Am I guilty?

Hyper-realistic foley, futuristic Ul, and a full string orchestra sit alongside acting talents known for The Wire, Cohen Brothers films and Grey's Anatomy.

Drone is a satirical comedy from our much-loved regular collaborator—and award-winning animator, writer, director—Sean Buckelew, in which a US military predator drone named Newton malfunctions at a PR event, sparking viral interest as it searches for meaning.

Sean needed us to tap into some pretty complex themes and emotions, and we wanted to be sure we fully understood his point of view before diving in. We requested a reading list and found Frankenstein to be the most fruitful reference, paralleling so many of the key ideas in Sean’s script in an equally lyrical way.

Duality

Sean’s first note to us that the film “oscillates between two modes: one bureaucratic and banal, the other dreamy, and impressionistic” presented to us the idea of a duality at the heart of the story. Plotting these two modes (which we dubbed inside and outside) across the timeline helped us plot the emotional arc of the film.

Orchestra Recording

Covid prevented us from attending the session personally—a shame because a pint of beer in Budapest is two pounds—so directions were given over Zoom. All went smoothly but, unfortunately, this is the best footage we were able to get.

Extended Techniques

To evoke Newton's destructive intentions, we explored unconventional playing techniques, pushing instruments beyond their typical range for rawer sounds.

As Newton describes the impending destruction, we introduce two powerfully opposing chords. Their tense, nervous tremolo, shifting between sul tasto (playing strings close to the neck) and sul pont (playing strings close to the bridge), reflected his contradictory nature.

In the death scene, Newton's ultimate destruction is echoed by scratchy, gnarly string articulation.

String Techniques