Around Guy.
Aronofsky has signed to do the next Batman movie and, although it's
too early to tell, Clint and Brian are hopeful that the powers that
be at Warner Bros. will want the Requiem/Pi team back onboard.
