This session focused on “the translation process” between composers, directors and editors. Because how do you translate a vision into a sound? And before that process can even begin, how do you communicate what you need without using specific jargon?
Michael Middelkoop (director) and Maarten Ernest (editor) have been very close collaborators for years. They found each other while making commercials and music videos, and later created fiction projects together such as Vakkenvullers (XL), Trauma Porn Club and the Gouden Kalf-winning Dit is geen kerstfilm. Musically, these were all very different projects. Whereas Vakkenvullers had an endless music library available and was mainly about capturing a specific target audience and subculture, Trauma Porn Club (2024, composer: Luigi Vittorio Jansen) and Dit is geen kerstfilm (2024, composer: Sjam Sjamsoedin) involved composers who created long and complex sequences that contributed to the layering in the edit and the films.
Trauma Porn Club is a good example of how the music ultimately allowed for a more atmospheric form of storytelling, in which scenes that were separate from each other were also cut together. This was a difficult brief: a piece that had to convey tension, but also had a subjective layer, namely tenderness and capturing a degree of euphoria that the protagonist feels while undergoing an intense “fetish” experience.
– Michael Middelkoop
For the newest series Rippers (2026), composer Rui Reis Maia came on board. Rippers is directed by Fadua El Akchaoui and Michael Middelkoop and is a classic heist in a fresh new form. In the words of Videoland: a brutal rip on an underground opium plantation sets off a night in which no one is sure who is in control. The project took place in a pressure cooker, with little room for consultation and experimentation. The musical challenge: how do you create, simply put, Ocean’s Eleven meets Mocro Maffia?
How do you blend the dynamic, propulsive and planned feeling that is so characteristic of the heist genre with the grittiness of the crime genre? Rui found that very beautifully through certain tempos and instrumental choices.
– Michael Middelkoop
While Middelkoop still wondered whether he had been too emotional, vague and poetic in his briefing, for Reis Maia it was completely clear from the start. An important conclusion that emerged from this was that, in this process, it was not literally about language or jargon. It was mainly about a shared goal and a certain chemistry between the makers, which allows you to understand each other on another level. In addition, Reis Maia often worked from a feeling that emerged from the scenes and dialogues.
Of course, this production was made slightly easier because it took place within a familiar arena with clear genre conventions. A surprising result was that, through the use of guitars and basses, Reis Maia was still able to give the score a new colour of its own and thereby contribute something essential to the universe of Rippers. This immediately led us to another interesting conclusion: the importance of trust. By having preliminary conversations, making clear agreements and giving each other trust and space as professionals, in this case a collaboration emerged in which makers were able to enrich and surprise one another. An important side note is that it is important, as a maker, to always take yourself seriously. To trust in your signature and to continue applying it consistently in every briefing you receive. This creates a degree of vulnerability, professionalism and experimentation that can elevate a collaboration, and therefore a production, to a higher level.
A major wish from all the makers at the table is for a composer to be involved earlier in the creative process. Whereas Middelkoop and Ernest currently work a lot with playlists and temps, and Reis Maia mostly worked scene by scene and in fragments, it would be a welcome experiment to contribute to musical worldbuilding already during the writing process. In this way, the music could become even more part of a universe, as a worthy character that can develop along with it. With its own sound.
Rippers can be watched on Videoland. Dit is geen kerstfilm, Trauma Porn Club and Vakkenvullers can be watched via NPO Start.
Text by Sandy Seifert
Photos by Birgit Bijl