“The House Between” Production Diary: Entry Three

[Mateo Latosa]

This Production Diary entry was made for the third season of The House Between. In the third season, the action moved from the eponymous “House” to the domain of the Lar “Cronus”–referred to as “The Dark Place”.

[u][b]Music for The Dark Place[/b][/u]

[u][b]Location, Location, Location[/b][/u]
Providing a score for The House Between has been an ever-changing process, year by year. For the first season, César Gallegos and I worked at his home studio on the weekends and whenever we could find a few hours of mutual free time. It was a challenging but fruitful time.

For the second season, César was working on his PhD and so was unable to work on the score. I recorded the 2.0 score at the studio of the L.A. band Diversion, whose members, José Sánchez and Anthony Godoy acted as engineers and musicians. Again, it was difficult to schedule sessions that worked for all three of us. However, due to the existence of the library of cues left over from THB 1.0, the necessity for new music was lessened.

For THB 3.0, I began work in an entirely new setting. I set up a small home studio. This allowed me to work any time I pleased, at any hour of the day or night. The score for season three is, for me, a more personal score. I was able to work on each cue, refine it, make changes, re-record it and tweak it to an extent I never had before. That said, it took weeks of pre-production time to learn how to be my own engineer, but finally, with only a few weeks to spare I began work on the score.

[u][b]Process[/b][/u]
As in the previous seasons, I worked mostly from email. John would send me capsule descriptions of the sequences he wanted music for. He’d describe the atmosphere, action and character motivations and arcs.

I was able to compose, perform, mix, edit, convert from als-to-wav-to-m4a, attach to email and send to the director by myself. It was a difficult process—a steep learning curve (for me, anyway)—but a liberating one.

[u][b]Return to The House Between[/b][/u]
César Gallegos returned to help me set up the studio and was helpful in providing me with a number of instruments, patches, VST plug-ins, synthesizer programs and a quick tutorial—not to mention a patient ear and advice to deal with the inevitable glitches. More importantly, inspired by the work of putting the studio together, he began recording cues for The House Between 3.0. Once again, THB had two composers, albeit working separately this time. Both our work showed up in episode one, Devoured.

[u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]
As always, I try to list the equipment and programs used during the production of THB’s musical score. For 3.0 I used a (brand-spanking-new) Toshiba A305-S6898 laptop computer, an M-Audio Axiom 49 controller keyboard, Ableton Live 7.0.2 music recording software, and a number of VST plug-ins.

[u][b]The New Main Title Theme[/b][/u]
One special request from John was for a revamped Main Title theme. Although all the music for The House Between has always been credited to both César and I, I can’t take any credit for the Main Title (and End Title). Those memorable and iconic pieces were composed solely by César. John wanted a new recording, a different take, but featuring the same melody. This was, without a doubt, the hardest piece to produce. I originally asked César to take a crack at making, as John put it, a more “masculine, driving” version. As the season debut approached, John asked me to try working on it as a back up. I tried to preserve the lyrical melody of the original while incorporating new rhythmic elements and new instrumentation. I produced version after version until final arriving at the version that will appear in all the new episodes from episode two on.

Featured prominently in THB 3.0 is the lovely sound of a “ban di” (a sort of Asian flute). I used this at the end of the reworked Main Title, as a theme for an emotional moment for Theresa, and in the final scene of the season.

[u][b]Coda[/b][/u]
It has been a pleasure and an honor to be asked back to work on The House Between. I finished all my work before the airing of the first episode this time—no small feat. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss working on it. Altogether, César and I produced a total of 171 separate cues—a total of 342 minutes of music—for THB, a quantity that surprises even us!

I know I can speak for César when I say we hope our contribution to THB has added positively to the series. As with all background music, the idea is for the viewers NOT to notice it. Still, when you do, we hope you like what you hear. Tiox chawe!

[Author]

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