My Westworld Competition Score

[Ted]

Hey all,

I entered the Spitfire Audio/HBO Westworld Scoring Competition... as did about a hundred thousand other people it seems. Haha. For some reason mine doesn't show up with the others on the hashtag so I wanted to post the link here and get it some views.

I had fun doing it and if you like it, I'd appreciate an upboat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuRkLjSNrgY


Cheers,

Ted

[AlanHall]

"what's he doing?"
"I think he's switching genres"
[cue Latin funk]

..I like it! When the bass comes in on the second entrance, it feels very right.

[AlanHall]

I am not 100% sure about the chiptune thing going on in the winner. It is kind of novel, unexpected, but at times definitely too clownish and trivializing for me.

Tom

I have no experience with Westworld, in any incarnation (I was around when Yul Brynner did the movie, but never saw it), so I cannot say if the fun, lighthearted video game them runs through the entire series or not.

[Ted]

Alan, thanks for listening and for the nice feedback. When 11,000 people enter a contest it can be hard to get any thoughts on one's entry because everybody else and their cow is looking for feedback.

Tom, yeah I'm not a big fan of the winning entry myself. I had seen it a few weeks earlier and found it really gimmicky and not particularly clever like some find it to be. Also, there is something of the main theme that seems to be lifted from a videogame called "Kirby's Dreamland"-- I found a portion that was very similar, maybe the first chord had been changed from major to minor but it felt plagiarised-- whether intentional or not.

Also, I GET the whole notion that the judges left it open for a crazy, obvious genre change-- and maybe mine was too dull, I went for something to evoke a certain era of action films and I made it subtle. I purposely avoided any ostinato strings/synthesizer "braaaams". (Don't get me started on Action Strings/Action Strikes).

But one of the reasons why I don't think the 8-bit theme worked at all was because of the character's main lines... "Is that standard issue?" is not something a guy who thinks he is Super Mario would say: It's a cheesy line strictly out of an action/military/spy genre-- cheesy enough to draw a smirk from Dolores because it's a total action film cliche. All the power-up sound effects in the world can't patch that incongruity.

Nevertheless congrats to the winner. His entry must have stood out. I know I went crosseyed listening to maybe a few hundred of them. I think what really angered and upset a lot of people most of all is that sinking feeling of "I thought I was gonna be competing with a few hundred people-- but instead there are ELEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE who want to do what I want to do and there simply aren't enough opportunities to work or catch a break in this industry if you aren't somehow connected."

It was cool of Spitfire to do this contest and give us an opportunity to have a professional piece of video to score. I've looked around for practice scenes and there are not many. I have an acquaintance who makes some indie films and this contest gave me a nice little piece of work to put in my portfolio. Also it was my first time scoring to picture-- and learning how to use tempo maps, etc. I know Spitfire took a lot of heat over this contest but I want to thank them again for doing it.

Still, I think the most hilarious and creative take on it was this one... they knew they weren't gonna win, but I think anybody who entered this contest will enjoy the hell out of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXK6iJmsM-Y

[AlanHall]

I think the most hilarious and creative take on it was this one... they knew they weren't gonna win, but I think anybody who entered this contest will enjoy the hell out of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXK6iJmsM-Y

I sure didn't enter, but having watched a 'few' entries, I feel I'm qualified to get a laugh out of that one!