Behind every creative Masterscore

Everyone loves Netflix whether you hate it, binge-watch it or unsubscribe from it because it’s more than delivering an entertainment experience.

Every time you go back and open the app, it welcomes you with the most unusual audio logo with a “Ta-Dum” sound.

I am a music & movie fan irrespective of the different genres and don’t bother it’s the origin as long as the creation is unique.

As a Netflix fan, I was more curious to unearth how this was created which forms an exemplary user experience inside the product.

What followed was a set of attributes that goes behind any such creative masterpiece score. Here’s a list of one the best master score’s from leading musicians and the human skill behind it apart from being creative.

• Articulation of User needs

Netflix VP product - Todd Yellin roped in leading oscar winning sound editor Lon Bender to design the Netflix intro logo.

His requirement definition was unique -

To design for the audience to feel something exciting or new every time they open the OTT stream. To add more challenge to the task was to come out with a sound that should not exceed “3 seconds”. The sound should bring in the cinematic experience for the audience irrespective of wherever they are and whatever device they log in to the app

• Empathy :

When I accidentally listened to a solo no of the Batman 2022 BGM, it was astounding and made me repeat the loop.

Michael Giacchino, the music director in his own words “What would I feel if I were batman, an imperfect detective trying to make sense of the uncertainty, walking down the street “

Creators have to immerse themselves in a particular character and a situation to come out with the initial set of scores.

The composer stresses that one has to understand and visualize the emotions of each character going through the screen and being a methodical actor in different roles helps one to come out with a unique score.

• Not every creative needs multiple iterations

Christopher Nolan during the making of “Interstellar” gave a task with a one-page narration to Hans Zimmer for composing the theme music “Time”.

In one of their conversations, Nolan says “ 'So, Hans, if I wrote one page of something, didn't tell you what it was about, just give you one page, would you give me one day of work?'"

"'Whatever you came up with on that one day would be fine.'”.

The story was simple - A father departs from the home leaving the son for important work and has a high possibility of not returning back

Nolan came up with the score just by using his piano and never know that it was going to be Space epic. Later, Nolan explains that he purposefully avoided it because his music would become biased and this movie in essence is actually an emotional personal story between father and Daughter in which the theme music became the crux of the movie.

• Subject Expert:

How a Swedish musician can come out with an adrenaline-punched African theme for the Marvel blockbuster “ Black Panther”?

The Grammy-nominated musician “Ludwig G?ransson” after reading the script decided that the only way to score the music which fit in the colors is to go to Africa and study the culture, music, and emotions.

He collaborated with a subject expert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMFAsidiQfc

To pick up his learning fast, he joined the senegal musician “Baba Maal” in his tour and observed that everytime there is always an “outcall” which gives the audience goosebumps.

He came out with the same theme in the opening score by using a talking drum with a slow pace and soon grows with a huge ensemble.

• Age is just a number and learning is the only constant factor:

If you had watched the climax of the Avenger’s end game in which all the avengers assemble after the port opening, it’s one of the most sought-after goosebump moments which slowly builds up with slow music and the captain says “Avengers, Assemble”.

Alan Silvestri, the musician for the billion-dollar Marvel blockbuster aged 72 is just getting started.?

He started his career in the 1980’s blockbuster “ Back to the Future” and scored for “Forest Gump”. In one of his interviews.

“ Sound was literally invented during the orchestra during the ’80s and when everything moved digital within seconds you have million prerecorded sounds with the latest sound technology”. Recorded track archives make him innovative and come out with the most unique scores.

Being curious and learning never stops for him with respect to technology by keeping his music skills at the core of his work.

The music industry has seen a dramatic shift due to technology, but the heart of memorable masterpieces still needs the necessary human skills to be orchestrated.