Over the years, I’ve had the great opportunity to speak with many multi-hyphenates in the entertainment business. My pursuits fall somewhere between a hobby and an obsession as I chase conversations and laughs with creatives I admire. And so many conversations have been meaningful, fun and a fantastic peek into the creative process. One session with a composer is good. A second is great. Three…well, you see where I’m going. There’s no such thing as diminishing returns here!
Now enter composer Joseph Trapanese. He’s someone we always have fun with and Joe has had wind in his sails for a long time. His credits go back twenty years and Joe has been attached to some real heavyweight films. People seek him out because he delivers the goods and that’s not easy. As we’ve been told by nearly every composer we’ve ever talked with, time is not a plentiful commodity in the film world. Randy Edelman put it perfectly when he told us “you have to be fast and good” Just one isn’t gonna cut it.
High level or not, to do this kind of work (and continually take on more projects), you have to have the tools and the talent. In Joe’s case, he must be a hammer because he’s able to treat everything as if it were a nail. But does he design in a vacuum? No, he does not. Whether it’s John Debney, Joseph Kosinski or Brian Duffield, key relationships have been made and that’s as important as picking the right notes from the ether. Joe is quick to rattle off so many collaborators as the art and alchemy of making film music truly takes a village.
The film is the next in a series of stories that has become his compositional through-line. Oblivion, The Raid, No One Will Save You, Arctic, Jean-Claude Van Johnson, even David feature singular characters who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The sly twist is that they actually have all the skills and weapons they need to get them through to the end credits. But it doesn’t mean the ride won’t be bumpy, and Whalefall is no exception. It is Life of Pi meets Field of Dreams and what Terrence Malick would do if he wanted to make an underwater sibling to Mad Max Fury Road.
While none of this really hints at any of the fun topics and laughs we had talking about Mr. T’s efforts to help make Whalefall a heart-pounding, beat-the-clock adventure film, I leave you with this: Trapanese is as gifted a storyteller and conversationalist as he is a composer. He loves Mets baseball so this praise is actually relevant: Joe knocked the music out of the park.
Now put the kettle on, grab some comfy headphones, and dive into this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
Following the death of his father (Josh Brolin), Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) goes diving off the central Coast of California in search of his remains, but is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realize that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape.
WHALEFALL is in Theaters on October 16
