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“During the spotting session we go through the film and at the time the director will brief me on all kinds of things that he or she is hoping to achieve,” explains Marcelo Zarvos. “Sometimes a piece of temp music might be chosen for a lot of reasons but there may be one element that works and you try to understand what that is.” The incorporation of pre-existing music is a common practise. “My approach has always been that you have to blow it out of the water. You have to go onto something that is much better. Sometimes they’ve been listening to the temp music for months so you have a hard time getting them to break away from it.” Zarvos reveals, “The one thing that I hate is when my music is in the temp score. If it’s somebody else’s music I see what it’s doing and say, ‘I understand that.’ I can write that music. But when it’s your own music from another movie it’s functioning in a completely different way. That can be hard to shake. When it works well it shows you that there is not only one way of doing it.” Changes happen even with a musical score composed specifically for a movie. “Sometimes it happens when you write music it ends up in a different scene and works even better than the original one. I spend a lot of time writing away from the picture for that reason. If the music has a good enough inner strength and integrity chances are that it will be used.”
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“There was a score that I did for a film called
Taking Chance [2009], it was a HBO film with Kevin Bacon [
Mystic River],” remembers Marcelo Zarvos. “We started with an electronic approach and the studio hated it. I always joked that I was fired and I replaced myself because we threw away the whole score and I started again. I wrote a traditional orchestral score which was what the movie needed. I worked on
Taking Chance for over six months and went through a lot of music. In the end I was nominated for an Emmy and the movie was a success.” There is room for musical experimentation with different cinematic genres. “There’s no reason why it always needs to be the same way. It’s a detriment to film. If you have heard that before what does that say about the film? Probably, you’ve seen that before too. It’s the role of the composer to stretch the boundaries while of course realizing the vision of the director. Few directors would argue against, ‘We want to do something special for the film that doesn’t sound like anything else.’”
“The walls have come down mostly between TV and film now,” notes Marcelo Zarvos. “I find it an interesting time where you have so much talent writers, actors, directors going to television because the possibility of doing long form and the quality has improved so much. The schedule of television is gruelling. It’s more like a marathon running than sprinting.” The man behind the camera does not rule supreme on the small screen. “There may be a reason for why you’re seeing such a big explosion in television of quality because what makes a film more than anything is the script and in TV the writers are the ones calling the shots. In the case of
Ray Donovan [2013, Showtime] it is Ann Biderman [
Primal Fear]; she’s a genius and loves music.
The Big C [2010 to 2013, Showtime] I dealt mostly with one producer who was the point person for music. Once we established our language and what course, there was a lot of trial and error. There’s a coherency which is what you try to get with television, in particular, because it is a long run.” Zarvos observes, “
The Big C was a comedy; it was a half hour show with a lot of starts meaning that there were a lot of pieces of music. Sometimes like 15 seconds long. With
Ray Donovan there’s the family drama and intrigue. Then you have a procedural part of the show where Ray is getting the rich and famous out of trouble. It’s a man on a mission with electronic pulsating music and a lot of percussion for the family drama.
Ray Donovan has a filmic approach as far as the score goes.”
“The main difference is that I find myself more and more time writing away from the screen,” reflects Marcelo Zarvos. “I look in all of the time but then I take two days and write a lot of things that feel like the movie to me. Especially in the beginning that’s how I usually like to do it.” A particular genre has yet to be explored. “I would love to do an animated film. You write over a long period of time. You write some music before there is anything to look at. I love animation and I’m a big fan. I’ve always loved as a kid and as a grown-up and now I have young children so I’m revisiting animated films through the eyes of my kids.” Zarvos is being kept busy. “There are a couple things I’m talking to that I’m not at liberty to discuss. I’m definitely doing the next season of
Ray Donovan. Right now I’m working on a classical composition for a group called ECHOES. It’s a complex piece I’ve been working on for a long time between films.”
Many thanks to Marcelo Zarvos for taking the time for this interview and to learn more visit his official website.
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada. 
