MANILA — “The music should always serve the story,” says renowned composer Pancho Burgos-Goizueta. One wouldn’t think a session on composing and music would be relevant for animators, but music is just as capable of bringing out strong emotions as animations does.
The 13th Animahenasyon was held just recently, and the conference brought in an array of local and international speakers to talk about content, concerns and issues revolving around the animation industry.
The festival aimed to encourage the production of original content in Philippine animation, recognize the Filipino talent in the field of animation, and achieve local and international animation excellence and competitiveness.
For this year’s Animahenasyon, the theme “Our Stories Matter” tackled how Filipino culture can be incorporated into stories and ideas that can be developed into unique content that could propel the Philippine animation industry forward towards a future of locally produced films and TV series that connect with both local and international audiences. The sentiment also applied to musicians and composers that represent the country.
Originally from Madrid, Spain, Pancho Burgos-Goizueta graduated from Berklee College Of music in Film Scoring and Composition. He is a 2015 ASCAP Dave Rose Award winner, 2015 ASCAP’s Film Scoring Fellow, and a 2017 Hollywood Film Scoring Conducting Fellow. He has also been credited for working on the music for High School Musical 2 and 3. Currently, he is the music director for 80’s new wave-pop band When In Rome (“The Promise”). Pancho currently lives in Los Angeles, and continues to write music for Film, Television and Multimedia.
In his session The Note That Makes The Difference, the multitalented composer talked about how music scores for animation has evolved. “Animation has evolved a lot… It was very much humor based. It was a subgroup of what film making was.” Pancho noted that these days, more effort has been put into creating a musical score to compliment animation films.
And the effort really does pay off. Who wouldn’t be moved by effective compositions matched with animations like “Married Life” by Michael Giacchino in Pixar’s Up opening montage. Or how about songs from classic movies like the Lion King, Mulan, or Frozen?
He also shared the difference between animation scores and live-action music scores. “Music in animation happens quicker in animation than in action. Music in live action cannot give up the motion before the motion actually happens. In animation, music and motion has to happen at the same time. Match to the dot,” Pancho shares.
“The composer has to serve the director. You can’t be too in love with the music that you’re doing that you can’t re adjust (to the director’s requests),” Pancho is quick to point out that at the end of the day, the director knows what’s best for the overall film.
Pancho closed his session with encouraging words, “Shoot for the moon in whatever you’re doing.”
