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00:03We're kicking off with Netflix's Ray Gunn, so please help me welcome writer, director, and producer Brad Bird, and composer
00:10Michael Giacchino.
00:23Before we start, here's a clip from the film.
00:28You know, photos are like this business.
00:33It's all about the light and the dark and all the lovely shades of gray in between.
00:44What are you looking for, Ray?
00:47I don't know.
00:50Truth?
00:51How sad is that?
00:55Welcome to the future.
01:01Most flameouts, they lead the city, but not you.
01:11Mr. Gunn, I presume?
01:14So, uh, what can I do for you?
01:19Venus Nova is a big star.
01:21She's emotional.
01:23Volley.
01:24She does things.
01:25What kind of things do you mean?
01:26How about murder?
01:29I didn't do it!
01:31Keep her out of trouble, and you'll be a very rich man.
01:34Get out!
01:36Get out!
01:37You're dead to me, understand?
01:39We should ask for more money.
01:42I keep thinking there are no nice surprises anymore.
01:46And then you show up.
01:50Be careful, Ray.
01:54We know how the world works.
01:56Nobody's pure.
01:57We all get played.
02:00Tell me who hired you, or I throw you out the window.
02:05Classic.
02:07This is business.
02:11It's hard being the only honest players in a crooked game.
02:14Ray!
02:15Jump!
02:17Did you go and do the right thing again?
02:24Mr. Gunn, will you be making a statement?
02:26Stay tuned.
02:30I like you.
02:32Gunn.
02:32You're a real throwback.
02:41Right, I know getting here with Ray Gunn has been somewhat kind of a journey for you.
02:46It's been a long journey.
02:48Yeah.
02:48A long gestating project.
02:50I don't know if you could speak a little bit about how we got here and why it's taken so
02:55long.
02:56Well, I think the easiest mistake to make is to think that we were working on it for 35 years,
03:02which makes us really idiotic.
03:05And so it was not that.
03:08We tried to get made a long time ago, and for whatever reason, the financing didn't follow us.
03:15And so we had to set it down, and basically it went into a file or whatever, and dust gathered,
03:24and we had to move on with our lives.
03:26And I made Iron Giant, and we worked on the Incredibles and Ratatouille, and time went by, and the opportunity
03:36arose to pull it out of the deep freeze.
03:40And I always believed in it, and eventually reality agreed with me.
03:50Everybody will see from the clip we just showed, this is a film set in an idea of the future.
03:55There's loads of great tech.
03:57There's flying cars, which is all really fun.
04:00But it's not like some sort of unfettered vision of technological advancements.
04:05You have concerns or preoccupations about this.
04:11Yeah, I think that it seems like the only way to look at the future these days is as dystopia.
04:19And that's fine.
04:20I love a lot of movies that take that thing.
04:23But there are other ways to look at the future, too.
04:27And you can, what interested me was having utopia, but still showing the characters are desperate, they're still lying, they're
04:36still murder, you know, all those things are there.
04:38But it's a little more interesting if you set it in an idealized setting.
04:43So buildings are over a mile high, and, you know, aliens and humans are coexisting, and that kind of thing
04:53became very interesting to me.
04:55There's a lot of music in this film.
04:57Obviously, one of the protagonists, one of the protagonists is a pop star.
05:02Michael, how involved were you in sort of shaping that musical aspect of the film, along with obviously composing the
05:08score?
05:09Well, Kimbra, who wrote the songs for the film, did an incredible job.
05:12And she certainly needs no help from me to do that, what she does best.
05:17I handled all of the score stuff.
05:19And there was a time when we thought, oh, maybe we'll work together and do this.
05:23But, like I said, she didn't need me.
05:25She's so good at what she does.
05:26She writes incredible music.
05:28And so she came on and delivered a few songs for Venus, which are just incredible.
05:34So, and then my part was just creating the world beyond that, you know, filling in everything else and creating
05:40textures and themes and character stuff and just making sure the movie fit the glove it needed to fit.
05:47But that's interesting because the film, obviously, it's like it's a 1940s detective vibe, but obviously it's futuristic.
05:54And all the music does sound like it's classical, but futuristic.
05:58How do you, how does that work?
05:59Well, it's where we, we used a lot of really old recording techniques to record it.
06:04We got, like, microphones from the 1920s and 30s that we used, you know, here at Abbey Road, we did
06:12that.
06:12And it was a, and we had an 80-piece orchestra.
06:14So it's really an organic score, but there are a few things layered in there.
06:20There's weird elements.
06:21Yeah, weird, like, vintage synthesizers that I use.
06:24There's theremin.
06:25But that's not the focus of it.
06:27That's just sort of like decoration on it, you know, because I feel like, you know, the real emotional thing
06:33that you need, you need.
06:35You can't just, you know, get excited about.
06:37The storytelling part.
06:38Yeah, see, it's got to fit the story.
06:40It's got to do all of those things.
06:41So for me, I'm always wondering, what do the characters need?
06:44What are they feeling?
06:45What are they, what are they thinking?
06:46That's where I want to be.
06:47And then after I figure all of that out, I can go, oh, let's add some vintage synths.
06:51Let's do this.
06:52Let's do that.
06:52But it's, it's hopefully never something that totally overtakes it.
06:56But I was looking at your films this year, and I think you, I counted like five projects that you
07:01scored this year.
07:02Six now.
07:02Six, yeah.
07:03How do you fit it all in?
07:05He's scoring one right now, and he's going to finish in like three minutes.
07:09Yes, I'm doing it right.
07:10I don't know why I do.
07:11I don't know.
07:12It's, it's, it's, yes, it's been very busy.
07:15And he always complains, because by the time we get to work together again, he's always like, you've done 10
07:20movies since I last saw you.
07:21And I've only got this one.
07:23Yeah, I feel really like a slacker.
07:25Yeah, no, but we know that's not true.
07:28But yeah, it's, it's, it's just staying organized.
07:31I do everything myself.
07:32I don't have like a big team of people that does it.
07:35And when I say yes to something, I say yes, because I'm really psyched about it.
07:39I'm interested.
07:40I'm, it's, it'll force me to be creative.
07:43You have a hat wrangler.
07:43What's that?
07:44You have a hat wrangler.
07:45Yes, I have a, I have a hat wrangler.
07:47Yes, that's the only extra person on the team handles all my hats.
07:52Brad, it's really like sort of uncommon for an actor to be so like renowned for their voice work.
07:58But the actors who work with you often are remembered for doing their voice work.
08:02Like I think about like, I mean, they're really good actors.
08:06And, and, you know, I think Peter O'Toole was known for other things, you know, seem to remember some desert
08:13film, you know?
08:14Yeah.
08:15But no, I, I love good vocal performances.
08:22It's, it is not restricted to stars.
08:24We sometimes find voices in odd places and they're perfect.
08:29Um, the, uh, guy that plays the gun shop owner in Ray is my son, Nick's basketball coach.
08:37So he'd never done anything and was like, you know, what you want me to do what, you know?
08:43And it's like, uh, that's valid.
08:45But also to get a chance to work with, uh, artists like Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell and Tom Waits
08:52is a real pleasure.
08:53I'm a huge fan of these people's work and, um, it's a blast to get to work with them.
09:00And, um, there's a freedom to animation in terms of they don't have to hit marks.
09:05They don't have to, they can have partied the night before and as long as you don't hear it in
09:10their voice, you won't know it.
09:11Um, so we can go anywhere in the world and record.
09:15Um, but, uh, if you get good voices, it inspires animators and that's the name of the game.
09:21They, what takes an artist, you know, 10 seconds to say it may take an animator two months to animate.
09:28And, um, it has to be interesting.
09:31It has to be interesting to an animator to hear over and over again and find new levels.
09:36So I'm really happy with the voice cast in this movie.
09:40You mentioned Scarlett Johansson.
09:42She plays the character who is a performer, a pop star.
09:46Yeah, Venus Nova.
09:46And she, she sings, you know, Scarlett Johansson.
09:49She sings, yeah.
09:50And it's her, you know, it's Scarlett.
09:52So that was just an added bonus.
09:54You know, I, I mainly was thinking of her as, um, doing the, the acting performance, but,
10:03you know, she can sing really well.
10:05And that made it really rare because it's the same person doing the whole part.
10:11And, um, she's really good.
10:13She's amazing.
10:14Yeah.
10:15And one thing that really stands out about this film, like most of your, all your films
10:19and people can see it from the great hat that he's wearing, the design is very, well, you
10:23have a hat.
10:24I have a hat now.
10:25Um, uh, the design is really unique and consistent, even though, you know, it changes from scene
10:32and place, but it's all very specific.
10:35How do you grow about sort of building that and keeping it consistent?
10:39Well, a lot of my favorite films, um, age well.
10:43They don't, they're not specific for that moment in time.
10:47And while I've enjoyed films that were specific to the time and now they feel dated, all of
10:53my favorite films don't tend to age.
10:56You know, um, we were in Vermont this summer and there are not a lot of movie theaters in
11:01Vermont and we stumbled into an old theater that was playing old summer movies and it
11:07was Jaws and we just went in, we just walked in off the street and, you know, this is a
11:13film that's 50 years old, something like that, 60, I don't know.
11:17But, uh, the audience was absolutely wrapped and, um, you know, it, it looked like it was
11:25in, from the seventies, but the film looked modern.
11:27If it came out tomorrow, it would still be a hit.
11:31Um, it doesn't feel old.
11:33The characters feel brand new still.
11:36And, um, that's, you know, that's the golden thing that you reach for is a film that will
11:41stick around and, and be, you know, relevant a hundred years from now.
11:46Cause it's about things that are eternal, like greed or, uh, fear of, uh, death or,
11:53you know, I mean all this sort of top, you know, emotions that you feel as, as a living
11:59being on the planet.
12:00So I hope that, you know, we can work on things that age really well.
12:06And with a lot of your films, you have sort of sneaky cameos in them and I don't want to
12:11give any spoilers if people haven't seen the film, but do you feature in this one anywhere?
12:16Uh, me personally?
12:18Oh, I was going to say that the choreographer in the movie is, is, uh, is an actual choreographer
12:25that is really good.
12:26Justin Peck, um, who, uh, did the choreography for Spielberg's version of, uh, West Side Story.
12:32So he plays the choreographer, but that's not what you're talking about.
12:36Uh, I have a couple of characters.
12:38Yeah, yeah.
12:39All right.
12:41Uh, yeah, I have a couple of characters in there.
12:43I'm cheap and available.
12:47Well, we're just running out of time, so thanks so much.
12:50And can you please thank Brad and Michael?
12:53Thanks.