Composing

In 2005, Johnson composed the score to the neo-noir film Brick, which was written and directed by his cousin Rian Johnson. The score features traditional instruments such as the piano, trumpet and violin, and also contains unique and invented instruments such as the wine-o-phone (which was out of bounds to everyone else for the time it was being recorded, for fear the tuning would change if anything happened to it), metallophone, treated pianos, filing cabinets, and kitchen utensils. The entire score was recorded in Littlehampton at a residential studio, hosted by Paul Burton (who went on to create Chapel Studios in Chichester), using a single microphone and a PowerBook computer. The score was hailed by The Chicago Tribune as "perhaps the most arresting soundtrack of the year to date" and Johnson was nominated for the Satellite award for Best Original Score from the International Press Academy.

Johnson finished the score for Rian Johnson's second film, The Brothers Bloom (2008), expanding the palette used in Brick to include strings and woodwinds for the sound of a "back porch orchestra".

Members of The Cinematic Underground have been involved with all of Johnson's scores. As well as producing the music for Brick and The Brothers Bloom, Johnson has produced albums for The Cinematic Underground, Faux Fix, Magik*Magik, and New Volunteer.

In 2012, Johnson composed the score for Rian Johnson's critically acclaimed third film, Looper. Much of the score was created using found-sounds and field recordings, which Johnson recorded while on location in New Orleans as the film was being shot. He and his team incorporated treadmills, industrial fans, and slamming car doors, along with a more traditional orchestral ensemble,^[2] and he received the IFMCA Breakthrough Composer award for his genre-bending work on the film.^[3]

Through his collaborations with Rian Johnson, he then teamed up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who starred in Brick and Looper) to score Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut Don Jon (2013). He since composed the music for Rian Johnson's Knives Out (2019) and Glass Onion (2022).

In 2014, Johnson composed the score for Jake Paltrow's science fiction action film Young Ones and also served as an executive producer on the film.

Johnson also contributed to the soundtrack for the PlayStation 4-exclusive video game Infamous Second Son (received the nomination Original Dramatic Score, Franchise at the 2014 NAVGTR Awards, shared with Bryan Mantia and Marc Canham) and a stand-alone DLC to the game titled Infamous First Light.^[4]

Directing

Along with composing for film, Johnson has directed a number of music videos. In 2015, he created the much-lauded video for Son Lux's "Change Is Everything", which won the award for Best Alternative Video - Budget at the UK Music Video Awards,^[5] and was an official selection at numerous festivals, including SXSW.^[6] The stop-motion video was created using 200 push pins and 500 feet of rubberized thread. It took a month to make, and combines stop-motion techniques with projected rotoscopes.^[7] NPR premiered the clip, calling it "mind blowing", The A.V. Club called it "powerfully hypnotic", and it was subsequently featured at the 2016 TED conference.^[8][9][10] NPR also released a making-of video that details the arduous process.

Later that year, he directed Tatiana Maslany and Noah Segan in the official video for You Don't Know Me. The video explores themes of ritual as seen in domestic relationships and religion. As The A.V. Club noted, it "finds Maslany trapped in the numbing routines of a modern relationship with a partner (Noah Segan) oblivious to her empty feeling. Soon, we’re cutting to a mysterious facility where Maslany holds sway over obedient followers—but, oddly, these rituals soon start to look just as hollow and meaningless as the ones she’s stuck with at home."^[9]

In 2016, Johnson worked with Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the popular indie pop band Lucius to direct their music video for "Gone Insane". This video was created using an intervalometer and over 3,000 still photographs. Johnson enlisted special effects makeup artist Jim Ojala to create a series of prosthetics which would be used to create the effect of Wolfe's face stretching like silly putty. The video received notable mainstream recognition, with Rolling Stone describing the effects as "strange [and] striking" and the Village Voice calling them "exceptional".^[11][12]

For the release of Son Lux's Brighter Wounds album, Johnson re-teamed with Tatiana Maslany and Tom Cullen to direct a 10 minute short film that uses the ancient story of Abraham and Isaac as an unsettling exploration into dogma and doubt. The video features cinematography by Steve Yedlin and was nominated for Best Music Video and Best Cinematography in a Music Video at the prestigious Camerimage festival.

Graphic design and photography

Johnson is also a member of a small design workshop called The Made Shop. He created the album cover for How to Save a Life by The Fray as well as their follow up album artwork which was a collaboration with brother and founder of The Made Shop, Marke Johnson. Together, they have created the artwork for numerous albums, including We Are Rising, Bones, and Brighter Wounds by Son Lux.

As a composer

As a director