On Hans Zimmer's Score: Thoughts, expectations?
Hans Zimmer has already begun work on the score for this film, which is nothing out of the ordinary for a Christopher Nolan film. It is well known that they work closely together, and Hans often starts work on the music before production begins.
Let me start by saying that I definitely like Hans Zimmer. I think he has a good grasp of the emotion he needs to achieve for a scene or sequence, and Nolan weaves his scores well into the footage he edits. That being said, sometimes I do feel like Zimmer loves to find "cycles" in the scores that he crafts - not necessarily a bad thing, and it works well with many of Nolan's sequences - however, I do like when there are some melodic moments to balance it out that maybe feel a bit more unique. Not that this it meant to be either a praise or a critique of Zimmer, but it flows into my next point.
In terms of the overall feel and flow of Dunkirk, what sort of direction would you like Hans to take with it? On the somber side, or maybe more dramatic and percussive? Personally, I think this film has to achieve a good balance of relaying the story material while holding an emotional and exciting interest in the viewer - I'm not expecting the script to be overly complex. Of course, that's something we'll have to wait and see. But I do feel like this film will rely on the the gravity of the story to set most of its pieces in motion. I would like to hear Zimmer accent some of the heaviness of what is occurring with slower, individual pieces that may or may not be "hum-able" on their own. That being said, for some of the more intense action sequences I would like the dramatic music to have a melody that doesn't necessarily just build the whole time. I think this often works well, but for this I do want the emotion to come from the heart of the pieces and not necessarily from dynamics. I'm not casting dynamics aside, just saying where I personally want the balance to be. I also think this film may be the sort of project that would rely particularly well on emotional moments of silence - something that can be extremely effective for key moments.
That's just my two cents, I would love to discuss this with others! What do all of you think?