When working on various variosities, I like turning on some music to be inspired to. Typically I’ll reach for (in a digital sense) classical compositions and film scores.

Especially film scores.

And of those especial film scores, three names invariably pop up: John Williams, James Horner, and Jerry Goldsmith. Or the 3J’s as I like to refer to them as. (I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier post. Oh well, nothing like leftovers!) But since I named this post Jerry Goldsmith, I’m forced to only talk about him on this occasion.

Many years ago, but not long before Jerry passed away, I caught a snippet of an interview in which he talked about how he became a composer of film scores. I only caught, maybe, a few minutes, but it answered so many questions and completed a ring of thoughts I had about his music. As wonderful as this bit of treasure was to be found, I never sought out the rest of the interview. And I’m not sure why.

Anyway, to avoid lingering on that question, jump forward at least five years to, oh… about yesterday when I stumbled upon this interview via TubeRadio! It’s not the same interview as the one I saw before, but it’s so much better. There’s a lot to learn in this video concerning, music, composing, the creation process of any art, overcoming fear, radio, TV,  films, film scores, filmmaking, storytelling, and beyond. Perhaps the best part, though, is this interview is completely unedited. Everything that the camera recorded is apparently here, even when Jerry informs everyone he is taking a bathroom break.

So if you’re into any kind of artistic endeavor, especially film and music of course, then pull up a couch for this two hour long journey through the mind of a creative genius. Yes, it is almost two hours long (RT 1:53:37) of absolutely amazing awesomeness! Thanks to the unbelievable utility of the internet, what was once a rare opportunity is now accessible to the world! In fact, the interview was recorded in 2002 and has been on YouTube for over a year. How did I not find this earlier?!

Just to add some more Jerry Goldsmith to this Jerry Goldsmith, here are a couple more links to some other interesting videos of… Ok, so you guessed it. But you’ll have to figure out how to upload your consciousness into the internet to retrieve the prize.

One more quick note, and I’m outta here. Just in case anyone doesn’t understand the relationship between music and visual narrative (or any narrative for that matter) I’ll sum it up as this.

Composing music and making a film are exactly the same. (They just use different tools!)