FEATURE

Lukas Kendall

by Eric Aron


Kendall Lucas conceived and
publishes Film Score Monthly.
The magazine tries to be as comprehensive as it can for lovers
of movie music.
     
 

MORE THAN FILM SCORE FRIENDLY

Publishers note:
Last November at the North Hampton Film Festival's Saturday FilmMaking Forum, Lukas Kendall, the publisher of Film Score Monthly, moderated a panel titled: Musical Composition & Scoring, which included Mason Daring and Theodore Shapiro along with producer/composer Teese Gohl, music editor Eric Reasoner, and music supervisor Jay Sweet. Imagine vowed then to follow up with Lucas, who more than shares our love for film music. Here's that piece now. Eric Aron prepared and conducted the interview.

 
     
Movies have always existed with music. According to John Burlingame, "Music and movies have been inseparable since the first flickering images across a room in Paris in 1895." (SOUND & VISION, INTRODUCTION) Even during the silent era, there would often be live musical accompaniment, usually piano. Since those days, soundtracks have become a big business, with a film rarely released without a commercially produced score. Film Score Monthly is a magazine devoted exclusively to film music. Started ten years ago as a small newsletter, the magazine was the brainchild of Lukas Kendall. Kendall, who grew up in Martha's Vineyard, was a big fan of sci-fi movies and TV shows. Wanting to start a fan club of his own with a new angle, Lukas set his sights on the music that accompanied each production. Recently, I had a chance to speak with the publisher of Film Score Monthly. Lukas briefly discussed his magazine and the state of film music both past and present.

EA: What background did you have to prepare you for writing FSM?

LK: I didn't go to school to learn anything about publishing or journalism. I picked it up as I went and learned gradually over several years. I did study music at Amherst College to learn more about the subject matter, but as far as how I learned the business of running a small magazine, I went to the "Undergrad School of Hard Knocks."

EA: Tell me about the goals of the magazine. I know it wishes to inform the reader about particular composers, future assignments, and reviews about what readers should purchase as consumers. Is there anything else?

LK: I'd say the magazine tries to be as comprehensive as it can for lovers of movie music. Many features are specific in the information they present: news of upcoming soundtrack reviews. But others seek to entertain and be interesting to people who care about this art form.

EA: How did you expand your magazine and circulation?

LK: It started with just 10 copies of a single-page newsletter. By the time I finished college it was around 2,500 copies. Today we print around 10,000 copies. It grew with simple persistence and word of mouth, slowly letting me increase the scope of the distribution.

EA: A little about the process of making film music a reality. How are scoring assignments determined? How does a composer decide what mood and instruments will be used for a score?

LK: A composer is hired for a movie according to all sorts of factors, from availability, experience and cost to purely creative concerns. Ideally the composer should determine the mood and instruments for the movie based on his experience and intuition as an artist and a craftsman - what the story is about, what its tone and presentation and emotions are. More practically, he consults with the director and filmmakers (editor, producer, sometimes even the lead actor - whoever has the power on the project) to carry out their wishes for the above.

I've interviewed many composers and they all have different approaches to their craft. The whole process can take months or only a couple of weeks.

EA: How is it determined what will be part of an album release and what will be left out?

LK: The resulting soundtrack album can be assembled by all sorts of different people, from the composer, to the record company executives, to a music editor. Oftentimes, the budget, legal clearances, and the time limits of a compact disc will prevent all of the music from being included on the CD.

EA: What do you think makes a "good" score? Does it mean that the score should be able to stand on its own as a listening experience?

LK: Not necessarily. I look for how well the music works with the picture; how original and interesting it is; and then after that, how well it stands alone as a listening experience.

EA: Why do you think commercially released film scores have such a narrow appeal in the music industry?

LK: I think there are only so many people who like to listen to instrumental music in general, of which instrumental film music is an even smaller subset. Dramatic film music is supposed to be to an extent, subliminal and not noticed, so it takes a special type of movie and music fan to develop an appreciation and interest in it.

EA: You have been producing CDs in addition to releasing your magazine. Define what constitutes the golden age versus the silver age.

LK: We use the terms "golden age" and "silver age" to distinguish our CD releases of older film scores which we offer through our magazine. Golden Age is roughly 1930s through 1950s, and silver age is the 1960s and 1970s. The terms are derived from comic book and other collecting and are applied to film music to distinguish the major generations of composers and their styles.

Through Film Score Monthly we have been making available classic film scores from the past which were never released. Examples include ALL ABOUT EVE, THE POSIEDEN ADVENDURE, THE OMEGA MAN and dozens more. It is very exciting for us to get to resurrect these works and we are able to pay for them by selling them as limited editions directly to our readers. People should check out www.filmscoremonthly.com for more details.

EA: Where do you see the direction of film scores going today and in the future?

LK: I think film music in the future will continue to be much as they are today: a variety of genres of music applied in different ways, depending on the picture. I think the styles will get more and more sliced and diced with electronics for the ambitious pictures, but will also remain traditional and symphonic for those types of movies.

EA: Finally, to put you on the spot, with all the scores you've heard, what are your personal favorites and why?

EA: I answer this question by naming my favorite composers and some of their best works: Ennio Morricone (THE MISSION, spaghetti westerns), John Barry (James Bond films, DANCES WITH WOLVES), John Williams (STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, JAWS), Jerry Goldsmith (STAR TREK, PLANET OF THE APES), Bernard Herrmann (PSYCHO, TAXI DRIVER). Also Elmer Bernstein (THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN), Lalo Schifrin (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE), Maurice Jarre (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA), Miklos Rozsa (BEN-HUR), Jerry Fielding (THE WILD BUNCH), Georges Delerue (JULES AND JIM) - and many more!

For more information about this magazine and music professional visit: www.filmscoremonthly.com.

Writer Eric Aron has written for Imagine Magazine in addition to New England film.com. He received his BA in history at Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has written articles ranging from the history of Non-Fiction film in New England to Boston's CyberFestival '99. Eric also holds a Master's Degree in public history from Northeastern, in Boston.