Earlier this year, during one of their several residency stays on the Stanford campus, trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas and filmmaker Bill Morrison sat down with me to discuss their collaboration to date on their concert-length collaborative work, Spark of Being, which receives its world premiere this Saturday at Memorial Auditorium. Our conversation, broken into four Web-friendly segments below, covered a wide range of topics, including the initial inspiration(s) for the piece, their collaborative process so far, and even their choice of workouts on the Stanford campus (it’s impressive).

Bill (left) and Dave discuss Frankenstein and other inspirations for Spark of Being.

The role that “love” plays in Spark of Being; the relationship between the music and imagery; and more.

Bill and Dave’s collaborative process; structure and narrative style of Spark of Being; the benefits of deadlines; and performing film scores with and without the film.

The most surprising moments of the collaboration.

Below, you’ll also find an early trailer for Spark of Being, which gives at least some sense of what to expect Saturday. To get the full experience, of course, you just have to be there…

—Posted by Matthew Campbell, Director of External Relations