Interview: Composer Nathan Halpern | Under the Radar Magazine

Composer Nathan Halpern Discusses Making ‘Emily the Criminal’

two pillars

April 29, 2023

Matt Conner

Web only

The challenge of working on a creative project can be just as daunting for the first person as it is for the person you ask to travel with you. That’s because at least the central characters have a central amount of sway and influence. Bringing a script to life by telling it is such a feat.

if you’ve seen Emily the Criminal, A thrilling drama featuring Aubrey Plaza released earlier this year (Parks & Rec), We see Halpern doing his part well in a film that sticks with viewers for far longer than expected. We recently sat down with Halpern to hear about his involvement in the film, what it’s like to watch, and what’s next for him.

UTR (Matt Conner): I’d like to start with how you got attached. Emily the Criminal in the first place?

Nathan Halpern: Agent sent me the script during the very dark times of COVID. At least that’s what I remember. Reading it reminds me of a dark night, and that’s exactly what it feels like. It was dark, but I read it and found it to be very cathartic, very heart-pounding and exciting.

I had a serious discussion with the writer/director John Patton Ford. We talked a lot about both the script and the music. John is very musically inclined and has a very eclectic and tremendous taste in music. He talked a lot about his favorite music and movies. As you can guess from this film, he has a very deep knowledge of cinema across all genres, all eras and all countries.

This went on for a while as it took time to bring the movie to life. Despite COVID and work delays, he and his team worked hard to make it happen.

UTR: Do you come in with a strong vision of your own, or how does collaborating with John work here?

Nathan: It’s interesting because we were talking about the movie before shooting. So when we talked about music, it was a broader conversation about the music we liked, the perspective of the characters, or the emotional impact of the film. There were times when I speculated that it might not, or could be an approach, but I won’t know until I actually see the movie.

So I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time. When it came to actually scoring, it was a few weeks. It was a short period of time, but they edited the film so meticulously that no previous cuts were seen. I already knew the script very well, so they wanted me to have a clean, fresh perspective on it. was.

Two things were revealed in the actual final cut of the film. One was that she had a very gritty and authentic vision of Los Angeles and her life and experiences. It’s very realistic with lots of action scenes and tense moments. They are not overly genreized. They’re vivid and instinctive, there’s a lot of tension in there and you don’t want to break it.

It’s all steered by the character of Emily and her interiority played out in this great and enigmatic performance by Aubrey Plaza. We always want to focus on that, so if she’s nervous or angry, we want to stay as true to that feeling as possible instead of lifting or floating on the surface. I want you to feel that something is emerging from within.

At the same time, the score has another pillar. It’s an older or timeless feeling, a spiritual journey of self-realization and self-discovery that this character is going through. There are certain key moments, especially later in the film, when this kind of thing opens up a bit. You can feel it going to a different place musically. We can get out of the gravel and make room for those strings and distorted vocal sounds. It transcends the notion of story or narrative to speak to the more typical.

UTR: How does it feel to be working on something alone and then see it in a room full of people reacting to your work?

Nathan: When this film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it was virtual, so there was no audience. But I saw it at an industry screening in Los Angeles and at a Rooftop Films screening in New York, which was indoors because it was raining. Especially in New York, it was exciting.

One of the things I could have predicted was that when I read the script, there were so many people around the world and so many people I know personally who were so strongly connected to this movie. I knew there was It felt like a movie they had been waiting for, a movie that spoke to their deepest feelings they had been struggling with for years. We certainly had a very wild and chaotic screening in New York City. Terrible sound and broken picture in this sweltering room, but it didn’t matter. The movies were connected. I always felt that it would be played this way for people.

Do you think this opens a different kind of door for you?

Well, it’s too unpredictable to predict what door will open. You can look back and chart a clear path, but at that point you’re just one step ahead.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on several projects, including a limited series, but I’m not allowed to talk about this. I feel that they all represent some new developments, both musically and in relation to the form they are engaged in.