Cinefantastique
October/November 2003
Techno Thriller
Alias composer Michael Giacchino's driving beats are one of the show's key creative components.
by Edward Gross
Deeming himself a “soundtrack fanatic,” series creator J.J. Abrams feels that the music of Alias is as important, if not more so, than any other element. “One of my only absolutely unquestionably brilliant strokes was hiring [composer] Michael Giacchino,” he emphasizes. “Michael manages, week after week, to bring a sense of adventure and humor and location and drama to the show. When you watch scenes before and after his music has been put against picture, you see what he does.
Alias composer Michael Giacchino’s driving beats are one of the show’s key creative components.
“In terms of music, we spot the show, go through episodes, pick out places where the music should be, I talk through what I think should be there. He so gets it — and quickly —and the music he writes is so good that it’s invisible, becoming just a part of the show. In truth, a lot of what I’m saying applies to the different departments. These are all people who manage to elevate the show every week.
“Michael is also someone who has brought a good creative voice to the editing room. When we go over to spot an episode, there will be times when he’ll comment on something that we’re working on, noting, ‘That scene should end earlier or shouldn’t be there at all.’ He’s one of those people who, even if he wasn’t doing what he does, I’d want around because he’s smart, an optimist, he’s funny, and he also happens to write some of the most kick-ass music on television.”
Giacchino got his start scoring video games such as Medal of Honor and The Lost World for Dreamworks’ game division, and managed to carve out an impressive career for himself.
“Unbeknownst to me,” he says, “one of the producers of Alias was a game nut named Jesse Alexander. He went to J.J. with the soundtrack discs of the games I’d worked on and got him to listen to them. J.J. liked them, and I got this e-mail one night that said, ‘Hi, my name is J.J. Abrams and I wrote Armageddon, Regarding Henry and Forever Young, and I created Felicity. I want to know if you want to work with me.’
I looked at it as a joke. But, sure enough, I called the next day, and he invited me down to their production offices.”
Giacchino reports that the meeting was made more enjoyable by occasional interruptions by Jennifer Garner, who was coming in to model a variety of outfits for Abrams.
“While we were talking,” Giacchino laughs, “J.J. was approving costumes, because he always does 10 things at once — and he can actually do it. He’s not one of those people who’s scattered. It’s an amazing juggling act. So we had a great meeting, we talked, I went away and they were just starting the next day shooting the pilot.
I figured, ‘Oh, that’ll probably never happen, though it would be nice.’ But a few months later, he sends me the pilot, which I thought was great. I said, ‘I definitely want to work on this.’
I remember thinking at the time, ‘J.J.’s either really smart and sees something that I don’t, or really stupid for letting me do this.’”
Assuming the former, it’s important to note that one thing Giacchino has not done is create a conventional score for Alias, choosing instead to elevate the form by making the music as integral a part of the show as any other element. “We’re scoring the episodes like movies and not television shows,” he says. “Over the years, television scoring has turned into its own kind of thing. Television scores have been produced differently than film scores, whereas they used to be produced the same way. It used to be very similar, but now there are a lot of shows just filled with rhythm beds and string pads.
“We really wanted to score it like a movie, which is why we fought for a live orchestra for the show. We also track each scene and make sure we hit all the moments, instead of just putting a generic rhythm background that plays for four minutes. If that was the case, it would be easy to score the show, but we really want it to be like a film. Every week you’re getting a little movie. They’re shot that way, they’re edited that way, and they definitely have to be scored that way or something is going to be wrong.”
“If the music is doing the right thing, it should be taking the viewer by the hand and saying, ‘This is what I want you to pay attention to,’ and hopefully you won’t feel it’s doing that. It just kind of happens. It’s a hard thing. That’s why TV scores play a much different role than film scores. A lot of shows use songs or just real simple things to get in and out of a scene. Some of it is economic. Let’s face it, it’s cheaper to use a synthesizer. What I was happiest about is that they knew what was going to work for this show and didn’t shy away from it. It would have been very easy to do that, especially in television. I’ve got to hand it to them for going for it — and Disney for doing it.”
Beyond scoring Alias, Giacchino has also come up with individual themes for the show’s various characters, though some, he points out, are more motifs than actual thematic material.
“What I’ve found is that the first cut of the show has all this extra time in it for you to develop themes and other material,” he notes. “But as they cut it down and get it ready for the network, all of that stuff that you would have developed anything musically for is gone, because they’ve got to make everything fit, and the story is so intertwined and complex. For that reason, it’s usually better to work on a motif level than it is on a full thematic level. But everyone does have their own themes. Sydney has it, Jack has it, and Sloane has it. Sometimes it’s more of a sound than a theme for different characters, but then there are several themes for Sydney, depending on what she’s doing.
“There are also several themes for good guys doing their thing. If you watch the show, you can kind of pick up these things little by little. Some of them have developed over time as characters have developed. Certain characters are now coming to light. The more people become involved in the story line, the more I have a chance to do something for them and then use it on a regular basis. That’s another thing that makes it, week to week, a direction to go in, so when I look at my schedule and have three days to do something, I don’t have to spend the day saying, ‘What can I do with Jack?’ It definitely makes things easier. I definitely do play with things and make it like a little mini-spy opera.”
All of which is made easier by the fact that Abrams is, as Giacchino puts it, “smart about music.” In fact, it was Abrams who wrote the Alias theme — on his laptop.
“So he’s very easy to talk to about music,” says Giacchino, “whereas some people you work with are not sure exactly how to deal with the subject of music, J..J. makes it fun because we can talk to each other without any barriers. And he’s smart about what, dramatically, will work and what dramatically he wants, too.”
© Cinefantastique 2003
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