The Story of the Penguin Documentary Short

So on Saturday, just a few days ago, my brother asked me if I was busy. He was finalizing the edit on an eight-minute documentary about a penguin rescue in South Africa and the specialist who worked with the organization. She worked with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California, which is an incredible aquarium. They had me compose music for another video back in 2019. So my brother needed the music for this video within 24 hours.

So I got home from dinner with my folks on Saturday, about 9:00pm and got to work. He was looking for something uplifting and energizing for the video. He sent me over the draft video with a few hit points and I started chugging away.

I always start by adding the video, markers, and regions I need. This is my road map for where I need to be and when.

I worked until about 1:30am when my brain was goo and begin right away in the morning on Sunday. I faced a lot of challenges with plugins malfunctioning, and surprising buffering issues. I’ve never had my computer freak out on my this much while composing before (I’ll address this more in a post about Reaper), it was an incredibly frustrating experience to deal with glitches every few seconds. Good thing the penguins are cute.

I decided that the doc needed a Planet Earth feel. The video takes place in South Africa, so I included a lot of African percussion, plus as a percussionist I love using percussion. percussion percussion percussion. With the use of the marimba and piano, I was able to produce the churning energy for the piece that carries throughout the full video. I didn’t have a lot of time to work, so I used legato strings and brass sparingly. I didn’t have time to spend fixing VSTs and making everything sound perfect. If I had more than 24 hours, I would have composed differently, but you gotta play the hand you’re dealt.

Birds were prevalent in the video, so I wanted to use the oboe, and honestly my favorite part of the score is this slow moment with a little quartet between the oboe, bassoon, flute, and piccolo. There is also a heroic brass anthem at the end because…why not?

With more than 24 hours to compose and produce, I would have done some things a little differently, but I think this piece was a fun achievement and I’m proud of how it came out. Below is an excerpt with orchestra only and then the full video. Enjoy the video and save those penguins!