Although he made his first reputation with the POLICE ACADEMY movies, Robert Folk has proven over the last 17 years to be a first-rate composer with a gift for melody and tonality whose scores for such films as TOY SOLDIERS, LAWNMOWER MAN II, TREMORS, MILES FROM HOME, and ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS. We highlighted Folk’s new score for NOTHING TO LOSE in our September issue – a recent encounter with the composer afforded a chance to catch up on several of his other scores.
Q: How did you get involved in film music scoring?
Robert Folk: I started off as a rocker when I was a kid, and then moved back to New York where I was from, went to Juilliard and got heavily into the serious music world, all the classical repertoire, contemporary music, etc. I ended up staying there for ten years, did a Ph.D. there, and ended up teaching there and then finally got the film bug. I had a student who was the son of a filmmaker and the rest is history… Just one of those by-chance meetings. It just kind of caught my attention. I was always kind of a film buff, I was really in the kind of concert world at that point, not really thinking of film music that much as a writer.
Q: Your score for LAWNMOWER MAN was a full blown symphonic score written for full orchestra and chorus that keeps this rather lame sequel moving along at breakneck speed…
Folk: I felt LAWNMOWER MAN film was a terrific film, but one I don’t think has been seen by that many people. I think the release and the promotion of the film kind of fell below the desired level. A very interesting science fiction piece, with a great visual style by a director named Farhad Mann, who like Ridley or a Tony Scott had done lots and lots of international commercials and just had that real great visual style that those guys seem to acquire. Also a great feeling with the high-tech interaction for the look of the movie.
of SUNSET BOULEVARD has a short featurette (15 minutes) about the Franz Waxman score for the film. Waxman’s son John, Elmer Bernstein and others talk about the score, the orchestrations, etc., using clips from the film to illustrate everything.Percepto Records will be releasing a CD of the classic Vic Mizzy scores to the films THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN and THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT, Mark Snow’s score to ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS, an album called BRUCE BROUGHTON: CARTOON CONCERTO (containing suites from TINY TOONS, ROGER RABBIT and other animated shorts), and THE DREAMER OF OZ plus YOUNG HARRY HOUDINI by Lee Holdridge.