Alright, here's the last short I did for Tertiary Productions, and I really love this one. Rob Broadhurst wrote a fantastic song for the film, hope you enjoy! Go Here To Watch Pets Who Look Like Their Owners: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6i84m_owners-who-look-like-their-pets_shortfilms

Hey Hey Everyone! Well, in honor of Fox & Calf finally going up online, I figured over the next few weeks I would do some posts about certain aspects of the production. For the first one, Robert Litton has graciously offered some insight on the scoring process. Without the right music, films can really have a hard time delivering an emotional impact on the audience. That's why Robert's job is so important, because he heightens every feeling the film tries to get accross, making them clear, and sometimes adding some unexpected style of his own. It's so fun to just listen to his music in each episode, from his playful sci-fi jazz riffs in The Walk to his gorgeous, Satie-inspired intro to Painting The Unpaintable, each moment has it's own character. Hopefully reading his thoughts and accounts on the process will inspire other budding animators and filmmakers to take a more thoughtful look at the music in their pieces and see what a funand rewarding process it can be.
-ryAn
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When Ryan first sent me the hand drawn sketches for the four Fox and Calf films I realized instantly that, because of the shortness of each film and the importance of the dialogue, I was going to need to write a very simple, concise, memorable theme that would allow me to maximize the little time music would have to "comment" on the character's situations/emotions and would allow me to dress it up/disguise it through out the films. Getting as much mileage out of one simple tune would allow me to subconsciously bind the four films together and create an instant sense of familiarity as we traveled from scene to scene, film to film. The trick of course is writing such a theme!

While watching "Painting the Unpaintable" I was struck by how laid back the buddies were about setting things on fire. To me this was total "Ryan McCulloch" humor and I set out to compose a "Buddy Theme" that was cool, laid back, easy going, and (hopefully) instantly memorable. The fact that the buddies were so "La-di-da" or "Doot-de-doot-de-doo" (a la Homer Simpson) after lighting a girl on fire got me thinking that they probably whistle a lot as they go about their quirky lives. For a composer it's these little clues that can unlock an entire score...and it did!

The "Buddy Theme" features a cool, laid back whistler walking down the street groov'n with a small jazz rhythm section. Crucial to the spirit of the films was that the whistler not sound "too" good and it was very brave of our professional musician to come into to the studio and intentionally whistle like an amateur. As always I worked with live, REAL musicians and was very lucky to get a small group of some of the LA studio world's finest to help bring Ryan's fantastic character's off of the screen and into the hearts of the viewers. All of the music for the 4 films is derived from this main theme appearing in various disguises such as a classical guitar waltz in "Painting the Unpaintable" or as a Nordstroms clothing store improvised piano solo in the "Blind Date".



"The Walk" provided me with a wonderful chance to tip my hat to the video game tunes of the late 80's. In an instance such as this my job as a composer was much less about finding the right notes/pitches or writing a great melody but rather just finding the right sounds. A combination of 80's keyboard sounds mixed in with an EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument - kind of like a saxophone that plugs into a computer) provided us with the perfect palette to conjure up the sonic world of those classic Nintendo video games. The icing on the cake were the off-beat sand paper blocks and, of course, the hand claps.

By far, hands down the most challenging task in scoring the Fox and Calf films was the 4th film "The Fridge". It is very difficult and time consuming to tackle all of the math associated with scoring a scene. Figuring out how fast the music should be, where to start, where to stop, how to line up a note or chord with a cut or moment of action in the film all takes an enormous amount of planning and mathematical calculations. It then takes cleverness and creativity to compose the score so that it fits all the "hits" of the scene yet still sounds and feels musical and not awkward or mechanical. Naturally I had a small heart attack when I first saw "The Fridge" and one of the characters is strumming a guitar on and off throughout the scene! Stylistically it was very easy to score...have a guitar play the main buddy theme in a very bluesy, "kick'n back on the porch with your pals" feel. Technically it was very, VERY difficult to compose the music in such a way that it made sense musically yet caught every pick and strum the Fox performed on the guitar. In fact, it was such a headache that when Ryan asked after the scoring session how it all turned out I said two words...and the second word was "YOU".

For a composer Ryan is a dream to work with. He has a vast knowledge of music and knows what he wants music to do for his films yet gives me his complete and total trust to follow my instincts to deliver a score that meets his wishes, the needs of the film, and my needs as an artist. His films/characters inspire vivid musical thoughts and ideas and watching the final films with the score mixed in is a very deep, truly rewarding experience. With 2 projects under our belts I eagerly look forward to our next collaboration...especially if he goes to film school and starts making less sucky films.