Oct 19, 2022

Series Craft: Music as a tool for storytelling in Tonko House's "On: ThunberGod's Tale".

Tonko House founder "Dice" Daisuke Tsutsumi likes to do it his way when directing, including the unorthodox way of using composers in his work.

Matteo Roberts and Zack Johnston have scored Tsutsumi's films and series over a 10-year period, and their work has been featured in Tonko House's Oscar-nominated short "Dam Keeper" and the studio's Annecy Crystal Award-winning TV series "Pig: Dam Keeper". It can be heard in "The Poem of the Year".

Roberts was a classically trained musician, and Johnston studied cinema. Their overlapping skill set shifted from playing in the touring pop band Phox in the 2010s to composing music for today's series and movies.

Ogre: The Story of the Thunder God will hit Netflix on Friday 10/21, the same day that scores of the series will be available to stream on Spotify. Prior to the premiere, Cartoon Brew asked the creative trio to describe their unique, long-standing working relationship.

Here, Tsutsumi, Roberts and Johnston, in their own words:

Tsutsumi: Matteo [Roberts] and Zack [Johnston] are always doing music for nothing from Tonko House. The way we work together is unique. I think of these guys as part of my story team and their music as a tool for storytelling. They use music to tell stories, just as storyboard artists use pictures. I have a hard job of describing a particular narrative moment or character's emotions and they create something just with its early themes and concepts. The work they did for the ogres was very essential for narrative and animated performances. All the movements of the characters are guided by music.

Roberts: At Oni, we were involved during the pre-production, during the pilot, until the Green Light, and remained mostly involved throughout production. We worked with a lot of people in the studio, but from a purely creative point of view, we always had a direct line to the dice. There were no music directors or producers along the way, but it was mostly just us.

Johnston: We've been in direct contact with Dice for 2 years, weekly or at least biweekly. Every time he had an update, he would come right to us. There were some weeks where we would talk every day. We wrote music, but the dice deserve too much credit. When we were arranging something, he was always in the trenches with us and could push us beyond what we thought we could, even if Mateo and I were composers, I feel like 3 of us are making music together.

Tsutsumi: Through the creation of Oni, I worked remotely, partly because of the pandemic and partly because of geography. But we were able to share some important face-to-face sessions. They came from Los Angeles to Berkeley, California, and stayed for several days. Working together in the same space, we could see them making music and it was like magic. It was also no different from when I was writing or when artists in the studio were making storyboards. Frustration and stress are the same. In addition, it is not easy to make something good. But after some tough moments on this journey, I'm so proud of what these guys have come up with.

Johnston: This was definitely the hardest thing we've ever done in our lives, but we're very grateful for it. The Berkeley session is some of my favorite memories from the production because we put on a 14-15 hour demon non-stop day and what we created together was incredible. Time got faster and faster, and all of a sudden we were reaching the end and working on the final episode. We got over it in record time, partly because we had to, but also because we established the theme by that time and knew how the story worked. I love this process of filmmaking and wonder what it should be like for someone who has earned something in the end.

Tsutsumi: I knew what I wanted musically, but communication was really important to us because I'm not a musician. I couldn't go to them and say, "I think this note should be B-flat" or something like that. So we had to develop a way to communicate not using those technical instructions.

Johnston: We communicated purely emotionally and talked about the characters and their intentions. There has always been a point of view issue as well. Whether the music reflects the perspective of one character, or multiple perspectives, or the perspective of the forest, or how much the audience knows, I don't want to give much to the music. The three of us agreed that we don't like simple background music, just music that enhances what's going on on the screen. So we didn't talk about anything technical, it was always emotional.

Roberts: We did a lot of research, watched a lot of taiko tutorials, and did something to keep up with the Japanese scale. Many of the direct references and information points were those that Zack and I have been fans of for a long time. And of course, the dice gave us guidance when we needed it. Then, when we brought in the taiko and flute players, they helped take it to the next level. But in terms of reference and style, we didn't cook it too much. We tried to keep it authentic to ourselves while being conscious of those Japanese influences. Our intuition got us pretty close to what we wanted most of the time, and it was to tweak and fix things from there.

Johnston: In the first conversation, we talked about incorporating elements of traditional Japanese music. In the first demo, we tried to make something literal, but Dice said, "No, no, please make it yours, but incorporate the spirit of Japanese music." Because it's hard and in many ways strange to [do it the other way]. Matteo and I have been fans of Japanese music for many years, especially festivals and traditional folk music. But being a fan and incorporating it into the score in a meaningful, sincere way has been a huge process. There was a lot of trial and error, but after getting to the main song, it continued to unfold throughout the whole process and we developed a shared language together.

Tsutsumi: We worked with some of the top taiko drummers in Japan. These guys were traditionally trained and must have had all sorts of rules, so I was very nervous when I recorded them. To play Matteo and Zac's scores, I didn't know if it was against the traditional rules or something like that. But when they got the music, the drummer said to me, "Oh, these guys know how to score drums. It's great."A lot of Japanese people, including me, were working on this film, but I felt very nostalgic when I heard the score of the ogre. That's the biggest compliment I can give to these guys. They didn't grow up or live in Japan, so it was pretty incredible to be able to do that.

Johnston: Work with your friends. Many newcomers are aiming at the stars, which is great. But at Dice, there is a duplication and chemistry of vision and aesthetics that goes back 10 years. There is an understanding that allows us to make art in a meaningful way. Working with people who allow you to share chemistry and grow yourself is the best way to collectively create art. Genuine friendship and connection lead to genuine art and people will notice it. It doesn't matter if the movie is small or not, but it's important that it's important to you.

Roberts: It's always obvious when a project is thrown together officially or in a more commercial, monochromatic way of thinking. When you can make something organic, you have to take those opportunities, because such art will remain in people's minds. I also feel that working with someone I can trust can help me hone my skills more. You can challenge each other more and get the best from each other than a cold, business-like collaboration.

Tsutsumi: I always give the same advice to people who want to be concept artists. People often focus less on the technical side of things. Technology We craft throughout our careers; it just comes with doing the job more. But the important thing is that whether you are a visual artist or a musician working in film or television, you need to study cinema as much as possible, because the language, the way we communicate, is as a filmmaker. Just like story artists and visual development artists, I communicate with them as well. At the end of the day we are making movies together, so anyone entering the industry should study cinema and become a filmmaker first.