Alumni Behind Scenes and Sounds on Summer’s Blockbusters

Berklee alumni are once again playing key music and sound roles on many of this summer’s biggest blockbuster movies.

August 6, 2015

Berklee alumni are once again playing key music and sound roles on many of this summer’s biggest blockbuster movies. Some of those roles are front and center, such as Charlie Puth’s ‘13 writing/singing on the Wiz Khalifa single “See You Again” for the film Furious 7, or Joe Kraemer’s ‘93 scoring Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

Between writing new music and rearranging the series’ famous theme, written by Lalo Schifrin, Kraemer’s work entailed the creation of more than two hours of orchestral action music. Kraemer conducted the scoring orchestra for the new Mission: Impossible film himself at Abbey Road Studios and British Grove Studios. Having also scored another blockbuster starring Tom Cruise in recent years, Jack Reacher, Kraemer says that while a big budget offers advantages such as the ability to use excellent musicians instead of a sample library, the scoring principles he studied at Berklee hold true on every film that he works on.

“As a composer, I’m striving to write music that reflects the emotional core of the film, that helps clarify and tell the story, and that reflects the action happening on screen,” Kraemer says. “Those essential parts of film composing are the same no matter what scale the movie is, from no-budget indie to big-budget Hollywood spectacle.”

Filling Many Roles in the Industry

While contributions like those of Kraemer's may be front and center, many more Berklee alumni—too many to include a comprehensive list here—are working in film music behind the scenes. Curt Sobel ‘78, a veteran in the field with more than three decades of credits to his name, recently served as supervising music editor on Fantastic Four, which involved tracking the film with temporary music and supporting Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass as their music editor.

“I was handed a ‘clean slate’ to begin the discovery process of what is the appropriate music direction for the film,” Sobel says. “For me, this was the most exciting part: coming up with ideas from scratch and working with the editor to figure out how to best support and tell the story musically.”

Sobel is one of many Berklee alumni working in film music editing. Erica Weis ‘00, who was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, also just completed her work as music editor/music supervisor on Spy, the action comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, and Jude Law. Weis’s work included compiling songs to add to the film during post-production and dealing with licensing and budget issues, temping the film—the process of fitting temporary music in until the composer can finish the score—and then working to edit and implement the final score. Throughout each step of the process, Weis says, the key is collaboration.

“Working on a film like Spy is a lengthy endeavor—over a year from start to finish,” Weis says. “It’s important to have a good relationship with the various departments; the picture editors, sound department, and music department all work together often.”

Indeed, Berklee alumni are found in all areas of sound in film, not just in music, as evidenced by Jay Jennings’s ‘92 recent sound design work on Terminator: Genisys. If the cyborgs in the film sound just the way you think cyborgs ought to, that’s due to the work of Jennings and the film’s sound team.

Terminator: Genisys is one of the biggest summer blockbusters of 2015 and needed to be treated as such,” Jennings says. “This meant huge action sequences, huge explosions, huge guns—it required 110 percent of my effort, focus, and creativity every day, even in the face of 16-hour days for weeks at a time, but being able to consistently deliver on time is what’s expected.”

Most Berklee alumni working on films in Hollywood can relate to the long days Jennings describes. Shie Rozow ‘97, who recently completed a stint as music editor for Danny Elfman on Avengers: Age of Ultron, finds that the rewards, such as playing an integral role in bringing a film to life, are worth all the effort. In this case, one of Rozow’s rewards came in the form of a studio visit from his 5-year-old son.

“It went something like this,” Rozow says. “’Is that Iron Man? Is that Hulk? Is that Captain America? Daddy, are you working on a superhero movie?’ I replied, ‘Yes’ and he let out the most excited ‘Cooooool’ I’ve ever heard. At that moment, I was the coolest dad in the world.”

Frank Macchia’s ‘80 extensive music preparation work might not wow a 5-year old, but it is nonetheless critical to the films he works on, which, this summer alone, include Tomorrowland, Inside Out, Jurassic World, Minions, and Pixels. Macchia, a composer, multi-reed musician, and Grammy-nominated arranger, says that the work—a testament to the value of taking one’s Berklee notation assignments seriously if ever there was one—is rewarding on multiple levels.

“It’s very exciting to see what the music concept will be on a film, and also financially rewarding as union film music pays well and also offers residuals based on a profit-sharing plan,” Macchia says.

Building Career Foundations

While Berklee alumni like Macchia have been working on films in Hollywood for more than 20 years, other more recent arrivals are just starting out. Juan Carlos Enriquez ‘13 falls into the latter category but is quickly building a solid reputation, having recently contributed to the film Furious 7 by arranging musical themes created by composer Brian Tyler to fit specific sequences throughout the film.

“Berklee taught me to keep my ‘student spirit’ alive, and to always remember to develop and nurture my personal and professional relationships,” Enriquez says.

Rozow shares similar sentiments, saying, “Berklee has changed and grown quite a bit since I was there, but I think like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put in to it. If you work hard and pay attention, you can come out to the world incredibly well equipped to learn how to do your job and build a career. Berklee does a great job at building a strong foundation for its students.”

Read advice for Berklee students from those working in film music and sound here.