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Jun
01
1998

Toronto Sun: Moment Of Truth

Jun-??-1998
Toronto Sun
Moment Of Truth
Bob Thompson

Expectations are running high as the popular X-Files crosses over from TV to the big screen

HOLLYWOOD — It’s undeniable. The X-Factor truth will be out there in a few weeks. Believe no one until then.

Days from now we will discover whether TV’s X-Files will become a movie hit.

Opening Friday, Chris Carter’s film creation is a $60-million exercise in Star Trek-like cross-pollination, although unlike Star Trek and The Next Generation, the series is still airing.

So like what’s going on?

This is clear. The X-Files: Fight The Future tries to exploit what makes the series popular.

That would be the unspoken bond between David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully, the FBI agents featured weekly on their missions implausible.

Fine. So what’s going on? Like do they?

Do they track down otherwordly warriors? Yes, they do.

Also on hand during their big screen journey are these familiar small screen faces: William B. Davis’ The Cigarette-Smoking Man, John Neville’s The Well-Manicured Man and the conspiracy trio, The Lone Gunmen (Dean Haglund, Tom Braidwood and Bruce Harwood).

New to the scene are Martin Landau’s doctor in a dilemma, Armin Mueller-Stahl’s earthly conspirator and Blythe Danner’s assistant FBI director.

So what’s the movie story? Mulder and Scully uncover what they sort of expose but never prove — aliens are everywhere.

Indeed, they do what they have been doing since Chris Carter created the TV program five years ago.

Carter, who likes to boast that “I’m a worrier, so the next logical step is paranoia,” has transferred his anxiety well.

So, for the last five years, Mulder and Scully have been investigating unsolved FBI cases involving the paranormal, supernatural and unexplained.

Did we mention that Mulder, as a boy, watched his sister’s abduction by aliens? His father might be dead due to suspicious circumstances.

Scully, a doctor, is the skeptic sidekick living with an inexplicable cancerous tumor in her head.

Quite a couple. And, as spook-busters, they usually get thwarted by faceless government lackeys or clandestine henchmen from a dubious international combine covering up what potential truth there is out there concerning alien invasions.

It’s like a post-Watergate, pro-UFO, neurotically New Age soap opera all wrapped up in an unrequited love theme.

No wonder Mulder and Scully stick together.

And no wonder creator Carter — he calls himself a UFO skeptic — decided to make the dangerous move of releasing a movie between seasons five and six.

The fifth season was its most popular. Season six is expected to be even bigger — and that’s internationally, too.

He’s even poised to sign up for the X-Files film number two.

That doesn’t make Carter’s gamble psychologically easier for number one.

“More money involved makes it much more complicated, admits Carter at the Four Seasons Hotel doing press with Duchovny, Anderson and X-Files director Rob Bowman. “It was stressful, but the risk was worth taking.”

Anderson’s blunt about what that risk is. “It is a challenge to get, not just the pre-existing audience, but also the people who have never seen the series, to check us out.”

One way to get those other people, the non-Fileheads, is showcase some special-event film techniques.

So do they? “I just didn’t want to do creepy sci-fi violence,” Carter reports.

No, like, do they?

You mean smile. Mulder doesn’t smile in the series and he doesn’t in the film on purpose. “He can’t smile,” says Duchovny, grinning. “He’s a questing hero.”

No, not smile. Y’know, like do they?

Bust the aliens in the movie? Carter’s not going to say on the record. Not now, days before the X-Files film gets a look-over by consumers.

Carter’s already spent two years living like a secret agent, swearing assistants to complete secrecy, printing the script on non-faxable paper. He even let some dummy scenes get out there, to find out whether he had leaks. He’s proud to say that he misled the X-Philers who needed to know the movie truth out there.

Those fans are as obsessed as Mulder, after all.

Carter confirms that they are, indeed.

So do they? Like do the fans know?

Carter says that he does not believe the complete film storyline has been pieced together.

He does believe he will find out soon enough whether The X-Files translates onto the big screen. It’s the $60-million question.

But director Bowman, who did 25 episodes on TV, insists the essence of the series is maintained.

“The storytelling on The X-Files is obtuse and that is on purpose,” he says. “It’s very tantalizing, just like the investigating they do in the film. You get fragments and you have to connect the dots.”

Still, the movie has special effects, more locations and bigger moments. “More detail,” Bowman agrees, “and more intricacies.”

But do they? Y’know, like do Mulder and Scully kiss?

“I think it would ruin the show,” Carter says, then adds, “I think it would wreck the X-Files if they had a relationship.”

Anderson chuckles: “What? Before we spot an alien, what are we going to do? Smooch?”

Reports Duchovny: “There is way too much history to be developed for them to have a carnal meeting.”

Besides, says Duchovny, smirking, “America wouldn’t stand for it.”

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Jun
01
1998

Rough Cut

??-??-1998 (Jun-11-1998?)
Rough Cut
Interview with Chris Carter

*With a project like this, how do you please yourself as well as all of the
fans out there?

Well, you always have to please millions of people out there. It’s part of
the goal. But first you have to please yourself, and luckily, with this
show from the very beginning, what I did was write something that pleased
me, something that I wanted to do that I liked. I think that’s one of the
secrets to the success of the show is that I’ve been able to maintain an
enthusiasm because the stories that we write are very interesting to me.

*Did you always want to turn this into a film? Is it something you thought
halfway through?

You know, I’ve been asked this question, and I always say, “Yes, we always
wanted to turn it into a film,” but I don’t know when we actually got
serious about it. I realized that if we didn’t do it [now], we might not
do it…. I thought it would be nice to take all the threads that we had
laid out there and weave them together in a big movie; It’s also true that
I don’t think we would have done a movie unless we did it now.

*What sort of challenges did you have to overcome to make it accessible to
people who aren’t fans of the show?

It’s a trick, because you know there’s a lot of people who don’t watch
television who go to movies and then there are some people who I’m sure are
not regular watchers of the show or have never watched the show. I still
think it’s a movie for them. I think those tricks — character development
and an accessible story that doesn’t require too much foreknowledge — were
the biggest hurdles to overcome. And I think that we’ve overcome them.

*”The X-Files” has always been informed by the fact that you read scientific
journals and also you’re reading about actual government conspiracies and
experiments and things they’ve done. Can you talk about that?

People say, “Where do you get all these wild ideas.?” Many of them come
directly from science. If the show didn’t have a strong scientific
foundation — the same with the movie — the science in the movie is
absolutely accurate. I guess people could argue about aliens, but the
genetics, the transgenic pollen implants, all that is 100 percent accurate
according to my scientific advisor.The show needs a scientific foundation,
because that is Scully’s point of view. Without a Scully point of view, you’ve
got no point/counterpoint. So it’s important that our science be accurate,
and it’s important that the science be good, because it provides the
leaping-off
point for the rest of the show.

*In the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that the different episodes have
become like mini-movies. My friends and I talk about that.

Well, the approach has always been a “cinematic approach,” I call it now
after having done the movie. I know whatever you do in television isn’t
quite cinematic because making a movie is a much more elaborate process
than making a television show. But, we tell the stories as if they were
little movies, and we take a big-screen approach on the small screen in
the way we tell our stories and the way the shows are directed, certainly
and in the way the stories are very plot-driven. They are good, round
mysteries, and a lot of television gets by on character development
ensembles, stories, a-b-c-d-e-f-g stories. “The X-Files” tells one good,
strong story every episode, and I think that’s much more of a movie
approach.

*There were scenes that “X-Files” fans thought were going to be in the movie
because of rumors. Were there a lot left out of the film?

No, no, no. It’s pretty much what it was designed to be. I think that there
is very little missing from the script.

*There’s a rumor that you guys shot “red herrings” just to throw off”The
X-Files” Internet fans. Is that true?

The truth is we didn’t, but, there were things that were written that were
put out there as bogus information. The last scene in the movie, or I
should say, the penultimate scene in the movie with Mulder and Scully in
the park, was not written until the spring … probably about six weeks ago.

*That’s a conspiracy.

It is a conspiracy.

*Have you ever heard from somebody in the government about your
conspiracies?

I once had someone walk up to me and say that they worked in the
intelligence community and say, “You don’t know how right you are.” I sort
of liked that idea.

*How much of the conspiracy has been pre-planned and how have you kind of
retroactively fitted?

I have a big general idea of what the conspiracy means and what the
conspiracy is, but as we go forward, we find new little things to do to add
to it. And so that’s the fun of it. If you set everything down too clearly
for yourself in the beginning, I think you end up without the sort of
wonderful discovery of new things to add in. So, I think flexibility is
important in this kind of storytelling. Also the faith that you’re going to
make the right choices as you go forward.

*Are we going to get a new movie every two or three years?

I hope this movie’s successful so that it warrants doing more movies. I
think I would like to see the TV series evolve into a movie series. That
would be a nice thing to do. It would be a nice reason for us to all work
together.

*The opening sequence with the bombing of the building is eerily similar to
the Oklahoma City bombing. Was there any concern about including that in a
piece of entertainment?

Well, it’s a building explosion. And I don’t mean it [to trivialize] a
horrible event. It certainly wasn’t meant to be that.

*As an X-Files fan, is the movie going to go into the series?

Yes, yes, yes.

*What can we expect for season six?

Well, the writers are actually back at work already. This is the first week
of work. We all got a week off, and now we’re back coming up with stories,
so we’re putting it together. We’ve got a lot to play with, and this is
the fun of it. Figuring out how to re-open “The X-Files.” I thought of the
movie as an explosion of “The X-Files.” For five years, we kept imploding
this series; it would fall back in on itself, and we’d give you a clue or
an answer and then we’d take it back. The movie has set certain things in
stone and now we’ve got to deal with those pieces. But there are lots of
new elements to toy with.

*How is moving the show to L.A. from Vancouver going to change it?

You know, it’s obvious it will change. I’ll have a new crew. I’ll have a
new environment to shoot in. (People ask if we’ll) still have the same
creepy light. You know, we’ll have bright sunlight in the daytime, although
if it’s anything like last year, it will be just like Vancouver; The
weather in Los Angeles was so bad last year. But, I think what we’ll do is
we will just use the new environment to our advantage. Just make a virtue
out of the problem, which is that we’re now shooting in sort of a concrete
jungle. [We’ll] tell stories that we wouldn’t have been able to tell in
Vancouver, so I think it’s going to be an interesting opportunity.

*What about the soundtrack?

It came out on June 2. That’s one of the best parts of my job. It’s just a
whole lot of fun for me. It’s just like saying, “Lets ask the Foo Fighters
if they want to do a song,” and they do. And they send something back, and
the day that cassette comes in I stick it in my machine. It’s like a
Christmas present.

*You know, in another time you might have been this faceless person that
created a show, and that’s not the case now. What kind of bizarre
encounters have you had?

I have people come up to me all the time and want to tell me their story
and pitch me ideas. And I have to tell them all, I’ve got this thing that I
say. I’ll say, “I’d love to listen to your story, but for legal reasons I
cannot.” Which is true. I don’t want to be involved in a situation where
someone says I stole their story. I’ve been very careful not to take
anything from anyone. I don’t think we’ve done one unsolicited script or
idea in the entire run of the show: 117 episodes. My wife and I once laid
in bed listening to a tape a guy had sent me of an encounter he had had in
the wilderness with his wife. And he had just decided to sit down and
talk about this.

*I think that “The X-Files” is a very literate program. Dialogue is almost
more important than the action, and the movie is the same way. You have to
pay attention to every word of it. Is that a dangerous area in the ’90s
with the whole short attention span thing?

You know, [you] make a mistake in thinking that the audience is not as
smart as [you] are. I think the audience is very smart. I think the
audience is very sophisticated. We have so much information these days.
Everyone knows about the human g-gnome project now that’s going on. It’s in
he paper everyday. So, genetics, all these things… while they are
sophisticated and while the dialogue [of the show] is sophisticated, it
also never attempts to confuse or baffle. It is well chosen words by smart
people.

*Have people ever approached you and told you that something’s just too
gross?

It’s really hard to give me the willies. I’m sure that there are some
things that are too gross. We’ve shown a lot of interesting images on the
show, but mostly they would have to do with autopsies and such. There
actually is a limit to what we can show. Standards and Practices prevents
us from doing anything that is too gruesome, gory, visceral. The truth is,
I hate blood. I don’t like to show it on screen. I don’t like to show it
splattering. I don’t like to show it spilling. I don’t like to see
shoot-outs and bullets flying. I’m uninterested in that. I’m interested in
the effects of events. Even violent events and what the human drama is
before and after them, but the gore is something that I’m not interested
in.

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Jun
01
1998

Soundtrack Magazine: Mark Snow: Scoring The X-Files Movie

Jun-??-1998
Soundtrack Magazine
Mark Snow: Scoring The X-Files Movie
Randall Larson

One of the biggest shows on TV continues to be Chris Carter’s THE X-FILES. With its ongoing conspiratorial mythology and speculative plotting, THE X-FILES is one part detective show, two parts science fiction, its eyes glancing furtively at the skies every Sunday night. Much of the show’s atmosphere is achieved through Mark Snow’s moody and inventive musical scoring. With the June release of the feature length X-FILES movie, Snow joins creator Chris Carter, director Rob Bowman and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in translating the small screen hit to the big screen.

Randall D. Larson: Last time we talked (Soundtrack!, June 1997), you were looking forward to the opportunity of expanding the scope of the TV music and orchestrate it a little broader for the feature. How has that worked out?
Mark Snow: It’s worked out great. I’d say 90% of the score is big orchestra combined with electronics. There are a few cues that are electronic, but they’re going to be very “big” sounding. It’s going to be sort of a traditional sound, to an extent, with the orchestra, but in a sharp contrast to the electronic stuff. It should be a really great mix. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the electronics, so I think it’s going to be a really great contrast.
In the TV show, from day one, everyone involved from Chris Carter down wanted a lot of music. At first he was talking about ambient, atmospheric, basically synth-pad kind of stuff. And that’s basically what I did at the beginning. It just got too boring and ordinary so I opened it up. Chris didn’t mind and after the first year he just let me go off on my own, and as the years went on it became more musical and less sound design. Every once in a while it would revert back to some sound design stuff, but now it’s a pretty good mix of ambient atmospheric music.

Randall D. Larson: Has the feature film enabled you to do any more thematic work than you were able to do on the show?
Mark Snow: I think the best thing, thematically, that’s come out of it is the X-FILES theme itself, which is being harmonized and orchestrated in different settings that never have appeared on the TV show. The TV version is sort of a one-note pad and a simple accompaniment. But now I’ve put different kinds of harmonization to it. It doesn’t happen every place, but it happens enough that anyone who knows the theme would recognize it.

Randall D. Larson: How about any new themes?
Mark Snow: There is a veiled theme for the Cigarette-Smoking Man. It’s not as much melodic as it is harmonic, it’s a bunch of minor chords going from one to another. It sounds a little bit like Bernard Herrmann / Jules Verne…

Randall D. Larson: It sounds perfectly appropriate for the character.
Mark Snow: Yes. There’s not a real melody, but a chordal structure. There’s a theme for the Elders, the Well Manicured Man and the older conspiracy figures. I haven’t done it yet, but the last episode of the TV season will have a lot of these themes in it, which will hopefully introduce some of the movie music.

Randall D. Larson: I understand the last few episodes this season will go right into the feature film. So you’re developing a musical segue as well?
Mark Snow: Yes. Actually, I just finished the second-to-Iast episode of the season, and that’s just a stand-alone. But the next one, which is the last episode of the season, is really tied into the movie.

Randall D. Larson: You started on the feature last January, so you’ve had plenty of time to develop material, concurrently with working on the series…
Yes. Unfortunately, the way things work at Ten-Thirteen Productions, which is the production company of X-FILES, there are a lot of last-minute changes. Someone gets up in the middle of the night and has an idea to change something, so just when you think we’re locked or it’s set, new changes come down, which I know is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination. So, although we had the time, I was always living under the anxiety of feeling that it was always going to change. That’s par for the course, though, and it always seems to work out.

Randall D. Larson: How much music, all told, have you composed for the film, and how many musicians have you used?
Mark Snow: I think it’ll be about 75 minutes, for 85 musicians. That’s a lot. Actually, I’m hoping to convince these people to take some of it out! I think the movie, to me, looks a little bit like the TV show at times, and I think in a feature you don’t need the constant reminder that something’s going on, with accents and music all over the place. For better or for worse, though, the legacy of the music of the X-Files has always been: play lots of music.

Randall D. Larson: How would you contrast working on the feature as opposed to the approach of doing the TV show? I know it’s more expansive and you’re doing more with themes as opposed to pure atmospheres, but how would you contrast the experiences, even though the film is so closely tied to the TV show?
Mark Snow: The biggest contrast, obviously, is the scope of the movie. There are things in the movie that the TV show can never do, and will never do. It’s just impossible.

Randall D. Larson: In terms of effects and locations?
Mark Snow: Yes. There is massive CGI, computer effects, and a scope that is quite appropriate for the big screen that they don’t have the time or money to do for the series. That’s the biggest contrast. It’s still a very dense story, quite complicated. I’m hoping that the non-fan will enjoy it as much as the fan.

x filesRandall D. Larson: Did you get the chance to use any melodies, or more of the lighter music than you were able to do on the TV show? Or has the tone been fairly dark throughout?
Mark Snow: It’s been pretty dark. The great thing about the TV series is, when we have these stand-alone, what I call boutique episodes, sometimes they verge on black comedy, with a lot of cute things I can do. The big shows, the mythical/conspiracy/cover-up shows are fairly drab and there’s not much room for anything but the real dark approach.

Randall D. Larson: Some of my favorite scores are for those one-shot episodes. I loved the ‘Elephant Mann’ episode with all the allusions to the John Morris music.
Mark Snow: You’re one of the few people who caught that! That’s exactly right. Those are the times when the palette is wide open and you really can stretch.

Randall D. Larson: What were some of the main challenges that THE X-FILES MOVIE posed for you?
Mark Snow: I wanted to continue the effect and the honesty of the music from the series and have it modulate to the big screen, to understand how to make that jump without it seeming like a score by Jerry Goldsmith or Homer or another big name movie composer.

Randall D. Larson: Was the feature film temp-tracked, and how did you deal with that?
Mark Snow: Yes, it was, and that was very helpful. My music editor, Jeff Charbonneau, temp tracked the movie with, say, 75% existing score, and 25% original stuff from me. He did a great job and it was very helpful in setting the tone and getting the producer and director to get a feel for what kind of music they thought would work. Then I was able to do it electronically and put it into a temp screening, and that was very successful. I basically did the temp track, and I’d say a good 95% of that is what the final score’s going to be, but with orchestra.

Randall D. Larson: How closely with you work with director Rob Bowman on the music?
Mark Snow: Rob is an incredibly literate director. But we all basically work for Chris Carter. So, although Chris didn’t direct the movie, he’s very hands-on. Chris is very loyal, and he likes to work with the people he knows. It never would have worked if he got some big shot egomaniac director! Rob is incredibly talented, and he also knows what Chris likes. But, between me and Rob alone, we have this running joke where he’ll hear a CD and he’ll call up and he’ll just name a CD and the cut, and then hang up on me. “FORREST GUMP, cut 10!” and he hangs up! “TERMINATOR 2, cut 11!” or whatever.
Then we’d discuss it. And he hates violins, on top of it all. So he’s going to see 30 of them on Monday, so good luck!

Randall D. Larson: What kind of orchestration are you using in the orchestral part of the score?
Mark Snow: It’s a fairly standard orchestra. Big string section, lots of basses and five percussionists. The percussionists are going to be all over the place – glass and marimbas and all kinds of crazy instruments. So the combination of the electronic ambient stuff and the orchestra should be really spectacular.

Randall D. Larson: Sounds like a score and a film to look forward to!
Mark Snow: Well, I hope so! The organization for this thing has been incredible! Pre-record all the electronic tracks, and then strip them off to tapes, individually, and then all that has to be transferred to a digital 48-track machine. Then the orchestra’s recorded, then the whole thing goes to another studio to mix it all together, and if our calculations are right, it should be an awesome sound.

Randall D. Larson: Now having done the feature, how do you think it will be like going back to the series, having had that experience?
Mark Snow: Well, I’m hoping the movie score experience is going to be really great. But the thing is that the TV show is also great, and it is like doing a mini feature all the time. If it was really terrible, boring drudge work it would be a problem. But it’s not.

Randall D. Larson: What do you have forthcoming?
Mark Snow: I’m doing a movie for MGM right after THE X-FILES called DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, which is being directed by David Netter, who’s an alumni of THE X FILES!

Randall D. Larson: What kind of film is that going to be?
Mark Snow: It’s an all-unknown teenage cast, and on the surface it might seem like SCREAM or a movie like that, but it’s really a lot deeper and it’s really brilliant, with some fabulous actors, and the direction, the location photography are just great. A real deep, dark mystery.

Randall D. Larson: When do you start on that and when’s it coming out?
Mark Snow: It’s supposed to come out August 21st but I heard they moved it up to the beginning of August. I should be scoring around the end of June.

Randall D. Larson: Have you done any writing on that yet?
Mark Snow: Actually, I did. I’ve written a main title theme for that, which they all loved, so I’m off to a good start on that.

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May
27
1998

Soundtrack.Net: Interview with Mark Snow

May-27-1998
Soundtrack.Net
Interview with Mark Snow
Dan Goldwasser

[Original article]

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Mark Snow regarding his work on the X Files television show, and the upcoming feature film. Mr. Snow will be signing copies of his score album to the film on June 6th at 1pm at Creature Features in Burbank, CA. The album arrives in stores on Tuesday, June 2, and the movie opens nationwide on June 19th.

Flashing back five years. How did you get involved in The X-Files? Did Chris Carter approach you?

It was a friend of mine, who was the Executive Producer of X-Files in Canada, R.W. Goodwin. He was a producer of TV stuff for quite a while and when it came time to choose a composer, Chris Carter didn’t have any relative or friend or anyone he knew -It was basically his first show – so Bob Goodwin recommended me. About 10-15 other guys were recommended all over the place. One of the reasons it worked out was that I was on the way from his house in Pacific Palisades to Fox Studios, on Pico. I was working on a low budget movie and he heard what I was doing and really liked it, but gave me no indication that he was going to hire me. He said, “Thanks for your time”. Came back a second time again, and I had no indication whether he liked it or not. Two weeks later I got a call from the agent saying “You have this pilot,” and I thought, “Okay, so what, big deal?” No one knew that this would be what it is now. I mean the pilot is good, but I don’t think anyone who saw it thought that this would be one of the great TV shows of all time, or the most popular. And I remember, at times, saying to my agent “I don’t know about this, these people are really weird – maybe I shouldn’t do it.” And he said, “You know, you just tell us and we’ll get you out of it”. Oh my God! Luckily it all worked out.

You came out with a CD two years back (“The Truth and The Light”). Why do you suppose dialogue was placed over your music?

Someone, I forget exactly who, had the idea that it might make it into a cool radio-play or something where the fans could recall the episodes more clearly if they had the dialogue marked with the music and I don’t think that proved to be too smart. I would have liked to have just pure music, and a lot of the fans commented on that. But with the X-Files movie score, it’s going to be all music.

How has the success of Materia Primoris (The X-Files Theme) worldwide affected your professional standing in the television music industry?

It’s certainly positive – it’s certainly good. But it’s not as if just doing that made me the guy that everyone wants to work with on every project. Luckily I’ve worked with a lot of people in my career, and if this X-Files thing never happened, I’d still be working. Not on this level of success or exposed, but I’d still be making a living. But the theme is real icing on the cake, and it’s really fantastic. I remember writing it was really effortless – no drudgery or anything. It came out so simply.

I did write four themes before that one. Chris Carter sent over some music and told me to make it “like this” or “like that”, and I kept doing itand he was nice about it, but after the fourth one, I said “let me try one – a completely different approach – and let’s see what happens”.

Have those unused themes appeared anywhere in the show?

Never. Some of them are distinct themes, but nothing like the present theme. But looking back on them, they are darker, heavier, louder. The coolest part was when I went on vacation in France, and the X-Files theme was the number one record in France and England at the time – that was pretty cool.

Is The X-Files movie your first mainstream theatrical feature?

Yes. I was a little nervous before I got hired to do it.

So there was a possibility you wouldn’t be working on the movie?

Not that I know of, but I’ve learned working in this business for a long time now that you don’t take anything for granted. I could see that hiring Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner wouldn’t be too out of whack.

If I’m not mistaken, in the television shows you have used primarily synthesizers to perform your music. How was it using a full orchestra for The X-Files movie? Which “sound” do you prefer?

It’s impossible to do the orchestra stuff with a weekly show – there’s no time. Just flat out no time.

How much time did you have on the movie?

I had a couple of months, but what made that difficult was that it would constantly change – re-cut and re-cut and re-cut.

And you were doing the TV show at the same time.

Right, so that was – I just got out of a two month big-time stressful deal.

Do you achieve the same textures with an orchestra?

When the show started five years ago, they wanted synthesizer sustained type atmosphere ambient sound design type stuff, to weave in and out. Over the years that became very tiresome and I began doing more musical things: more melodies, more musical. And so it has evolved to a more musical show, and the score of the movie reflects that. You know, themes, and musical themes, and sound effects as well. I’m happy to say that the orchestra music has almost a traditional quality at times. It will be much bigger.

What can you tell me about your involvement with David Nutter in Disturbing Behavior.

He was the director of a lot of the X-Files episodes – a very talented guy. He went off and did Disturbing Behavior, which I’m actually going to see tonight at a test screening. I haven’t done anything yet – it’s a temp version of it. He was loyal to me, and liked what I did and, lives in the neighborhood. He’s very talented and I’m glad that I’m free to do it.

Having worked with Nutter on the X-Files, would you like to see your professional relationship with him grow to a point similar to that of Herrmann and Hitchcock or Williams and Spielberg?

Hopefully the loyalty factor will be there. But day to day, you hope and pray everything works out. There’s a director named John Gray whose done a few TV movies and I’ve done his stuff – he’s an old friend – and hopefully will do everything he does. And David Nutter, Chris Carter hopefully we’ll continue to work together too on different projects.

How was it working LA when the production was in Vancouver? Will the move to LA change anything for you?

Absolutely nothing. The show is dubbed here, so there is going to be absolutely no difference for me.

Will we ever see a release of a score-CD (with or without dialogue) from Millennium? And Nowhere Man?

Oh. Well, I don’t know how long that show is going to be around. But Fox talked about doing a music album of it, and if there’s an underscore part of it, those cues wouldn’t have dialogue. But I’m not sure anything is going to come out on that show.

Nowhere Man there’s been some interest from record companies to release the music, but it was a union thing with Disney, and Disney hasn’t been all that forthcoming in letting go of it.

Do you think that there is almost a guaranteed success for the X-Files movie?

It’s going to be absolutely fascinating to see how it goes. Nothing in this business surprises me anymore, and it could have some monster opening weekend and then sputter out, or have a mediocre opening and then just have legs like crazy and go go go. People will watch that instead of the reruns. For it to truly be a big smash, the non fans have to have an interest in it too. There’s a lot of huge action – I mean gigantic things. With the advent of computer graphics, the fans will have fun seeing things that we could never do in a million years on TV.

This past season we’ve seen a new direction for the music in The X-Files. One episode that comes to mind was the “Post-Modern Prometheus” episode. How did you approach that episode differently than the other episodes?

Well, in that show in particular, Chris Carter directed it, and he wrote it, and he temp tracked it with music from Elephant Man, and said that this was the direction he would like. It’s kind of a “boutique” show – it’s a stand-alone show that’s not connected with the big global conspiracy business. Those are the two classifications of shows – the stand-alone shows, or the big Cigarette Smoking Man conspiracy shows.

What about the Halloween episode for Millennium?

That was great – total fun.

Was there any particular episode of The X-Files that you enjoyed scoring the most?

Well, I don’t know about the most, but the ones that come to mind are the “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space'”, “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”, “Humbug” – it’s funny because I think that all of those are Darin Morgan shows. Another one from this past season – “Redux”.

Do you think there will be enough material for another CD?

Everyone really commented on that, and really loved it. I’m hoping that’s what they’ll do.

You have a CD signing next Saturday at Creature Features in Burbank, and you did one a few years back when the other CD came out. How does it feel to meet your “fan base”?

Well, it’s always gratifying when people like what you do, and the people seem intelligent – not like people showing up in Fox Mulder trench-coats or something – and asking intelligent questions about pieces of music they thought was good. It’s really gratifying.

What have been your influences?

I don’t think I had time in the past five years to have influences, but I would have to say the standard 20th Century sort of classical guys. Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel, Prokofiev, just to name a few, and then more esoteric guys. I remember Jerry Goldsmith’s score to Planet of the Apes was one of my earlier influences – I was like “Wow – I’d like to do this stuff.”

Congratulations on your continued success with The X-Files – I look forward to seeing the movie and hearing your work!

Source: Dan Goldwasser; Soundtrack.Net [www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=19] May 27, 1998.

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May
16
1998

Compute Me: Interview With Rob Bowman – Producer of the X-Files

May-16-1998
Compute Me
Interview With Rob Bowman – Producer of the X-Files
J.A. Hitchcock

Originally found here

The Washington, D.C. Expo was his first. He looked totally exhausted, rumpled and hot. A security guard sat with us for the entire interview.

J. Hitchcock: What do you think of it so far?

Rob Bowman: Well, let’s see. They forgot to pick me up at the airport last night

(Security guard) Now, now, we’re making good on that tonight. After some good-natured ribbing with the guard, Bowman answers my question.

RB: It’s a really positive outcome of hanging out in a hotel room in Vancouver for four years. I never thought all this would happen.

JH: What do you think of having the Expo here (White Oak, a former top secret military installation in Maryland) instead of at a hotel or convention center?

RB: Oh, it’s fun! It’s a lot more fun and inventive and like any episode of the X-Files. You read more into it instead of just going into a banquet room and knowing what to expect. They’ll think there’s some connection between the facility and us. Actually, if we walk around and get any ideas, there will be. I think this is more fun for the fans, absolutely.

JH: Are you going to Detroit next week?

RB: No, I still have to work on the movie. I’m in the final mix of the movie, we’re still working on visual effects shots, so I’m knee-deep in it.

JH: Have you had a chance to walk around yet?

RB: No, I came in here, shook hands and saw you. I’m curious to see what the place really looks like, since this was a research facility.

JH: Can you tell me a little bit about the movie?

RB: We’ve finished scoring the music, now we’re doing the final dub and mix, incorporating the dialogue, sound effects and music for what will be seen in the theaters. We are racing to approve the final 55 visual effect shots, out of over 200. Which means to me, that just before it comes out in the theater, we’ll be putting in the final shots. It’s a pretty scary time.

JH: What’s the big difference working on the film versus the series?

RB: The series you get a script and go – there’s not a lot of sitting down and talking about it and it’s over and done in eight business days with the first unit and five business days with the second unit. I’ve had two birthdays since I’ve been working on this movie. And because the single investment of this one installment is so huge compared to one episode (of the series), you’ve got the attention of the studio at every moment. Although, they were very good about letting us make this movie, they were never on the set, if they were it was just to say ‘hello’ and that was it. There was none of the standing over my shoulder or second-guessing anything. But, the stakes are much higher and everything has much more importance and you have to discuss every nuance of every moment of every scene and you also – the greatest thing is the expectation. Because of the TV show, the fans were really having some high expectations of the movie and I don’t know if it’s possible to ever live up to them, no matter how good the movie is. The biggest difference is with all those elements at our disposal, still matching the expectation of the series is the basis – I don’t know if we’ve done it, but we could not have worked any harder. We have all killed ourselves making this movie.

JH: Did the script change a lot?

RB: There were some reductions because of the budget we had to work with, but it didn’t change that much. There was some dialogue polishing that Chris (Carter) wanted to do, story clarification that people had some questions about. The problem was that every single draft was on red paper to make it impossible to photocopy and the revisions weren’t typed on the cover page like the TV show, so I’d have to guess there were maybe 10 drafts. Chris is a fairly accurate shooter, right from the beginning, so it didn’t change that much.

JH: After this? What’s up?

RB: We’re currently in the process of hiring a new crew for Los Angeles, because the show moves there next season. We can’t bring any of the Vancouver crew because of work permits, so we’re pretty much starting from scratch for a crew. We expect to go back and do at least some of the early episodes, but whenever and whatever they want, I’ll speak to Chris first.

JH: So is this like a working vacation for you?

RB: (laughs drily) Almost. I’m trying to keep my brain awake. The fact that I actually directed some more episodes while I was doing the movie has burned the candle pretty hot this year.

JH: Are you ready for this crowd? He was scheduled to go on stage in a few minutes

RB: I have no idea. I’m just gonna do it. What is it like?

JH: It’s crazy. They’re wild. They scream at everything. You could say the sky was green and they’d scream.

RB: I directed 13 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I was the “A” director right from the beginning, so that was 10, 11 years ago? So I got hit at a very young age with that intense fanmanship and lots of interviews and lots of visitors on the set. I didn’t know it was going to happen on the X-Files. But I’m completely unprepared. I literally got in the car right off the dubbing stage and flew here. I have no idea what to expect.

The guard gently reminds me it’s time for Bowman to go onstage. Bowman shakes my hand firmly, then heads off to the crowd waiting for him.

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May
01
1998

TV Guide: Chris Carter, X-pert

May-??-1998
TV Guide
Chris Carter, X-pert
Matt Roush

The master of shadowy mystery sheds light on The X-Files’ high-risk journey to the big screen

There’s not much time left. It’s early May, two weeks before The X-Files’ fifth-season finale airs and just little more than a month before “The X-Files” opens. The deadlines are fast approaching, but for a man who’s spending every waking minute in editing rooms putting the finishing touches on his TV and movie projects, creator-executive producer Chris Carter shows little sign of wear. Sporting a deep tan magnified by the white T-shirt he wears in his unassuming bungalow office on the Twentieth Century Fox lot, Carter admits he was able to sneak away from Los Angeles amid the chaos for a four-day surfing weekend at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. “I’ve got a ways to go to get back in any kind of respectable surfing shape, but it was really a good balance for me,” says Carter, 41, who was an editor of Surfing magazine before turning his attention to the darker, murkier, conspiracy-riddled waters of The X-Files. Surfing, he says, is “one of the few times I enjoy the fruits of my labors.” A surfboard with the X-Files logo is on display in his office, a symbol of his dual obsessions.

For now, Carter concedes it’s a “nutty job” to juggle movie and TV production. “I’ve been running on adrenaline for the last five years and I continue to. And I rarely get sick, because I think my body is working at a peak level.” A good thing, considering what’s at stake.

TV Guide critic Matt Roush sat down with Carter to talk about this pivotal moment in his series’ history.

TV Guide: Making an X-Files movie during the run of the series could be considered the riskiest thing you’ve ever done.

Chris Carter: I guess the perceived risk is that you can answer too many questions. The X-Files has always been about posing questions, and any time you give an answer, then you pull the rug out from under people. But in a movie, you can’t do that. You have to have a beginning, middle and end, and there has to be a big revelation, there has to be something monumental in the movie. Something has to change for the characters. And of course, this is a movie that is going to be sandwiched between years five and six, so I’ve got to carry on with the television series. What it allowed me to do was explode many of the themes we’ve been playing with and perhaps give some big answers but suggest other big questions at the same time. I think it will be rejuvenating for the series and hopefully will bring more viewers to the show.

TVG: Isn’t there a danger that if you leave questions unanswered, moviegoers might consider this film a big tease?

CC: I think the movie delivers in a big way, in terms of the plot and the characters. I don’t believe it’s going to give anyone the impression we’ve held back or pulled punches.

TVG: Even a fan like Rosie O’Donnell recently complained the show can be so dense and confusing you almost need Cliffs Notes to figure it out. Are you worried that someone who doesn’t know the show will be too intimidated to turn out for the movie?

CC: We brought a lot of people who were not familiar with the show into the theater [for test screenings], and they liked the movie. But that was one of the hurdles in doing it. There are a lot of people who don’t watch The X-Files, and we wanted the movie to appeal to those people as well. But what you never want to do is forsake your hard-core fans, to take them through the tedious process of character exposition — to redefine and reestablish those characters. This required a cleverness that I hope we accomplished in the course of the picture.

TVG: Without getting into the specifics of the movie’s plot, was this a particular story you have wanted to tell from the very start of the series, or did the movie just come along at the right time for you to tell the next chapter on a larger canvas?

CC: It’s kind of a combination of all these things. The series’ mythology really grew organically. It wasn’t something that had been completely mapped out. But I remember saying to [former Fox programming executive] Bob Greenblatt, who bought the show so long ago, “I promise you Mulder won’t see a spaceship on this show for five years.” And although he has seen things that he believes to be spaceships, we have always suggested that they might in fact be military hardware. I have sort of made good on my promise, and that should give you some idea of what happens in the movie.

TVG: There has also been a lot of buzz in the press about a scene in which Mulder and Scully kiss. You’ve often said you wouldn’t play that card, that they will never really take their professional relationship to an intimate, romantic level.

CC: Nor should they. I’m not saying it would never happen, but I think the characters, if they’re being true to themselves, would be careful about finding themselves in that entanglement.

TVG: After this high-profile movie experience, will it be tough to go back to the weekly TV grind?

CC: What I learned in this process is that there are a lot of things you can do on the small screen that you can’t on the big screen. You can have characters talk at length on the small screen, and a scene that could be interesting and complex and dense [on TV] would be deadly on the big screen, which ironically is really a minimalist form in this regard. I’m very interested in going back to small-screen stories.

TVG: But what if the movie takes off and becomes a Star Trek-style franchise? Would the TV series be over at that point?

CC: That’s one of those hypothetical questions that, because there are so many variables in it, it’s very hard to answer. Could the series continue without Mulder and Scully but the movies continue with them? If you were clever enough, I’m sure you could.

TVG: Looking back at last season, it was very interesting to see how you played with issues of religion and faith, especially where Scully was concerned, as she survived cancer and learned she had a daughter who would later die.

CC: We began the season with the loss of Mulder’s belief [in extraterrestrials]. You were stealing something from the character, taking away the foundation for his existence. At the same time, we were playing with Scully’s religious beliefs, so the characters were shifting places. It wasn’t that Scully was believing in the paranormal as much as in the miraculous. As a lapsed Catholic, she had the foundation of religious fundamentals, but as a scientist, she pushed away from that. Now all of a sudden, she’s accepting things that are beyond her ability to see, touch, taste and feel, and that’s a big step for her character. I’ve always thought of this show as extremely religious. When you say, “The Truth Is Out There,” if you substitute God for the truth, it’s really a search for meaning, a search for faith.

TVG: I know you’re especially proud of last season’s black-and-white episode “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” based on the Frankenstein story, which you wrote and directed. Your version of the monster ends up as a guest on The Jerry Springer Show, months before it took off in the ratings. Did you know something we didn’t?

CC: It’s just a strange coincidence. It’s not like I was prescient. I actually took an interest in Jerry Springer. I came home late at night and turned it on and was just amazed by it. It seemed to me a perfect place for these characters I had rolling in my head to end up. I figured he’d say no, but he said yes. It’s serendipitous.

TVG: What do you think compels people, even yourself, to watch his show?

CC: I think it’s the anything-can-happen aspect for me. I’m just very amused by it.

TVG: Working under such scrutiny now, do you ever long for the early seasons when the show was still something of a well-kept Friday-night secret?

CC: It hasn’t changed that much for me. As the audience and popularity grows, that has certain gravitational aspects, but the work and my life are almost exactly the same. I always eat lunch at my desk, rarely eat dinner anyplace other than my desk. My fine china is Styrofoam. This is our existence. Everybody who works here has never slowed down. The success allows you certain freedoms, because people start not to question what it is you’re doing. The popularity of the show is a good thing, but the ethic and the approach is still the same. It’s still a cult TV show in my mind.

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