Berklee College of Music

Cosmos Laundromat - First Cycle:
A Reflective Thesis

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of
Masters of Music in Scoring for Film, Television and Video Games

Supervisor: Lucio Godoy

By Jon-Joseph Nepaul

Valencia Campus
July 2019

Table of Contents

Abstract

2

Acknowledgements

3

1. Introduction: ​How it came to be

6

2. The Project: ​Summary

7

3. Finding the Film

8

4. Spotting the Film

10

5. Compositional Process

13

6. Preparing for London

15

7. The Recording

16

8. Mixing The Cue

17

9. Conclusion

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1

Abstract

This culminating experience paper reflects the process of identifying a congruent thesis
film, studying and analyzing the film, scoring the music, preparing the score along with all the
parts for the orchestra to play, practicing conducting the score appropriately for a recording
session, recording the composition at a professional studio in London, and mixing the recording
which, as a result, fashions a broadcast ready cue.

The film that was chosen was ​“Cosmos Laundromat: First Cycle”. ​This animated film
proved to be a challenging one that taught me many valuable lessons. As a result of my
experience, I am able to fully compose and produce broadcast ready music for movies, television
shows and video games.

Keywords: ​film scoring, composer, orchestra recording, session conducting, mixing, animation

2

Acknowledgements

There are a few notable persons who have been instrumental to the completion of my
Master’s Degree. Firstly, my parents Evan and Theresa Nepaul, who have always inspired me to
pursue my talent and gift as a musician and composer. You have both been a tremendous support
and have shown me that the unshakable foundation is built with proper preparation and
pertinacious perseverance. Secondly, my wife Lauren Nepaul, who was one of my greatest
motivating factors. I am truly grateful for the thousands of miles you have traveled throughout
the year to visit me, for the all-nighters you have helped me through and for the unfathomable
understanding that you have evinced. You have always been my best friend, and I will forever be
thankful for all the memories and cherished moments that we have. To my brother Daniel
Nepaul, for continuously keeping me on my toes, so to speak. It is astonishing that you are able
to be one of the most thoughtful doctors as well as an inspiring and disciplined musician, while
still being involved deeply in your family’s and friend’s lives. I will always be a proud big
brother.

Furthermore, To my instructors at Berklee College of Music, You have all opened my
mind, stretched both my technical skills as well as my imagination and deepened my
understanding of scoring. It is because of you that I finally have a discernible grasp of what my
career really is all about.

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Thank you Lucio Godoy for accepting me into this great college. I had a wonderful time
learning about a very different culture. You have had a lot of faith in me and I hope I have lived
up to, or exceeded your expectations. I enjoyed all of our many conversations about our careers
and life. I think it is important to say that after every conversation, I would feel reignited and my
desire to grow would always be revived. I hope to have many more of these battery charging
conversations with you.

I’d like to also show my appreciation to Alfons Conde. I have learned some important
lessons from you which, really took my compositional skills to the next level. My music is
certainly less predictable, and I have learned some unique techniques to keep the ​“engine”
pumping and provide more ​“motion”​ to my scores.

To Vicente Ortiz Gimeno, thank you for showing me the importance of having a well
produced mockup. You have shown me many ways to treat my sample libraries in order to create
realism. Thanks to you, my mockups are sounding better than ever. You have also given me
some insight and tips in using the software Sibelius. This was extremely helpful especially with
the score preparation for the London recording at Air Studios.

Additionally, Pablo Schuller for your great tips that will certainly speed up my workflow
in Mixing. You allowed me to hone my skills in mixing orchestral music and now I am able to
get my mixes at a broadcast and T.V. ready level. Your lessons on melodyne and RX7 also

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broadened my scope of audio. I am now more confident in my mixes as well as more confident
in producing clean and respectable sounding cues.

Last, but certainly not least, Sergio Lacima for instilling in me that I am a composer
“FOR” s​ omething. I truly understand that I am not just a composer of my own fruition, but I am
now writing music for a film, or television show, or a video game. I have also learned many
technical methods in producing music for various types of video games, and have enjoyed
learning the new compositional techniques required for these games to operate with the music.
Most importantly however, is the fact that you have taught me how to conduct an orchestra. This
was something that I had absolutely no knowledge of. After taking your conducting class, I have
been told after every single recording, that my conducting was excellent. I was even told by
some of the members of the orchestra at Air Studios, that my conducting was unpar. This is very
impactful to me since I started out at Berklee with the thought of asking a fellow classmate to
conduct my piece. I am elated to realize my potential, not only as a composer, but as a composer
with the ability to conduct his pieces.

5

Introduction: ​How it came to be

Ten years of age was the mark of my new beginning. This was the moment my initial
interest in music became an obsession. This is how it came to be. I remember as if it were
yesterday. My Father came home with a DVD that he was longing to watch. The 1997 film
“Titanic”. It was a friday night, all my homework was finished, and I was waiting with
anticipation for my parents’ arrival from work to start watching the film. Finally, after much
anticipation, I heard the car pulled into the garage. After they settled in and got the dinner ready,
they started the movie. I was shaking from the excitement. While the movie was nearing its end,
something amazing happened. For the first time in my life, I noticed the music. I have always
heard and loved the music in movies, but I have never before truly noticed it. It was the diegetic
music that grabbed my attention. The unbreakable ship was sinking slowly, and the string quartet
in the movie was playing the song ​“Nearer My God To Thee”.​ It was a beautiful rendition that I
have never forgotten. This was one of the most impactful moments in my life, as this was the
memoment film scoring was introduced in my thoughts. After hearing the string quartet play one
of the most sorrowful and beautiful songs that I have ever heard, a very faint but illuminating
idea was placed in my mind. I knew at that moment that I’d like to compose music for films. I
rewatched that movie about 3 or 4 times the next day and finally got a chance to really hear and
appreciate the composition of James Horner. This is how it came to be. One film, one experience
and one moment changed my entire life.

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The Project:​ Summary

The film chosen was a 3D-animated short about a suicidal sheep named Frank. This took
place on a lonely and desolate island. In fact, there seemed to be no other animals living on this
island except for the other sheep. Victor, the only human showed in the film, appeared behind
Frank during Frank’s second suicide attempt. As Frank was tired of his mundane life as a sheep,
Victor offered Frank the ultimate gift. He placed a timer device around Frank’s neck, which
allowed Frank to live a variety lives as different life forms in many worlds. However, Frank
could only maintain each life form for a short period of time. After a few minutes, Frank would
be transported to a new life form in yet another world. This was understandably confusing to
Frank, but, since the alternative would be him committing suicide, it seemed like a good deal
since he had nothing to live for. As Frank awaits his new life, he notices the sky opening and a
terrifying whirlwind of colorful smoke quickly spiraled down towards him. Frank’s adrenaline
kicked in and he ran in a panic. However, he could not out-run the smoke. He was pulled into the
sky and was never seen again by his fellow heard of sheep.

I was only allowed to record 3 minutes of music. Since the animated short was 10
minutes and 2 seconds in length, I chose a part of the film that seemed most interesting and that
would still have a reasonably easy-to-follow narrative. Upon the approval of my advisor, Lucio
Godoy, I started the composition at 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the film, and ended when the
screen went to black at 8 minutes and 40 seconds (exactly 3 minutes in total). After the allotted
compositional time frame was confirmed, the composition process began.

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Finding the FIlm

I have always had a great relationship with my instructors at my previous schools. I
knew that I would always be able to compose for one of the student’s thesis films at Full Sail
University. However, I wanted to make this my ​Plan B.​ Wanting to score an original short film
that was not affiliated with a particular school, I contacted some of the directors that I had
worked with previously, along with a few whom I have never met before. I thought it would be a
good networking opportunity even if it did not work in my favor. To my surprise, none of the
directors I knew was working on anything at the moment. To add to the discouragement, none of
the eight new directors I had reached out to replied to me. ​Plan A​ was a bust.

It was two weeks before the Easter holidays and I knew that I had to set a deadline for
myself. I told myself that if I did not find a film by the holidays, I would choose a pre-existing
short. This meant that I would need to have a ​Plan C​ in place. As a result of ​Plan A​ failing, I
decided that ​Plan B​ and ​C​ should be done simultaneously. With that in mind, I emailed an
instructor, William Benton (commonly known as Bill), from the film department at Full Sail
University, while, at the same time, searched on vimeo and youtube for a suitable alternative.
Bill told me that he found an interesting film that required an orchestral score. He connected the
students with me and we instantly started working.

After our meeting, the students told me that I would have a picture locked edit by the
end of the Easter holiday. After the holiday, I attempted to contact them. However, to my

8

dismay, no one even replied. One of my instructors, Alfons, prompted me to start working on
another film as means of a back up. I have worked on many shorts, and have dealt with this exact
situation many times before. I knew that although they meant well, and their intention might
have been to send the picture locked edit to me by the end of the Easter holiday, things just
happen. It was at that moment I was reminded that a film composer is not the priority of the film.
I learnt yet another important lesson. I am a server who enhances a film. I heeded to Alfons
wisdom and quickly turned to an alternative pre-existing film. I quickly found one that was
reasonably interesting. But after watching it a few times, I became less interested in it. I wanted
to score something a bit more dramatic that could stretch my harmony palate. Although I started
to compose ideas for this short, I was still hunting for another.

A fellow student of mine, Oscar Lundberg was thinking about scoring an animated film.
He thought that this particular film looked amazing, but it was not exactly the type of film he
wanted to score. After we spoke about the film for a while, I asked him if he was certain that he
didn't want to score it. Without hesitation, he quickly gave me the email of Ton Roosendaal, the
chairman of Blender and the producer for the film. This animated short was called ​“Cosmos
Laundromat: First Cycle”​. I contacted Ton, and he was pleased to allow me to use the film for
my thesis project. He gave me the link to download the video and my “alternative” thesis project
began. Another lesson was learnt that day, Always have a backup plan, and then a backup for
that back up plan.

9

Spotting the FIlm

After figuring out the best starting and ending point for the music, I spent a few hours
watching that segment of the film multiple times. I watched it with the original audio of the film
until I knew the dialogue verbatim. After knowing the dialogue, I watched it without any sound.
Watching the film with no audio gave me a new perspective on the required music. It was almost
as if I was able to feel the emotional output of the characters more intensely. This was a useful
strategy that allowed me to jot down the major moods and emotions that I saw in the scene. With
those, I was able to get a clearer idea of the texture that I wanted to create.

Next, I watched the film with the intent of finding any effective hit points. After
watching it again for a few times, a few important instances really stood out to me. I then made
markers in my digital audio workstation (DAW), outlining all of the hit points and the moods
that were associated with them. I used the comments section in my DAW to also write down
some notes on what exactly happened in the film, as well as any musical ideas that came to mind
from these instances. Below is a table that demonstrates the hit points, description of what
happened in the scene, the mood that exude from the instance, and comments on how I
approached the music.

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Time

Description in Film

Mood
Delicate

Comments

05:43

Cue Begins

The music entrance was meant to give a
sense of allurement to the scene. There is
a hint of sadness in the music with the
intent to portray the suicidal sheep’s
melancholy.

06:21

Sheep looks back on the rope Reflective
that he tried to commit
sadness
suicide with.

A combination of softly played high
strings with wood winds which gave an
atmospheric saddened mood.

06:34

Victor, the human, looks up
to the sky

Suspense

When Victor looked up, the chordal tone
changed. This shift marked the entrance
of the dark and mysterious sky.

06:38

The first sight of the dark
sky

Ominous

The camera suddenly cut directly to the
dark sky. So the music therefore abruptly
changed into its darker nature and
texture. Suddenly, the entire mood
changed as the subject quickly
transferred from the emotional content of
Frank, the sheep, to the mysteries of the
sky.

06:53

The starting of the wrist
watch

A sense of
a mission,
quickly
switches
back to the
bitter
sadness of
Frank.

I was struggling with this section of the
cue. Initially, I wanted some motion with
the instruments as well as to start a
percussive rhythm when Victor starts the
timer on his watch. But then it seemed
too abrupt and didn’t fit well. I still
wanted a slight mission feel or the sense
that something started. As such, I came
up with the best solution I could think of.
After introducing the time factor of the
watch and the timer around Frank’s
neck, I quickly reverted back to Frank’s
emotion.

07:06

Frank looks up at the sky

Worrying
sense of
Wonder

This small transition to the sky was more
of an obscure way to make the music
seem like its getting lighter in density as
the camera pans upwards to the sky. I

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was trying to provide motion that was in
parallel to the motion of the camera. And
hence landed in a steady resolve to what
the sky was; a strong force of artificial
nature.
07:43

Frank runs away

Chase

By design, I tried to make this segment
more of a medium intensity. It was
meant to give some drive to Frank’s
running. This is the first introduction of
an urgent tempo.

07:58

Victor embraces and calls for Light
the whirlwind

When I saw this shot, I thought is was a
great way to evolve the cue into
something more chaotic. It was a
beautiful shot where victor seemed to be
inviting the chaotic whirlwind to take
Frank away. This was the Final Calm
before the storm, or in this case, before
the whirlwind.

08:02

Frank is running as hard as
he can

Urgency

The music started to get a bit more
chaotic with a faster tempo and a
stronger notion of elevation in the music.
When Frank lifts up off the ground, I
attempted to use the music to again
follow the levitation. I did this by
stopping the Basses and Brass section.
This sudden emptiness was intended to
give a texture that signifies anti-gravity.

08:14

Frank is caught up in the
whirlwind

Chaotic
and Epic

This final segment of the film was the
most chaotic to me. The whirlwind was
spinning fast at its maximum cycle while
frank was stuck in the spiral with no
hope for escape.

08:39

Black out

END

The cue ended with a Black screen and I
used the opportunity to end with a low
impactful sub hit with only the Gran
Cassa. This marked the Finale, the true
end of Frank’s life as a sheep.

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Compositional Process

Over the years, I have tried many different ways and processes to compose the music for
a film. I found that one of the most efficient ways for me was to start with a piano sketch of any
ideas that I would get. However, the end result was often much different from the sketch. I have
a tendency to deviate from certain obvious moods and chords when I find an opportunity to do
so. Regardless of that fact, I still found it useful to at least gather the main content of my
thoughts with the piano. From the piano sketch, I would then determine the necessary texture
options and any other subtle changes that would make a difference in the orchestration.

For this film specifically, I started my piano sketch knowing only two predominant facts
that the music must center. The first one was that the music needs to be very dark. Not only is the
film filled with dark clouds and lightning, but the entire concept of the plot was of a dark tone.
The second thing that must be captured by the music was the chaotic confusion. There was a
significance between the simplicity and the ease of giving up on life, and the drastic change in
the complexity of living multiple lives. I tried to portray the two extremes of death and life,
simplicity and complexity, with the music. After the piano sketch was completed, I started
allocating the notes to various instruments. Simultaneously, I amended the composition during
the orchestration in order to allow a more homogenous and fluid playability amongst the
orchestra players. During my studies at Berklee, I learnt that I should always keep the playability

13

of the players at the forefront of my thoughts as I compose with my DAW. I tried to do this with
every single phrase that I thought of during this composition.

The composition was going great and very fast until day two. Although I had my piano
sketch of the remaining film outlined, I was still battling with finishing the arrangement and
orchestration. I soon realized that the frustration wasn’t coming from the film itself, but rather
from my inner unimpassioned feelings towards the film. I lacked inspiration, I lacked motivation,
and worst of all, I lacked the desire I once had to compose for the film. I had no time to reinspire
myself as the deadline was quickly approaching. It was at this moment I realized how overrated
inspiration was. This lead to one my biggest lessons. Waiting for inspiration is one of the biggest
time wasters when it comes to meeting deadlines. There are many ways to spark inspiration, but I
now believe that an even more powerful skill, is to learn how to create meaningful and expedient
content without being inspired. It’s similar to the analogy of the thermometer and the thermostat.
Someone who can only create content based on the external factors are like thermometers. The
environment affects them and they can not act unless external factors deemed it viable. Where as
someone who acts despite having a lack of inspiration are similar to thermostats. Unlike the
thermometer that can only let you know if the environment is hot or cold, the thermostat changes
the environment based on what it deems viable. Therefore, someone who can push through their
lack of inspiration and spark their own inspiration through share willpower, will be able to shape
their own environment. I overcame my lack of inspiration by simply trying anything I could.
Some of the things I tried sounded terrible, but I still pushed through until it gave life to
something that made sense. After three days of focus and hard work, I finished my composition.

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Preparing for London

Succeeding the completion of the composition, I went directly to Sibelius and notated all
that I composed. After preparing the full score, I meticulously edited and cleaned the individual
parts so that all the specific parts were easy to sight read. Printing the parts were very tedious,
but it had to be done. I was very pleased with the way everything looked and decided it was time
to start practicing my conducting.

After the notated score was completed, my thoughts switched solely to the recording in
London. Practicing to conduct the orchestra was now my priority. This was my most fearful part
of the entire process as I had no conducting experience prior to this master’s degree program. I
believe that it is precisely my lack of experience that pushed me to practice twice as hard as
anyone else would. I practiced so much that I didn’t even need my score anymore. This really
boosted my confidence and made it much easier for me to pay close attention to the sound of the
recording rather than having to only concentrate on my conducting.

15

The Recording

When I first saw Air Studios, I was taken aback by its structure. I have seen pictures of
the recording booth and the live room where they record the players, but I have never seen the
outside of the studio before. The church architecture was a pleasant surprise. It sprung up
excitement and made me extremely eager to record. I assumed that the acoustics inside was
magnificent, and much to my delight, it was.

When it was my turn to record, waves of nervous chills suddenly came over me. At first,
I thought to myself that this was going to be horrible. Much to my amazement however, as the
song began, the nervousness slowly went away. I began to get more and more comfortable with
the players and felt more confidence after every take. Then I realized that I was conducting the
entire piece without even realizing it. It was as if my hands have developed muscle memory for
each bar. All my practice truly paid off, and as a result, I was able to focus more on the quality of
sound coming from the orchestra. This is something that I was and still am very proud of. After
eighteen minutes of recording, my time was up. I got everything I needed and I was reassured
that my music was a pleasure to play by a resounding applause from the orchestra. Reflecting on
that day, I can see that I was fully prepared for the session.

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Mixing The Cue

I received the Pro Tools session of the cue a few days after the recording. I was so
excited that I started the mixing process right away. After listening to the session a few times, I
began to edit certain parts that I believed had a better take. Once my comp was finished, I
consolidated, did a save as, and started the actual mix. I spent the next 6 hours trying to get a
clean and dynamic mix.

The process of the mix went as followed. First, I organized the session and created all
the necessary auxiliary tracks. After all the appropriate routing was done, I Muted all the room
and ambient mics and then proceeded in getting a good balance with the spot mics. I then panned
the room and ambient microphones hard left and right according to their naming convention, and
then listened to them to get the placement perspective in order to pan the spot mics. After
panning the spot mics, I balanced the room and ambient mics with the spots and then began to
clean the mix through use of equalization. After I filtered and cut the necessary frequencies, I
then added compression to anything that needed it. After compressing, I added another equalizer
to the mixing chain and mixed to taste. Here is where I boosted any frequencies I thought needed
to be boosted. In some cases, I added a saturator before this equalizer in order to add harmonics
and excite specific frequencies, and then I would use the equalizer after, to further enhance the
frequencies if needs be. Finally, I added time based processing such as reverbs and delays to the

17

stem auxiliaries. I utilized the sends as this saves quite a bit of processing power to the computer.
I also used various tools on the stereo mix bus (where all the stems and auxes are routed to) that
helped to further clean, enhance and glue the mix.

I was overall pleased with the end result, especially after comparing my mix to different
film scores. After limiting the cue, I got my mix to sound as loud as most other broadcasted
scores of similar genres. I focussed on getting my Loudness Units Full Scale similar to various
modern scores (ie. 2017-2019). This process really allowed my cue to sound more up to industry
standard.

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Conclusion

My growth throughout the year have been quite obvious to me. I have a stronger
understanding of who I am, what I am capable of and I now realize the importance of
preparation. My father would always say to me, “proper preparation prevents poor performance”.
This alliteration has taken on new meaning, as I now have experienced the true power of being
overly prepared. I have proved to myself time and time again, that I can achieve my goals and I
will continue to strive towards excellence.

Those 18 short minutes on that podium have been enlightening. I feel empowered
knowing what I have done. I have gained invaluable experience and have networked pricelesly. I
am eager to start my new journey with all the knowledge I have gained from my masters degree.
In going forward, I will utilize this knowledge and experiences to continue to compound my
growth. Everyone that I will work with in the future will know that I am a graduate of the
master's degree program in Scoring for Film, Television and Video games, from the esteemed
Berklee College of Music, Valencia, simply because I will exude my excellence in every chance
I get.

I will continue to learn and hopefully, I will find a way to give back as much as I have
received during my educational chapter at Berklee College of Music.

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