~Tamim Creatives~: Creative Studies

Look at people & time to understand creativity better.

What traits made them creative?

What environmental conditions existed?

What was the process of creativity?

Hans Zimmer

Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including the award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010).

He spent his early part of his career in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions.

His works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.

Hans Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1957. Where he played piano at home. His father died when he was just a child. He was 6 years old at that time. Can you imagine how a very young child at that age could handle that kind of emotions and experience at such an early age. And that’s how he moved it all and escaped into music. And he said music has been his only best friend at that moment.

What traits made him creative?

I found that some of his traits that made him creative was his passion, determination, motivation, imagination, and productivity. But most importantly was his dream.

Hans Zimmer quoted: When I was a kid growing up in Germany, I had this dream of becoming a film composer. But you can’t ever say that, because you were like in no where Germany and if you say the word Hollywood, all the other kids are going to beat you up or laugh at you.

But in this dream, there was an unmade movie and I didn’t know what the movie was. And half way this one, I suddenly realized I was working on the movie I always hoped I was working on. I was working with the team, the director, and the sound crew, that I imagined was the best that you can possibly ever have in life. So I said to Chris (Christopher Nolan-Director of The Dark Knight Rises), from now on, you just have to look forward to it….

And that was the power of his dream… One of his creative traits that brought him to where he is now today.

His passion for what he loves the most is music. It’s what is actually generating his creativity in his music and composition. What keeps him going. He even quoted: If something happened where I couldn’t write music anymore, It would kill me. It’s not just a job. It’s not just a hobby. It’s why I get up in the morning.

This tells that it’s his reason to live. That is how much passion he put to it. To something he really loves as a child. Something he has been dreaming of from a long time. Due to his pure determination, he managed to achieve his long life dream. And is living it right now. What else would be better than that. He is motivated by many of his favorites including J. S. Bach, Beethoven and many more.

What environmental conditions existed?

His life is surrounded by music. He has his piano at home where he used to play during his childhood back in Germany. And he was exposed to music from an early age which can also lead to one of the factors that expands his creativity. As his childhood was tough and filled with strong emotions as his father died at his young age. Through out his career, he has his musician friends around him which helps him with his creativity in composing music and film scores other than his own genius. He has been working in music bands, orchestras and worked with some of the best directors, crews and musicians. And this ends up creating a very motivational and creative environment for his career.

What was the process of creativity?

The process of his creativity was to go deeper. He went deeper and deeper into his music each time. He merges himself into the music itself. Becoming one with the scores and composition he does to truly get the feel and emotion of it instead of being outside of it. He learnt more and more. He explored the Japanese culture to understand the Japanese music in order for him to create his own score when he was working on The Last Samurai movie in 2003.

What he did was, he looked at some pictures that the director sent to him giving him some ideas on what to compose for the film’s soundtrack. Then, he calls on his best musicians to work with him personally and experiment with anything he comes up with. Later on they will put together several soundtracks and choose the best and the most suitable for each scenes…

Hans Zimmer - The Making of The Dark Knight Rises