Arts & Entertainment, Music

Crossing the Line

Lesson time 08:05 min

There is a line between influence, homage, and plagiarism. Danny illustrates how the line is drawn, when you have overstepped the boundaries, and how to rise above and maintain originality.

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Topics include: Context Is Everything · Originality

Danny Elfman

Teaches Music for Film

Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman teaches you his eclectic creative process and his approach to elevating a story with sound.

Preview

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING] - This is a subject that we don't talk about a lot. And I'm calling it crossing the line. And crossing the line means where the line is between homage, inspiration, and plagiarism. And you may think it's simple, but it's not. I was just talking with the composer, John Powell, yesterday about one of his scores and, like, how I thought it was just so incredibly effective. And he says, well, of course, you know, you know that kind of came from a Schubert symphony. I go, no, it didn't. In your mind, it came from Schubert. But I know what you're talking about. And it's not that. It was inspired by that. That gave you a feel. It gave you a thought. And you turned it into something absolutely yours. And it's something that I've heard imitated about 20, 30 times since you did that. And that piece was for "Bourne Identity." So there is a case where it's inspiration. But there's a much bigger issue with crossing the line. And here's where I learned it. Context is everything. I was doing my first film, "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." Pee-wee walks out with a cowboy hat, Western suit, and a pair of guns. And I go, doodle ooh, with an ocarina kind of a sound. And Danny Gold, who was the head of the music department at that time and all the library and everything. He took me aside. He goes, you can't do that. I go, oh, no, isn't there this rule that if you don't use more than a certain number of notes from something, because there was this common school of thought that you're allowed to use one bar or two bars or five notes or eight notes from something else and then go somewhere else after those number of notes. And you're okay. It's not plagiarism. He goes, doesn't exist. It's a absolute nonexistent thing-- got a lot of people seem to think exists. It's all about context. If you were doing a scene and explains it to me in detail where Pee-wee opens a door. And there's some clowns in there. And you use as a sound-- do, doo, loo, because I was said, I'm not doing, doo, doo, doo. That's Morricone. And he goes, no. It's like, in a different kind of scene, you can go, doodle do, do, do, do, with an ocarina, and it's fine. But as soon as you see guns on a cowboy hat, you can't even play the fucking ocarina. He says he owns it. That's it, period. It's the context. If you're trying to invoke a sound of another composer over an image that is in the vein of what they're conveying in the first place, don't do it. You've lost the battle. Now, let me start out by saying that when you get to plagiarism problems, it totally depends on the composer and if it goes to trial. And I've been down that road. It's hard, because if it goes ever in front of, like, a jury of people deciding, no matter what it is, it's a 50-50 chance. I've had more than a dozen lawsuits with "Edward Scissorhands" that goes all over the place-- the commercials, TV shows. And I try to look at the context each time. And I go, sometimes I hear, a...

About the Instructor

From The Simpsons theme to the soundtracks of Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and The Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman’s compositions are original, memorable, and exuberantly weird. Now the Oingo Boingo founder and four-time Oscar nominee shares his unconventional (and uncensored) creative process. Step into Danny’s studio and learn his techniques for evoking emotion and elevating a story through music.

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Danny Elfman

Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman teaches you his eclectic creative process and his approach to elevating a story with sound.

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