Collaborative Composition: Method & Madness
Dive into Antfood’s methodology for composing a rich musical journey for the animated short, Repeater—a story of creative collaboration, iterative building and breaking, and crafting a transformative soundscape for a dystopian world.
The film’s theme was ‘Misfits’. Working with Carbon for OFFF Fest, Antfood went all in on this unique opportunity to experiment, create and collaborate without constraint. Repeater follows our misfit protagonist: a maverick tale of non-conformity, dystopian oppression and the importance of finding your tribe.
Collaboration
Repeater tells the story of misfits finding their place together – something we feel strongly about at Antfood where we strongly lean into a culture of collaboration and believe that the whole is greater than the sum of our parts.
“One of my favorite things about working at Antfood is getting to collaborate with people who come from wildly different backgrounds. We embrace the differences between different composers and find ways to allow that to complement other people’s perspectives."
World Building
The score evolved as our understanding of the story, characters and world evolved. We became more connected to the story and used sonic devices to manipulate and emphasize the emotional perspective of the protagonist - bringing viewers on the journey in this dystopian world.
“Musically, it’s a really strange juxtaposition of so many layers you wouldn’t typically find in one single composition.”
Building By Breaking
Beginning with a single sonic idea, we tried to capture the concept of misfit. As the narrative developed, the idea grew a life of its own, and we realised that to fully communicate the psychedelic, dystopian experience of the protagonist, we needed to change, mangle and break down the compositions we had made. Transforming, manipulating and distorting our initial musical ideas was the only way to do this. Nothing was off limits.
“Our creative began with a single seed of an idea. It would evolve and even disappear for weeks at a time. But most importantly it created a foundation for us to build from.”
Watch the titles to see how it all came together:
Created by: Carbon
Writer & Director: Ian Bradley
Executive Creative Director: Liam Chapple
Executive Producer: Phil Linturn
Senior Producer: Krystle Timm
Music, Sound Design & Mix: Antfood
Orchestration: Adam Klemens
Orchestra: Smecky
