Simon Pummell tells how Jonny Greenwood came to score Bodysong

Simon Pummell, whose first feature Bodysong opened in UK cinemas on 5 December, tells BBC News Online that when he was talking to music publishers about a composer, deep down he wanted a member of Radiohead. It was one of those things that seemed like it might be really difficult¹, he says, and it was not. He calls Jonny Greenwood's score, with its leanings towards jazz, a huge part of the film.

The film follows a human life from birth to death and beyond in archive footage, and it began with the birth of Pummell's son. I put in 40 or 50 births because I wanted to make the birth sequence seem bigger, more important¹. He passed over familiar footage such as the moon landing for the likes of Depression-era strongmen balancing infants over sheer drops, and asked archives around the world what they had not taken out of the can in 20 years. Some of what he found is strong enough that the film carries an 18 certificate in the UK.

With no stars on screen, Pummell told Finnish television's Sessions in October, he wanted a big name for the music. He sent a CD-ROM of the footage shot so far to the band's management, and Greenwood chose to score it on his own (he has told his side of it too). From then on director and composer kept sending each other rough ideas, so the film and the music grew together, which Pummell says is why the score sits so close to the pictures.