Dear Eric, I’d like to say upfront that the hardest thing about writing about your film is deciding which screen grabs to use. It’s not fair for a glutton like me that you had to make every single shot so damn cool! Short Circuit Sleuth is, as the name would suggest, about a malfunctioning robot detective. In the case of our protagonist and hero, the big error is that he’s an oblivious idiot. For this little adventure, he’s on the trail of a dangerous diamond thief, which leads him to Clark’s Robot Pub, where he wreaks unnecessary havoc on all the flabbergasted patrons. This film is so funny on so many levels that you catch new gems (npi) with each repeat! Here’s a cheat sheet and a very fascinating record of the entire process this production went through. There’s an interesting backstory to the music for Short Circuit Sleuth, namely that I wasn’t even supposed to do it! Eric first contacted me about scoring the film almost exactly a year ago, but I was hesitant to do it because we both knew it needed to be a jazz score, and jazz was very much not my strong suit. In fact, I view jazz as that beautiful but implacable monster that I have yet to, and may never, conquer. So with much sadness, I recommended that Eric find someone else, citing that I do fake jazz, but that Short Circuit Sleuth deserves the real thing. (To the right: Fester Ipswitch - what a great name!) Months later, Eric’s score wasn’t coming along, partly because the film changed as well as it’s musical needs, and having seen some cuts and animatics, I was starting to have some ideas bubble up about how to tackle the score. Eric and I talked about some of these ideas, and I was on board! At first, I was only to do some of the music - the more soundtrack-y parts, since there was still an authentic-jazz-as-background-music component that I didn’t think I had the chops to handle, but when it became clear that Eric wanted to drop the idea of background bar music in favor of some spy thriller music a la Incredibles and old James Bond films, the responsibility for the whole score shifted my way. Conceptually, Eric and I agreed that we needed a highly stylized jazz score, but we also wanted to address an obviously important element of the film: robots! So thus I went digging around for metallic sounds that could serve as part of the percussion battery and came up with such things as nail guns, mineshaft clanking, stairwell railing clinking, etc. On top of that we added to the percussion some wonderful electro-glitch sounds just to add a futuristic vibe to this [fake] jazz score. We also consciously decided to score inside the Sleuth’s head. Broadly speaking, there were two ways to go about the score: 1) to have the score comment on the action from an external perspective (ex. this is a funny scene, time for funny music) or to have the score reflect the over-the-top world as the Sleuth sees it. We opted for the latter, and I think the film is funnier for it. Because Eric was big on thematic cohesion and wanting a central melody, we constructed the score mostly backwards, with the end credits being composed first and the opening scene one of the last cues we finished. (Can you see the gears in the 18th century French wallpaper?) This works out very nicely because the end credits music should make a statement on what the entire film is about, and if you get it right, you end up having the rest of the film solved, as it were. With the end credits as important as it is and with my less than amicable relationship with jazz, I was pretty terrified going into this cue. Eric didn’t know this at the time, but he was nonetheless super supportive, which is probably how I even made it through the whole film. The end credits 5/4 ostinato is totally a callback to Mission Impossible, just with different notes. Likewise terrifying, the interrogation music. (Say hello to Mr. Potatobot) I didn’t have much of an idea of how to score this scene, but Eric gave me a very good lead to run with on this one, telling me he wanted a “rolling feeling.” A vague term, yes, but after playing me a few excerpts with what he was looking for, I realized it was a low 8th note ostinato. (“Is this a cabernet?!”) So, we took the 5/4 ostinato from the end credits and adapted it into the low piano for the interrogation, and that served as the basis for the whole cue, with thematic fragments thrown in here and there. And finally, the noir opening, complete with muted Miles Davis trumpeting from the invaluable Theo Meneau. There would be no score without Theo, period. This was the scene I first started having ideas about before I was even a part of the project, yet ironically, when it finally came time to execute them, I had a hell of a time! I think I had 3 or 4 failed attempts before I finally found something I was happy with - so much work for such a short and simple cue! It may partly be that I’m just in my natural zone as a rhythmic composer, so a more “floating” cue like this takes extra effort on my part. It may also be that a MIDI solo trumpet can make any decent idea sound like an utterly awful one. Well here it is! Jazz robots!
Dear Eric, I’d like to say upfront that the hardest thing about writing about your film is deciding which screen grabs to use. It’s not fair for a glutton like me that you had to make every single shot so damn cool!
Short Circuit Sleuth is, as the name would suggest, about a malfunctioning robot detective. In the case of our protagonist and hero, the big error is that he’s an oblivious idiot. For this little adventure, he’s on the trail of a dangerous diamond thief, which leads him to Clark’s Robot Pub, where he wreaks unnecessary havoc on all the flabbergasted patrons. This film is so funny on so many levels that you catch new gems (npi) with each repeat! Here’s a cheat sheet and a very fascinating record of the entire process this production went through.
There’s an interesting backstory to the music for Short Circuit Sleuth, namely that I wasn’t even supposed to do it! Eric first contacted me about scoring the film almost exactly a year ago, but I was hesitant to do it because we both knew it needed to be a jazz score, and jazz was very much not my strong suit. In fact, I view jazz as that beautiful but implacable monster that I have yet to, and may never, conquer. So with much sadness, I recommended that Eric find someone else, citing that I do fake jazz, but that Short Circuit Sleuth deserves the real thing.
(To the right: Fester Ipswitch - what a great name!)
Months later, Eric’s score wasn’t coming along, partly because the film changed as well as it’s musical needs, and having seen some cuts and animatics, I was starting to have some ideas bubble up about how to tackle the score. Eric and I talked about some of these ideas, and I was on board! At first, I was only to do some of the music - the more soundtrack-y parts, since there was still an authentic-jazz-as-background-music component that I didn’t think I had the chops to handle, but when it became clear that Eric wanted to drop the idea of background bar music in favor of some spy thriller music a la Incredibles and old James Bond films, the responsibility for the whole score shifted my way.
Conceptually, Eric and I agreed that we needed a highly stylized jazz score, but we also wanted to address an obviously important element of the film: robots! So thus I went digging around for metallic sounds that could serve as part of the percussion battery and came up with such things as nail guns, mineshaft clanking, stairwell railing clinking, etc. On top of that we added to the percussion some wonderful electro-glitch sounds just to add a futuristic vibe to this [fake] jazz score.
We also consciously decided to score inside the Sleuth’s head. Broadly speaking, there were two ways to go about the score: 1) to have the score comment on the action from an external perspective (ex. this is a funny scene, time for funny music) or to have the score reflect the over-the-top world as the Sleuth sees it. We opted for the latter, and I think the film is funnier for it.
Because Eric was big on thematic cohesion and wanting a central melody, we constructed the score mostly backwards, with the end credits being composed first and the opening scene one of the last cues we finished.
(Can you see the gears in the 18th century French wallpaper?)
This works out very nicely because the end credits music should make a statement on what the entire film is about, and if you get it right, you end up having the rest of the film solved, as it were. With the end credits as important as it is and with my less than amicable relationship with jazz, I was pretty terrified going into this cue. Eric didn’t know this at the time, but he was nonetheless super supportive, which is probably how I even made it through the whole film.
The end credits 5/4 ostinato is totally a callback to Mission Impossible, just with different notes.
Likewise terrifying, the interrogation music.
(Say hello to Mr. Potatobot)
I didn’t have much of an idea of how to score this scene, but Eric gave me a very good lead to run with on this one, telling me he wanted a “rolling feeling.” A vague term, yes, but after playing me a few excerpts with what he was looking for, I realized it was a low 8th note ostinato.
(“Is this a cabernet?!”)
So, we took the 5/4 ostinato from the end credits and adapted it into the low piano for the interrogation, and that served as the basis for the whole cue, with thematic fragments thrown in here and there.
And finally, the noir opening, complete with muted Miles Davis trumpeting from the invaluable Theo Meneau. There would be no score without Theo, period.
This was the scene I first started having ideas about before I was even a part of the project, yet ironically, when it finally came time to execute them, I had a hell of a time! I think I had 3 or 4 failed attempts before I finally found something I was happy with - so much work for such a short and simple cue! It may partly be that I’m just in my natural zone as a rhythmic composer, so a more “floating” cue like this takes extra effort on my part. It may also be that a MIDI solo trumpet can make any decent idea sound like an utterly awful one.
Well here it is! Jazz robots!
The plan was to stay in LA and get by with freelance composing, but here I am, an American in Beijing. Derek Zhao, Composer, Beijing Dance Drama and Opera. Nice to meet you.
ladykaterobin:
THIS MEME IS THE MEME OF ALL MEMES.
A lot of people crap on Apple for being hipster. Or that people only...
So, as of February 1st, 2012, I will join the story development team at Divide Nine Animation.
Too good to be true.
kqedscience:
Mind is officially blown. #pi
All rights reserved.
