Top film music composers from ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ ‘Us,’ ‘The King,’ ‘The Report’ on how they choose projects [WATCH]

“None of us know the right answer in the beginning,” admits composer Nicholas Britell when asked about how he begins work on a new project. Britell was one of four top musical maestros who participated in Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel discussion recently at the Landmark Theater, which was moderated by managing editor Chris Beachum. Watch the full interview with Britell, Michael Abels (“Us”), Alan Silvestri (“Avengers: Endgame”) and David Wingo (“The Report”) above. Watch 10-minute individual interviews with each of them by clicking on their names above.

For Britell, who was there on behalf of Netflix’s medieval epic “The King,” “it’s really impossible for me to know what works until I actually put stuff against the picture. So there are those early conversations where we’ll have interesting conversations” with the filmmakers (in this case, director David Michod), “it’s very sobering to get the footage and then to try things out.” Often that means just trying out “different sounds, different instruments. Doesn’t have to be music. It can just be tones and colors and things like that.”

The four panelists are all awards season veterans. Abels won the Black Reel Award and the International Online Cinema Award for “Get Out” (2017). Britell reaped Oscar nominations for “Moonlight” (2016) and “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018) and won an Emmy earlier this year for “Succession.” Silvestri has earned Oscar bids in score for “Forrest Gump” (1994) and song for “The Polar Express” (2004) and won Emmys for his score and main title theme to “Cosmos.” Wingo earned his first Emmy bid this year for his score to “Barry.”

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