Netflix's Nightmares of Nature flips the script on the traditional nature documentary and gives us some stunning wildlife footage that winds up being kind of unnerving.To achieve this fascinating genre mashup, the producers turned to composers Stuart Roslyn and Chris Elmslie of the music production company minus5db.In this interview, Roslyn and Elmslie discuss how they abandoned conventional orchestral scoring for a sound-design-driven approach, the "sound mining" process that built the show's unique sonic template, and how their partnership creates a cohesive, high-level score, even under pressure.Let's dive in. - YouTubewww.youtube.comNo Film School: Nightmares of Nature offers a fascinating blend of horror and nature documentary. How did the two of you approach that genre mashup from a scoring perspective?Stuart Roslyn: Blending horror with a nature documentary meant balancing two very different musical languages. On one hand, nature scoring is a bit like writing for animation — the music carries much of the narrative for the creatures onscreen. On the other hand, horror relies heavily on sound design and moments of silence to build suspense and tension. Early on we knew we wanted this score to be driven more by sound-design than conventional melody.Chris Elmslie: At the start of the project, we spent several days “sound mining,” gathering and crafting an extensive palette of custom elements — found sounds, synthesized textures, manipulated orchestral recordings — and sculpting them to create the sonic template of the series.Our challenge was weaving a documentary-style score together with enough space and tension for the impact that...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday