Brian Tyler talks about making the jump from Hollywood features to the biggest game franchise in the world.
November 5, 2011November 6, 2011November 5, 2011
When it comes to Hollywood composers, Brian Tyler is a pretty cool cat. He's played in rock bands with Elton John, Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. And while his name may not ring a bell, the odds are great that you've heard Tyler's music in blockbuster films like Fast Five, The Expendables, Law Abiding Citizen, Rambo and Battle: Los Angeles.
Tyler got his feet wet in videogame music with LEGO Universe, but with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, he's bringing the action to life in the epic campaign mode and adding intensity to the multiplayer combat. Tyler, who is a die hard gamer, talks about making the jump from Hollywood features to the biggest game franchise in the world in this exclusive interview.
What was it like going from Hollywood action movies to the gaming realm with Modern Warfare 3?
For films, which I generally do, the process is basically repeatable. When I'm looking at a movie, it's more or less static. When someone watches a film, it's going to be the same every time they watch it. I can rely on that foundation as I compose and go about it in a really linear way. I deal with one director and we collaborate and talk about what we want for the scene and go from there.
In a game, the way the music works in any particular level is determined by the gamer. The player ends up being the director, which means I have an infinite amount of directors. I really have to keep in mind that my music is going to be used differently depending on how the player plays the game. If they're going in one direction or the other, if they're doing poorly or very well, or if they're going to different areas that require different types of music at different times; these are all scenarios that I have to really write the music around because it's going to change every time the game is played.
During the composing process are you playing the game a lot?
Yes, especially with Modern Warfare 3, where you have the two basic parts of the game. There's the campaign, which is really the story, and then the multiplayer, which is where you go and annihilate your friends online. The campaign is really the focus at first because you want to establish the tone of the piece, so I do play the game. I get to see the levels ahead of time, which is cool for me because I'm a big Call of Duty fan. I get to be the first of my friends to play the game.
But it really gives me a great insight into it. And the fact that I've played these games for as long as first-person shooters have been around. I'm familiar with the tonality difference between something that might be more Army-based like the original Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, where the enemy is a bit more complex and harder to identify. It really helps to get in there and actually get your hands on the game and live in the world for a bit of time, so you can get the vibe of what is happening. These gamers are going to be living in this world for many, many hours.
How do you compose music for the multiplayer, where people are going to be immersed for long periods of time?
There's so much more time, so what you do as a composer is you sit down and figure how the music can be taken apart and used as many levels. For instance, this music is in layers. Depending on where someone is in the game, there are layers that are added on top of it. I record a full orchestra, but there might be a choir and there might be percussion from around the world. Modern Warfare 3 is such a global game, there might be Moroccan or Asian percussion. These layers may play all together or they may play on their own.
You may go into an area and all of a sudden we're going to use all the percussion by itself or just the choir by itself or just the orchestra by itself. What happens is it grows exponentially from all the instruments that are played and there are so many layers to the score. As long as schematically it's still driving home the emotional content of what you want to have in a particular theme, you end up with hours and hours of music.
How have you seen music and shooters evolve since you started playing?
The evolution of first-person shooters has been pretty amazing to see. I started playing first-person shooters way back in the days of Marathon, Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. Then I played Unreal Tournament and Halo and all sorts of games that come along through the years. The one thing that has happened as the technology gets more and more advanced is that the games tend to go toward the realistic. The combat has moved from sci-fi and horror to the realism of Call of Duty, which is packed with battles from World War II.
Modern Warfare is the scariest of all of them in a way because it is so realistic and it's so pertinent to contemporary times. It's no longer a fantasy game, but you're now plopped into a world that you recognize. The tonality of it becomes more serious and makes it more of a sweaty palm type of experience. The way the music acts is basically something that has been done for years of warfare, dating back to drummers and bagpipe players that would get soldiers pumped up as they headed into battle. Music plays on that internal need or language that we all have and it can create emotion in people. My job in Call of Duty is to represent the latest evolution in first-person shooting, which offers the most emotionally realistic and serious elements that gaming has ever really seen.
How have you seen the success of the Call of Duty franchise infiltrate Hollywood?
It has infiltrated Hollywood's awareness, but I find it's more on the younger half typically. Sometimes I'll talk to a producer or a director that isn't familiar with the impact that gaming has on the youth, but also all the way up through the whole range of movie ticket buyers. I'll mention how the last Call of Duty: Black Ops made $350 million in its first 24 hours and it just blows their mind. They can't believe how successful it is. When you talk to producers and directors that grew up with gaming, they instinctively know because there's not a division between entertainment and games for the younger generation. They grew up watching movies, but also there was a game controller in their hand. There's a built-in bias against games in the old guard, but in the younger guard they know better.
In fact, the difference in my approach to something like Battle: Los Angeles and Call of Duty isn't in the size and scope, it's what's going on in the story. I'm not treating one like a videogame and one like a movie. It's all entertainment. One is something you take in passively and one is something that you engage actively and is interactive. I think that the tides are changing, where Hollywood is definitely more aware of the impact that gaming has. Gaming is big business and it's going to continue to grow. In fact, Hollywood and the gaming industry are continually blurring the lines between themselves every day even more.
Even Battle: Los Angeles had a video game tie-in from Konami, and then the Blu-ray had a playable demo of Resistance 3.
Exactly. Now if you are making action films, pretty much you are going to have a video game tie- in. Sometimes it's the other way around; you'll have a movie tie into your game. Gaming is certainly having a massive popular culture impact. That is undeniable.
Tyler got his feet wet in videogame music with LEGO Universe, but with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, he's bringing the action to life in the epic campaign mode and adding intensity to the multiplayer combat. Tyler, who is a die hard gamer, talks about making the jump from Hollywood features to the biggest game franchise in the world in this exclusive interview.
What was it like going from Hollywood action movies to the gaming realm with Modern Warfare 3?
For films, which I generally do, the process is basically repeatable. When I'm looking at a movie, it's more or less static. When someone watches a film, it's going to be the same every time they watch it. I can rely on that foundation as I compose and go about it in a really linear way. I deal with one director and we collaborate and talk about what we want for the scene and go from there.
In a game, the way the music works in any particular level is determined by the gamer. The player ends up being the director, which means I have an infinite amount of directors. I really have to keep in mind that my music is going to be used differently depending on how the player plays the game. If they're going in one direction or the other, if they're doing poorly or very well, or if they're going to different areas that require different types of music at different times; these are all scenarios that I have to really write the music around because it's going to change every time the game is played.
During the composing process are you playing the game a lot?
Yes, especially with Modern Warfare 3, where you have the two basic parts of the game. There's the campaign, which is really the story, and then the multiplayer, which is where you go and annihilate your friends online. The campaign is really the focus at first because you want to establish the tone of the piece, so I do play the game. I get to see the levels ahead of time, which is cool for me because I'm a big Call of Duty fan. I get to be the first of my friends to play the game.
But it really gives me a great insight into it. And the fact that I've played these games for as long as first-person shooters have been around. I'm familiar with the tonality difference between something that might be more Army-based like the original Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, where the enemy is a bit more complex and harder to identify. It really helps to get in there and actually get your hands on the game and live in the world for a bit of time, so you can get the vibe of what is happening. These gamers are going to be living in this world for many, many hours.
How do you compose music for the multiplayer, where people are going to be immersed for long periods of time?
There's so much more time, so what you do as a composer is you sit down and figure how the music can be taken apart and used as many levels. For instance, this music is in layers. Depending on where someone is in the game, there are layers that are added on top of it. I record a full orchestra, but there might be a choir and there might be percussion from around the world. Modern Warfare 3 is such a global game, there might be Moroccan or Asian percussion. These layers may play all together or they may play on their own.
You may go into an area and all of a sudden we're going to use all the percussion by itself or just the choir by itself or just the orchestra by itself. What happens is it grows exponentially from all the instruments that are played and there are so many layers to the score. As long as schematically it's still driving home the emotional content of what you want to have in a particular theme, you end up with hours and hours of music.
How have you seen music and shooters evolve since you started playing?
The evolution of first-person shooters has been pretty amazing to see. I started playing first-person shooters way back in the days of Marathon, Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. Then I played Unreal Tournament and Halo and all sorts of games that come along through the years. The one thing that has happened as the technology gets more and more advanced is that the games tend to go toward the realistic. The combat has moved from sci-fi and horror to the realism of Call of Duty, which is packed with battles from World War II.
Modern Warfare is the scariest of all of them in a way because it is so realistic and it's so pertinent to contemporary times. It's no longer a fantasy game, but you're now plopped into a world that you recognize. The tonality of it becomes more serious and makes it more of a sweaty palm type of experience. The way the music acts is basically something that has been done for years of warfare, dating back to drummers and bagpipe players that would get soldiers pumped up as they headed into battle. Music plays on that internal need or language that we all have and it can create emotion in people. My job in Call of Duty is to represent the latest evolution in first-person shooting, which offers the most emotionally realistic and serious elements that gaming has ever really seen.
How have you seen the success of the Call of Duty franchise infiltrate Hollywood?
It has infiltrated Hollywood's awareness, but I find it's more on the younger half typically. Sometimes I'll talk to a producer or a director that isn't familiar with the impact that gaming has on the youth, but also all the way up through the whole range of movie ticket buyers. I'll mention how the last Call of Duty: Black Ops made $350 million in its first 24 hours and it just blows their mind. They can't believe how successful it is. When you talk to producers and directors that grew up with gaming, they instinctively know because there's not a division between entertainment and games for the younger generation. They grew up watching movies, but also there was a game controller in their hand. There's a built-in bias against games in the old guard, but in the younger guard they know better.
In fact, the difference in my approach to something like Battle: Los Angeles and Call of Duty isn't in the size and scope, it's what's going on in the story. I'm not treating one like a videogame and one like a movie. It's all entertainment. One is something you take in passively and one is something that you engage actively and is interactive. I think that the tides are changing, where Hollywood is definitely more aware of the impact that gaming has. Gaming is big business and it's going to continue to grow. In fact, Hollywood and the gaming industry are continually blurring the lines between themselves every day even more.
Even Battle: Los Angeles had a video game tie-in from Konami, and then the Blu-ray had a playable demo of Resistance 3.
Exactly. Now if you are making action films, pretty much you are going to have a video game tie- in. Sometimes it's the other way around; you'll have a movie tie into your game. Gaming is certainly having a massive popular culture impact. That is undeniable.
No comments:
Post a Comment