An Interview with Ron Proulx
What do you bring to Music Supervision that’s unique?
Well, first of all, I love music more than anything else in the world. I think I’m known as a straight shooter with the long view of a relationship. I always say, “this is our first deal and this sets the stage for everything else”. I want a win-win for everyone involved. Respect is key in everything.
Likewise, when dealing with composers or artists, I can speak the musical vernacular. While I’m by no means accomplished as a composer, I have scored some small things in my life, and I’m up on the latest technological and sonic developments, which their world is constantly looking to for inspiration. If someone needs to talk about the newest synth then I'm happy to listen or participate. That’s just one of those adolescent addictions you can never lose!
Also, my producing experience in the recording studio is a natural to bring to music editing and temp scoring a film. Producing records helps you understand pretty quick that it’s important for you to connect with a listener.
It’s not lost on me that a film with a small music budget shouldn’t be looking for an expensive orchestral composer. They could be looking at young, less credited talent and I think I can recognize the right fit for each unique creative situation.
Also, I like the idea of including a great artist in a film, whether its through a theme or a song, and it can add so much to the final art form. Sometimes people simply don’t realize what kinds of ideas can be brought to the table, and I find that an incredible buzz.
What’s it like putting songs in films?
We live in a cool world with sophisticated viewers. We expect reality from our film and television. If something reeks of fake we turn off. Scorcese’s Casino is the finest example of shameless use of music to define reality. Endless songs play under dialogue and its one of the great films of all time. It sounds real and we love being a voyeur into its world. Having even a moment of that in a film is one of the greatest triumphs for a music supervisor I think. Helping to create a reality is the ultimate in this.
So, while sometimes this can be the most fun, at other times its the most heartbreaking. There’s nothing worse than having to find a piece of music to play under dialogue and the director can’t hack hearing lyrics underneath. All the best Hollywood films know exactly how to manipulate this in a mix, but far too often I hear canned mush in a scene which screams “hey, this is a movie and that’s why this isn’t a real song!” at the audience. I call this “shades of gray” as in such and such song lacks any distinct personality so it’s “gray” enough.
Further, it can be fulfilling to find a young band and help give a leg up to the artist’s career in an otherwise lean time for them. I wish more producers could turn on to this as a two way street. The featuring of a great track in a film could be the start of a relationship between filmmaker and musical artist. They’re both going to be sharpening their craft for years to come and they could be more supportive of each other. That’s something I like to promote; the growth of relationships industry to industry.
Where is music in film going?
Its hard not to notice the surge of “film-ic” music in pop culture. It’s starting to have an incredible impact on scoring. Meanwhile, there’s nothing like a big orchestral score to say “this is important” and as viewers we feel that deeply. Then we have the growing genre of film which treats music, sound effects, and foley, as one and the same. We call that sound design, and with the leaps in technology we experience every year its all becoming one and the same. We reached the day fully when we treated a sample of a lion roar by slowing it down, sending it through some kind of digital filter, and called it music. Really, its all sound now. Having said that, our souls still crave a great melody, so I think its now a matter of balancing this incredible new sound source, which is all things digital and sampling, with our deepest desires to hear melody. Hey, melodic car crashes are going to be big!
How did you come to start representing composers?
First of all, it’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing with my time. I used to manage pop acts for a time, and I got tired of being a glorified babysitter really fast. So, with that in mind it was going to take a major event to make me interested in representing anything or anybody besides myself.
Several years ago I worked for a company that represented composers and I was supposed to deal with that, but I really didn’t see much spark in the roster which made it difficult at best to be committed.
It really is a matter of having heard several really talented young composers who nobody really knew about, at least on a large level, and thinking to myself that if I recognize this then why doesn't someone else? And it became an issue of wanting to bring these talents to the attention of the film making community.
Frankly, one of my biggest beefs about music in film is the total lack of “cool” or “unusual” in it. We can hear it in the music of the Mark Snow’s or Danny Elfman’s, and I know talents like that right here in Canada, so it makes sense to want to promote the talents of talented people. I think I can recognize the “spark” which I find so important in great art.
So,I do represent a small handful of film composers, though more on a "big picture" management level.
Is there a conflict in being a Music Supervisor and representing composers?
While it would be easy to screw that up, and I think I’ve witnessed it in others, here’s my view of this; Given that I can be employed several times by a filmmaker over the course of their career, does it make any sense that I should push a composer I represent down a producers throat and have them disrespect me for that and risk losing an entire future relationship over this one show? I’d have to be an idiot to allow that to happen! So, no, there’s no conflict.
What would you like to be doing in a few years?
I’m getting really interested in the financing and producing aspects of filmmaking. I’d love to work on a music oriented film from the earliest stages. To put together a film with the musical sensibility of its time like The Rose, Fame, or Cabaret, would be very cool.
Anything Else?
Just that good music is good music, regardless of its style. Trends come and go, but great music will always be great!
And now that we've finally begun cruising the 21st Century, music is going to get much more diverse than we've ever dreamed. As we're now seeing, hybrids hae become much more common.