The Film Scorer

One of the great pleasures of this show is talking to people whose work I really enjoy. Although I'd known Keegan Dewitt's music for a number of years (probably first taking notice with 2018's Gemini), his score for last year's The Chair Company really floored me, with the distinct and ever-changing palette and approaches intriguing me almost as much as the show's labyrinthine plot. So with all that said, it's great to have Keegan on the show. However, we really focus on Keegan's latest project - scoring the hit romance series Off Campus.

As such, we spend much of the conversation talking about his score for Off Campus, including collaborating with the show's time (particularly the music supervisor's and series creator Louisa Levy) and a little snafu where he accidentally disclosed some confidential behind-the-scenes info early on in the show. Along the way, we cover a number of his other projects, discuss how to score comedy and romance in new ways, and the three reasons to take on a project.

Keegan's score for Off Campus, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Amazon Prime. You can find out more about Keegan on his website.

On the latest episode of The Film Scorer podcast, I'm joined by John Paesano (Daredevil, Marvel's Spider-Man)! I've been a fan of John's for a while, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes being a recent favorite, so it was an extra pleasure chatting with him. His latest score is for the Netflix series The Boroughs, in which he channels an 80s/early-90s big, symphonic, melodic adventure style of scoring. Given that the show itself is designed to be very score-heavy, with music going right in the forefront, it takes full advantage of John's score, a welcome refresher given how much less-common the style of scoring has become. While he talk a fair bit about The Boroughs, it's only one of many topics, which include Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the hesitancy of using symphonic scoring, and (my favorite) a chance "encounter" we had more than fifteen years ago.

John's score for The Boroughs, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix. You can find out more about John on his website.

Here we are, season 6, episode 2, things are in motion, momentum is building, and I'm joined by one of my favorite composers: Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Smile)! Cristo's latest project is the 2026 BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies, featuring some incredible child actor performances and an increasingly psychedelic and psychotic score. We focus our conversation around that score, but inevitably veer off into different directions, also covering some of his past works with Lord of the Flies director and his longtime collaborator Marc Munden as well as Smile director Parker Finn, our shared interest in metal, the inspiration and magic of the unknown, and plenty more. I even ask point-blank about what happened in The White Lotus. How does he answer?

Cristo's score for Lord of the Flies, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix.

After a long wait and seemingly unending anticipation, Season 6 of The Film Scorer Podcast is here! To kick off the new season, I'm joined by the very rare repeat guest, the great Colin Stetson! Colin and I talked several years back (much longer ago than it feels), right around when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out, really digging into the weirdness of his score. This time, our focus is technically on his score for the new show Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, but we get off track almost immediately and seemingly never recover, talking about the show as well as his series of improv/collaboration releases, Chainsaw, playing on audience expectations, and trying to imbue projects with real and honest human experience. Frankly, it ended up pretty wide-ranging.

Colin's score for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix.

And if you haven't yet, be sure to check out our prior conversation here: https://thefilmscorer.com/colin-stetson-on-scoring-texas-chainsaw-massacre/

Season Six of The Film Scorer Podcast is almost here! The new season launches on Sunday, May 31st, with new episodes continuing every other Sunday after that (more or less). Season five had some huge interviews, like Oscar winner Daniel Blumberg, Max Richter, Oneohtrix Point Never, Thomas Newman, and even the noise rock band Chat Pile, so you never who will show up this time around. But I'll give you a taste of what's to come - Season six kicks off with Colin Stetson and Cristobal Tapia de Veer, and it only goes from there.

So subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow The Film Scorer on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky, and keep those ears open!