Firefly – “We’re launching rockets, man.”
Back in 2016 Edwards Media hired me to produce an original musical score to a new episode of Autodesk’s Soul of the Machine. In Cedar Park, TX there’s a rocket company called Firefly Aerospace and they were making the push to create a more affordable means of getting things to outer-space. Quoting from their webpage, Firefly “is committed to providing economical and convenient access to space for small payloads through the design, manufacture and operation of reliable launch vehicles. The Firefly team addresses the market’s need for flexible access to space with a “simplest/soonest” approach to technology selection.”
Because I grew up loving rockets and all things space, I was MORE than excited to work on this!
You can watch the entire episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS-pDQdb2_4
Getting Out of the Way
Writing music for a documentary is a delicate balance since there’s usually a lot more dialog than in films or TV shows. The goal of a documentary score is to push the story while getting out of the way. Films may have fancy special effects, high velocity action sequences, most documentaries use footage along with discussion and interviews to tell the story. The music needs to pull the viewer into the narrative while leaving enough space for the story to have impact. I was inspired by Firefly Aerospace’s accomplishments. By their drive. It made my job of writing music to their story a fun and compelling task.
My Favorite Kind of Storytelling
How many times have you started a documentary just because you were curious? Or only wanted to watch the first five minutes… and then you’ve watched the entire thing? For me, ALL of the time. It’s one of my favorite ways of being told a story. Epecially since these things really happened. These were real lives and events! It’s highly fascinating to me. Also writing for documentaries is a very nice change of pace from my normal game audio work.
Do you have a documentary that needs custom, original audio? If so, let’s talk! I’d love to help out! I hope you enjoy the snippet.
BIO
Nate Madsen is an established composer, sound designer with nearly 16 years experience and over 870 credits. He’s worked in-house at FUNimation Entertainment, NetDevil, Bee Cave Games and is currently a Principal Composer, Sound Designer for SciPlay. Two of his recent side projects have been Great Wolf Lodge’s Magiquest and Glass Bottom Game’s SkateBIRD. He lives in Austin, Texas. Be sure to reach out to Nathan with any audio needs you may have!