Richard Bellis began seine Hollywood-Karriere mit Orchestrierung und Dirigieren von Filmscores. Seinen größten Erfolg als Filmkomponist verzeichnete er bei der Vertonung von Stephen King’s It. Neben der Tätigkeit als Komponist leitet er die jährlichen ASCAP Filmmusik Workshops. Bellis spricht im Interview über die technischen Unterschiede zwischen der Golden Era und heute.

„Film makers and studios thought at the time that music, especially orchestral music, would be noticed and would seem to be artificial. [...] While [a Steiner score] was heard, it was so in tune with the picture and so in tune with the emotions that the picture was trying to evoke that it wasn’t artificial […] and this was a huge step and a huge contribution to our business.“
„Max [Steiner] set the bar for the rest of us and those of us who grew up listening to Max Steiner’s scores will never forget and hope that we can perpetuate that quality that he had.“

Composer Richard Bellis offers his views on the life and times of Max Steiner. Bellis describes the evolution of film music from accompaniment of silent films to seamless scores of the talkies. Bellis is also able to share in depth technical knowledge of innovations such as click tracks, streamers, punches, and flutters that were pioneered by Steiner. He also discusses the process that was used to view the film, write scores, and record scores during the Golden Era. Bellis reflects upon the purpose of music in film and what it means to be a composer now in comparison to the Golden Era.

Die Fragen stellte Sandra Tomek.