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Justin Freer had already established quite a resume as a composer and conductor before beginning to trot the globe conducting scores such as <\/span>Titanic<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>Lord of the Rings<\/i><\/b> Live To Picture, which led to eventually founding\u00a0<\/span>CineConcerts<\/b>, a company dedicated to the preservation and concert presentation of film, TV and media music set to picture.<\/span><\/p>\n In October of 2018, Justin conducted the <\/span>Royal Philharmonic Orchestra<\/b> and the <\/span>English Chamber Choir<\/b> for three performances of <\/span>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/i><\/b> at <\/span>Royal Albert Hall<\/b> in London, England, and <\/span>CineConcerts<\/b> invited me to attend rehearsal and interview Justin between two of the performances.<\/span><\/p>\n Jason LeBlanc: Thanks for letting me watch rehearsals for <\/b>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/i><\/b> yesterday, it was fascinating to see the process of how a conductor and orchestra prepare a concert for the audience. \u00a0And what a score to prepare!<\/b><\/p>\n Justin Freer:<\/strong> I really do think it\u2019s one of his greatest works\u2026 I mean, we all have our favorites, or the ones we grew up with, or the ones that remind us of that day with our friends in the summertime\u2026 it\u2019s amazing how many of us grew up with John\u2019s music.<\/p>\n JL: For me, the first soundtrack I ever bought was a John Williams soundtrack – it was <\/b>Star Wars<\/i><\/b>. \u00a0I became a fan of the films first, and I was like \u201cthis music in this movie is really great\u201d, and I didn\u2019t ever think you could buy it on CD, and then I found out, and then my whole life was changed.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Is that still one of your favorites? \u00a0Well, what is your favorite, I\u2019m curious?<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Tough question! \u00a0I usually go with <\/b>Hook<\/i><\/b> and <\/b>Empire Strikes Back<\/i><\/b> as kind of tied at the top.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong><\/span> Empire<\/span><\/i> is incredible.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Yeah.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s really incredible.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: I love it\u2019s operatic epicness\u2026. Of course there\u2019s something quaint about how simple <\/b>Star Wars<\/i><\/b> is that I kind of appreciate more in some ways…<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Especially after you listen to Empire, right?<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Definitely, because it seems simple in comparison, but it\u2019s so perfect for the film, it fits it like a glove. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s incredible, absolutely. \u00a0What are some of your other favorite scores?<\/span><\/p>\n JL: It\u2019s boring, but the original <\/b>Star Wars<\/i><\/b> trilogy, the <\/b>Indiana Jones<\/i><\/b> trilogy, <\/b>E.T.<\/i><\/b>, <\/b>Close Encounters<\/i><\/b>\u2026. They\u2019re everyone\u2019s favorites, but they\u2019re just incredible. \u00a0<\/b>Temple of Doom<\/i><\/b> always blows me away.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> I love how campy that film is!<\/span><\/p>\n JL: From \u201cAnything Goes\u201d, they\u2019re telling you anything is gonna go in this movie, and they just keep one-upping the whole movie, it\u2019s just so amazing, and it\u2019s Harrison Ford\u2019s best performance.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>It\u2019s a pretty good one, until he somehow survived the nuclear weapon in the refrigerator.<\/p>\n JL: Yea, we just pretend that one doesn\u2019t exist. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Still a great score though – \u201cMutt\u2019s Theme\u201d is so fun! \u00a0He goes through \u201cThe Raiders March\u201d in nine different keys in the span of ten bars, it\u2019s pretty amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: And the little end credits re-do of the end of \u201cThe Raiders March\u201d he came up with is fun too. \u00a0But yes, there\u2019s so many \u201cbad films yet good scores\u201d in every composer\u2019s repertoire…<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s part of the fun!<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Hook <\/i><\/b>has just always been special to me somehow, and I didn\u2019t even see the movie as a young kid or anything, but I just unabashedly love the movie too – I know its cheesy, but I can just put it on and enjoy it any time, maybe mostly because I\u2019m listening to the music. \u00a0And then in recent times, <\/b>War Horse<\/i><\/b> is I think one of his best scores.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s really beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: It came out of nowhere, and the film isn\u2019t particularly that great and I don\u2019t know how he drew his inspiration, but he came up with these themes that are just\u2026 and <\/b>Lincoln <\/i><\/b>too, the themes are incredible, it\u2019s some of his best themes, and you\u2019re just like \u201cwow!\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>I love how Chris Martin plays those trumpet solos. He\u2019s one of the great musicians in all of the world \u2013 not just the brass world. Such a beautiful sound. But you\u2019re right about Lincoln<\/em>, and Amistad<\/em> is up there too. When Steven Spielberg gets really serious in his work, it\u2019s incredible to see what that does to transform John\u2019s approach to writing music. We all know that famous story about Schindler\u2019s List<\/em> and how he felt when he came out of that first screening, but I think that\u2019s evocative and reflective at the same time of their relationship, how they feed off of one another, in every possible emotional way, psychological way, physiological way \u2013 it\u2019s a very physical experience\u2026<\/p>\n JL: They\u2019ve been such good positives on each other\u2019s careers, there\u2019s nothing else that comes close to the synergy that they came up with.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>It will be in the storybooks for the ages, and I don\u2019t know how you feel about Lost In Space<\/em>, but that has some of my favorite orchestrations.<\/p>\n JL: I haven\u2019t gotten really deep into it <\/b>Lost In Space<\/i><\/b>, I\u2019ll have to check it out more.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Do you have the big collection?<\/span><\/p>\n JL: The <\/b>La-La Land Records<\/b><\/a> one, of course!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>That\u2019s a really good one. Since you mention Empire<\/em>, I feel like no matter how many times I listen to The\u00a0Empire Strikes Back<\/em>, I hear something different. And it might be something as simple as what the piccolo is doing against the glock with the two flutes voiced above it, something that might only exist for two seconds, but there\u2019s so much color in that score, it\u2019s unreal.<\/p>\n JL: Speaking of color, <\/b>Azkaban<\/i><\/b> is crazy colorful!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> That\u2019s one of the most challenging things on the podium with this one, getting your brain out of X and into Y and then into Z.\u00a0 He covers hundreds of years of music history in the course of 2 and a half hours and it\u2019s all <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> well done!<\/span><\/p>\n JL: It seems at first like it\u2019s all these completely different elements, and then it all starts coming together. \u00a0You go from the waltz for Aunt Marge to the eerie playground landscape to the crazy Knight Bus music to a different kind of eerie for the Dementors, and it\u2019s all different, then once the kind of medieval soundscape sets in, it kind of binds it all together.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>Well, I think the constant among the three Potter<\/em> scores by John is the amount of tempo changes. Not all films are like that, but because there are so many varying speeds of what\u2019s happening on film, the same thing follows with the music. So that\u2019s certainly shared amongst the three films, along with the amount of physicality and concentration that goes into pulling these off.<\/p>\n What makes this score more challenging than the first two are things revolving around style<\/em> and color<\/em>, and being able to shift the orchestra very quickly from early renaissance to traditional John Williams \u2013 like with \u201cSaving Buckbeak\u201d for example \u2013 and then shifting right away to the really eerie chamber trio in the string section with ponticello tremolo playing. And then after that, you have to have the choir sing as if they\u2019re in a church! So all of that very closely juxtaposed to one another is very difficult psychologically and emotionally from the podium, and it certainly is for the musicians, and it\u2019s so rewarding at the end of these shows.<\/p>\n JL: I can only imagine!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> The synchronization on this one is another issue. \u00a0And I can\u2019t speak for all my colleagues, but most of them that I know prefer to use click track on these shows, and I do everything without click track. \u00a0So we have an added element of suspense perhaps on stage, but I think ultimately it\u2019s much more musical and still you can be just as accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: The lip sync for Double Trouble was spot-on at rehearsal yesterday – first take, it was great! \u00a0The tick-tock noise that comes in when they go back in time, does that add a different challenge to conducting through that?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>It does, because that\u2019s coming in on a pre-recorded track. That one had a lot of variables, especially in a hall as big as Royal Albert Hall, where there\u2019s a delay from the P.A. at the front to what they\u2019re hearing at the back\u2026 if you\u2019re not on with the orchestra right where the visuals are, they have no chance in the back of feeling like everything\u2019s together. In that particular cue, a challenge for the orchestra is not listening in to the tick-tock that they hear in the house, because that\u2019s a delayed sound versus the one that I have to keep them to. That\u2019s easily one of the most challenging synchronization pieces in the film.<\/p>\n I have a little audio monitor on stage, but I probably have 2-3% in my monitor compared to most conductors because I don\u2019t like to be distracted from what I\u2019m doing here with the orchestra. And when I know that what I\u2019m doing is correct, then what\u2019s coming from the monitor doesn\u2019t really matter. You can hear the dialogue and effects in the hall, so\u2026<\/p>\n JL: And you have faith in your team running the mixing boards that everything\u2019s going to come out right.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>Oh yeah, we travel with the same 3-4 creative teams everywhere we go, for the most part, so we quality-control it with conductors, sound engineers, and production supervisors who are trained in these shows. So no matter which orchestra we work with, having the same production team adds a little bit of quality control.<\/p>\n JL: How much time do you get with each new orchestra between when you land and when you have to put on a show?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s usually about 5 hours split among 2 rehearsals.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Wow!<\/b><\/p>\n That\u2019s after the two and a half to three weeks they had to learn the music, but it\u2019s not apples to apples. It\u2019s very much apples to insert-your-fruit-of-choice. But it\u2019s not easy, even as well-prepared as the books are. And the errata list is making sure the changes are where they need to be so you don\u2019t have to stop in the middle of rehearsal and say, \u201cOh, I think that might be an F#,\u201d or, \u201cOh, there\u2019s a misprint\u201d\u2026 we try to avoid that as much as we can. Even with all those things taken care of before we arrive\u2026 *laughing*<\/em> it\u2019s two and a half hours of music you have to learn!<\/p>\n JL: Is there still adjustments that you make in one venue that you didn\u2019t do in the last because of something with those specific musicians?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>Always. Every orchestra has a different identity, a different color, a different sound. Every hall is different. The acoustical challenges are never the same, even when you come back to the same hall. Maybe the score is a little different and you have a different issue to deal with stage left or stage right, or a sound effect gets in the way of that note, where the same sound effect didn\u2019t get in the way of that same note because that note didn\u2019t exist in the first score, you know?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a constantly evolving set of variables\u2026 and if we were just taking just Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/em> on the road, and we were going in tractor trailers from city to city with a touring orchestra, even a score as magnificent as this one might feel a little bit, dare I say repetitive, only because it\u2019s with the same folks day in and day out. But when you get to hit the reset button and work with a new orchestra with the same score, at least for me the feeling is like you\u2019re being reborn and you get to do it all over again \u2013 and it\u2019s just as challenging! I\u2019d hoped that these would get easier as we go on, but they don\u2019t! *laughing*<\/em><\/p>\n JL: You\u2019ve done so many!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> I gotta tell you, this is the third performance tonight of three in two days, and I still feel like it\u2019s going to be just as challenging, if not more, because it\u2019s the one where we\u2019re all gonna be struggling to get those last notes at the end credits. \u00a0But it\u2019s just great.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: When did you become aware of Live to Projection concerts?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Well, CineConcerts is now nearly six years old, and we started with Gladiator, that was our launching with Hans [Zimmer]. Before that it really goes back to when I was a kid. Not unlike you, Star Wars was part of my introduction to John. It wasn\u2019t the entire soundtrack, but it was track 15 of By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra<\/strong><\/em>, you know, from the 80\u2019s. So I was introduced to John\u2019s music simultaneously with Gustav Mahler\u2019s, and the Chicago Symphony performing it. So my ears were just on overload that day \u2013 my grandfather, when I was very young, bought these albums for me\u2026 and I knew instantly, I fell in love with film music and concert music at the same time.<\/p>\n And so I\u2019ve always had a passion for John\u2019s music, since I was a young boy, and film music in general. I learned to appreciate it much more when I was lucky enough to have spent time with Jerry Goldsmith before he passed away, and learning from him, and really appreciating the craft more and more. And as we all know he was a real master of the technique\u2026<\/p>\n JL: <\/b>Oh yea!<\/strong><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> I mean, incredible right? So I have always loved his craft, and in my young adult years always hoped that we could do more of these, but I knew then in my early 20s that the technology really wasn\u2019t there. I mean, John Goberman was doing some things successfully with Casablanca<\/em>, and there was Looney Tunes<\/em> out there, and then The Lord of the Rings<\/em> came \u2013 which was for many years when I was conducting it, still done on film!<\/p>\n JL: I didn\u2019t realize that!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> We\u2019re carrying around 80 lbs. of film around the world, throwing it through projectors, literally having to cut film backstage in the Sydney Opera House, because the projectors would destroy the film. So the technology has certainly gotten better and I\u2019ve always wanted to be involved somehow. I hope in some small humble way, we\u2019re helping to further the craft.<\/p>\n JL: So you were conducting <\/b>Lord of the Rings<\/i><\/b> long before CineConcerts right?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: How did that opportunity come about?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> When I once worked at William Morris, when I was still in the agenting sphere (which is a kind of bizarre break in my life from composition), someone who I trained ended up going over to the agency that was responsible for The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. So I made an introduction to Ludwig Wicki, and he and I now are very, very close friends. So Ludwig and I did a substantial amount of film concerts before CineConcerts was started, and from there we just kind of ping-ponged with Gladiator<\/em>, The Godfather<\/em>, Breakfast at Tiffany\u2019s<\/em>, Harry Potter…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n JL: How did you decide you wanted to have your own company that would do these, rather than just be hired by other companies?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>I guess it was the composer in me, because I learned very young that what made it fun to be involved at that stage of the craft was, you know, creating. So perhaps that was part of it, the penchant or yearning for wanting to be involved with these projects from the very beginning. And some of them are incredibly challenging to put together.. and they\u2019re fun!<\/p>\n Walking off the podium for Azkaban<\/em> knowing that we just journeyed through so much music history, it reminds me of just how infinitesimally small our contributions really are in the context of music history. If we can have just a little tiny part of it\u2026 and in the case of the Harry Potter<\/em> films, finding a way to connect with the young person, the young musician and finding a way to inspire them to perhaps become a musician, or practice more, or become a filmmaker, an actor, an artist, whatever it is. Because we all have stories like that, where we heard something, we saw something, we did something that turned the light bulb on for us, and we went a different way.<\/p>\n JL: So then, is the “fun aspect” something that helps you choose which films you might want to add to your repertoire? \u00a0\u201cI would have fun conducting this one, so I\u2019ll seek out and try to license it\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>Sure \u2013 that\u2019s one of the first things! It\u2019s like, \u201cWhat do I love?\u201d I won\u2019t do any of these unless I really do love the score, and Breakfast at Tiffany\u2019s<\/em> is a great example. It hasn\u2019t been incredibly commercially successful, but it\u2019s one of Hank [Mancini]\u2019s greatest scores.<\/p>\n JL: Absolutely!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> It\u2019s incredible!<\/span><\/p>\n JL: And everyone knows \u201cMoon River\u201d!<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s incredible, and being able to have a live guitar accompanying Audrey on screen is just tickling. I definitely have to love the score first, but as more and more of these enter the marketplace it becomes more important that the film is also strong. There are a lot of amazing examples where the film is not so strong and the score is incredible, absolutely incredible, but might not be right for the space. And vice versa \u2013 I mean, *laughing*<\/em> I\u2019ll watch Top Gun<\/em> any day of the week, but there\u2019s no way it would work in a symphony hall.<\/p>\n JL: Or something like <\/b>Hook <\/i><\/b>which may be an incredible score, but would be hard to sell tickets.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>It would, I think so, yea. But amazing, that music.\u00a0\u00a0That it came out of the same brain as\u2026 what would be one of the furthest from that, maybe <\/span>Memoirs of a Geisha<\/span><\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Or just doing <\/b>Jurassic Park<\/i><\/b> and <\/b>Schindler\u2019s List<\/i><\/b> back to back, you know?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>There you go. There\u2019s a great story: When Jerry was still around, he was interviewed once by someone who was asking about both his career and a little bit of John\u2019s career, talking about the technique of writing for superheroes or writing for love stories and themes. And Jerry was asked his opinion of John, and of course he was just unabashedly positive – they were close and both giants in their craft, but for some reason Jerry was asked if John perhaps had done it all already. And Jerry\u2019s response was very poignantly, \u201cGo listen to Schindler\u2019s List<\/em>, and then come back.\u201d And this is from Jerry Goldsmith who of course grew up in a Jewish family and had such an appreciation for that culture and that music, and to hear Jerry speak so positively about John\u2019s music to Schindler\u2019s List<\/em> put a huge smile on my face.<\/p>\n JL: How did you meet Jerry Goldsmith?<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>At UCLA, when I was still at school \u2013 he was the one who convinced me to come back for my graduate work. I had been planning on taking a break, I really needed a break from music, and I spent about a year and a half training with a family friend who was a Navy SEALs team commander to try to get into SEALs training in BUD\/S and then come back and finish music. And Jerry got wind that I wasn\u2019t coming back, and we started talking and he convinced me to come back. When he said, \u201cCome get your other degree and I\u2019ll try to help you the best I can,\u201d it was a no-brainer. It was a tough call to tell then-Chief Getka, \u201cOh, sorry\u2026\u201d *laughs*<\/em><\/p>\n JL: Well, it worked out for you!<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> Even just the year and a half before Jerry got a little too sick to continue his craft, he was just one of the most humble men. \u00a0And you hear that not only in his music but also in John\u2019s music all over the place, how humble these men really are.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: Super humble.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> And I love being able to hear that in their music and feel that with our emotions when we respond to their stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n JL: It\u2019s interesting, I feel like Williams never thinks anything is really finished, he always thinks he can improve it, can do better. \u00a0That\u2019s why you get, 30 years later, \u201cHan Solo and the Princess\u201d totally redone by him, just because he wanted to.<\/b><\/p>\n JF:<\/strong> <\/span>It\u2019s admirable, I mean, if any of us can have one tenth of what he has at his age \u2013 at any age! \u2013 for the rest of the world would be amazing. But he\u2019s a giant among giants, and I think because of how many people have grown up with his music and have found themselves maturing in so many ways and levels of their lives, that John Williams is the soundtrack of so many people\u2019s entire life span. And that\u2019s pretty incredible.<\/p>\n For more information about CineConcerts\u2019 ongoing concerts around the world, you can visit their official website and follow CineConcerts on social media:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.cineconcerts.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CineConcerts\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/CineConcertsLLC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cineconcerts\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/cineconcerts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n All photos courtesy of Christie Goodwin, originally posted to Facebook at <\/span>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CineConcerts\/posts\/2238340456455229<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are \u00a9 & \u2122 WBEI. WIZARDING WORLD trademark and logo \u00a9 & \u2122 WBEI. Publishing Rights \u00a9 JKR. (s18)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Special Thanks to Marcy LeBlanc<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jwfan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Freer1.jpg\")
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\nJL: What challenges does <\/b>Prisoner of Azkaban<\/i><\/b> have compared to <\/b>Sorcerer\u2019s Stone<\/i><\/b> and <\/b>Chamber of Secrets<\/i><\/b>, because <\/b>Stone<\/i><\/b> and <\/b>Chamber<\/i><\/b> are so similar to each other as well as more classically orchestral\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jwfan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Freer3-1024x844.jpg\")
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