Saturday Night Live was actually started with a show that Lorne Michaels and I did at a summer camp called Timberlane in Ontario when we were 14 and 15. We would do an improvisational show with music, comedy and acting.

Film music really is about point of view and you can shift it wherever you want really depending on how you look at it.

I never shied away from a challenge and I love doing big, epic films. They're interesting to me just on a pure music level, just in terms of the amount of music I could create for a symphony orchestra and chorus.

The techniques of different directors are very different, and people have different ways of expressing ideas in film. I'm happiest when working with a director as I would be if I were an actor. I'm wanting to provide a really good performance.

Music is essentially an emotional language, so you want to feel something from the relationships and build music based on those feelings.

The piano is really the featured instrument of a 10-piece chamber orchestra. The construction is the harmonic language.

Sometimes you want to use the music in a clarity way to explain something in the film.