Deirdre Broderick, Film Composer

Film composer and new SONAR user Deirdre Broderick, used Pro Audio 9 last year to score an independent feature film ABCD, which has won the Best Picture Award at the Austin and Houston film festivals, and has been well received at other International film festivals since its premiere in late 2001. Deirdre caught our attention with her score to ABCD because of its fusion of eastern and western influences and instruments. In the score, she musically captures an Indian family's struggle for cultural identity in present day America. Broderick's soundtrack blends pop and Indian elements, and utilizes a palette of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, resulting in a powerful and emotive synthesis. She created the soundtrack in a small studio environment - composing, performing, recording and mixing every element herself using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0.

Cakewalk: Before we talk about the film and your score, why don't you tell us a bit about your background.

Deirdre Broderick: My first musical production was a musical called George III Sings! We staged the piece at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. That was so well received, that it led to a string of short films and theatrical scores, including productions of Twelfth Night and The Bacchae by The Lantern Theater Company of Philadelphia, and the premiere production of Irish novelist Colum McCann's Flaherty's Window in NYC.

I've also done some work in the dance world, collaborating with Paula Josa-Jones Performance Works beginning in 1995. I provided soundscapes for their performances of Light and Bone and Wonderland. Both pieces were performed across the country at various colleges and venues.

After the dark, atmospheric mood music required for the dance works, I lightened things up a bit with an Elvis-inspired musical spoof called Viva Los Alamos in 3-D, written with book writer/lyricist Mike Katinsky. That musical was initially staged in Atlanta over the summer of '99 and then remounted at the NYC Fringe Festival 2000.

Some of my other credits include play tunes for the children's video Trains; a twisted cartoon circus-scape for Jack Segal's Bunnyman; commercials for Southwest Airlines, MetLife, La Belle Vie Skin Care, and 3-D Studio Max; and songs for the NYC cabaret.

CW: And all that work led you to the film ABCD?

DB: Yes, the door to every credit I've ever received was opened by networking, staying active in my local performance circles, and keeping in touch with people. Don't get me wrong though, networking gets your foot in the door, but once you are there, you need to be able to back it up musically.

CW: What was the main theme in ABCD that you had to grapple with while composing the score?

DB: ABCD is the story of first generation Asian Indian immigrant children who have grown up in America. The movie revolves around characters who feel culturally lost, because they can no longer fully adhere to the customs of the country they left behind, and they don't feel that they belong to mainstream American culture. The main character, Nina is rebelling against the conservative Hindu values of her mother. Even though the story centers around a specific ethnic group, I feel the generational conflict will resonate with anyone who sees the film.

It was really an interesting challenge to provide dramatic music that weaved a unified voice into the emotional line of the script. I was essentially dealing with a clash of cultural and generational values, and trying to represent it musically. I had to draw upon elements of both modern pop music and classical Indian music.

CW: And how about technical issues?

DB:The biggest challenge in scoring the film was designing a workable system to carry the job from beginning to end in what was essentially a "home studio" environment. Thanks to the lateral thinking of recording engineer Corey Kaup, Pro Audio 9 became the cornerstone of the studio design, not only due to it's well-established capability as a powerful sequencer, but also for it's ability to integrate all of the peripherals I needed which included ADATs and Kurzweil synths.

Another challenge was that I ended up receiving Digital Video without timecode to reference. Pro Audio 9's ability to run rock-solid synchronous video inside the interface made it all possible. Using digitized AVI video as the reference, I was able to score in sync to picture despite little to no information beyond image from the picture edit itself. Cakewalk enabled me to sync to picture without the benefit of the film's timecode. We had a happy ending with more than 50 cues that slipped into the final mix of the movie like a custom fit.

CW:Any anecdotes about your experiences doing the work?

DB: The system worked so well, I thought I couldn't have any happier moments than actually recording the score...but once we started screening at international film festivals and I started shopping the soundtrack album around, then I discovered how much happier I could be by having to field questions like, "So, where did you record that orchestra?" and "THIS IS ALL YOU?"

CW:What are your favorite things about working with Pro Audio and now SONAR?

DB: My favorite things about working with Pro Audio 9 always seem to revolve around control and flexibility, and these elements only have gotten better with SONAR. My enjoyment comes from manipulating the machine into sounding as authentic and warm-blooded as possible. I have the opportunity to be as precise as I want to be! I can go in and micromanage every note down to the last shave of a second. It allows me to create fluidly, but still be able to clean up any backsplash. The pathways from MIDI to audio are clean and dependable and the rooms in Soundstage FX3 are so real, I want to move in.

CW:What are you working on now or next?

DB: I'm currently finishing up a new children's musical, The Perfect Monster, which will open in NYC in April. I've also just done a pilot for a TV travel show called Chasing Stan and Marcia. And I just shot my first music video, note to self: next time, shoot in the summer, or in a coat!

Deirdre Broderick's soundtrack album, ABCD, is available on the internet at mariemariemusic@aol.com and also at the movie website: www.abcd-themovie.com

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