Little Children

I almost didn’t go this screening, because it was my birthday. Not really cool to spend my birthday in a theater... My only intention to go to this screening, Thomas Newman

But indeed, Little children is a fabulous film. It is a surprise for me. Thomas Newman was there with the music editor Bill Bernstein. This is one of the film well demonstrates his composing techniques - IMPROVISATION!

Some of the cues, he composed it to nothing, not to a score, no notation. Just some graphic draft, hand it to a group of musicians he has been working with for long time and trustable, and they just improvise. First time I heard about it when I just arrived in LA... I was like... WTF? That’s not composing Thomas.... But after watching his American Beauty, I thought it was excellent.

It was the 1st time I heard Thomas Newman talked about his improvising composition. What he has in mind before improvising with musicians were
- Time code, and all necessary changes or what we called spotting note from editor.
- His tempo
- His patterns, that can be used for repetition, or whatever purposes
- The idea of direction
.... I remember this few things he said.... but isn’t it terrific? I still don’t really agree with his method. But I asked myself after that, can I do it? if I do it is that the same fabulous sound? I can’t answer. Ok, then that is composition! I like Thomas Newman very much since American Beauty. Although he doesn’t seem put a lot of appreciation (should I say that? or he just forgot how he did it) of his past gigs in his mind, he really did a great job on this Little Children... he just move on and concentrate on the next film.

This is master piece of his. I saw some ugliness of playing spontaneously, but there is something... something very organic that can’t be done with notation. He used his technique and confident to do it, outside the box but not too far as usual, and he successfully making a great balance between comedy and tragedy and perhaps some children element in there. I think it was a very excellent job!

It is my dream to try what he’s been doing... maybe when I’m big enough to do it that way.

I really like what he said especially when dealing with editor. He never tried to change the story, never tried to go against the spotting notes. and Thomas said, “I always stick with it, I don’t dare to change”. In order to survive in Hollywood, I think it is really important to know what you should do and what you shouldn’t and he is one of the best examples.

Go surf online for the review of this film... it is surprising. The film itself is a good. And Thomas contributed a score to help strengthen the picture to bring about the musical vein of comedy-tragedy mood... not too much and not ignorable.

More about Thomas
THOMAS NEWMAN (Composer) has been seven Oscar nominations for his film work for LITTLE WOMEN, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, UNSTRUNG HEROES, AMERICAN BEAUTY, ROAD TO PERDITION, FINDING NEMO,and LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. Newman also won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for HBO’s award-winning SIX FEET UNDER. Since the beginning of sound film, the Newman name has been an integral part of the evolution of film scoring. Thomas is the youngest son of the legendary Alfred Newman, nephew of Lionel Newman, brother of David Newman and cousin of Randy Newman. Thomas Newman studies composition and orchestration at USC, completing his studies at Yale. He considers his greatest mentor to be Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim, who was deeply impressed with Newman’s originality and championed one of his earliest works. Other films he has scored include MEET JOE BLACK, THE HORSE WHISPERER, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL, PHENOMENON, AMERICAN BUFFALO, IN THE BEDROOM, PAY IT !
FORWARD, ERIN BROCKOVICH, THE GREEN MILE, JARHEAD, CINDEREELA MAN, and FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, and for television, HBO’s acclaimed 6-hour miniseries ANGELS IN AMERICA directed by Mike Nichols.

Some Brief about Little Children
Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson star in LITTLE CHILDREN, the latest work from Oscar-nominated Writer/Director Todd field. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, LITTLE CHILDREN centers on a handful of individuals whose lives intersect on the playgrounds, town pools and streets of their small community in surprising and potentially dangerous ways.