The blockbuster hit The Passion of the Christ may be one of the most controversial films ever. According to Jack Lenz, one of the film’s composers, the production process was as controversial and political as the film itself.

Lenz, founder of Toronto-based Lenz Entertainment, which creates and produces music for film and television, was the first composer selected by director Mel Gibson to write the score for The Passion of the Christ. Lenz started working on the project in September 2002 at the very earliest stages of production.

The process ‘was completely uncommon,’ says Lenz. ‘[Composers are] usually the last people they call.’

While shooting was underway in Italy, Lenz, minidisc recorder in hand, traveled throughout the Middle East to collect field recordings from a wide variety of musicians in search of the ‘organic’ sound Gibson was looking for. In total, Lenz composed eight CDs of original music and brought Gibson an additional 20 CDs of field recordings.

‘It was an oddly enormous amount of material, because we were trying to get our wagons in a circle and figure out what [Gibson] wanted,’ says Lenz.

The director was pleased with the selection of music at first, but, according to Lenz, struggled to convey exactly what he was looking for.

‘It was really difficult for Mel to express what he wanted. I’d never worked with a director who struggled so much to try to communicate,’ says Lenz.

Then, after working on the project for over a year, Lenz says he was disappointed when, in October 2003, he heard that Gibson had brought in another composer, John Debney (Elf, Bruce Almighty).

‘It certainly wasn’t an easy experience,’ says Lenz. ‘I assumed I would be the only [composer], especially with the amount of research and time I was putting in and how well he was responding to the material. But it’s Hollywood, and I call it ‘baptism by fire.”

With little input from Gibson, who in addition to directing the film was already dealing with the controversy it was generating for charges of potentially provoking anti-Semitism, the two composers continued to work both independently and in collaboration, assured by Gibson that he would ‘know what he was looking for when he heard it.’

Then, as if two composers weren’t enough for the approximately US$25-million independent film, Gibson brought in Lisa Gerrard, one of three who scored the original music for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator in 2000.

‘We were all writing music and sending in cues. It was pretty confusing,’ Lenz explains.

After what Lenz describes as a highly politicized process, it was primarily Debney’s compositions that were used in the final score, with about 18 to 20 minutes coming from Lenz. None of Gerrard’s compositions were used in the end.

‘It was only in December that I heard they were actually going to do the score in London with Debney,’ says Lenz. ‘I had to submit my cues that they were using to be orchestrated by somebody else, which was unusual and difficult, but it’s the way it went.’

Although The Passion was not without its challenges, Lenz says the overall experience was more than worthwhile. When Lenz was the only composer of the three to show up for the premiere of The Passion in Los Angeles, he says Gibson was impressed with how he handled the difficult situation and indicated that he wanted to work with Lenz on a future project.

Lenz is currently working on the music for the $32-million feature The Lazarus Child, produced by Bruce Harvey, which shot in Calgary April to September 2003 with director Graham Theakston. He will only have three weeks to complete the score for Lazarus, whereas he spent 15 months working on The Passion.

In addition to doing audio production, Lenz also formed a television production company with Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon called 3 J’s Productions, which is completing the second season of the CBC kids series Nanalan and Monkey Business for PAX TV in the U.S.

-www.lenzent.com