5 ?'s w/Rachel Portman - THEIR FINEST

1. Did the director give you any interesting instructions or feedback to help you create the tonal palette?

RP: Their Finest is set in 1940s London during the Blitz.  The music is a mixture of orchestral wistful, thematic, at times up-tempo underscore with Themes for Catrin the protagonist and for the war.

2.  Was there a particular scene you felt was key to the film?

RP: Lone, the director, collaborates closely on the score.  One of the main features of the score is the film score for the film within the film, ‘The Nancy Starling’.  I had to create a film score of the period, which was very enjoyable to write.

3.  Which scene did you score first and why?

RP: I scored the writing montage first, where the main characters’ ideas flow as they type.  I always look for a montage or some longer piece within the film to find my themes.

4.  What other scores by you have been released on Varèse?

The Right Kind of Wrong

Belle

Never Let Me Go

Nicholas Nickleby

Grey Gardens

The Manchurian Candidate

War Of The Buttons

The Road to Wellville

5.  Did you use any interesting or unusual instrumentation?

RP: Their Finest has a medium sized orchestra – strings, brass, woodwind and percussion with piano.  There are a couple of songs included in the soundtrack that the actors sang in the pub which are of the period, including Bill Nighy’s lilting rendition of ‘Will you Go, Lassie, Go.’