MEET GEORGE SHAW: COMPOSER FOR THE DREAMWORKS ANIMATED SERIES, ABOMINABLE AND THE INVISIBLE CITY2/21/2024
George Shaw is a Taiwanese-American composer who worked most recently on the DreamWorks animated series Abominable and the Invisible City, as well as Riot Games’ Lunar Revel cinematic trailer, Hop On. In our conversation with the film and games composer, George relays his musical journey scoring for these projects, how he gathers inspiration from doing research on traditional Chinese folk instruments and exploring his personal connection with Chinese culture. What was the most challenging part of scoring Abominable and the Invisible City? What was the most rewarding?
The biggest challenge was when I started scoring early episodes while simultaneously doing pre-production on later episodes. That meant having to crank out nearly 20 minutes of fully orchestrated music in an episode while also composing and producing all of Yi and Everest’s violin and humming performances to be animated too. The most rewarding was working with Stephanie Yu, the violinist who brings Yi’s violin playing to life. She is such a virtuoso on her instrument and also such a warm and joyful person to be around. The score in this show feels very authentic to Chinese music in comparison to many stereotypical sounds we are used to hearing. How do you bring authenticity into the scores of this show and what's your process like for determining instrumentation? With the story set in China and centering on mythical Chinese creatures, I used a variety of traditional Chinese folk instruments such as Yangqin (Chinese dulcimer), Erhu (Chinese violin), Pipa (Chinese lute), Guzheng (Chinese zither), Dizi (Chinese flute), Chinese drums, and even Chinese winds (Bawu and Hulusi that I performed myself), to give the creatures a sense of history and to highlight their fantastical and magical nature. We love the sound of traditional Chinese instruments such as Bawu (巴乌) and Hulusi (葫芦丝). When did you begin to explore Chinese instruments? Are there any traditional instruments that you haven't had the opportunity to write into your music, but that you'd like to? I started with a very western classical music background, starting with piano lessons and going on to play clarinet in orchestras. In college, I discovered traditional Chinese music through the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There was a hauntingly beautiful sound in it that I didn’t recognize, and it inspired me to order a bawu off eBay, which is a Chinese wind instrument that sounds like a cross between a clarinet and a duduk. After college, I took two semesters of a Chinese music ensemble class. I think my love of Kung Fu movies is what drove me to learn about Chinese music because I always imagined I would one day compose for an epic martial arts fantasy movie. Fenghuang’s theme is very special and heartfelt to Abominable and the Invisible City. How did you come up with this score and what inspirations did you have? Fenghuang’s theme is heard in the first episode when we are introduced to the magical phoenix, with Yi trying to coax the shy creature out into the open. It’s a very sweet and timid moment, scored for solo violin, fragile strings, and delicate yangqin (Chinese dulcimer). It was one of the earliest scenes that I worked on and came out of the pentatonic scale, a simple 5-note scale that is often found in traditional Chinese music. When we reach the climax of the episode and Fenghuang springs into heroic action, I broadened the rhythm into soaring strings and horns, with swirling winds punctuated by heroic trumpet chords, and suddenly this delicate theme is transformed into a glorious moment. When growing up, how did you begin to embrace Asian-American culture? I honestly don’t think I truly embraced Asian-American culture until my twenties. I grew up in Houston, in a mostly white suburb, though there was still a small Asian American population. I often felt like I didn’t fit in, and most of what I experienced of Asian culture came from my parents and their friends, who were older and had immigrated from Taiwan. When I came across the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that’s when I began to take an interest in the musical side of the culture. In addition to the Chinese music ensemble classes I took in my 20s. In my 30s, I had the opportunity to do some drumming gigs for Chinese lion and dragon dances during the Lunar New Year season. On the filmmaking side, I started going to Asian American film festivals soon after college, and I was finally able to find and relate to others who had grown up in a similar culture to me and were pursuing careers in entertainment. From your album “Mythical China”, we get to know that you are inspired by many Chinese mythology, legends, and fantasies. Any specific legend/movie/music that influences you the most? The legend of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is pretty well known. That was a fun track to write, and I even downloaded a trailer of an animated Monkey King film to help inspire my writing. For the rest of the tracks, I did a lot of research and reading to make a list of different legends. I then whittled that down to what I wanted to use as inspiration for each track. It was amazing to watch you performing with the team after the Abominable screening. Could you introduce us to your team and talk about how you collaborate with these talented people? It all begins with Stephanie Yu, who I wrote all the solo violin parts for and shot reference footage of to send to the animators. Alvin Wee did brilliant mixes of my score and also was the scoring mixer for Encanto. I had three additional music composers who helped out: Shaun Chen, Brandon Lau, and Scott Tang. There were many other musicians who contributed in smaller ways, bringing life to various moments of the score, but they were my main team that worked on the majority of the episodes. We are so excited for your work with Riot Games to commemorate the Lunar New Year! Could you share one fun or memorable experience you had while composing the scores for this trailer? It was interesting how Riot Games hired three composers for different aspects of their Lunar New Year campaign, and we were able to all give feedback on each other’s music as we progressed. I was assigned the cinematic trailer, and my buddy Nikhil Koparkar wrote a gorgeous main theme that I incorporated into the climax of the trailer. It was a joy to be given a broad and exciting canvas to write epic orchestral music combined with a wide palette of Asian instrumentation, to accompany the gorgeous animated visuals and the ever-expanding world that Riot Games has created. As the new year is approaching, we are all very excited. What is your favorite thing about the Lunar New Year? It used to be getting cash in red envelopes, until I became an adult and my relatives cut me off. Nowadays, it’s the excuse to get together with friends or family for a big feast of good Chinese food! What are your future plans and wishes for future Asian-American representation? I hope to see Asian Americans represented in all areas of society, as well as being supportive of each other. I’ve often made it a point to give opportunities to other Asian Americans on my team simply because no one did it for me when I was young. It was such a struggle because, back then, there was hardly any Asian representation in the film-scoring industry. Do you have any advice for Asian-Americans who are aspiring film composers? First, learn everything you can about the craft and the industry, there’s certainly no excuse given the vast number of resources available to everyone on the internet. Second, build a community of collaborators, from filmmakers, to musicians, to other creatives. No one becomes successful on their own, so it’s important to foster connections with others that you are starting out with. Writers: Jordan (@deadswampsofsadness) | Point Person: Gaby, AIA Team Comments are closed.
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