Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
There were many magical moments during the making of Robot Overlords, but the recording of the score at AIR studios is one that still lingers ten years on. For a start… AIR studios! George Martin’s palace of sound. Hallowed ground and a genuine thrill just to be there. And the day there came hot on the heels of another screening at Pinewood the night before. There was a moment when Jon (Wright, director) and Matt (Platts-Mills, editor) were strolling through Pinewood, and it was quiet and dark and it felt like we owned the place, and I had one of those little out-of-body moments where it felt like I was in a dream. The screening had been to see the latest edit, with the pick-ups from the previous Pinewood shoot and some almost-finished VFX etc. It’s hard to describe just how floaty I felt in that short walk. All I can say to anyone lucky enough to have a moment like this is to just soak it in. Take a mental Polaroid and treasure it forever.
Anyway, back to AIR studios…
Wednesday 16th April – AIR Studios
An incredible day, watching and listening to the recording of the score for Robots at AIR Studios in Hampstead. Situated in Lyndhurst Hall, an old mission house designed by Alfred Waterhouse (who also designed the Natural History Museum), the studios aren’t as big or as famous as Abbey Road perhaps, but the sound in that hall is incredible.
When I arrived at 9.30 most of the musicians were assembling and getting ready. I found Paddy in the studio cafe and we made our way to the sound-proofed control room room. Christian Henson (composer) and his team were raring to go. He gave a short introduction, explaining that we only had the budget for one day of recording, and there was lots to do, and then they were off.
That was when my jaw dropped.
The score is amazing.
I’d had a taste of it last night at the Pinewood screening, but it was Christian’s demo, recorded with synths and samples. It was great and it gave the film a whole new feel. But nothing beats the English Session Orchestra going at full pelt.
As they rattled through cue after cue, we watched the scenes on the monitors, each one of them elevated to another level by the soaring music.
Jon arrived about 10.30ish and him, me, Paddy and Piers sat looking on with silly grins on our faces.
We discovered that the musicians hadn’t had any rehearsals. They were all sight-reading the music and often nailing it on the first take, all playing in time to a click track synchronised with a timecode on the screen. It certainly put my amateur fumblings on the guitar into perspective.
The main orchestra played from 10 till 1, then after lunch it was reduced to a smaller group of strings who played overdubs that made the orchestra sound even bigger than it was. The afternoon ended with a quartet playing a Haydn piece that will be heard on Monique’s gramophone player during a scene set in her room.
Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better, the choir arrived. Just eighteen voices (including, we were told, the deepest bass in Britain), but in that hall they sounded legion. One of my favourite parts of the score is a ‘Day in the life’ style crescendo of strings and horns (Christian’s tribute to AIR studios’ founder and Beatles producer George Martin). But then they added eerie, Kubrickian-2001 voices to it and it was transformed into something spine-tingling. By now Tim Haslam, Chris Clark and Steve Milne had joined us and we were all agog.
The day ended just before 10pm. A crammed session, but the score is not yet complete: guitars and flutes will be recorded at Christian’s studio tomorrow. Sadly, I can’t make it, but I can’t wait to hear the results.
You can listen to the Robot Overlords score on Spotify and Apple Music…
Mark Stay Writes 