Category: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: When The Dead Come Knocking

Until now, the third season of “The Walking Dead” has been structured as two parallel stories: Rick and his crew at the prison, and the Governor and his crew at Woodbury.  In last week’s Hounded, that boundary was finally broken. Tonight, in When the Dead Come Knocking, these two worlds are irreversibly careening towards one another and inevitable conflict.

The series is beginning to branch off into unexplored territory. The score, too, makes an unexpected departure tonight, by introducing a relentless synthesizer pulse as a new layer of The Governor’s Theme.  Hear it in action in tonight’s video blog:

Sampled, synthesized and otherwise manipulated sounds have been an essential ingredient in my “Walking Dead” score from the beginning.  However, this is the first time that I’ve brought one of these elements to the forefront like this.

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The Walking Dead: Killer Within

Tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead”, Killer Within, is among my favorite hours of television I’ve ever scored.  This episode also contains one of the more challenging cues I’ve ever had to write in my career.  I detail the process of writing it and the various themes I used in this week’s video blog.  But, be warned… MAJOR SPOILERS ARE AHEAD.  Do not watch this video until you have seen Killer Within.  

All caught up?  Then, enjoy this week’s video blog.  🙂

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The Walking Dead: Walk With Me

This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” introduces us to the screen version of one of the most memorable characters from the comic, The Governor.  Tonight’s video blog is all about how I wrote his theme:

SPOILERS BEYOND: “Walk With Me” lays the groundwork for the major story arcs of the season. This episode is important not just because of what happens, but because of what will happen down the line.  As a result, I had to write a theme for The Governor that would prove malleable in the future.  His theme had to fit the dramatic scenes in tonight’s episode and, at the same time, have enough musical DNA to expand into more menacing variations when the time comes.

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The Walking Dead: Sick

SPOILERS BEYOND: The last two minutes of the season premiere left us with some pretty jarring cliffhangers: Herschel had his leg chomped on by a walker, chopped off by Rick and then Daryl discovers that the prison has human survivors. Picking up immediately where we left off, Seed, starts with an adrenaline-laced scene as they rush to treat Herschel.

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The Walking Dead: Seed

The wait is finally over!  The third season of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead” begins tonight!

I don’t want to give away some of the surprises in the premiere, so I’m welcoming you guys back with a relatively spoiler-free video blog about the score.

This season you will hear new sounds and themes, in response to the new characters and locations.  Tonight’s episode, “Seed,” touches upon a handful of them, but you will hear even more in the coming weeks as we meet The Governor and learn more about the town of Woodbury.

As I discuss in the blog, tonight’s episode is all about the prison and predominantly features the Prison Theme that was hinted at in the Season 2 finale:

In addition to expanding upon the Prison Theme, “Seed” also allowed me to get back to basics. Despite strong character arcs, this series is, at heart, a horror tale and tonight’s episode features some of my most suspenseful writing to date.

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