[INTERVIEW] ‘Orion and the Dark’ Composers Collaborate with Style

With its direct-to-Netflix release some rotoscopers readers may have missed that we had a new DreamWorks animated release this month called Orion and the Dark. This is a special film that focuses on a child named Orion who is trying to overcome his many anxieties and fears. Recently I had the opportunity to talk with the film’s composers Robert (Bob) Lydecker and Kevin Lax. Here’s what they had to say about working together and their experience on the film and their Emmy winning work on Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight:

RW: I guess congratulations are in order and you won an Emmy. That’s exciting! How did you end up working on that series?

Kevin: We did a blind audition basically. We sent in some music. They were like, this is good enough for you to score 3 scenes. So we scored 3 scenes and they were like, okay, this is good enough for us to hire you. And yeah, had a nice working relationship with everyone there.

RW: So did you listen to the previous Kung Panda scores to kind get an idea?

Kevin: Yeah, one of the MOs was to kind of follow the dramatic, it was a TV show, but they wanted to kind of stay in realm of the movies. We developed our own themes, but just kind of in The John Powell Zimmer World. Yeah.

Bob: We love those scores. So it was cool getting to like absorb and try to do stuff, but even though we were staying in that vein actually the showrunner said like don’t worry about trying to fill the shoes if A-list, legendary composers. So that was kind a load off, which was nice.

RW: So how did you get involved with Orion and the Dark? How did that happen?

Kevin: Well, it was another blind demo via DreamWorks…. Bob and I went through the same process of submitting, initially like you submit a collection of music and then they’re like, oh, these people, these composers seem like a good fit. And then… you go through a demo process where they give you excerpts.

What’s one of the benefits of having our working relationship is to try two options for some of these cues. And that can really help filmmakers who like to have choices… Sean Charmatz, the director of Orion and the Dark, really took to that, and then we really hit it off with him. I think having some rapport with DreamWorks helped a little, but it was still, and essentially a blind demo, which is kind of a cool process that DreamWorks goes through to have an unbiased approach.

RW: When you’re working on this kind of film, do they give you like character designs or like here’s the story beats that you need to hit. We need a softer moment here, we need a bigger moment here? How does that process work?

Bob: The first thing we got was the script, and that was when we were demoing. So we got to know the whole story. And then the next thing was a meeting where they showed us a few excerpts of the film and talked about their vision. We asked Sean about his personal connection to the story, but, and then eventually we see the whole movie.

Kevin: What’s kind of cool about it too, which we experienced in Kung Fu Panda, is sometimes you’re given iterations of the animation, so it might be pretty early on. It was well filled-out for Orion and the Dark, but like Kung Fu it’s sometimes working off animatics. Oftentimes when it fills out the beauty of the graphics and the lighting can really it kind of be a nice creative surge for the composing. So it’s kind of an interesting evolution

RW: Did you get to like record with an orchestra or something like that when you record the score?

Bob: Yeah, we actually recorded orchestra and choir in Budapest. And then we had a bunch of soloists ’cause a lot of the score focuses on woodwinds. So we had those players record on their own in Los Angeles and actually some different places too, but…

RW: That must be an amazing moment when you get everybody together and you’re actually playing the music.

Kevin: Yeah. This one was a bit of like a patchwork ’cause we had to bring in soloists with orchestra and choir from Europe. And then Bob and I also did our own things, of course our layers, our organic layers, and then compose later like synths and stuff. So it was a challenging process kind of like a Rubik’s cube at the time, but we had a great mixer and, as you mentioned, it’s also really rewarding when you hear everything come together and it’s a great experience.

Bob: Yeah, I think there were only two minutes of score where we recorded everyone at the same time, but it was all just pieced together like Kevin said so.

RW: Oh, it’s such a sweet little movie, I really enjoyed it. I wish something like this had been around when I was a kid. I think it would’ve been really nice to have something that’s just so honest and truthful about anxiety and your experiences and all of that. I think it was great.

We’d like to thank Bob and Kevin for talking with us and hope you all get a chance to see Orion and the Dark which is available to watch on Netflix.

To listen to more of the interview: