Pharrell at The Oscars

It's the start of Oscars weekend and it's been remixed by two of the best producers in the business: Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams!

Composer Hans Zimmer and hip hop super-producer Pharrell Williams joined forces as music consultants for The Oscars (credit: Los Angeles Times)

"I hadn't seen sheet music in 20 years. When I sat down at a piano and had to sight-read, I felt like I was back in high school," he said in a joint interview with Zimmer in Friday's Calendar section. But he proved a quick study --  "But they let me learn on the job and walk around and ask questions. The only thing I know how to do is feel, and a composer has to know what sound will elicit that feeling."

For the Oscars' commission, which involved composing for interludes and walk-ons and arranging segments of the five nominees for best film score, they had only one real rule — try everything. "We went crazy. We wrote new music for everything," Zimmer said during a lunch break between rehearsals in the Capitol studio. "Some people had told us that the Oscars score is all about repeating everything. But that's just not how we're built."

Zimmer and Williams kept mum on many of the score's specifics, though Zimmer did promise that "you might see some odd faces in the orchestra."

"There will be a few surprises — it's diverse and international in the way that only musicians can be," he added.  Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams, LA Times

 Zimmer and Williams first worked together on the hit animation film, Despicable Me.