This is a pretty cool blog post to write! At the end of last year we had the extremely exciting opportunity to write the music for a game show, a US adaptation of a UK series that has been running on and off since the 90s called The Crystal Maze.
We worked with our long time friends and collaborators at production company Bunim / Murray. Kind of a full circle moment… we’ve been with them for years as a library contributor to their various adult unscripted series and had developed experience in writing for kids & family content elsewhere, so this felt like coming home!
The Crystal Maze comes out today January 24 at 7/6c on Nick. Here’s maze master Adam Conover to describe what the show’s about in 30 seconds:
Ryan did a post over at The Crystal Maze Fan Group Blog that talked about what’s new in music for the US version of the show. The team over there is super nice and had been ground zero for answering fan questions on Twitter so he thought it would be nice to host some of our launch blog content with them. Check it out cause we won’t cover all of the same things here!
One of the things that is the same for the US show is the EPIC theme song “Force Field” by Zack Laurence. It’s very prominent and used often throughout an episode: on the title card, in transition between zones, as a timer in the crystal dome, and in the final moments before the credits. Ryan and David did a hybrid electronic/orchestral cover that merged historical variations of the theme:
What’s new in the show is the underscore. There are a couple of new segment themes, including a Hero Theme for when Adam announces the family’s prize. Hero Theme Level 3 plays if they win the maximum $25,000!
You can hear the long riser in the beginning as Adam does some math counting their tokens then… HORNS!
Also new are the sounds for Adam, as he is a new host for the US series. The TCM Fan Blog says… “he embodies the character of a mazemaster, the Willy Wonka type leading people through his creation.” It’s a different style of comedy than the deadpan performance of UK host Richard Ayoade.
Adam’s core sound is the sound of the maze. It’s his maze so ostensibly he’s scoring himself. He often breaks away from the action, unconcerned, participating in one of his many hobbies. He has cues in the style of each zone, this one plays during an opening in the dome room when he hasn’t yet seen the audience enter:
This was our first time working on a game show format and it was an incredibly interesting process! The production is super fast paced, we had approximately four weeks to produce 150 minutes of music.
We worked with Bunim / Murray to spot a couple episodes and come up with the below library structure. These cues are replicated in the sounds of each of the four zones:
Atmospheric - the sound of each zone when Adam and the family arrive or are between games
Timer motif – the jingle that starts the game clock
Mental puzzle – for mental/mystery games
Physical puzzle – for physical/skill games
Ending risers – win, lose, and neutral endings that can be layered on the ending of puzzle cues depending if the player wins, gets locked in, or makes it out with no crystal
Comedy – mostly used for cutaways to the Adam or family outside the game room
Perc buildups - short 2-3 second cues that can be used for transitions
Signature SFX - instrument one hits, runs, or other short processed SFX unique to that zone, often used for stings and fails
Every cue was exported in stems so the editors had a lot of options to mix and match. We tried to stick to one BPM and key per zone so that all the parts could coordinate together to (hopefully) make their job easier.
Some credits!
“Force Field” main title theme by Zack Laurence
Original music by Ryan Lofty & David Butterfield
Score production management by: Courtney Lofty, the person who writes these blog posts
Music Supervisor: Peter Davis
SVP of Music: Dave Stone
We’re heading off to the BMP crew screening this afternoon to celebrate today’s release! Will update this post with pics afterwards.
*****
…and here we are! The Crystal Maze music team at BMP HQ!
