It’s not really my cup of tea, but then I’m not much into film and TV composing. Having said that, anything that pisses this many people off is alright in my book.
5 Likes
Have to admire the attitude of the winner, David Kudell.
I’ve a feeling there are hordes of individuals armed to the teeth with orchestral sample libraries and hollywood soundtrack manuals that are livid that an imposter has broken the moldy mould.
To pacify myself, here is a recent piece of soundtrack work that still gets my eyes misty it is so good and I’m so jealous of talent
(although I am a biased longtime fan of the band anyway)
2 Likes
Hartley agree. Trying something different is the only way to escape ‘music by numbers.’
Soundtracks like the Utopia TV series (interview and soundtrack in the link) & Ex Machina interesting are examples of trying something new.
1 Like
The brief was wrongly stated. But you should have figured that in a competition with 11000 entries you’re not going to win on mere finesse. The winning entry is a mess and overdid it, but I can’t believe the runners-up were so freaking dull. In their defense, their shtick is what filmmakers, that aren’t JJ Abrams in a scoring competition, want. They’ve conditioned themselves for years to write it. Maybe this will put the zap on people’s heads to be more creative with their scoring.
This was freaking hilarious though! The arranger said that many famous directors would’ve chosen the same thing, including Stanley Kubrick, so the user Supremo on the VI forums made this in response…
7 Likes
Cheap ! But made me laugh actually ! 
Hopefully they also got some imaginative entries that really took the piss out of the whole action genre & would make them consider using a scene worth scoring next time
I was looking to be surprised and impressed by the winner. But in the context of the scene alone, it actually really hate it.
As I was listening to it, I was thinking about the context of the show and how it could work- but I’ve never scene(see what I did there) a single episode.
The winner’s track just removed me from it.
A lot of the runner’s up, however, made it sound like the scene was from some low(er) budget basic cable scene and cheesy.
Can’t say I favor any of them, tbh.
A few elements of the track alone were brilliantly creative- combining orchestral elements with the chiptune motif- a bold contrast that almost worked(for me).
1 Like
I agree.
In isolation, it wouldn’t make much sense, and invoke the types of reactions we’re seeing. Bit of an odd choice of scene to do as a competition, with that in mind, although I guess that was also the point, but for competition onlookers not familiar with the whole scene, it must have been a wtf moment.
I do however feel it was a bit sketch that he’s a professional film scorer, with over 25 films under his belt, including Mission Impossible 3, which was produced by one of the judges.
2 Likes
I think I’ll do a chip tunes score to 2001 now. It’s what Kubrick would have wanted for sure.
“Open the pod bay doors HAL”.
Bleep bleep bip zip!
2 Likes
Is he a scorer though?
His IMDB just shows a lot of “assistant audio editor, sound assistant, sound editor, assistant adr editor” credits.
Yea he worked in the industry from 2000-2007, but I don’t see a single credit where he has scored a film.
4 Likes
Thanks for sharing this - big fan of Utopia especially in terms of art direction and music! Forgotten gem for sure, and very unique.
Still haven’t gotten round to Ex Machina but it’s on the list.
1 Like
Good call, he is a sound editor, rather than scorer. Still a tiny bit sketch, given the circumstance, but I guess it was one way for him to prove himself.
1 Like
Just going to leave this here…
Seriously i’m crying… 
4 Likes
I read all the hate on this comp and clicked the winning video thinking I actually like the sound of this and its all just bandwagon hate from bitter losers in the comp.
Near choked when it kicked in and i thought surely this is a joke. The 8 bit super Mario computer game noises were so out of context it seemed to go against the feel and vibe of the show and scene. It was so bad
Guy in my work who walked in asked why am I watching pokeman when he heard it.
Honestly though, well done to the guy who won as im sure he was as surprised as I was lol
2 Likes
I liked the humorous approach of the chiptunes very much, though the orchestra is very cheesy.
its good, that judges vote for the winner in competitions like these. public polls always vote for the boring middle of the road or the ones with the biggest social following.
it was a great pr stunt for hbo and spitfire. chapeaux!
1 Like
I liked the winner.
It seemed to acknowledge the head state the guy was in , was still quite largely orchestral ( which can be very very dull like any other genre )
I did think that although it was ‘ an action sequence‘they seemed to be trying to drive ‘fast’ but the reality was about 40 mph in mostly plastic fake cars .
Of the 11,000 entries I’m sure most were orchestral , some industrial / electronic / hip hop. At least from what was heard , the winner had a fun approach.
1 Like
This latest season is all slap-you-in-the-face 1980s callouts, it fits with the cheesy nature of the “genre” pills he took.
I wish it was more Anamanaguchi or minibosses style rock out, but the post-stranger things lame retro appeals to mash-up culture matches this score perfectly.
The problem with the bro-y commentariat who want a “badass” Matrix, Blade, or Equilibrium style battle track is that the stuff is that this stuff was super nerdy when it came out 
That was so worth it! Thanks for sharing!
1 Like