Written by Steve ‘Frosty’ WeintraubWhile I do a lot of interviews, it’s not too often I get to do them in a person’s house. Usually when I interview someone it’s at a hotel, or on the red carpet of some premiere. So when I found out I would be interviewing composer and sometime editor John Ottman at his house about his work on Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie”, I was pretty excited. After all…you never know what to expect when you walk in someone’s door. Thankfully, John was extremely nice and he offered to do a short tour of his office and where he works. But before watching the three part interview below, I should probably give you some background on John and his work. For a complete resume you can click here for his IMDB page….but real quick….he’s composed the music for all of Bryan Singer’s movies except the first “X-Men” and he’s also done things like “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and both “Fantastic Four” movies. Basically, he has a pretty solid resume over the last fifteen years.

So about the interview….during the pretty extended interview he gave me a tour of both his office and where he works, he showed off his custom Enterprise from “Star Trek”, we geek out over the new “Trek” movie, we discuss his work on “Valkyrie” and working with Bryan, plus we talk about a lot of other subjects including reminiscing about “Kiss Kiss Band Bang” and working for Shane Black.

Trust me, it’s an interesting interview andif you’re a fan of John's work, you’ll love the interview. As always, I’ve listed what we talked about above each part. And finally…..a big thank you to John for agreeing to do the interview on camera and doing the tour. If you’d like to see some clips from “Valkyrie” you can watch them here. John Ottman – Part 1

  • He gives us a tour of his office and studio – we see his awards, a monster from Urban Legends 2, his scorebooks, and a lot more
  • About 3 minutes in we see his custom made Enterprise from Star Trek – he talks about his love of Star Trek and explains how this Enterprise got made – It’s an amazing model
  • We then geek out over the new Star Trek movie

John Ottman - Part 2

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  • A tour of the room – including Bryan Singer’s special chair…
  • About 2 minutes in we start talking about Valkyrie and working with Bryan Singer
  • What was going to Germany like while filming
  • Were there a lot of deleted scenes and was there one sequence he was sad to see get cut

John Ottman - Part 3

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  • John talks about writing the score for Valkyrie
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang talk – he talks about writing the score and working with Shane Black. He tells a great behind the scenes story about the liner notes
  • I ask about working with other directors
  • I ask if he has any ideas for future composers who want to get in the business