Film composer Geoff Zanelli B.M. 96 has dozens of projects to his credit, most recently Disneys Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which stars Angelina Jolie. We asked him about his approach to scoring, why hes drawn to certain types of films, and the technical and creative challenges of his chosen career.
Tell us about your score for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Geoff Zanelli: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the second film in the franchise, so its a continuation of the characters and story set out in the first film. That first score, which was brilliantly written by James Newton-Howard, made a distinct choice to honor a classic sound without using the themes from the 1959 animated Sleeping Beauty film, since it was carving such a new path.
The phrase timeless, not trendy kept popping into my head as I wrote my score, and that was a guiding principle. My approach to this score was different from the first one in some ways, but it does still honor the storys roots in classic fairy tales.
You have scored several films for Disney (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Christopher Robin). These films also all have a fantasy element to them. Would you say this genre has become your specialty? Zanelli: Yes, I realized recently that Ive become a Disney composer! Its hard to say exactly why. Films, filmmakers, and composers gravitate toward each other, surely, and thats part of the reason.
Berklee was and continues to be the perfect playground for young musicians. Youve got people from all over the world, and they play instruments and music youve never heard before. They inspire you and hopefully you inspire them, too.
-Geoff Zanelli B.M. 96
I was raised on fantasy films, actually. When I was young, I was a latchkey kid and I had the house to myself for a few hours after school. This was at the dawn of cable television, so Id put on the TV and inevitably there would be a fantasy film on: Beastmaster, Krull, Clash of the Titans, that sort of thing. Id watch them over and over.
The genre definitely has an appeal to me, and that makes it easier for me to have conversations with directors who are making imaginative films. Im lucky in that I get to work in all sorts of genres, but youre right to say Ive done a lot of fantasy lately, and I definitely hope to do more. Most of my favorite films to watch have an element of fantasy to them.
You also scored a recent cop thriller, Black and Blue. Can you discuss scoring that film and the creative challenges of scoring such different movies? Youve hit on the reason Im a film composer. The creative challenges of scoring all sorts of films are what made me commit to this career. I love that I can score a fantasy film, then go on to Black and Blue, then a horror movie, then a live show for the United Nations. That can and does all happen in the space of six months.
But theres one consistent thing in all of that, and its The Story. Everything I write is in service to the story being told, and it doesnt matter if its witches fighting over kingdoms or corrupt police officers trying to get away with a crime. Every note points to the story and helps tell it. I have a director friend who says, Everyone who works on a movie should have assistant storyteller on their business card, and Ive adopted that philosophy.
As for the actual challenges, its more about finding the right style for a film and then executing my vision for a score within that style. For Black and Blue, it felt like it should be modern, electronic, with an emphasis on synthesis and guitars and only a little bit of orchestra. Maleficent, of course, was the polar opposite. A hundred and ten musicians and 56 singers all in a room, playing acoustically, is pretty far from just me and a guitar at two in the morning.
How did your time at Berklee prepare you for your career? Berklee was and continues to be the perfect playground for young musicians. Youve got people from all over the world, and they play instruments and music youve never heard before. They inspire you and hopefully you inspire them, too. Combine that with the way music can break down cultural barriers and open the world up to you, if you let it, and youre in a very special place!
Forget for a second that youre learning your craft, which of course you are, but what youre really doing at Berklee is experimenting, finding new ideas, and, importantly, making mistakes you can learn from. I had so many late nights in the studios trying bizarre ideas, most of which didnt work, but for me Berklee was a forgiving environment where I could just try things, learn from things, and take that out into the real world with confidence I wouldnt otherwise have had.
Find Out What It Takes to Score a Film
Learn the art, craft, and tools of scoring for a variety of media, with Berklees Film Scoring Department.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
Breaking a Sound Barrier with Captain Marvel Berklee Today
Spring
2019
Volume
30
Number
3
Rocketman to Godzilla: Alumni Create Music for Summer Films If you hit the theaters this summer, chances are youll hear the music of Berklee alumni.
In the Game Berklee Today
Spring
2019
Volume
30
Number
3
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
How Shoegaze Lived, Died, and Came Back to Influence a New Generation If you like Coldplay, Beach House, or even the 1975, then you probably like shoegaze-even if you didnt know it.
Latest
Berklee Students Original Compositions POP in Dominican Republic Funhouse Giulio De Renaldy led a team of students in creating the music for an award-winning pop-up exhibition promoting tourism in the Dominican Republic.
Maleficent Composer: Every Note Points to the Story Geoff Zanelli B.M. 96 talks about his creative process, his deep love for fantasy films, and the importance of making mistakes.
S
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Film composer Geoff Zanelli B.M. 96 has dozens of projects to his credit, most recently Disneys Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which stars Angelina Jolie. We asked him about his approach to scoring, why hes drawn to certain types of films, and the technical and creative challenges of his chosen career.
