Composer Nima Fakhrara Talks Working with Wes Craven
The last film that was worked on by the great Wes Craven was The Girl in the Photographs (review), on which he served as an executive producer. The composer of the film, Nima Fakhrara, kindly choose to talk with us about what it like to work with the late horror legend in addition to his own successful career.
Dread Central: How do you approach the process of scoring a film? Do you read the script and try to imagine what kind of score would be most appropriate for each scene, or do you have another working process?
Nima Fakhrara: Well, every project is a bit different. I usually like getting involved as early as possible. However, due to schedules and other factors, my process has to be adaptable. One of the things I like doing for every project is to write a long suite of ideas and explore colors and textures. This turn out to be a 30- to 40-minute piece of music based on the story, characters, locations, and moods. After watching the film, I like sitting with it and trying to complement the storytelling perspective. I like to create the correct atmosphere and mood by utilizing what the filmmaker and myself agree is the right approach.
DC: How did you find the process of working with Wes and director Nick Simon? Did you and them map out exactly how you wanted the film’s score to sound? Was it a gradual, step-by-step process?
NF: I have been very lucky to be able to work with Nick on many projects. Our process is to start talking about the music very early. For The Girl in the Photographs, the discussion of music started during his writing process of the script. We knew we wanted to do a throwback type of score but with a modern twist and approach. We also wanted to create thematic ideas for all the characters. After many different experiments we ended up with two main themes, one for Colleen and one for Tom and Jerry. For Colleen I wrote a lullaby that has a bit of unsettled feeling to it. And for Tom and Jerry I wrote a variation of a passacaglia. A passacaglia is a piece of music that starts with a motif and builds on that motif gradually. I utilized a cello quartet and had the musicians in their extreme registers so I can capture a constant unsettled feeling.
DC: What made Wes different from other filmmakers?
NF: Well, Wes brings an entirely different type of filmmaking to the table. He has franchises that he has created and has also changed the horror/thriller genre in many different ways. Being a fan of his work, it was an absolute pleasure to be involved with this project and be able to collaborate with him in a very small way and for unfortunately for a very short time.
DC: You also composed the score for the upcoming Japanese zombie film I Am a Hero based on the bestselling manga series. How did you find that?ᐧ
NF: Being a fan of the manga, it was a pleasure to be a part of it. I have scored many Japanese projects so this came to me via connections to the past films and shows. It was a fun project to score as the characters were very familiar to me. Even before working on the film as I was reading the manga, I was already creating thematic ideas and thinking about textures and colors in hopes if a movie would have been made I wanted to be involved with it. When I heard that a movie was being made, I absolutely wanted to be a part of it.
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