What If We Could?
by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - What If We Could. From Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [2011]: David Fincher’s Commentary
So the title sequence. We had this cover of “Immigrant Song”. I was riding in a van in Sweden and had my iPhone with me…and I was listening to Led Zeppelin, and this song came on and I-I mean, aside from the incredibly, inanely obvious: “I come from the land of the ice and snow”… I just like the idea of an anthemnal, incredibly famous track that could be wailed by a woman. And I called Trent and I said: “What do you think of a cover of ‘Immigrant Song’?” I think at first he thought I was joking [laughing]. And I said, “No, imagine, you know, a woman’s voice singing this.” And he did a version just to the music and I listened to it and I thought it’s evocative of what I think Lisbeth is— Not thinking, but, you know, sort of her marrow. What’s happening down deep inside her bones. And we got Karen O. Ren Klyce gave us Karen’s e-mail address and we asked her to do this. And I think in about three or four days they had a version of this song that was— To my mind, it was undeniable. It just seemed like such a great sort of kindred spirit to what I thought Lisbeth was about. And then we needed visuals to go with it. I went to Tim Miller at Blur, and I said: “What can you do along the lines of a nightmare? What would Lisbeth’s nightmare be?” And he came back with about 50 different little scene cards and we whittled it down to about 20-25. And I turned to him and said: “That looks great. You got eight weeks. Go.”
Hidden In Snow by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. For The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
TERRY GROSS: And that’s music that my guest Trent Reznor co-composed for the new American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” There’s something so industrial, machine-like about - not the keyboard part, but what was going - that kind of whooshing, pulsing thing behind it. What did you use to get that sound?
TRENT REZNOR: We wanted to take lots of acoustic instruments, from strings to lots of different bell instruments and prepared piano - which is what’s featured in “Hidden Snow” quite a bit - and transplant them into a very inorganic setting, and kind of dress the set around them with electronics.
So you were hearing a lot of live, modular synthesizers creating a kind of icy or pulsing bed with something that feels very non-electronic, an organic and imperfect instrument played imperfectly, sitting on top of that. And that’s kind of one of the templates we use for this film.
GROSS: Prepared piano is when you open up the lid, and you kind of stick stuff on the piano strings so it doesn’t sound like it typically should. What did you prepare it with?
REZNOR: We picked up a bunch of upright pianos for cheap, and then we just started trying things, from clothespins to nailing nails into where the strings go, some of it ruining the instrument, some of it just creating imperfections so that you’d have to learn to play certain melodies a certain way because certain keys wouldn’t work. Certain notes would ring in funny ways and create interesting interactions between the notes.
It’s a very hit-and-miss procedure, and also very volatile because you might get something good, but when you - the melody you’re looking for, the string changes or the clothespin pops off, or the item that’s sitting on top of the strings buzzing just right isn’t there when you go back to that note. It’s a frustrating, but fun process to go through.
GROSS: In a way, the kind of sound that you get when you’re doing your more kind of industrial soundscape kind of stuff, it’s, in a way, the kind of sound that we’re constantly trying to block out because there’s constantly, like, soda machines that are like buzzing in the background or, you know, like some kind of like washing machine that you’re trying to tune out or refrigerator that’s vibrating.
You know, there’s so many, like, machines that we really try not to pay attention to. Have you ever, like, focused on those sounds and tried to hear, like, what’s interesting about that?
REZNOR: Oh, very much so. And I think early on in my career, I was heavily inspired by bands like Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept, and films of David Lynch, for example, where the soundscape plays a very important role in the listening experience. In Nine Inch Nails’ catalog, for example, as early as “Downward Spiral,” there was a lot of effort and experiments going on layering in sounds that might bother you under music to create a sense of anxiety.
And I’ve always found that it’s an interesting kind of instrument to bring into the mix, creating melody and/or purpose out of noise, and the various shapes noise can take, whether it could be the hum of a radiator, to a room tone that could be compressed and amplified and even tuned in to kind of become something that makes you - that evokes some sort of emotional response.
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12:09
What If We Could by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. From The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
![“[The title sequence] was always supposed to be a very abstract version of key moments in the book and about Lisbeth. It was really supposed to be her nightmare sequence. Being a hacker is such a big part of her personality and who she was, we needed some imagery for that but it’s kind of hard to represent that abstractly. So the ones we came up with were the keyboard elements.” - Tim Miller, title sequence creative director for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxdbhwvIi41qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
“[The title sequence] was always supposed to be a very abstract version of key moments in the book and about Lisbeth. It was really supposed to be her nightmare sequence. Being a hacker is such a big part of her personality and who she was, we needed some imagery for that but it’s kind of hard to represent that abstractly. So the ones we came up with were the keyboard elements.” - Tim Miller, title sequence creative director for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
![“[Rooney Mara] was sent over to me to start teaching her to ride,” says Kell. “She had never been on a bike before, so we had to start easy. I’ve trained many actors to ride over the years, and I must say that Rooney was one of the best. She was fearless, but smart. In three days, we had her doing everything that she needed to do on camera at 35 mph.” (via Of motorcycles and movies)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx036fVOrr1qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
“[Rooney Mara] was sent over to me to start teaching her to ride,” says Kell. “She had never been on a bike before, so we had to start easy. I’ve trained many actors to ride over the years, and I must say that Rooney was one of the best. She was fearless, but smart. In three days, we had her doing everything that she needed to do on camera at 35 mph.” (via Of motorcycles and movies)
20:55
(via Of motorcycles and movies)
About a year ago, I finished reading the final instalment of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium trilogy”. I found these Swedish crime novels absolutely gripping—and not just because the heroine Lisbeth Salander rides a motorcycle. In two weeks, the US movie adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will be released—so here’s a timely look at how the motorcycles used in the film were prepared. The job was given to Justin Kell of Glory Motor Works in LA, and it’s an insight into a rarely-seen aspect of the film-making process.
“I got the call to meet with [director] David Fincher and discuss motorcycles for a new film he was doing,” says Kell. “I bought all three Larsson books and read them in three days: the character of Lisbeth Salander is killer. As I read the books, I kept thinking that Lisbeth’s bike would be the kind of bike most 20-somethings with limited financial recourses would ride. She wouldn’t have an expensive modern bike: she would have an inexpensive older bike that would be customized to fit her personality.”
Originally, the producers considered using modern bikes. “I had to convince Fincher that we could build vintage bikes to be as reliable as modern bikes. David leaves no detail untouched: he knows that a broken motorcycle can delay production and cost the film company thousands of dollars.” Kell also had to keep the art director happy, make the bike fit the conceptual drawings, and build bikes that would start and perform whenever called upon.
He had 30 days to find, buy and rebuild three late-60s Honda CB350s. “I went after low mileage, original machines in stock condition. We looked at updating charging systems and upgrading performance.” The script called for a lot of high speed riding, plus off-road action on ice and snow. Bikes in movies are usually started and shut down hundreds of times during a day of filming: this means that starter motors have to be rebuilt, and three-wire high-output charging systems installed.
Kell also increased the battery box size, so he could fit a higher amperage sealed battery. “The lighting is always super important in a Fincher film, so the bikes were fitted with HID lamps. All the metal parts were stripped and cleaned, and sent out for paint, powdercoating, polishing or cadmium plating. “We ended up powdercoating the wheels and using bigger gauge SS spokes. We replaced everything: new clutches, new brakes, new wiring harnesses and every fastener on the bike. The motors were torn down to the cranks, we trued the flywheels, did valve jobs and replaced pistons and rings.” The carbs were rebuilt and the fuel tanks were stripped and re-lined. Flat track style seats were installed, covered in vintage glove leather.
“We had to build one bike first to get the final approval from David,” says Kell. “We finished that one in about two weeks.” Fincher gave the okay to build two more bikes, and cast Rooney Mara to play Lisbeth Salander. “She was sent over to me to start teaching her to ride,” says Kell. “She had never been on a bike before, so we had to start easy. I’ve trained many actors to ride over the years, and I must say that Rooney was one of the best. She was fearless, but smart. In three days, we had her doing everything that she needed to do on camera at 35 mph.
The final two weeks were “mayhem. Getting three full rebuilds together at the same time requires a lot of diplomacy and hundred dollar bills. We had 30 days straight of 16-hour days, but we finished the bikes on schedule. The day after we turned the last screw, the bikes were in crates on the way to Stockholm for the shoot.”
The bikes are now back in LA though, and Kell is tearing them down yet again—this time to prepare for the second film.
