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00:00Hi, I'm Chris Sanders, writer and director of The Wild Robot, and this is The Process.
00:11I'm going to be talking with Chris Bowers, our brilliant composer who created all the
00:15amazing music and the score for The Wild Robot.
00:18Hey, Chris.
00:19Good to see you.
00:20Good morning.
00:21How are you doing?
00:22I'm good.
00:23How are you doing?
00:24Good.
00:25Good.
00:26Are you at your home right now?
00:30Yeah, I'm in the studio.
00:31I love all this stuff in your background.
00:33I've never been to...
00:34Oh, thank you.
00:35Yeah, it's amazing.
00:36I think my best light is in my kitchen, so I tend to come here.
00:39It's a pretty awesome place.
00:43You know, I was trying to remember, when did you begin?
00:47I'm pretty sure I officially came on in like September of 22, because my meeting with you
00:53all I think was in June or July, because I remember I saw Mike Knoblauch in London
00:59in August.
01:00I was doing a session in London, and he came by, and that was after I already had my meeting
01:03with you all.
01:04So I think our meeting was in July, and then I officially got hired in September of 22.
01:09Was our first conversation on Zoom, or did we talk in person?
01:12I can't remember.
01:13In person, yeah.
01:14I came in and saw the whole floor, and then we went to...
01:20First we had a meeting in kind of, I think it was like a boardroom kind of setting.
01:23And then we went to a small theater, or it was like an edit suite or something that had
01:28like a huge screen where you guys showed me the whole sizzle reel and like all the characters
01:33and all of that stuff.
01:34And we had a conversation in that space as well.
01:38Wonderful.
01:39We probably showed you as much art as we had at the time.
01:42Yeah, exactly.
01:43And kind of walked me around the floor and showed me a lot of the concept art and talked
01:46to me a bit about the painterly style and all of that.
01:51I know that you've done scores in the past.
01:54And when I was first introduced to you, I made sure that I had dug up as many things
02:03that I had not yet heard, because I already was a big fan of...
02:06Well, wait a minute.
02:07I know I'm a fan of it.
02:09Had Haunted Mansion come out yet?
02:12I think it had just come out.
02:14Because it came out in July, oddly, that year, even though I think, I'm pretty sure.
02:18I remember King Richard I listened to quite a lot.
02:23And then I think Haunted Mansion as well, which I was really impressed with.
02:28So how was this movie different?
02:33What was new about what you did on this one?
02:37I think a few things.
02:40First off, the structure that you all had with building the story and how much that
02:48stayed in place for the majority of the time I was on the project was really new for me.
02:54I feel like for the most part, I also haven't done anything because it's been fully animated
02:58before.
02:59So I'm not sure how much of this is usually the case in animation because of all the different
03:03phases of the process.
03:05I find that typically in live action, there's editing being done all the way to the final
03:12mix essentially.
03:13And so that kind of makes it hard for me to write to picture.
03:16I kind of have to write things that are malleable enough for picture to change and not affect
03:21the music too much because it just gets a little too hairy, essentially, or cumbersome
03:26to try to make changes at the very last minute.
03:29And so with this one, it was very fascinating to me that about a few months into the process,
03:36even like a year and a half before we finished the film, the structure was pretty much in
03:40place to a point where even with the animatics, I was able to write to picture and pace things
03:47out to the way that those animatics were cut and the way that you and Mary worked together.
03:52And once it went to the previous phase, those cues were still largely working because there
03:57wasn't much changing timing-wise.
04:00And so I feel like that was maybe the biggest difference for me with other products I've
04:05worked on.
04:06As you jump into something like The Wild Robot, I remember we were always very excited about
04:13the idea of finding the themes of Roz and the themes of family, and you did this amazing
04:20thing for the future world of Universal Dynamics.
04:23So there were quite a few different sort of flavors going on.
04:27Yeah, I remember our conversations in the beginning, wanting to find a way to hone in
04:35on those sounds kind of first, like when we first talked about it, I remember the first
04:40thing I came back and played for you were two pieces of music that were trying to look
04:46at both the wilderness and then also kind of my first pass at something that would represent
04:53the warmth of family in that idea.
04:56And the wilderness was inspired a lot by this percussion ensemble that I had found, Sandbox
05:02Percussion, that I talked to you about how they approach things in a way that feel a
05:08bit more like foley.
05:09And I was really excited to have that part of the score be almost an extension of the
05:14diegetic sound of all the animals, you know, scurrying through the forest and all of that.
05:20And then the first cue I wrote was still trying to expound on that wilderness sound
05:27with the raccoons and just seeing how that would work with the orchestra and trying different
05:33things.
05:34But then right after that, you know, another big thing we talked about was that futuristic
05:37sound.
05:38And, you know, we talked about the sound of like Epcot or Test Track and these pieces
05:44of music that have like a certain aesthetic to them.
05:47And also all of the conversations we had about, you know, devices in our household,
05:53like, you know, washing machines and their chimes and things like that, or I was thinking
05:57about how some of those sounds have developed over time, that like the sounds of technology
06:03that we interact with on a daily basis, to me, have gotten a bit softer and like a bit
06:08warmer and not as like digital and as like harsh as they were before.
06:16And so a lot of that was, you know, me trying to explore what Roz's sound would be.
06:22And so once I, I think toward the end of 2022, I remember the end of the year or the beginning
06:28of 2023, I had explored all those palettes and then eventually wrote that theme suite,
06:33which was me trying to demonstrate what I thought each theme would be with Roz's theme
06:38and Bright Bill and the family theme and Fink.
06:44But a lot of it started with the experimentation of the palette and the sound.
06:49Which was, of all the themes that you were like exploring and doing sketches of, I guess
06:54that's the best way I could think of it is like sketching things like in Melody and in
06:59Sound and stuff like that.
07:01Which was the theme that you felt like was like, I guess my question is, because I'm
07:05actually, I never got a chance to ask you these things before, I've always been really
07:10curious.
07:11I wonder that like visually while we're exploring things, there comes a moment where we're like,
07:15oh, that's going to be our visual anchor, that's going to be our touchstone.
07:19Is it like that for a score like this?
07:20Do you find, I guess the character, do you find a character and like, and you realize,
07:26okay, that's going to be like the character that's going to be like spokes are going to
07:30like radiate from that and everything else is going to have that kind of same kind of
07:33character.
07:34Does that make sense?
07:35What I'm asking?
07:36100%.
07:37Because I think the, the migration scene, you know, the, I can use a boost cue is, was
07:41that for me, because, you know, when I first approached it and tried something that emotionally
07:50wasn't really, really right, it was very helpful to redirect with that after our conversation,
07:58not only because it hit that, that moment right in terms of, you know, my first pass
08:05at it was just a bit too sweet.
08:07And I had like this, like jangly guitar part and this thing that just kind of felt like
08:14endearing and sweet, but a little too soft for the complexity of the moment.
08:18And then we had that conversation about what's really happening there.
08:22And that I think had a big impact on how I looked at the film overall, because it reminded
08:29me of the complexities of this story and just, you know, what's being talked about and how
08:35it's handling things in a very grounded way.
08:39And these, these conversations that sometimes we're afraid to have around children in a
08:44lot of ways.
08:46I think for me, remembering what that, what's at stake in that moment, that they might not
08:51see each other again, and they're not saying, I love you.
08:54And that there's something irreparable that's happened between them and reflecting on those
09:00ideas in my own life.
09:03And the possibility of that with my own daughter, I think is something that emotionally led
09:08to that theme.
09:10But your reminder of those things also helped me remember that this film is different in
09:16that the score and the story isn't something that is handling these topics with like kid
09:24gloves.
09:25It's not about making music that's supposed to make things feel light and fun when it's
09:31not that in those moments in this story.
09:35And I think that also led to that cue being a bit more muscular in terms of the way it
09:40sounded because the first version of it definitely got big, but the instrumentation was playing
09:47into that sweetness.
09:48And so when I rewrote it and our conversations about, you know, this train that's never leaving
09:53the station or that's leaving the station, that's never going to stop.
09:56And this idea that this migration is something almost prehistoric, as you said, that's been
10:02going on since the dawn of time.
10:04Like those things have such weightiness to them that it changed the sound of that cue,
10:09which also then informed the rest of the score.
10:11So I feel like once we worked on that theme and found it got to a point where we really
10:17felt like it captured the sound of that moment, that directly influenced the way the rest
10:23of the score sounded in a lot of ways.
10:25I remember, you know, the funny thing is, I was just listening to it yesterday.
10:29I have a speaker that I have a love-hate relationship with.
10:34I bought it years ago and it's real finicky, but when it works, when it feels like working,
10:40it's an amazing speaker.
10:41And I drug it into the kitchen here because I've been doing a lot of work in here.
10:45And I was playing the score yesterday, like as loud as I thought I could get away with
10:49on the speaker, because the speaker can kind of like, it can get pretty loud.
10:54And I was just thinking again about, like, I don't even know how to put it in words.
11:00Like that whole migration thing, it's the thing that I loved about the music I was listening
11:07to before you began ours, is that there's this real, there's this gentle power that's
11:13going on all the time.
11:14It's like, it's very restrained, but it's incredibly memorable.
11:18And that whole bit where the Breitbill and Ross are having that conversation, and it's
11:25just the whole thing is beginning.
11:27And that gentle beginning that you created, that's, it's exciting.
11:33That's the thing that I was really impressed with.
11:34I know that this is the kind of stuff we talked about.
11:36It's exciting because, and it's funny because Lupita has talked about this thing where she's
11:40gone.
11:41To Mexico City, which I think she was around 16 years old, and she has since looked at
11:46it in a different way.
11:47I think partially because of the experience of working on this movie, that she was just
11:51excited.
11:52And she didn't think about how her mom probably felt because she was gonna be going away for
11:56quite a while.
11:57But you captured it all in that moment, because it has the excitement that Breitbill's about
12:02to start this thing.
12:03But there's a, it's infused with the melancholy as well, which I was so incredibly impressed
12:09with.
12:10And is that the instrumentation that brings out that melancholy?
12:14How do you?
12:15Okay, so this, and in a linked question, I hate when people do this to me, I'm gonna
12:19do it to you.
12:20And I'm gonna put another part onto your question, which is, as you're composing, I know that
12:26you are at the piano, are you hearing the other instruments?
12:29Are you hearing the violins in your head while you're doing that?
12:32Yeah, definitely.
12:33I mean, going back to your first part of the question, to me, a lot of that I think is
12:39chord progressions.
12:40Like, I think chords have such an interesting emotion to them, like, even getting a little
12:46more technical, like, the difference between a major triad and a major seventh chord is
12:51just one additional note.
12:53But the major seventh adds this like, interesting melancholy to something, even though it's
12:59still like a major chord.
13:01So there's like, different things like that, that I feel and then the order of chords and
13:05all of that kind of stuff, I think is something that adds to that feeling.
13:10And then the excitement, I think a lot of it comes from the momentum and the drive and
13:13this pulse.
13:14And you know, that really being driven by our conversation and you're pointing out that
13:20this is that moment where the train is moving and we can't stop it and you see the birds
13:24leaving and all of this stuff is happening around them and just wanting to be reminded
13:28of that, even in the midst of this conversation where they're still, but this migration has
13:33already begun, essentially.
13:37And so I go to the piano and I start to mainly improvise to find that emotion, like basically
13:45our conversation and then those thoughts for me personally, similar to Lupita, like reflecting
13:49on my own life in a way that felt markedly different, both my relationship with my daughter,
13:56but also thinking about my parents and seeing them differently and our relationship differently,
14:00all of that viscerally makes me feel something involuntarily.
14:06And so I usually go to the piano and try to do something that re-triggers those same feelings
14:11where I just, you know, it might take me like 30 minutes of improvising, but all of a sudden
14:16I'll hit something.
14:17I'm like, oh, I'm feeling those feelings again.
14:19And once I found that, I started playing around with a melody and a progression.
14:26Then when I started thinking about the scene again, that's when the rest of the orchestra
14:29starts to come up in my head.
14:31It becomes pretty, pretty clear.
14:34Like I found this melody and then I decided to have that be this ostinato that was going
14:38to build with the strings.
14:39And I thought it'd be interesting to have them happen in like different directions the
14:44entire time.
14:45But it's something that I imagine is probably similar for you with drawing where it's like
14:51you do one thing and then immediately something in your mind is like, oh, that's what's next.
14:55And then like you do that thing and it's like, oh, that's what's next.
14:57So it's like, you're continuing to chase this thing because it's revealing itself in your
15:01mind as you go, but not as a whole.
15:04It's like each phase, once you get that phase to a point where it's clear enough, the next
15:10phase starts to feel like, oh, that's obvious that that's what should come next, if that
15:13makes sense.
15:14I'm curious for you if it's similar.
15:15Oh, this is fascinating.
15:17This is fascinating to me.
15:18I'm going to remember this question.
15:20I have to stop just for a second and really thank you for something that I've only talked
15:25about a couple of different times, which is there was a moment in that sequence that was
15:28in the script that was not dialogue.
15:31And it was just a piece of description.
15:33And it was a piece of description that as you, I placed it in the script very deliberately
15:37because of what it did emotionally to anybody who was reading it.
15:40And it memorialized a moment, which is when Brightville says, I could use a boost.
15:47The next line in the script was, Roz knows he does not.
15:51His request fills her with an unexpected joy.
15:55And you were able to actually put that in the score because that can't exist in dialogue,
16:02right?
16:03But you have this drumbeat.
16:05And between you and the animators, you actually put that feeling on the screen.
16:11The animator has her straighten up a little bit at that moment.
16:14And you had that beautiful drumbeat that, yeah, so I think that's just such a wonderful
16:19demonstration of how you do things story-wise that could otherwise not be done.
16:27You can actually take a line in the script that's just description, and you can actually
16:32place it on screen, which I think is my favorite thing about just that relationship that music
16:38has.
16:39Oh, I have a question.
16:40So one of the things that was really cool that we never get to talk about is that you
16:44actually came to Skywalker for the mix.
16:48Is that something you normally do?
16:50Do you drop into the mix and stuff?
16:51Because when you were there, it was so incredibly helpful.
16:54Yeah, not very often.
16:56I think it's something that the times where I have, it's been dictated by the director.
17:01I think it's a combination of sound mixers or people on the sound team probably having
17:09a lot of experience with composers that have come there and just asked them to turn the
17:12music up, essentially, or that like happened between sound design and score.
17:22But I really love it just because, one, I find it fascinating.
17:24I always found it so amazing watching you and Mary give these very, very specific and
17:32hyper-detailed notes that were so small, like sounds that I hadn't even noticed or thought
17:38about that you all were pointing out.
17:40So for me, it's helpful because it's just like the conversations you and Mary were having
17:45whenever we had our meetings about editorial things that were separate from the score or
17:52moments where I would talk to you about how the movie was going to change after you did
17:55screenings and had conversations about notes and things like that.
18:00Same thing in the mix.
18:01I feel like it's a helpful reminder of what's most important.
18:05What are the things that you all are highlighting in a sequence sonically?
18:10And is that something that I can help with on the music side, either by encouraging them
18:17to lower something musically or remove something musically or enhance something musically?
18:22And so, especially with this score, since there are so many moments in the film where
18:28there isn't much dialogue, there are so many moments where, you know, there are so many
18:33small elements in the music that I thought of when I was writing them as being very specific
18:38gestures to what we're watching, that it's helpful to be there if there's something that
18:43feels like it might be enhanced narratively because of the score.
18:48And so it's less about me just wanting the music to be turned up, but more so, you know,
18:52when we deliver the score, we deliver it in those stems so that there's malleability for
18:55you or for Gary in this instance to just turn up the synths or just turn up that one little
19:01melody or just turn up that drum fill or something like that.
19:06And so to be able to be there and give that guidance so that it's not just a matter of
19:13do we turn the music up or down?
19:14It's more nuanced than that.
19:15And like, do we turn a couple of elements up or down?
19:19And how much of that do we turn up or down?
19:21I think it's something that I really enjoy being a part of the process for and feel like
19:26excited by the collaboration between the music and the sound design and and how you
19:31all feel those two things are playing together and making sure that my presence there is
19:35more about how those two things are interacting as opposed to just being an advocate for the
19:40music alone.
19:41Does that make sense?
19:42Absolutely.
19:43You know, and I think it is all those qualities you just described.
19:47I never want music to hide.
19:48I always want music to be present.
19:50And the thing that's so amazing about your particular music is that it can be up right
19:55up there up front, but it never I want to say this the right way.
19:59It never crowds anything out.
20:02It shares the space always, which I think is really interesting.
20:05And one of the things I found fascinating and amazing and great was while you were there
20:10and we were fiddling around with things, you knew what was in you knew the layers.
20:15You knew everything that was inside there.
20:17And so you would actually selectively move things up like more more present sonically
20:23I wouldn't have even done it was there necessarily because you like you were, you know, you're
20:27very little layer in there, which I thought was really, really one of the best things
20:33I have to say.
20:34Leff Lefferts and Gary Rizzo and we're really stoked about having you there.
20:41They just had the best time, I think, working on this thing.
20:45Yeah.
20:46Yeah.
20:47Same.
20:48Yeah.
20:49And I think, like, again, going back to the process from the very beginning with you,
20:52just that being able to write things to picture in that detailed way allowed me to have so
20:57much more of an intimate relationship with, like, every sound where it was all there for
21:01very specific reasons based on what I'm seeing.
21:04And so it was it was something that was kind of set up by the process and the workflow
21:09that you all had.
21:10One of the questions I have for you is, is there a moment for you where you felt like
21:14the score has finally come to a place where you feel like the movie has a sonic identity?
21:21Because I feel like that's always a scary thing for me as the composer is, you know,
21:25my first meetings, there's conversation with whether it's you and Jeff or even hearing
21:30from Mike and Natalie about, you know, what the score needs to do and what it needs to
21:34sound like and all the things it needs to accomplish.
21:36And, you know, the heads of DreamWorks have feelings about what the score needs to accomplish.
21:39Like, there's a lot of conversation that lets me know that there's a lot of attention being
21:47paid to whether or not the score is going to live up to these fantasies of what it might
21:51be.
21:52And then it feels like it resolves through the process as I'm writing cues and people
21:57start to feel good about it.
21:58But I'm curious for you if there was a moment where you started to feel like, oh, wow, this
22:02score is the score for the movie.
22:04Absolutely.
22:05Well, the thing is, I think that it's an interesting thing is people are always people have asked
22:10me many times, like, well, how do you develop a style?
22:12And I'm like, I don't think you deliberately do it.
22:14I think it's just something that it's like your personality begins to show the more you
22:18work on things.
22:19And I think your particular personality is always present.
22:22It's just something you cannot avoid.
22:24Like even when you're doing things as broad, like you have this amazing theme for Fink
22:29when he's running around and it's got this sort of secret agent kind of like foxy, sly,
22:36you know, it's got a little bit of a 007 thing going on, which I love.
22:40I don't know how you do that.
22:42But it never stops being your version of that.
22:47And it's hard for me to explain it any further than that.
22:49But I think, I mean, honestly, from the very first few sketches you ever wrote, we were
22:55getting them back in editorial and you hadn't even fully formed things at that point.
22:59But we were hearing some of the stuff and just so incredibly excited because it really
23:04did just fit so beautifully with the visual style and style, the characters and definitely
23:12I think with the style of the writing, which I think is like, I have to credit like Mike
23:17Knobloch and Natalie at Universal because they were like, oh, Chris Bowers, Chris Bowers,
23:25like you were the one name that came up and they were like, they were so absolutely like
23:32rock solid, sure, like there is no other person like go with Chris and like, okay.
23:37So they understood, I think that Christie Soper with our casting, she like, she really
23:42got it.
23:43So there's something about the style of the movie that was really, I guess, evident because
23:47I think everybody, the casting of all the talents on this thing, everybody just like
23:52harmonized.
23:53Certainly, I mean, the migration I think will always be the core, the touchstone, the core
24:02of everything.
24:03I think just because it does have everything I think in that one moment.
24:07It has just the immense scale at the end and you bring in all those wonderful drums and
24:13it's so like, it's so, it's just strides.
24:16It just strides and it's so big and it, yeah, this is, Chris explains music, stop talking
24:25Chris.
24:26Chris Sanders, not Chris Bowers, do not let Chris Sanders explain music because it devolves
24:32into a bit of nonsense, yeah, for sure.
24:37And I don't think we talk enough about as well, just the stuff at the end, the third
24:42act, you've got all this wonderful stuff going on.
24:44We have this comedy fight so we can just like have a moment and have some fun and really
24:49fulfill the promise of Roz being one with the animals and the animals being on her side
24:53and stuff like that.
24:54And then it shifts into this far bigger thing at the end as she's making her.
25:00So can you talk a little bit just about that last, because for me, that bit where she falls
25:05through the open hatch and takes that big plummet and she has that last conversation
25:11with Bright Bill and then we're bouncing back and forth between her and then we go down
25:16to the animals who are doing the final push in the tree and just the way that that whole
25:20thing snowballs until I'm just like, I just can't stop watching it.
25:25Every time we're in a theater and we're about to do a presentation, we always arrive a little
25:29early and we usually arrive in time for me to sneak in the theater and watch from that
25:34point to the end, which I will never get tired of.
25:37That's awesome.
25:38Yeah.
25:39Yeah.
25:40I think a couple of things.
25:41One, it's something that again is so clear, even in the earliest iteration of it, just
25:46the momentum not stopping and like there being all these peaks, you know, that we're reaching
25:52are these moments with them thinking that they've defeated the Rico's and then Roz being
25:59taken and then, you know, the rescue of Roz and then her falling and then the tree, like
26:04each of these moments felt like very clear beats in the way it was like even storyboarded
26:10out and once you guys started the early animation and the previous and everything.
26:14And so I knew that it had to be handled as like almost one full thing musically, even
26:20though it was written as all these short little cues, thinking about it as one long arc.
26:27The first thing I actually did was watch Star Wars because I've always been fascinated
26:34by John Williams's ability to handle in the episode four, like that last 30 minutes, basically
26:4130 minutes, that whole last sequence of trying to take down the Death Star is like 30 minutes
26:46straight and it's wall-to-wall music, but it feels exciting and this thrill ride the
26:50entire time.
26:51So I actually studied that first to see like, how does he develop a cue in itself?
26:58How does he go from one cue to another without it feeling repetitive?
27:01How is it that in those 30 minutes, some of the main themes are repeated, like I count
27:07it's like something like 20 something times that some of the main themes are repeated
27:11and I don't get annoyed by them.
27:14And so I was kind of looking at that a lot to see how do I build it out and that caused
27:20me to, as I wrote each cue, I would get to a certain point and then go to the next one
27:27so I could figure out how that was going to start to make sure that the first one didn't
27:31need to do something to get me to that next point.
27:36So it was like, I knew how the first cue when she runs away from Von Tra would start, but
27:41then once I got to the section where Thorin moves the trees and all that kind of stuff,
27:47I wanted to really figure out, I knew it needed to build to this big epic moment when we see
27:52that Avengers kind of shot of all of the animals together.
27:57But I wanted to figure out what the Rico section was going to sound like before I got too far
28:00so that I knew I wasn't getting it too big before it needs to go to the next section
28:04or being mindful of how it was going to change.
28:07And same with each section, it would be getting it to a point where the sketch was filled
28:11enough to have a clear idea and then jump to the next section to continue to sketch
28:15to make sure that it all felt cohesive.
28:18And then with her falling through the hatch, that was also you and Mary.
28:21Because I remember, I can't remember at what point it was, but you all had tried dropping
28:26in the, I could use a boost cue there.
28:30And I remember I was talking about working on it and you guys came to me in that meeting.
28:34You're like super excited about how well it felt like it worked to have that moment there.
28:39And so having that as temp was also helpful because then it was like, OK, I know I'm going
28:43to get there and that's going to be this epic version of the main theme.
28:47And so being mindful of how much I use the main theme up until that point so that that
28:51would work.
28:52But yeah, it was like a lot of like jumping around, but in this very intentional way so
28:56that the puzzle was kind of coming together instead of it being like, you know, this part
29:02was hyper detailed and figured out.
29:05And then all of a sudden I realized that it's not going to work with the rest of it.
29:07It was trying to build it in phases and stages.
29:10Yeah.
29:11Is there is there a part of the because there's certain places that we always go, I think,
29:15to talk about.
29:16Is there anything in any part or place in the movie that we don't normally talk about
29:21that you find interesting musically that we should?
29:27Because I was just thinking, like, I always forget about there's the moment where Vontra
29:30appears and you've got that like more sinister thing going on.
29:34And that was really amazing because, you know, in animation, we were doing our best to keep
29:40her making everybody uncomfortable because she's of course she has all these little upsetting
29:45tentacles and stuff like that.
29:47But then she's immediately like poking and touching at Roz because Roz to her is just
29:51like a lawnmower.
29:52She's a product.
29:53She's like a refrigerator.
29:55So you know, and but to us, you know, Roz is a fully developed individual.
30:00And so we always wanted that to feel uncomfortable that she would that Vontra would feel like
30:05she could go ahead and just like, you know.
30:08So what's going on?
30:09She like adjusts things on her and she looks at things on her and like if somebody came
30:13into your house and started messing with your shelves, you'd be like, hey.
30:18But musically, you've got that thing going on as well.
30:20That makes it super unsettling in the in a most enjoyable way.
30:27Yeah.
30:28You know, I think it's something where there's so many small little details that I'm super
30:32excited about and proud of, like, you know, even the universal dynamics theme and like
30:36how much that was kind of a throwback to those like retro future videos and setting
30:42those things or the moment where the geese come back and Roz turns back on.
30:47Like that was a cue that I was really.
30:49Oh, yeah.
30:52And the sound of her turning back on was really inspired by like the Windows startup and like
30:57different startup sounds that I really loved.
31:00Just that little swell that happens at the beginning of it.
31:03Or even the the other thing that I actually forget sometimes that was also a really amazing
31:09discovery was seeding the even when I'm not melody into the moment where Roz leaves the
31:16island, because there's something that I just talked about it the other day and somebody
31:22asked about how the songs and score are related.
31:26And it dawned on me that up until that moment, I hadn't talked about that at all.
31:29And it's such a subtle thing that so many people miss it that I remember we it was a
31:34combination of like by that point where she's leaving, we've heard the main theme even in
31:40that cue so many times in that last, you know, 20 minutes or whatever it is that it felt
31:45like that was the first time that to me it felt like it might be redundant to have it
31:49there.
31:50And I wasn't sure what should be there.
31:51And I tried Roz's melody, but it's over the chords from the main theme.
31:54So that wasn't really working.
31:56And I remember there was a question.
31:59I don't know who asked.
32:00I don't know if it was Mike or you or Jeff, but the idea of trying to seed that melody
32:04and if there's anywhere we could place that melody.
32:07And I was like, oh, that feels like a perfect place.
32:09And somehow the melody from that song fits really, really well over the chords from the
32:15main theme.
32:16And it felt like such an emotional thing and to have this like new, fresh melody come in
32:20at that moment.
32:21And it's something that I feel like people don't really notice.
32:26But to me, I wonder how much that has any sort of like subconscious impact on when we
32:30actually hear the song in the end credits.
32:34And it was just such a fun discovery when we figured out how to put those things together.
32:38One of the things I'm really, really thrilled about is that visually the movie is so different
32:43and it was absolutely recognized by the audience and appreciated.
32:47And I would say the music is the exact same situation.
32:50People have always from the very beginning commented on the music and how much it meant
32:55to them and how it transported them emotionally and also took them to this place, this fanciful
33:00place that we created and how effective it was.
33:04So it's been really amazing to see.
33:07And I'm just so happy that this music is getting so much attention.
33:12I think that sometimes with animated films, people are maybe not necessarily hearing music
33:20as sophisticated as this is.
33:23And in this case, I just think it's fantastic that they are and they are like totally responding
33:27to it, recognizing it.
33:29So I have to say thank you so much for everything that you created on this.
33:34And yeah.
33:36Thank you for the support and the trust and it's such a beautiful collaborative spirit
33:42and energy working with you.
33:44So that was so amazing.
33:45And the score is just my personal emotional reaction to the movie.
33:50So, you know, thank you for for making it.