Having worked on multiple projects for Netflix, Hulu, Channel 4 and worked on BFI funded short films, the owner of Blac Audio Idris Blac has made himself a staple as an audio producer in the world of UK film and television. However, it wasn’t all cosy to begin with. He taught himself music production and orchestra during the day, and worked at a restaurant at night. Idris didn’t follow the traditional academic route into his field, unlike a lot of his peers have.

We talked to Idris about how he got into the industry and three tips that you wannabe Hans Zimmer’s reading want to know!

Versatility

“One of the main things to be versatile with is to have interpersonal skills, know who you’re talking to, and try to get the best way to communicate. There’s a language barrier sometimes between people who have studied pictures. So let’s say your directors, cinematographers, the director of photography. They’re the people who study how to make the picture look amazing, we as audio people are having to put that into audio as well.

“You kind of need to know film, as well as music and sound. There’s a need to also know the language of cinema and how that works at a basic understanding. There might be times you’ll have to explain yourself to the director, and say ‘look, this is why this piece works with this scene’. You have to explain it in a language they understand. You can’t just start saying, oh this tempo is like this. They might not know what you mean by tempo, they just hear the music and like or don’t like it.

“Being versatile in other departments is really good for industry. To me, that means being versatile across all audio. My company, Black Audio, doesn’t just do scores, although that’s our primary role. We also do mixing, and record sound on set. It’s a full audio boutique, which is a plus in this day and age. I think for upcomers, they need to become a bit more generalist, but be really good at the general stuff they do. Earlier in my career, it felt like when working on projects I’d start off as a sound guy, then I was asked to work on the score, then I was asked to do mixing at the end – so now I’m trained in all of those things.”

Starting Touches

“Sometimes you start your composing process as early as script, so before you even get on set, the director could be starting to feel things out with you and you can understand the vibe that they’re going for. You can pitch music to these companies as well – let’s say there’s a project I know that’s coming out, because it’s been announced somewhere, and you think you could possibly do the music for it, make some music that could fit the vibe, get in contact with their team and send it to them. From there, they can start engaging with you immediately, it gives you a general gist before you even start working on scenes.

“If you’re scoring a scene, the first thing I want to know is the function of the scene. What is this character trying to achieve in this scene? What’s their goal? Once I figure it out, I try to find in the frames if they achieve that goal or if they fall short. The next thing is, how do you tell that musically? How do you give them a hint that this is or isn’t going to go well, but at the same time try and score the emotion that they’re feeling during the scene.

“I feel like as a composer, I try to play God – so I give the audience an idea of what might be happening before the character is aware of it so they can be pulled into a story in a different way. From then on I’ll try and figure out what themes, musical motifs, and instrumentation that work best telling us that tension, drama, or that comedic factor that the scene could be.”

Networking

“Remember that especially in today’s world, everyone needs help. Get yourself to a level where you can assist someone, a composer or someone above you in a decent way – maybe it’s just the fact that you can write amazing piano parts, or you can program great drums, something as simple as that. If you can offer that small portion as assistants it can go a long way, you can get credited for that. It starts to build something that you can say to people like, ‘I can probably help you with this score because this other composer trusted me to do this part of their scores.’

“Try to find other people on your level as well, network to the side, and not necessarily up. Find someone who’s just starting out with cameras, maybe making their first few short films, see how you can assist them. Once you want to network with people above your level and a bit further than you in the industry, get in touch with those composers that might need your assistance.”

Final Thoughts

“I think the universities and the academic pathways into this are behind the technology that people are using in the industry, which is developing at such a rapid rate by the time that the universities have grasped one element, everyone else has already moved on and they quickly become outdated.”

Keeping up with the modernisation of music production is what has kept Idris and Blac Audio on the top of the UK film and television scene throughout the years, and can be an inspiration to many who might not want to take the traditional route to the top.