Paul Moss

What would the score be for that?

Probably a quarter of that.

The Avatar movies are a huge technical achievement, full of cutting-edge visual effects and performance capture techniques.

But Simon Franklin says that the director, James Cameron, insists everything the audience sees and hears is created by humans.

And I said, no.

He said, we're not putting any real musicians out of work.

I said, no.

He said, because it's really important to me that these are real musicians.

This is part of what gives that music that organic feeling that I want.

At what point did you start writing the music?

The first cues I wrote in February 2018.

We meet the wind traders in Avatar Fire and Ash.

They have a hoedown on their enormous galleon.

The hoedown has to have a piece of music in it.

We see it on the screen.

The problem was, what do they play?

Because it's not animation, it's performance.

You have to have a real instrument that would be designed for three meter high blue people with four fingers.

So I sketch out instruments.

The art department make these beautiful 3D designs.