Kino Society with Owen Shapiro - School of Music: Creating a Movie’s Musical Story with Film Composer, Gavin Brivik

May 20, 2021

School of Music: Creating a Movie’s Musical Story with Film Composer, Gavin Brivik

Play • 18 min

With the right score, a good movie can become an iconic movie. Gavin Brivik is a diverse hybrid composer best known for his work on the 90th Oscar-nominated film My Nephew Emmett; the Emmy-nominated series produced by Selena Gomez, Living Undocumented; and the Netflix original film Cam. Gavin is not linked to any genre since he is interested in experimenting with each project and constantly entering new experiences. He studied contemporary classical and electronic music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and later received his Masters in Music Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University. Currently, he is wrapping up his debut solo album, Realms and Forms, and recently finished composing the feature film Wild Indian, which premiered at the US Narrative Competition at Sundance 2021.

Here is what you’ll learn:

Why at first Gavin wanted to be a touring guitarist and ended up choosing composition.
How does a composer create music for a movie?
How the movie Cam pushed him to start experimenting more with electronic music.
His belief that the best filmmakers are those who think about the music at the same time that they write the story of the movie.
He says the best collaborations are those of filmmakers who are very open to new ideas and open to something they did not expect.
His admiration for Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead’s guitarist, who did the composition for Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood, and You Were Never Really Here.
Gavin’s love for the movie Good Time; great directing work, and an amazing electro-acoustic electronic music.
The importance of knowing modern technology, and having an open mind to experiment with different genres and styles.