I thought it would be a fun exercise to re:sound and re:score the seawall sequence from Blade Runner 2049. You’re probably thinking: wasn’t the sound /and/ the music nominated for awards? Yes! 2049 sound was nominated for an Academy Award and music was nominated for a BAFTA. So, there’s nothing that needs to be improved in sound or score. BUT – it’s such a visually inspiring film – and without trying to date myself, I did see the original 1982 version in the theater as a young dude with my dad. I’m a big fan and kinda connected to the series.

Sound Process: I stripped away everything from the sequence and started from scratch. On the audio side, some is foley, some is stock sound, and the spoken parts are ADR from a voice actress. There are a lot of great moments in the sound process that proved to be a lot of fun. What’s great about re:sounding a sci-fi sequence are the multiple instances where you can layer to create new sounds no one’s ever heard before. One thing I really like to do with sound is layer the ambience of the sequence to give it more immersive aural reality. In this case, the waves breaking along the California coast really helped set the tone for the audio of the sequence. I found a lot of the cue details from the original sequence applied to the audio I was creating, so I used it as a guide. The echoes of the blasters against the unseen wall, the difference in tone and ambience when underwater, the ‘ruffling’ of leather when two leather-clad individuals fight in water are all examples of this.

Music Process: The 2049 score has a lot of throwback to the 1982 Vangelis score, with heavy SAW synths and a lot of pitch bend, drops, and explosions. I wanted to add a bit of difference, of course, so I added some orchestral parts to fill it in and smooth out the melody. My favorite part of the music signature, though, is the choir. The film(s) are essentially about androids striving to become more human than human, and what better opportunity to voice that than a choir? As I was writing this reworked score, I wondered what the music should sound like while the LUV character is drowning. I imagined it to be nearly complete chaos and cacophony, and utilized a dissonant choir to simulate that action musically. That scene intentionally fades out musically at the very end – almost peacefully. The original soundtrack continues into the next scene, and if I had the project for myself I would have done it the same way. In this small example, I scored only to the scene itself, and the ending sequence where the K character rescues the Deckard character didn’t seem to need underscore. Would love to know what you think. I have this sequence available with sound and no musical score if other composers are interested in practicing scoring to it. Obviously this remains the property of Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Alcon Entertainment and Sony Pictures, and is only intended as an audio demonstration.

Thanks for listening!