MUDEDE MUSIC

Seattle’s Hottest Screenwriter
Tells How a Cosmic Symphony Inspired a Story About Sex With Horses

By Alicia Dara

Charles Mudede

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Charles Mudede has a unique take on the scriptwriting process: “When I’m writing I make a compilation of possible music choices. I listen to it all the time until I can say, ‘that’s the one.’ Music must be on all the time, so that you never lose track of what you’re supposed to feel. When you put the images against the music you can see right away, ‘oh that’s not going to work’, or ‘yes, that’s exactly right.’”

A lifelong music aficionado, and sometime critic, Mudede’s musical knowledge extends through afro-pop, reggae, classic rock, jazz, and classical music from all over the globe. During the writing of Zoo he drew from a single piece that informed the entire film: “I found this piece called The Planets by Gustav Holst, and I said, this is it, this is what we have to build around. This is the atmosphere of the whole thing. It wasn’t over the top, but there was just enough hint of mystery, and also the cosmic thing, as if Holst is moving through space. Space travel had not yet occurred at the time of his writing the piece, so it’s extraordinary.”

Mudede sought the counsel of his team, and a consensus was quickly reached: “I took the piece to Joe [Shapiro, editor of Zoo and Police Beat], and he loved it, and Rob [Devor, director of the two films] agreed, so we used it with our composer, Paul Moore.”

Moore composed a haunting score around The Planets, using both traditional piano and electronic sounds: “We called [some of the score] ‘Baby Neptune’, after that particular movement in Holst’s symphony. The melody was sent backwards through a processor and came out mixed up and beautiful all the way through. [It appears in] my favorite sequence in the film, when Mr. Hands arrives home, and writes his check, then you cut to the long drive in the country.”

Still image from Charles Mudede's Zoo

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On Police Beat, Mudede’s critically acclaimed first film from 2005, the score came largely from pre-recorded work rather than a composer original to the project. “Something on Police Beat that I’m really proud of [is our use of music by] William Grant Stills. He’s the only major African-American composer. I’ve been a big fan of his collection of mystical classical pieces, and bought the rights to 2 of the songs. I was really happy the day I sent his estate a check!”

Currently Mudede and Devor are working on a brand new script, and Mudede’s musical tastes are present: “It’s called, Dynasty and will be shot next year. It’s about the breakdown of consumer society, a sort of consumer fairy tale. We’ve been using a traditional Japanese flute through the first half, very mournful and slow. But the rest of it, I think it might actually end up being a jazz score.”

The use of current pop songs in film soundtracks is a sore subject with Mudede. “I do think if I were making films in Hollywood, there would be a lot of pressure to use these kinds of songs. But that would break completely from that magical sense of the character,” he says. In Mudede’s creative process, he looks for “the perfect piece of score that we can bring to the art and create the perfect scene. What happens is quite different from the pop world. It’s just another kind of filmmaking.”

“Film is one of the only narrative forms where a piece of music can start the story, as much as any image or action,” he adds.

Zoo's Theatrical Poster

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CHARLES MUDEDE’S RECOMENDED LISTENING:

The Planets by Gustav Holst
Vertigo and North by Northwest directed by Alfred Hitchcock, score by Bernard Herrmann
The Man With The Golden Arm directed by Otto Preminger, score by Elmer Bernstein
Killer of Sheep featuring the voice of Dinah Washinton
Dangerous Liasons directed by Roger Vadim, featuring the music of Thelonious Monk
Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese, score by Bernard Herrmann