Hip Hop and Techno Composing Techniques and Models of Structuring in Darren Aronofsky’s π

Abstract

Unlike Jarmusch, for whom artistic and economic independence are non-negotiable conditions for all of his projects — which has also limited the scale of his budgets — Darren Aronofsky never made it a secret that he saw his ‘guerrilla’ beginnings only as a step towards the opportunity to work on big, studio-financed films. After his debut feature π won Aronofsky the Best Director Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and his next film Requiem for a Dream brought an Oscar nomination to one of its stars, Ellen Burstyn, Aronofsky tried his luck with big budget films first by working on a development of the new Batman movie — which would later make Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, 2005) a household name — then the ill-fated The Fountain (2006),¹ before finally receiving worldwide success with Black Swan (2010). However, Aronofsky’s new-found status does not change the fact that π was conceived and realized as a complete ‘indie’, shot in black-and-white for $60,000, revealing an original new talent with an already recognizable and soon-to-be imitated style. Most importantly in this context, Aronofsky’s debut was inspired by hip hop and techno music; it applied various techniques and models of structuring typical of those musical genres in the editing, employment of different cameras and shooting techniques, sound design, music and in the organization of the micro- and macrostructures, which resulted in π’s overtly musical audio-visual style.