Released earlier this summer, Ultraman: Ascension is the latest in a long line of approaches to the Ultraman franchise. First starting with the series UltraQ in 1966, the IP has seen a plethora of shows, films, comics, and other adaptations since then. Netflix’s newest film introduced a new hero to the Ultraman universe, Ken Sato, who takes over the position of his father’s Ultraman hero.
Ultraman: Ascension incorporated many unique ideas into the new entry, from the family-oriented plot – which involves Ken raising a baby kaiju named Emi – to its eclectic soundtrack. The film’s music, which comes from composer Scot Stafford, incorporates everything from 8-bit musicality to Taiko drums into its score. Previously, Stafford worked on projects such as the miniseries Lost Ollie and the television program garbage truck.
TelaRant interviewed Scot Stafford to discuss the recording process, the biggest challenges of composing the animated film and how he used musical palettes to make Ultraman: Ascensionmost impactful family moments.
Ultraman: Rising was “one of the hardest things” Stafford “ever did as a composer”
“Adding things is really easy, but you end up with a huge mess.”
Screen Rant: Can you discuss the creative challenges you faced in composing such an eclectic soundtrack for Ultraman: Ascension and balance the huge battle scenes with the film’s more intimate moments?
Scot Stafford: You basically summed up the entire score. That was the challenge. It’s actually fun to add lots and lots of elements. I love the idea that Shannon [Tindle] wanted 8-bit video game consoles, at least the sounds of them, in the score. I love the fact that he wants orchestra. I love the fact that he wants Tim Henson. I love that he loved the Pocket Miku Japanese electronic musical toy. I love all these ideas and I added three times as many myself. Adding things is very easy, but you end up with a huge mess.
For me, which was so important, because ultimately, underneath all the action, underneath the amazing animation, the visual style, and the graphics – and I mean, the artistry in this is just unparalleled, in my humble opinion. – visually underneath it all is a surprisingly intimate story about a family, about fathers, daughters, sons, mothers, and never losing sight of that and being able to have such an eclectic and impossible diversity of musical influences.
But I didn’t even mention the Japanese percussion and the Japanese scales that I put into something. I needed something to bring it all together, so I thought, “Okay, I’m going to have a single solo instrument as the heart of the whole score, put it all in there. It’s going to be all about family. It’s going to be all about family. About that opening scene .” It’s the first scene after the prologue. It’s the opening scene of the film where you see mother, father and son making ramen, watching baseball together. This is the only time we see them together, so I wanted the harp to be a warm hug around people, so that the moment it’s taken away, it’s devastating.
I actually want to talk about that, because what did you find most challenging about composing music that seamlessly transitions from the sounds of this epic orchestra to this more intimate, fast-paced solo performance?
Scot Stafford: Yeah, it’s the same scene I just talked about, the opening scene. It’s so simple – I just want it to be a classic. I just wanted to feel like the beginning of a great, timeless, classic film. They’re doing some things that are so warm and cozy and you just love it, and suddenly Gigantron is coming. You see the projected image of Dr. Anda for the first time, and he is younger, but he looks scared and I need to prepare myself very quickly.
The song will very lightly suggest that Gigantron is about to kill his wife and daughter, and once that’s done, I have to go back to the family again to have that kind of emotional moment that a father goes to work. That was very difficult. In fact, that was probably the hardest, even though there were very few instruments involved, it didn’t take long to go from a hug to terror to a tearful “Bye, Daddy”, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a composer.
Stafford knew he wasn’t going to “get something authentic” with Ultraman: Rising Alone
“It’s about working as a team and hiring people who are better than you at certain things.”
One of the most important things about Ultraman in the film Ken finds balance. How do you approach integrating elements of cultural authenticity into the soundtrack while maintaining balance and emotional depth throughout the film?
Scot Stafford: That’s a great question. I think the smart thing – if I did anything smart about it – was to involve really great people who weren’t just playing instruments and reading every note I gave them. I certainly did that. But I also, for example, worked with Kaoru Watanabe, this wonderful Japanese flutist and percussionist who made music for Isle of Dogs. I asked him to choose an ensemble in a studio in Tokyo where we recorded the musicians, I asked them to decide which instruments to bring, and I also had them spend almost half the recording session – which never happens – improvising.
We have all these incredible performances, but I’m just not going to get something authentic. As a white American composer, as much as I love Japanese music and have studied it for much of my life, it just won’t be the same. So instead of pretending to be authentic, I say, “Guys, do what you want and I’ll see if I can find ways to do it.” So it’s not about doing everything alone. It’s about working as a team and hiring people who are better than you at certain things and letting them express themselves.
With the diversity of instrumentation, including Taiko percussions, vintage 8-bit sounds, and solo harp, what was your process for ensuring this cohesive musical narrative?
Scot Stafford: A lot of it was based on building a family of themes. I’ve never heard of this being done. I’m sure I’m not the first, but the idea is: what if I could create all of my themes around a central theme, and have them all directly correlate to each other, so that what you’re doing is you ? we are limiting the melodic palette so that everything stays in the pocket. They share DNA, you’re picking up all these different emotions, these different scenes, these rapidly changing emotions, these different sounds that you’re putting together.
You will have a very limited melodic palette, so in this theme it is the same theme as the familiar theme with a different note, and there are many other interrelationships between the themes. I’m like, “Let’s back it all up and make it all interrelate, so that you never forget the fact that every main character, important character in the film, is defined first and foremost by their role within a family.”
You mentioned that the script had a lot of sonic details written into it. How did this influence your writing process, and did the initial details provide a unique advantage or challenge for you?
Scot Stafford: Well, it’s great to have the sound written into the script. Because, first of all, it stops the dialogue. We love our dialogue, but we also like it when it stops. Because when you think about those great cinematic moments – I bet the top 10 of your top 10 favorite cinematic moments, I bet more than half of them have no dialogue. When you think about these really big, important emotional scenes, you literally let every element shine, whether it’s the cinematography, the sound design, or the music.
So, having those pauses, having those pauses, having that incredible scene – we’re in the middle of the biggest battle sequence, all of a sudden, you cut to the most mundane kind of fight between a mother and her mother and her son being very rambunctious in the from behind, and it’s such a relatable scene about being in traffic in the rain that it gives us permission to do our best work. If you have silence to work with, and if you have someone who is just sensitized to sound and music the way Shannon is. There’s only so much we can do without a director, without a story, and without a script that gives us permission and flexibility to do these things, and so Randy [Thom] and I was very lucky that Shannon was that kind of director.
More about Ultraman: Rise (2024)
With Tokyo under siege by escalating monster attacks, baseball star KEN SATO reluctantly returns home to take up the mantle of Ultraman. But the titanic superhero meets his match when he adopts a 30-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must overcome her ego to balance work and parenthood while protecting her baby from forces bent on exploiting her for their own dark plans. In partnership with Netflix, Tsuburaya Productions and Industrial Light & Magic, ULTRAMAN: RISING is written by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes, directed by Shannon Tindle and co-directed by John Aoshima.
Check out our others Ultraman: Ascension interviews here:
Source: Screen Rant Plus