Slingshot Productions, in partnership with Minno, Angel Studios and Sunrise Animation Studios (creators of the Jungle Beat brand) have just released the first episode of their new series ‘Young David’.
Each five minute episode is a vignette focussing on a trait of the biblical character David. The five shorts are titled Warrior; King; Shepard; Poet and Worshiper.
We had the pleasure of collaborating on this five-part series and handled the Original Music Composition.
“Emotion is the heart of story. No matter how flawless the filmmaking, an audience will only connect with a film when they feel it. The score is the key to this emotional heart. A well-crafted score like the ones Pressure Cooker Studios created for the Young David shorts unlock the soul of the story, and usher the audience inside.“
– Sam Wilson Writer / Director
Pressure Cooker Studios Composer, Andries Smit and Creative Executive Officer James Matthes answered a few questions around the score for this anticipated series:
How did you get involved in this project?
“We first started working on this project in 2017 when they were developing a demo as a proof of concept to raise finance for the feature ‘David’. We composed the music for this demo and then Andries also went on to compose a full-length score to an animatic of the feature film at the end of 2020.
We’d already created a soundscape for the world of ‘David’ when we got brought on the project for the ‘Young David’ series. Tracks from the score for the animatic were used as temp music for the shorts which was really valuable.” – James Matthes
What was your vision for the score of ‘Young David’?
“We really focused on creating an authentic score using instruments that were relevant to the time and the region, and interpreting them to be cinematic. The music isn’t just feel good, it is real, it has substance, which elevates the story of this real human being told through animation. Another thing that was really important was to have a seamless integration between the songs and the score. Grammy Award Winning Singer / Songwriter Jonas Myrin (who we worked with on the demo) wrote two of the songs that feature in the ‘Young David’ series.” – Andries Smit
How did you achieve this authentic sound?
“We used real musicians and real instruments.
We picked instruments that were relevant to the story and setting and then paired the right talent to the project.
Some of the artists we brought in were:
Roy Smila to play the Kamancheh,
Gal Klein on the Clarinet and Derek Gripper on Viola and Guitar.
We even bought an authentic Lyre to record for the score.
The sound of the Lyre was so authentic that the production used this for their foley. And then of course we recorded the final themes with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra with the help of Shaun Crawford, our orchestrator. Simon Ratcliffe of Sound & Motion handled the score mixing.” – Andries Smit
Tell us more about why you recorded with a live orchestra?
“When we originally worked on the demo / proof of concept we wanted to deliver the highest quality music and go over and above what was expected. So we invested some of the budget for the score into recording with a live orchestra. We believed in the director’s vision to break boundaries with this project to prove that we can deliver on an international standard of work.
Using a live orchestra takes the score to the next level, even if you can’t necessarily hear the difference, you can feel it. The results were worth it, and it was a given that we would record with the orchestra again for the five shorts.” – James Matthes
The international crowdfunding success of ‘David’ is testament to the high production quality of the demo. And the Young David series now serves as a prequel to the full-length feature film.
The first episode of David, titled ‘Warrior’ was released on 10 November on the Angel Network.
The remaining four will be released monthly so keep an eye out.
