Beyond Good and Evil 2

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is an (upcoming?) action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft. I'm planning on making music for the 2009 teaser trailer. 

Since there is no music in the trailer video, my goal is to make a song that will go along with the trailer and sound effects in the trailer. (My end goal is to have my song play over top the video sound). My inspiration behind the track is the Overworld theme from the original Beyond Good & Evil game titled "Home Sweet Home": 

I'm going to incorporate parts of the melody in the trailer (like, variations) with it most notably being at the climax of the trailer, when she jumps off the building. 

An example of the motif: 

The games music, as well as design had a lot of cultural influences inspired from Japan. So my goal is to incorporate mostly old Japanese folk-sounding instruments (either created, or found examples) instead of a purely electronic/futuristic sound. 

OUTCOME

CURATORIAL STATEMENT: 

My goal was to create a soundtrack for the 2009 trailer for "Beyond Good & Evil" by using instrumentation similar to Japanese folk instruments, while creating and incorporating a motif for the main character, Jade, within the trailer. 

ACCOUNT: 

For my instrumentation, I decided to stick with samples and instruments that were all included in Logic. None of the sounds in the video, besides the sounds that were in the original trailer, were taken from an external source. Because of this decision, it was a bit of a setback to get some of the instruments to sound authentic. Also, because this game is set in a futuristic, dystopian world, and this trailer has an incredible amount of action in it, I didn't want to make my instruments, or the track itself, sound too peaceful. Part of my inspiration for my instrumentation came from this song from the original game: 

This song incorporates a Japanese(?) flute, some type of shaker, several natural sounding percussive instruments, piano, and orchestral sounds. I decided to edit the original Flute sound in the ESX24 by adding glide and a pulse LFO applied to a LPF cutoff value to try and simulate the shifting pitch and vibrato of the Japanese flute. However, I ran in to issues with the LFO and it seems to not have been applied to the instrument. 

My other main instrument in my soundtrack is an edited version of my percussive synth patch from the previous assignment. I decided to use this because in the original game, there were a few songs that incorporated a finger drum/mbira-like sound: 

I applied this percussive sound to my Jade's Motif midi notes which I repeated in a loop throughout most of the song. 

My other percussive instruments included kicks from an 808 emulator "Boutique 808" and "Dub Smash GB". I wanted to use these drums instead of traditional instruments because the game is set in the future, where most of the battle music uses heavy kicks akin to house music. 

Using the constant percussive sounds, and bass kicks, I wanted to create a sense of continuity to relate to the scene. The main character is seen running in a high-speed chase to avoid being possibly captured or killed from her enemies. From the beginning of the song to 0:26, when jade enters the house, the foreground and background within the piece remained the same - the foreground was a louder mbira sound that played during Jade's turns and jumps. 

REFLECTION: 

Looking back at my piece, there are a few things that I would've changed/done better. I think that the buildup to the climax of the trailer, at 0:32, could have been greater. I think that I should have added more instrumentation to play the melody, besides the flute sample. I think that the flute sample is a little too bright in comparison to the rest of the instruments. It wouldn't sound awkward if it either was edited more to have a calmer tone, or it was backed up with orchestral sounds to make it sound more epic.