AC/DC and Van Halen were the first acts that came to mind when director Harald Zwart was looking to score a two-minute fight scene in upcoming adventure film “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” Iconic, bold, loud rock defined Zwart’s impulsive reaction to the scene before he asked his music partners what could make it different.
Republic Records executive VP of A&R Tom Mackay suggested keeping the target audience of 14- to 20-year-olds in mind and began scouring iTunes to find potential EDM tracks to license.
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“He immediately got it. We had to ask ourselves, ‘What would the next generation [enjoy]?'” Mackay says, detailing how they came to ask 23-year-old electronic music producer Zedd to score the scene. “We gauged Zedd’s interest and he knew the book, and it all organically went from there. In the end it’s a two-minute piece of music that was completely constructed punch for punch, movement for movement to the scene.”
As summer films continue to shift away from song-driven music in favor of scores, the opportunity to become involved with a franchise like “The Mortal Instruments” is becoming increasingly rare. Potentially the next “Twilight” franchise — the sequel film, “City of Ashes,” is in preproduction — Cassandra Clare’s five “Mortal Instruments” novels are already a hit in the young adult fantasy book world, sitting at No. 1 on the New York Times Children’s Series Best Sellers list.
It’s the largest-scale pure soundtrack project for Universal Music Group’s Republic Records, coming in between the first two “Hunger Games” “inspired by” albums and following the label’s assumption of some marketing and radio promotion for “Pitch Perfect” from Universal Music Entertainment, which has sold 822,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The soundtrack, due Aug. 20 (the day before the film’s Wednesday release), features five new tracks, four of which were written to picture. It’s also the first time Mackay has assumed the duties of a music supervisor.
The new tracks come mostly from the Republic roster — Zedd, Ariana Grande and Colbie Caillat — but the film’s centerpiece is Demi Lovato singing a new Diane Warren song, “Heart by Heart.” Caillat’s track, “When the Darkness Comes,” went on sale in advance of the album, which will have different editions at Walmart, Target and iTunes, and feature three different covers at physical retail.
In effect, Lovato, Zedd and Grande (who duets with the Wanted’s Nathan Sykes on “Almost Is Never Enough”) will have new material in the film while working songs from their current releases.
“To be honest, I prefer that they are in cycle,” Mackay says, adding that a good theatrical run will be key for the soundtrack to work at retail. “[The artists are] active, their social [accounts] are active, everything’s firing for them as individual artists. The fact that we have exclusive music that you can only buy on our soundtrack is a nice added dimension.”
Among this year’s summer films with song-based soundtracks, “Fast & Furious 6” is the biggest seller so far at 50,000 copies. “Despicable Me 2” — with a new track from Cee Lo Green, four songs from Pharrell Williams and Heitor Pereira’s score — has sold 8,000. Sony’s “The Smurfs 2,” leading with the Britney Spears single “Ooh La La,” which peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100, has sold 3,000 copies. No other song-based summer soundtrack is targeting younger listeners.
That hole in the summer schedule played a role in Republic’s decision to create and release the soundtrack, combined with the fact that the film targets a key demographic for the music company and that the director intended to use the songs in lengthy cues. The Caillat track, for example, plays for four minutes at the end of the film.
“I have never been a fan of short music snippets — it feels like they are only there to create a soundtrack,” Zwart says. “If you find the right piece of score or source music, let it breathe, have a clear beginning and edit it so it has an ending. Don’t resort to fading it out.”
On his A&R end, Mackay saw similarities between “The Mortal Instruments” and “Pitch Perfect”: “Compelling music, great songs, great creative direction and a great marriage between music and picture.”
Constantin Films, the German company behind “The Mortal Instruments,” began its search for a soundtrack partner by calling Universal Music in Germany. That led to a call to Republic A&R executive Brett Alperowitz in New York and a follow-up meeting while the film was in production in Canada. Producer Robert Kulzer and Constantin head of marketing Kat Kleiner presented an early sizzle reel to Mackay and Alperowitz, and decided to tackle the music in Los Angeles at the home of the film’s U.S. distributor, Sony’s Screen Gems unit.
“It was one of those things we knew instantly we could make it work,” Kleiner says.
Mackay, along with Spring Aspers (“Sparkle,” “Think Like a Man”), took on the role of music supervisor, and for three months met biweekly to view edited scenes and create playlists of potential songs. “Again, it’s a testament to Harald,” Mackay says. “He loved the songs presented and what was being written for him.”
For a segment dubbed “the kiss scene,” eight to 10 songwriters were brought in. Zwart explained the emotion and vibe he was seeking, and 72 hours after she saw the film, Warren called back and said, “I’ve nailed it.”
Zwart and Mackay were sold on the tune since it conveyed the proper emotion, swelling and dipping in the right places. They needed a singer, Mackay says, “who could do a lot of things within the scene. They had to be relatable to that fan base, that female-heavy fan base, and also have the talent and the chops to pull off the notes. It was not an easy song to sing.”
They went outside the Universal family to call on Lovato. Why? Zwart’s a big fan.
“Quite frankly,” Mackay says, “Harald was listening to Demi Lovato and as we were coming up with lists of artists to reach out to, he said, ‘Try to get her.’ She was game from the first phone call.”
Throughout the making of the film Mackay kept Zwart’s iPod filled with playlists that the director used as “a vitamin injection for your mind.” Those playlists ultimately inspired him in terms of where to lean toward a song and where to have Atli Örvarsson add score.
“It’s always impossible to intellectualize music choices — it’s all what your gut tells you,” Zwart says. “You don’t know until you put sound to picture. There’s always a point when you have great performances, great camera angles, and the only thing that can put a scene over the top is the music.”