MUSIC+SOUND AWARDS 2022

BEST ORIGINAL COMPOSITION IN A SHORT FILM

Blush

Entrant + Composer: Joy Ngiaw, Los Angeles

Production Companies: Apple Original Films, Skydance Animation + Skydance Media

Director: Joe Mateo

Executive Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg + John Lasseter

Editor: Tim Mertens

Composer, Joy Ngiaw, won this year’s Music+Sound Awards Best Original Composition in a Short Film with her score on the inaugural short from Apple Original Films and Skydance Animation film, Blush, directed by Joe Mateo.

Here she writes about the scoring process:

"When I first saw the storyboards of 'Blush,' I was completely swept away by the immense meaning and gravity behind the film. The film evoked a wide range of emotions - from falling in love, the joy of building a family, the loss and grief when you lose someone, to having hope as life goes on. It was important that the music theme established was not only memorable, but also able to translate all aspects of those emotions.

During our collaborative process, one of the themes that Joe and I kept coming back to was how Mary Ann was just like oxygen to him. The importance of oxygen signifies the importance of family and love. This inspired me to have breath-like elements incorporated into the score - recording sound effects like breaths, whispers and vocal elements. Something subtle and not in the foreground, yet we can feel the presence of it - it just exists, just like breathing.

For instrumentation and sound palette - I kept it in the orchestra with sprinkles of hybrid elements. I featured instruments such as piano when we first hear our theme (common instruments in most households so it will remind us of home and family), and strings which provide a lot of heart. Since this film has no dialogue, I featured solo woodwind instruments as the character’s voices (flute being mom’s voice, clarinet being dad’s, and oboes for the two daughters). Wind instruments also capture our theme of breathing and oxygen. By using orchestra and organic instruments that sound familiar to the audience, it provides a feeling of grounding, wholesome, warm, feeling rooted. I also recorded instruments such as wind chimes to again tie in our theme of air, and to signify a distant memory feeling. The hybrid elements were electronic pads to establish the environment of space. We intentionally didn’t have any score in the beginning of the film, to reflect the character’s isolation. And when we first hear the music, is when we first see mom bringing life to the trees.

Sharing a connection and getting to know another human being is the most meaningful part of my job. Having conversations with Joe about him and his wife’s love story - how they first met and how her blush completely swept him away, how her laughter was larger than life - and just hearing him gush about his wife - I wanted all that to reflect in the music, and the score to truly honor and represent her spirit, how she was so full of life and joy, living life to the fullest. We wanted to make sure we can establish a memorable theme that brings the audience on this journey."