Just Like Heaven - Sony Studios sessions

It's Sunday morning, the day after finishing the orchestra sessions for Just Like Heaven. After all the intensity and adrenaline of the last 5 days suddenly I have a calm and relaxed day, the sun is shining and I have time to notice. I feel like doing nothing...slowly. Each day this week I awoke before the alarm went off, did a little yoga, and dashed off to Culver City to arrive at the studio amongst the gathering flow of violinists and cellists, the bass players already with their coffee chatting in the alley, Gayle the harpist inside tuning up. In the control room Nick, Alice, Tony and Vini would be quietly pottering about, Steve Kempster calmly at the console, and I'd hasten through, trying to be calm but really full of the buzz of eagerness and apprehension, and I'd try to see if I could find my wand and work out what music to start with.

The sessions went really well, and the orchestra sounded great; really clear and expressive, and with the glorious large scale atmosphere of that room. The film is rather magical anyway, and I enjoyed spending time nuancing the orchestral voices, the weaving of parts, during the composing phase, and then hearing how that all came through during the sessions. The players are warm and friendly and witty, and ever since I began conducting a few years ago I have enjoyed the jibing cameraderie that I get a glimpse of at these dates.

But it had been 6 months since I last conducted, and it was a suprise to me how rusty I was. There's a lot to concentrate on when conducting and trying to hear and understand how the orchestral performance is impacting the picture, all the while keeping time and not losing my place in the score. I still feel like a novice at it, but somehow it all works, and I got better through the week. The thing I found hardest is concentrating after lunch; there I am waving my baton oblivious to what bar it is or if the flutes are loud enough, fighting the desire to nap. A big help when uncertain is to listen back to the demo, as it reminds me of my intentions - how I had meant to music to play against the pictures.

On the last day I started giving the downbeat to a music cue, and suddenly the orchestra launches into a huge and sweeping version of Happy Birthday - a suprise to me, and to Sid Page, the concertmaster violinist whose birthday it was. It was epic, and a major feat to get 80 musicians to play without letting the concertmaster know what was about to happen.

Now the recording is done I have a week mixing the score in a small studio. From the large scale and excitement of 80-90 players to the quiet painstaking detail of the mixing sessions with just 4 of us.