House of Dynamite dramatizes the government's response to a missile of unknown origin heading towards a US city within 20 minutes. Director Kathryn Bigelow personally asked Volker Bertelmann to compose the score, and he worked with musicians from George Martin's AIR Studios to create a haunting sound using flutes and other woodwind instruments.
“I had them sing on the instrument and hum as they played to get that moan,” Bertelmann said at the Deadline Sound & Screen: Film event. “I had a feeling that somewhere under the Earth there were beings that were moaning, silently crying about what was happening on Earth. I tried to figure out how I could achieve this with woodwind instruments.”
Bertelmann was so impressed by the AIR staff that he took some of their equipment with him to Düsseldorf.
“I really appreciate their knowledge of microphones,” he said. “I almost bought everything they had for my studio because they were so good with old microphones. I wanted to have the same thing so I could record strings the same way.”
(LR) Deadline's Peter White and Volker Bertelmann at Sound & Screen: Film
Netflix's House of Dynamite tells the story from three points of view: the situation room, the Department of Defense and the President himself (Idris Elba). Bertelmann knew that every perspective had to become more intense.
“It's nice to put the three chapters together because they're all about the same thing, but at the same time they have to escalate, get bolder as the film goes on,” he said. “I felt like I needed very small motifs because they had to be squeezed in between sentences somehow.”
There is so much dialogue in the film that there is little room for music. Fortunately, Bertelmann had experience with minimal scores in the 2022 Edward Berger Tournament. Quiet on the Western Frontwhich brought the composer an Oscar.
“Everything is quiet “I had three notes,” Bertelmann said, “This one has four. I hope to get a fifth and be able to write longer topics. It is very interesting to use small motifs to repeat them, and they are quite memorable. Long lines are not always memorable.”
Check back Monday for video of the panel.
