For his film scores, Elfman draws musical inspiration almost exclusively from viewing a cut of the film, and occasionally from visits to the set while the film is in production (he wrote and orchestrated his theme for "Batman" on an airplane to Los Angeles after visiting the set in London). While he prefers not to work from script, story or concept, notable exceptions are "The Nightmare Before Christmas," for which ten songs needed to be written in advance of filmmaking, and "Dumbo," for which he composed the main theme before filming began.