Oscar Contenders Elvis Costello, Common on Writing Songs That Leap Off the Screen (Video)

The credits start to roll, the lights come up, and as the crowd stands from their seats, they hear a song. It’s hard enough to keep an audience occupied for two hours. Now try holding their attention for just another two minutes before they’re out the door.

“I was hoping I had a song I could sing for as long as people wanted to hear it,” said Elvis Costello, an artist and rocker who knows a thing or two about music made to grab you. “If a song can last just until people can get to the lobby, you’re doing all right.”

On Monday night at the AMC Century City 15, TheWrap and Dolby hosted Costello and nine other Oscar contenders for this year’s Best Original Song race in a panel discussion about the songwriting craft.