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On The Ropes With "Chuck" Composer Corey Allen Jackson

Randy Tobogan
Contributor
On The Ropes With "Chuck" Composer Corey Allen Jackson

I recently got the chance to catch up with prolific Hollywood film composer Corey Allen Jackson. Corey’s career started when he was just a kid, and, as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, he’s worked on a long list of both blockbusters and indie classics. His most recent collaboration was with director Philippe Falardeau for Chuck, starring Liev Schrieber. Corey and I discussed his creative process for scoring Chuck and more.

 


 

How did you begin scoring movies? What led you to scoring Chuck?

 

I’d always loved music, movies and film-scores, but after growing up in a small town I wasn’t sure getting out and doing something bigger was in the stars. It wasn’t until I went to Disney World and heard all of the music around the parks that I thought to myself, “Someone writes all of this music, why not me?”

 

So I started researching different film scoring programs around the country. I was just finishing my Masters Degree in composition and I applied to USC’s Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program. I was accepted but due to the number of applicants couldn’t go until the following year. So I studied music in Paris before heading back to the states to go to USC. I fell in love with film scoring my first day and have not looked back.

 

Chuck came about out of the blue. I was having lunch with a friend from United Talent Agency about possibly collaborating with a rock band he represented and he mentioned that a director that they also represent just lost his composer for a really cool project. He asked if I wanted to submit a demo and I said yes. That same day my music supervisor friend, Selena Arizanovic, a good friend with whom I went to the USC program with, called and asked if I wanted to demo for this really cool project she was working on. Of course I said yes to that too. Turns out, it was the same project… Chuck. I watched the movie that same day and was on the phone with the films amazing director, Philippe Falardeau the following day. The rest is history.

 

In a nutshell, can you explain your creative process for Chuck? Did the movie’s themes influence your creative decision making?

 

Chuck is set in the 1970’s and it’s about a real person. These two things influenced my approach the most. To me, Chuck was this Dionysian character. Bigger than life and someone who really liked to sample everything life has to offer. Especially drugs, booze and women. So I gave it an early 70’s Rock/R&B Roadhouse vibe, a la The Doors. It was scored mainly with B3, Wurlitzer, Bass and Drums as well as some guitar and trumpet.

 

After several discussions with Philippe, we decided to play the era and the energy of what was going on more so than trying to make the audience feel beaten over the head with emotion. The cues are more like songs than dramatic underscore. The actors performances are so good in this film that the music did not need to help their performances. There are a couple of emotional scenes that we added some depth and feeling to, but mostly I played the film and the time more than the emotion.


 

I’ve read that you’ve collaborated on numerous occasions with Bill Plympton, how did that relationship come about? His work is pretty crazy!

 

About fourteen or fifteen years ago, I was cold calling everyone I could find on iMDB that was in production or post and came across something of Bill’s. I emailed him and he said to send him one of my CD’s, so I did. I didn’t hear anything back for a while so I kind of forgot that I had sent it. About a year later, I was on vacation when I get this call and it’s Bill Plympton. He wanted to license my demo to fill in spots that needed music for his film, Hair High. Then he called again and asked if he could use some more of the music, so I went out on a limb and suggested that he let me score it instead of licensing prewritten music. We’ve been collaborating on and off ever since. We just finished Cop Dog late last year.

 

Bill’s work is amazing. They have a disturbing, dream-like yet somehow funny and almost sexual feel. It’s been a real honor to collaborate with him. And he’s one of the nicest people you will ever meet, so that’s always a huge plus.



 

Is working on an indie film like Chuck different from a blockbuster like TMNT: OUTS?

 

There are similarities, but a lot of differences. Chuck was like running in a marathon and TMNT: OUTS is like sprinting an Iron Man. Obviously in both situations, you want to write the most appropriate music you can for the scenes that you are scoring. So, as a dramatist its very similar. And notes and feedback are also similarly given. Things get extremely different when it comes to pace, scope and budget.

 

First of all, on Chuck I was the composer and on TMNT: OUTS I was doing additional music for the incredible Steve Jablonsky. With Chuck I was working with locked picture for most of the scoring process but with TMNT: OUTS I might have had a new edit or reel balances on a weekly basis. Chuck is mainly a dramatic score with no action sequences. There is boxing sometimes on the screen, but we didn’t play them as “hero” action scenes. On the other hand, TMNT:OUTS has some dramatic sections but there is a TON of action music in it. Action cues take a lot longer to write and are physically and mentally draining to compose. You have to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie to do big action movies.

 

I think for Chuck I had a few days to mix and record. On TMNT: OUTS I think there were about twelve double sessions with large orchestra.

 

For all their similarities and differences, I sincerely loved doing both.

 

For the gearheads -- tell us a bit about your studio!

 

My writing studio at Sonic Fuel Studios consists of 3 computers. One mac and 2 PC’s.

I write in Cubase on a 12 core Mac with 128GB Ram and 8 TB of storage. The mac hosts my effects and non-orchestral vst plugins as well as a UAD card and an Apgogee Symphony I/O Audio interface.

 

The PC’s are basically my virtual orchestra. I run a mix of several different sample libraries and they stay the same project to project.

 

Since my studio at Sonic Fuel has a full service recording studio right downstairs, I do not need a ton of outboard recording gear.

 

 

Do you have any tips for aspiring composers?

 

I highly recommend at least a four-year degree especially if you intend to work with orchestra. If you’re going to communicate with musicians you need to be able to “speak” the language of music. Unless you’re an orchestral musician and have been studying music since you were four years old, the only place you’re going to get your hands dirty with writing, orchestrating and studying orchestral music is through a degree program. Most likely that same degree program will have classes in the related technologies as well. If you intend to become a composer assistant or intern (which I highly recommend) you’re not going to be useful to them unless you know a lot of this stuff BEFORE applying. There’s little time to do “on the job” training.

 

Be a student of film and of drama. Learn everything you can about movies, music and the technology that is used in the industry. Study every style of music from Mozart to Metal. Study the great composers of the past and those of today. Watch movies then go back and listening to the music. Then rewind it and do it again and ask yourself why does it work and what made it special, or does it not work and why. And honestly, go see live theatre. Observe that it’s ok to not always have music. Not everything needs to have music to be a great performance. Sometime silence can be just as effective. And always remember the golden rule of film scoring (which I admit isn’t always easy), which is that your music is there to serve the film, not the other way around. Lastly, be prepared to work harder than you ever thought possible, and then some.

 
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