Elmer Bernstein

I have this thing that if I run the rough cut of the film often enough, over and over again, it will start to talk to me. It will tell me stuff. Eventually, the tone I need will come to me. Then you have something that fits, some sense of integration with the film instead of just slapping some wallpaper at the end.

Elmer Bernstein died last week. If you don't recognize his name, you'll recognize his music. He was a talented film composer who worked from the 1950s up to two years ago. Some of the scores you may recognize were "The Ten Commandments", "The Magnificent Seven", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Animal House", "Airplane!", "Ghostbusters", "My Left Foot", "Cape Fear", "The Age of Innocence", "Bringing Out the Dead" and "Far From Heaven".